A Cole County Circuit Judge has ordered Lincoln University and the 62nd and 65th Regiments Legacy Foundation to spend more than $600,000 as originally intended by the foundation, ABC 17 News reported.
The order was issued by Judge Daniel Green as a part of the lawsuit filed by the Foundation, formerly known as the Lincoln University Foundation, that alleged the university and its Board of Curators for breaching an agreement by misusing its documents and donor information.
“All Foundation documents, information, and assets, including the $667,173.05 in Foundation special-purpose funds that the University wrongfully retains in breach of its agreements with the Foundation and donors and in breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing,” the lawsuit reads.
The court order says that if a disagreement on the use of the money still persists, a judge can step in to the settle the dispute.
Court documents allege Lincoln university president Jerald Jones Woolfolk of changing the terms of the agreement, which was first entered in 2015, which essentially made the foundation a primary external fundraising entity for the university and its curators.
In November 2018, Woolfolk sent a letter to the foundation to renegotiate the agreement with the intent of transferring foundation funds to the university. The agreement was terminated the following month.
The president then came up with another Memorandum of Understanding, which asked the foundation to annually earmark 50 percent of its unrestricted funds for use by the president, the lawsuit states.
On February 20, the university issued a “cease and desist” letter, abruptly ending its relationship with the foundation. The suit alleged the university of failing to uphold its obligations, as laid out in the agreement that was signed in 2015.
Meanwhile, the university board urged for the case to be dismissed, which is still being considered by the court.
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