After a legal battle that lasted nearly eight years, in 2012 Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, finally received legal approval to share its art collection with the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. Under the sharing agreement, Fisk University received a $30 million payment from the museum. After paying about $6 million in legal fees, Fisk was left with $24 million to shore up the institution’s finances.
Fisk University’s more solid financial outlook appears to have had a positive impact on enrollments. The university reports that this fall enrollments have increased for the third year in a row. There are 771 students on campus this fall, a 19.5 percent increase from a year ago. Three years ago there were only 544 students enrolled at Fisk.
The university reports there are 222 full-time, first-year students on campus this fall and 47 students who transferred to Fisk. Some 82 percent of last year’s incoming class returned to Fisk this fall.
“The Fisk Renaissance is truly underway,” said H. James Williams, president of the university.
