JEFFERSON CITY (KMOX) — Former Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is suing the University of Missouri, his alma mater, over the alleged misuse of millions of dollars in an endowment left in the will of an alumnus.
Nixon is the lawyer representing Hillsdale College in Michigan, who is suing Mizzou, according to the Columbia Daily Tribune.
Hillsdale alleges that the gift from alumnus Sherlock Hibbs, who died in 2002, isn't being spent as he intented it to. The lawsuit says Hillsdale is entitled to the $5 million instead.
The gift says it must fund professors who believe in the Austrian School of economics: fiscally-conservative abd free-market. Hibbs’ will required the university to establish three chairs and fund them with $1.1 million each, and three distinguished professorships, two with $567,000 and one with $566,000, the Tribune reports.
Nixon wrote in a statement to Mizzou:
Hillsdale says Mizzou is ignoring that stipulation.
Hillsdale is often referred to as a conservative college. Nixon was a Democratic governor.
Mizzou says this is all moot because its professors have signed a pledge that they support limited government.