News
Nashville Approves Use of Pandemic Funds to Stabilize Fisk University Finances
Darrell S. Freeman’s Daughter Speaks at Small Business Center Launch
The Darrell S. Freeman Sr. Incubation and Innovation Center was launched with the support of Nashville Mayor John Cooper and Fisk University.
Stephanie Amador, Nashville Tennessean
The Nashville council on Tuesday opted to reuse millions in federal COVID-19 relief funds to bolster the finances of Fisk University, Nashville’s oldest institution of higher education.
Approximately $8.5 million in remaining funds from a $10 million American Rescue Plan Act grant intended to finance the renovation of Fisk’s historic Burrus Hall will now be used to keep the university solvent as it resists pressure budget during the next academic year.
The council voted 35-1 to expand the scope of funding, with District 16 Council Member Ginny Welsch voting against.
The funding comes from Nashville’s $259.8 million total fund of federal ARPA money and was originally allocated to transform Burrus Hall into a 12,000-square-foot business incubator. The project was supported by former Nashville Mayor John Cooperwho presented the funding allocation and argued for council support.
Of that $10 million grant, about $1.5 million was spent on renovation projects and development, according to Metro Chief Financial Officer Kevin Crumbo. The Darrell S. Freeman Sr. Incubation and Innovation Center celebrated a kickoff event in January 2023, but the renovation of Burrus Hall is on hold. The center is named after the late Darrell Freeman, a prominent black businessman who long dreamed of creating a business resource center in North Nashville. District 3 Council member and Fisk alumna Jennifer Gamble said the incubator program itself is up and running with its first group of companies, but the renovation of Burrus Hall is behind schedule.
“The general premise here is that Burrus Hall, as planned, may continue at some point, but at this point, the university has different needs and really needs to work on its own fundamentals before it can complete this project.” of COVID-19 Financial Oversight Committee in May.
Fisk University, a historically black college, recently celebrated its 150th graduation. Approximately 90% of Fisk’s roughly 1,000 students receive financial aid and about 60% are eligible for the federal Pell Grant, according to Fisk University President Agenia Walker Clark. Nationwide delays in processing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), the gateway to federal tuition assistance, has placed Fisk in a “very precarious position,” Clark told committee members in May.
Clark said Fisk is working to build a more robust philanthropic outreach strategy. However, these funds would provide a “bridge”.
District 26 Council member Courtney Johnston, who serves on the oversight committee, said that while she agrees that Fisk is an important part of Nashville, using funding to “save” a university “is simply not the best use of taxpayers’ money.” “. Johnston was not present for Tuesday’s vote, but voted against the resolution in the Budget and Finance Committee on Monday.
Clark said in May that completing the Burrus Hall project is “extremely important” to her, but currently she is focusing on the longevity of Fisk’s mission: higher education.
“While I understand your statement about Metro’s investment in a private school, I have to say that if it weren’t for Fisk, there would be no Music City,” Clark told Johnston in May. Nashville’s nickname came about because of the Fisk Jubilee Singers.
Crumbo will build a monthly accountability process that he will share with the oversight committee and the Metro Board, he said Monday.
“In the end, Fisk will be better off, entrepreneurship will survive and this jewel of our city will not be lost,” Crumbo said.
Built in 1945 and designed by the African-American architectural firm McKissack & McKissack, Burrus Hall is in the Fisk University Historic District. The two-story building is named for James and John Burrus, two of the university’s first graduates in the class of 1875. The brick structure was named to Historic Nashville Inc.’s list of buildings. nine historically significant buildings most at risk in 2019.
Molly Davis contributed.