Word: fisk
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Little liberal arts colleges everywhere have had a hard slog lately, but the troubles at Nashville's Fisk University, the institution founded in 1866 to give freed slaves a shot at learning, have been particularly poignant. At one point about two years ago, the local utility shut off the gas, forcing the faculty and student body to make do with space heaters brought from home or donated by friends of the college. Another time, food services were discontinued. On paydays, an unfounded rumor among the staff was that the first 20 employees to reach the bank stood a chance...
Being on the brink of ruin was nothing new to Fisk: in October 1871, the place was down to $1 to its name; a year earlier, a teacher apologized for petitioning for back pay, saying it was a case of going barefoot through the cold months; a year before that, the faculty voted to forgo desserts to cut costs in the dining room. For better than a century, then, the place has always managed to claw itself through every penurious period. And so in the spring of 1984, when the prospect of real collapse looked near, those who love Fisk...
...alma mater of Philosopher W.E.B. DuBois (class of 1888), among other distinguished alumni, is still alive--not kicking, not out of the red, but alive. The paint is peeling, the roofs leak and ruptured heating pipes spout plumes of steam in places that once would accommodate quiet reflection--but Fisk still functions...
Much of the credit, by all accounts, is due Henry Ponder, who took over as president in July 1984. At the time, Fisk was $4.1 million in debt, the price of bringing the dog-eared facilities back to minimum standards was put at $7 million, the creditors were beginning to feel litigious and the only remaining path appeared to be prayer. As Ponder recalls, "The morale was just in the pits, just in the pits...
Boston Premiere Ensemble: Delights of Three with three solo pianists--Heng-Jin Park, Charles Fisk, and Lois Shapiro. Sanders Theatre...