NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A Nashville judge has set a hearing next week to consider a request to block Watkins College of Art’s pending merger with Belmont University after two Watkins students and a teacher filed a lawsuit.
The schools announced in January that Watkins students would begin taking classes at Belmont in the fall. The Watkins campus would be sold with the proceeds going to an endowment for scholarships for Watkins students.
In a complaint filed in Davidson County Chancery Court on Tuesday, attorneys argue the agreement between school officials is invalid because Watkins is a public institution and the property that would be sold belongs to the public.
The school was founded in 1885 as a gift to the state of Tennessee to be held in trust for the benefit of Nashville’s youth. Samuel Watkins willed both real property and $100,000 to the state for an educational institute, according to court documents.
In the 1970s, the Watkins Institute, as it was formerly called, incorporated as a nonprofit and the state has loosened its control over the school in recent decades, but attorneys for the plaintiffs argue Watkins never stopped being a public entity.