Saturday, November 17, 2007

"What happens after that, nobody knows" (UPDATED)

The Washington Post had an article today on the Randolph College injunction. It points out that the Virginia Supreme Court's order did not provide the reasoning behind the ruling (you can read the order here), includes some more elation on the part of the group opposing the sales, and quotes a Randolph spokeswoman as saying that, after the six-month injunction period, "we will take another look at whether we will continue an auction of the paintings."

UPDATE: Christa Desrets has a lengthy story in Sunday's Lynchburg News & Advance reminding us why the school is trying to sell the paintings in the first place:

"In about three weeks, ... the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Randolph’s accrediting institution, will decide whether to remove the college from warning, keep it on warning, place it on probation, or remove accreditation. In recent months, the former Randolph-Macon Woman’s College has transformed from single-sex to coeducational, reduced staff and faculty, announced closings of departments, lowered its tuition discount rate, placed salary freezes, reduced pension contributions, tightened expenses, and made the decision to sell four paintings from the Maier Museum of Art - all to strengthen the college’s finances and ensure its future, according to school officials. Last year, ... SACS placed the college on warning after discovering the school was spending its endowment at an unsustainable rate."