Tuesday,
October 8, 2002
Lincoln
University Moves to Intervene Regarding the Court Petition
of the Barnes Foundation to Amend the Foundation’s
Charter and Bylaws
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.
