Hillsdale College Suing U. Missouri for Alleged Mismanagement of Endowment Funds
“lawsuit asks a judge to order the university to pay Hillsdale College for the millions already spent on the endowment”
This battle goes back to the wishes of a donor who willed money to U. Missouri for specific purposes, with the caveat that if they didn’t follow his instructions the money would go to Hillsdale.
ABC 17 News reports:
Michigan college accuses MU of misusing millions in endowment
A Michigan college is accusing the University of Missouri of misusing millions of dollars in an endowment from 2003.
Hillsdale College, located in south Michigan, sued the university in 2017 over the school’s handling of a multimillion-dollar endowment to hire business and economics professors. The college says MU has not followed the instructions of the endowment and that Hillsdale should instead get the money.
Sherlock Hibbs, a 1926 graduate of MU, left $5 million to the university to create six professor positions in the school of business when he died in 2002. Hibbs asked the university to hire a “dedicated and articulate disciple of the free and open market economy (the Ludwig von Mises Austrian School of Economics).” The business school and chancellor would certify that the hires followed those tenets, then send the proof to Hillsdale College. If the spots were to remain open for five years, then the school would have to give up the money to Hillsdale College.
The college claims that university leaders balked at the idea of hiring professors that followed such ideals. Then-business school Dean Bruce Walker called the Austrian school “quite controversial,” according to the lawsuit, and focused on hiring people that followed some tenets that meshed well with the business school.
The lawsuit asks a judge to order the university to pay Hillsdale College for the millions already spent on the endowment and the remaining money in the program.
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Comments
I have heard tales of the Ivies also ignoring grant conditions and using the money in programs that were openly in opposition to the grantor’s intent.
This reminds me of the Simpsons episode “The Caper Chase,” where Mr. Burns wants to endow a department for Nuclear Plant Management. But in this case, the school honestly tells him they would have to hire a bunch of SJW administrators and faculty instead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8M2tg2RkIQ
Bless you for this, I missed it the first time.
May it go to Hillsdale!!!
Typical Socialist-Democrats, the statutes, rules and contract provisions apply to others and not themselves.
As soon as a university gets even a whiff of an endowment, the first thing they do is mobilize the attorneys to find a way to break the terms. In this case, they had the professors all sign a statement saying they were dedicated followers of the Ludwig von Mises Austrian School of Economics. Apparently the endowment didn’t take into account the propensity of the left to lie in order to get what they want. The donor meant for that particular economic school of thought to be actually TAUGHT but if it wasn’t spelled out in the endowment, the lawyers are going to claim that merely being a “dedicated and articulate disciple” is good enough to meet the conditions even if the professors refuse to teach the Austrian school.
Anyone can read the opinions from inside the Higher Ed establishment on, say, Inside Higher Ed. There have been several stories recently about money and higher ed, and a common view is ALWAYS that the university should hijack the money by any means necessary and use it as it wishes.
We’ve seen at Oberlin that they regarded the community as an adversary. In perhaps a less extreme way, or it can be hidden better, that’s the prevailing view inside a university. If you give them money, you’re not an insider still, you’re still an outsider but one they have to be extra careful about.