BusinessTN

The three-year legal struggle over the question of whether Fisk has the right to sell or share pieces of the Stieglitz Collection has all the hallmarks of a good story to accompany our annual Best 150 Lawyers feature. It involves multiple actors from multiple states, and the possible outcomes for Fisk run the gamut from $30 million+ in fiscal relief to complete loss of the 101-piece bequest. In terms of larger legal ramifications, any resolution will set precedents of interest to any institution dealing with a gift that's become onerous to maintain.

A closer look reveals a business story, as well, and one even more relevant to our statewide readership. At its core, the Stieglitz imbroglio is merely an attempt to treat the fiscal distress that has been a chronic condition for the storied institution. And that story involves the struggle to establish for Fisk what every business needs to be viable in a competitive free market economy: A stable leadership team able to craft and pursue a compelling, yet agile, business plan.

But there's another reason for the influential leaders in our state to pay attention to Fisk.

We live in a state blessed with examples of individuals and corporations stepping up to improve Tennessee's educational bottom line.

In Memphis, FedEx has invested millions of dollars into a technology education center at the University of Memphis that could one day produce research to rival stalwart institutions such as MIT. And both the city of Memphis and Shelby County recently agreed to donate millions of dollars to struggling historically black LeMoyne-Owen College on the basis that it represents an important community asset.

In Middle Tennessee, names such as Ingram, Beaman and Curb have routinely injected substantial infusions of capital into the area's major institutions, including Fisk.

And in East Tennessee, Scott Niswonger sponsors a scholarship program that sends students in 17 Northeast Tennessee school districts to a college of their choice, asking only that they return ("Return of the Natives," Sept./Oct. 2008). Meanwhile, Pete DeBusk is putting millions into Lincoln Memorial University in an attempt to elevate the educational opportunities of rural areas long neglected ("DeRoyal Treatment," April 2008).

DeBusk's efforts, in a way, are especially relevant to Fisk, for while educational outreach is important, so, too, is "in-reach."

Fisk University's role as an exclusive destination for the children of college-educated African Americans may have been eclipsed by the advances of the Civil Rights Movement, but an important mission remains.

"We have more first-time college students or graduates who come from low-income backgrounds," says Andrew Patterson, a Fisk alumnus and Atlanta lawyer who serves as vice chairman of the Fisk Board of Trustees. "These individuals are in need of an education to help improve their status in society and to improve society generally."

Of the 90% of Fisk students that require financial aid, almost half receive federal Pell Grants--typically awarded to students with annual family incomes of less than $45,000. And though nationally, graduation rates at colleges with sizable populations of financially needy students tend to lag behind those of their peers, Fisk graduates about 58% of its students.

"We're 20% ahead of your average so-called 'principally white' institutions with respect to graduation rates for African Americans," says Fisk President Hazel O'Leary.

In addition, Fisk produces more African-American graduates who go on to earn doctorates in the natural sciences than any other institution in the United States, O'Leary says, adding that by next year, she believes Fisk will take that rank with respect to physics, as well.

Most would agree that living history trumps shuttered relic, but Fisk's statewide importance goes beyond its status as historical treasure. It's also one of the tools by which Tennessee builds that "educated workforce" state economic development officials talk so much about.

In education, a raised floor means a higher ceiling. Smarter is stronger. Fisk matters.