The University of Missouri has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by Hillsdale College over its use of a $5 million gift from MU alumnus Sherlock Hibbs ('26).

The bequest from Hibbs, a financier who died in 2002, stipulated the creation of endowments in support of three chairs and three distinguished professorships in MU's Trulaske College of Business for adherents of Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973), a leader of the Austrian School of economics whose classical free market liberalism is especially popular with libertarians. Hibbs' will gave oversight of the endowments to Hillsdale College, a conservative liberal arts college in Hillsdale, Michigan, that is home to von Mises' personal library, stipulating that Hillsdale would receive the entire gift if the terms of the bequest were not followed. According to MU, it spent $4.4 million to fund professorships consistent with Hibbs' intent to promote the teaching of free market economics; Hillsdale sued the university in 2017, however, claiming that its business school had failed to meet the terms of the gift and instead had provided "millions of dollars over fifteen years to individuals who were not Austrian economists." MU spokesperson Christian Basi told the Associated Press in July that the will did not require that Mises' economic theories be included in the professors' curricula.

As part of the settlement, the institutions will split the endowment, currently valued at approximately $9.2 million, with Hillsdale receiving $4.6 million and agreeing to relinquish oversight of the gift. "The settlement indicates the parties have agreed to disagree on their differing interpretations of the gift requirements," according to MU.

"We are pleased with this resolution because it allows both institutions to use the gift proceeds to teach free and open markets as well as Austrian economics and other economic philosophies. This benefits students at both institutions and ends this dispute," said Basi. "This settlement keeps $4.7 million of the endowment at MU and will allow us to continue our work of educating students about free and open markets in our College of Business with professors who are strong proponents of such markets. We also will use some of the proceeds from the gift to sponsor a biannual symposium on the MU campus that will focus on Austrian economics, which was of particular interest to Mr. Hibbs."

(Photo credit: University of Missouri Trulaske College of Business)