Nashville’s Fisk University will end the week in better shape than it started, according to school President Hazel O’Leary. Fisk received approval to sell a $30 million stake in its art and use the money to shore up its precarious finances.
Students are torn. They’ve heard how dire the situation has become. The school has mortgaged every building on campus to stay afloat.
Jade Hendricks is a freshman at Fisk University.
Freshman Jade Hendricks is from Milwaukee and says the Appellate Court decision gives her hope that the nearly 150-year-old school will be around long enough for her to graduate.
“That’s my biggest fear. I’ve been talking with my mom about that a lot lately. I just don’t want to end up being a junior and then the school closes down.”
School officials have made their case to students throughout the six-year court-battle. But senior Cameron Clark says he still doesn’t believe the only way forward is liquidating donations, in this case art given to Fisk by painter Georgia O’Keeffe.
“It kind of sucks a little bit, but hey, if that’s what they feel like needs to be done, what can we really do?”
Tuesday night’s decision isn’t the final word. A lower court still has to work out details of the sharing arrangement with the newly-opened Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas. And the Tennessee Attorney General could appeal to the state Supreme Court.
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