FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, March 10, 2020
WATKINS GROUP FILES LEGAL ACTION TO BLOCK PENDING BELMONT DEAL
Temporary Restraining Order, Permanent Injunction Sought
(Nashville, TN) Two Watkins College of Art students and an instructor jointly filed a legal complaint today in Davidson County Chancery Court, seeking to block the controversial deal that would absorb Watkins, a small state-run secular art college, into the much-larger private Christian Belmont University.
Alleging "a breach of faith" by Watkins Institute Commissioners and Board of Trustees, the complaint asks the Court to issue a declaratory judgment and injunction "prohibiting [the Watkins Board] from entering into any legal agreements with Belmont University until those agreements have been reviewed by this Court...".
In addition, the plaintiffs are asking for a Temporary Restraining Order to immediately halt any actions by the Watkins Board toward dissolving or altering the Watkins Trust, or selling any Watkins property while the matter is being considered by the Court.
The complaint raises several legal issues, including:
- whether the Watkins Commissioners and Board of Trustees can unilaterally extinguish the Watkins public Trust and transfer its associated property to a private religious institution without legislative or judicial oversight.
- whether the dissolution of Watkins College violates the clear terms of Samuel Watkins' 1880 will and associated State law.
- whether Watkins property, which is maintained and improved with state funds, can be unilaterally sold to benefit a private religious institution.
- whether Watkins, a public entity, acted improperly by conducting all negotiations with Belmont in secret behind closed doors, and by subsequently ignoring a duly-filed Open Records request.
The complaint alleges that the announced terms of the pending Watkins-Belmont deal were arrived at "without the consent nor participation nor any oversight by the beneficiary, the Tennessee General Assembly, this Honorable Court, or any Court whatsoever", and would result in "effectively silencing the mission of Watkins Institute and killing the generous vision of Mr. Samuel Watkins and the trust he established for every man and woman of Nashville more than 135 years ago."
Two of the plaintiffs, Kenneth Strawn, and Amari Harris, are current Watkins students who identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community, and who allege harm if the merging of Watkins into Christian Belmont was to go through. The third plaintiff, Mark Schlicher, is a Watkins alumnus and adjunct instructor who had filed the Open records request, and who alleges harm from the closed-door negotiations that led the announced Watkins closure and transfer of assets.
The board’s lack of transparency has severely impacted the lives of current students. Strawn notes, “the Watkins Board was not honest with students concerning the deal. Had I known about the merger only 3 days prior, I would have had time to reconsider signing my lease.” Harris feels a responsibility to “protect the will of Samuel Watkins” and “to support fellow students, faculty, and staff during these troublesome times caused by the greed of others in higher positions.”
Further supporting the students’ concerns, Schlicher states, “It doesn't get much clearer that Watkins is a public educational institution, yet the current Commissioners and Board seek to ram through an insider deal that gives $20 million dollars in state property proceeds to a private religious institution without public scrutiny or legislative oversight. They simply repeat a claim, without a shred of evidence, that they are “private” and therefore entitled to do this insider deal behind closed doors. That is jaw-dropping”.
The plaintiffs are represented by Attorneys Kevin W. Teets, Jr. and Jonathon Fagan.
The Watkins-Belmont deal would result in shuttering the current Watkins campus in the Metro Center area of North Nashville by the end of May 2020. As jointly announced on January 28 by Watkins and Belmont presidents J. Kline and Bob Fisher, that land is to be sold over the summer. Proceeds of the sale, estimated at $20 million dollars, would be given as a gift to Belmont to establish a scholarship endowment for the Belmont Fine Arts department, which would be renamed the “Watkins College of Art at Belmont”.
The plaintiffs are members of "Save Watkins", a collective of students, faculty, staff, and alumni formed in the immediate aftermath of the takeover announcement. Their stated mission is to "secure a safe and open environment for Watkins Students to pursue their education. This may manifest as securing the funding to keep the Watkins College of Art open in its current form, working towards a partnership with a different institution, or changing existing policies at Belmont for the benefit of all current and future Watkins students".
"Save Watkins" has previously issued a call the Watkins Board of Trustees to "press pause" on the pending Belmont deal and immediately start a full, inclusive, transparent public engagement process. They urge the Trustees do a "full reset", starting with a clean slate of options for the future of the school, and work with all stakeholders to craft a significantly better, more equitable outcome for Watkins' current and future students, staff, and faculty, as well as the Nashville community at large.
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CONTACTS:
Save Watkins, Quinn Dukes, 646.704.4761, quinndukes@gmail.com
Kevin W. Teets Jr., 615.933.8230, kevin.teets@kevinteetslaw.com
Jonathon Fagan, 615.604.1030, jd@faganjd.com