Vanderbilt University has confirmed that the Vanderbilt Divinity School has been placed into receivership. Dean Yolanda Pierce and Deputy Provost Tracey George informed the current students and faculty in an email Tuesday.
“Receivership is a temporary administrative arrangement in which the university oversees a school’s operations in order to return it to independent, healthy standing,” the message read. “The goal is to position the divinity school for renewed investment and growth.”
“As a lawyer, I know from lived experience that ‘receivership’ is interpreted to mean bankruptcy, because in the real world, receivership means bankruptcy,” George told the Banner. “But in higher education, it’s more like a corporation when they’re doing a review of the organizational structure of one of their units.”…