I Found Fisk a Fund-Raiser
Fisk University, a small historically African-American college in Nashville, is looking for a new president, and the historically financially endangered school needs a strong fund-raiser, says today's Tennessean.

Almost since its founding 137 years ago, Fisk University has felt intense pressure to raise money. In 1871 the Fisk Jubilee Singers went on a world tour to keep the young Nashville school in business. Since then, financial difficulty has been more or less a constant for the small-but-scrappy university, which almost had to shut its doors in the early 1980s.

''Fisk and money problems, that's part of what it's all about,'' said Ray Winbush, former director of the Fisk Race Relations Institute. ''But the past 20 years, it's been in a crisis mode.''

With that in mind, Winbush and many other supporters believe Fisk's next president will have to be a superb fund-raiser. But other qualities - from a sense of the school's rich history to a vision of its brightest possible future, from a dynamic personality to an emotional toughness - also will be critical.

I have a suggestion: former University of Tennessee President John Shumaker. Yes, I know he was forced to resign after little more than a year at UT because of revelations about his misuse of his expense accounts and such, but the truth is John Shumaker is a great fundraiser. He's also greedy and likes to live lavishly, so Fisk ought to offer him a deal: a base salary, say, $100,000 a year, plus 10 percent of everything he raises up to $100 million, and 15 percent commission after that.

He needs a job, he's greedy, and he believes in paying for performance based on measurable goals. And Fisk needs money. It's perfect!

Meanwhile, you can support Fisk by buying In Bright Mansions, an excellent CD by the 2001-02 version of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. It's a rather incredible collection of a capella slave-era gospel music, recorded last year at the studios of Belmont University, also in Nashville.