- Posted in All University
- Category: Campus News
Lincoln University of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education today announced that it has moved to intervene in the proceedings before the Montgomery County Orphans’ Court Division of the Court of Common Pleas regarding the Petition of the Barnes Foundation to amend its Charter and Bylaws.
Lincoln University seeks to intervene in the proceedings to protect the special role Dr. Barnes entrusted to Lincoln – the role of appointing 80% (or four out of five) of the Trustees of the Barnes’ Board of Trustees.
The petition filed by Lincoln University describes the unique friendship and connection that Dr. Barnes formed with Dr. Horace Mann Bond, then President of Lincoln University, beginning in 1946. During his lifetime, Dr. Barnes wrote of “weld[ing] Lincoln University and the Foundation in an educational enterprise that has no counterpart elsewhere.” To ensure that the institutional alliance between the Barnes Foundation and Lincoln University would continue in perpetuity, Dr. Barnes amended his Foundation’s Trust Indenture on October 20, 1950, to designate Lincoln University as the institution that would eventually name four out of five of the Foundation’s Trustees
In its papers filed with the Orphans’ Court, Lincoln University seeks to protect Dr. Barnes’ vision and to ensure continued oversight of the Foundation’s Board so that the Foundation (1) continues to adhere to the educational purposes and programs instituted by Dr. Barnes; and (2) remains loyal to Dr. Barnes’ democratic principles, thereby ensuring that the artworks owned by the Foundation remain accessible to those Dr. Barnes referred to as “the plain people, that is, men and women who gain their livelihood by toil in shops, factories, schools, stores, and similar places.”
Adrienne G. Rhone, Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of Lincoln University, said: “Lincoln University and the Barnes Foundation are great institutions. Dr. Barnes envisioned that these two great institutions would work together collaboratively. Through our intervention in court we are seeking to protect Dr. Barnes’ vision and to make each of these institutions even greater.”
Lincoln University is represented by Edward N. Cahn, former Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and Christopher A. Lewis, former Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, partners in the law firm Blank Rome Comisky & McCauley, and Carol A. Black, partner in the law firm Black & Adams.
Founded in 1854 as America’s first Historically Black University, Lincoln University will observe its sesquicentennial or 150th anniversary with a yearlong celebration between April 2003 and May 2004. Lincoln University provides the best elements of a liberal arts and sciences-based undergraduate core curriculum and selected graduate programs to meet the needs of students living in a highly technological and global society.
According to national statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Education, Lincoln University is a leading producer of African Americans with undergraduate degrees in the physical sciences (biology, chemistry, and physics); computer and information sciences; and biological and life sciences. In addition, Lincoln is ranked first in Pennsylvania in graduating African Americans with baccalaureate degrees in the physical sciences. The University enrolls 2,001 undergraduate and graduate students.