Tennessean.com August 20, 2010 Fisk's Excellent Ranking Will Continue By Hazel R. O'Leary Just this week, U.S. News & World Report announced that Fisk University ranks in Tier 1 of their annual listing of the nation's leading 246 liberal arts schools. The overall ranking revealed that Fisk placed 122nd among over 1,400 colleges and universities that were reviewed. Fisk shares that recognition with only two other historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Further, the acknowledgement demonstrates the high national academic outcome that Fisk delivers. Fisk continues an unbroken legacy of academic excellence in spite of our size and budget. Fisk ranks in the top 50 baccalaureate institutions in producing African-American science and engineering doctoral degree recipients. Fisk is ranked first of moderately selective colleges by Washington Monthly when it comes to graduating low-income students. Fisk has earned three R&D 100 Awards for its work in the creation of radiation detectors developed in collaboration with several national laboratories. No other HBCU has ever earned a single R&D 100 Award. While Fisk is classified as an HBCU, our story is without question both multicultural and forward-thinking when it comes to establishing opportunities for women and other underrepresented groups. Fisk is a small school with only 7,791 alumni of record. Despite our size, there is enthusiastic alumni support. Nationally, the average gift from an alumnus of an HBCU in 2009 was $475. For the same period, Fisk's average annual alumni gift was $852. According to the Council for Aid to Education, Fisk is ranked 14th of 33 reporting schools in the state of Tennessee for its fundraising in 2009. In spite of best-in-class fundraising and annual cost-cutting on average of $2 million each year, Fisk experiences an annual deficit due to the meager size of its endowment. Our circumstances are further complicated by the global financial contagion and credit collapse. In fact, 85 percent of our students' financing options have been either reduced or eliminated entirely over the past two years. Five years ago, Fisk went to court to remedy its own financial challenges. We came with a plan to end the boom and bust cycle of a tuition-driven business model and to expand our nationally ranked academic programs. We requested no state or federal money. We simply petitioned the court for clarity of title on a series of photographs and paintings donated to the campus in 1949. In 2007, the Tennessee attorney general agreed with Fisk and affirmed to the court that the sharing agreement with the Crystal Bridges Museum met the necessary legal criteria to modify the O'Keeffe conditions. Further, the attorney general concluded that Fisk was in poor financial condition and that its condition justified the sale of a part of the collection. He declared that the arrangement was a good deal for Fisk, the citizens of Tennessee and residents of the South. Curiously, the attorney general has changed his mind and now aggressively opposes the sharing agreement despite the fact that Fisk's financial condition has continued to deteriorate. The sharing agreement with the Crystal Bridges Museum expands the audience of the Stieglitz Collection and provides a permanent resource base for Nashville's first institution of higher learning. We now have a golden opportunity to realize this great university's immeasurable value and to begin to endow Fisk's legacy forever. Hazel R. O'Leary is president of Fisk University. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Program Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 404.592.4820 1438 West Peachtree Street NW Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (Lyrasis) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children. Register now http://www.hbculibraries.org/html/meeting-form.html for the October 24-26, 2010 HBCU Library Alliance 4th Membership Meeting and the "Conference on Advocacy" pre-conference in Montgomery, AL. The Pre-Conference and Membership meeting are open to directors and other librarians.