DRAFT3 – 1/10/2011
RESOLUTION
Of the
The _______ Fisk Alumni Association Chapter
(_______ Fisk Club)
Whereas: Fisk University, our alma mater, since its founding in 1866, has provided the
highest quality education to its students, through the years, in a nurturing
environment to develop competitiveness and provide for survival in an
increasingly complex world, so that its graduates have achieved master’s,
doctoral and professional degrees for service as leading physicians,
dentists, lawyers, faculty, scientists, business persons, bankers, journalists,
elected and appointed governmental officials, as well as school principals,
college and university presidents and other executive officers, legislative
officeholders, ministers, musicians, visual artists, writers, poets, actors,
historians, community organizational leaders, and in numerous other
professions; and
Whereas: Fisk University has continued to maintain its excellent status as an
exemplary higher education institution, with the highest quality academic
programs, faculty and students; and
Whereas: Fisk University’s lack of success in fundraising and financial management
have threatened its future for many years; and
Whereas: The current Board of Trustees and President have failed – over the past six
years of the current administration – in developing effective fundraising
structures, strategies and personnel to secure its financial needs for the
present and for future years, despite the urgent need to do so and, now,
must do so to fulfill regional accreditation minimal requirements; and
Whereas: Loss of accreditation – or, even, placement of Fisk University on
probationary status by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
Commission on Colleges – will mean that Fisk will have to close in the
foreseeable future, due to its massive loss of students and faculty, the latter
of whom will seek employment elsewhere – for students attending non-
accredited colleges and universities cannot qualify for federal financial aid –
scholarships, grants and loans. There will be insufficient funds available for
continued operation; and
Whereas: The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACSCOC) has placed
Fisk University on official warning that its regional accreditation is in great
jeopardy and that a report of significant improvement in financial status,
fundraising and fiscal management must be provided to SACSCOC by April
2011; and
Whereas: Fisk University has declared in a court of law that all of its buildings are
mortgaged and unrestricted endowments no longer exist; and
Whereas: Given the track record of the current leadership of the Fisk University Board
of Trustees and its President over the past six years, it is highly unlikely that
the University, under their leadership, will be able to achieve goals
established by the SACSCOC by the April 2011 deadline and, hence, their
continued service places the future of the University at great and
unreasonable risk of having to close in the very near future;
Therefore, Be It That The _______ Fisk Alumni Association Chapter (The _______ Fisk
Resolved: Club), representing Fisk alumni throughout the State of ________, calls
upon the officers of the General Alumni Association of Fisk University, Inc.
(GAAFU), to issue a resolution of no confidence in the current Board of
Trustee leadership and the University President and to petition the Fisk
University Board of Trustees to demand the immediate resignation or the
immediate termination of tenure of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of
Fisk University and its President, so that the Board of Trustees may elect a
new and more effective Chairman as well as appoint an Acting President
with proven leadership success in fundraising and financial management,
forthwith, so that the mandatory work toward meeting the requirements of
the SACSCOC may progress rapidly, with optimal effectiveness, toward
meeting the April 2011 deadline, and preclude the necessity of the
SACSCOC’s placement of Fisk University’s regional accreditation on a
probationary status; or, worst, to terminate its accreditation during its June
2011 meeting.
Therefore, Be It That, on behalf of The _______ Fisk Alumni Association Chapter, I officially
Further Resolved: set forth my signature and seal, this twenty-second day of January, in the
year of our Lord, Twenty Eleven:
Name Title