In 2012 Fisk University announced that it had reached a final agreement to share its Stieglitz Art Collection with the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. After a legal battle that lasted nearly eight years, Fisk received a $30 million payment from the museum. With the boost to the university’s endowment, enrollment increased significantly and it was generally believed that the university had put its financial problems behind it.
But last month, Fisk University announced that H. James Williams resigned as president of the university. The new interim president of Fisk University Frank L. Sims issued a statement saying that financial problems remain. He stated that the university faces “tremendous challenges.” Sims said that down the road “we’re going to have to be competitive on the education side and on the financial side. We’re doing very well on one of those. We’re not doing too well in the other, and that’s where we have to focus.”
Plans to build a new residence hall have been tabled for now. Sims said that “our next president has to be someone capable of building our endowment. I think it’s key to the future of Fisk. We must build the endowment of this college if we’re going to be able to sustain the type of education that we want to provide our kids in the future.”
