Selling off parts of an identity. . .

 

Though it is not alone (Fisk University has tried various ways to sell or lease its own valuable art collection), Valparaiso has now successfully argued in an Indiana court that paintings donated to the university as part of an art museum on campus can be sold.  According to the judgment, the works are not "conservative" (Georgia O'Keeffe is a modernist and Childe Hassam is an impressionist).  Another painting, by Frederic Church, was not constrained by the donor in this way.  

Valpo has done the obligatory public hang wringing all the whole drooling at the idea of getting its hands on $20 million in cash to fund a cash strapped campus in need of maintenance and renovations.  In the end, the legacy will purchase some paint, new bathrooms, and air conditioning for one dorm.  Unanswered in all of this is the question of whether there will be any students to live in that dorm now that the soul of Valpo has also been sold.

Under the terms of the 1953 gift from Percy Sloan, donated in honor of his father, artist Junius R. Sloan, the university was constrained from selling or profiting from the art except to acquire more paintings or conserve the ones it has.  The gift included hundreds of paintings.  The school added to that collection from funds from the museum two landscapes: "Rust Red Hills" painted by Georgia O'Keeffe in 1930, and "The Silver Veil and the Golden Gate" created by Childe Hassam in 1914.  The third painting, 1849's "Mountain Landscape" by Frederic E. Church, was donated by Sloan and not included in the conservative argument.  Sloan's gift included money also and the stipulation that any artwork the school bought with the gifted funds had to be "of the general character known as conservative and of any period of American Art."  All of this hinged upon the meaning of that term.

In any case, Valparaiso placed the paintings in a storage facility last September and temporarily closed the museum in June.  The museum's director, nearly 100 years old, and a pro bono attorney have been fighting this move but have given up.  

So why does this matter?  Well, if you are a donor, pay attention.  The universities are in the market of finding loopholes to donations in order to release the funds to be spent where they desire even if that conflicts with the donor's wishes.  It can be said with some confidence that the Valpo donor had no intention of funding dorm renovations.  Second, the dire state of the university is all around us.  Wittenburg University has shut down all of its music programs while at the same time announcing new construction to house its growing sports program.  Schools are ready to sell anything and everything to fund them through another semester, another year.  But the real issue here is the sale of its core identity.

Valpo is a shell of its former identity.  I suspect that many would say the same thing about some or all of the Concordias operated by Missouri.  The mission that was the impetus for their formation has changed and some wonder if it remains in line with the mission of the Synod.  How much are people willing to sell to save the school?  What if that which is sold is the school's core identity?  What if you sacrifice the school's values in order to preserve the institution?  I fear that the money is a bigger issue than these questions and this may be why the world of church operated or affiliated educational institutions are in such a state.  Even mighty Notre Dame lives with its Roman Catholic identity more as legacy than forming principle for who that school is and what it does.  Is this all there is left?  I hope not.  But at the rate things are going, it may be too late to rescue these institutions from themselves.