Scholarship hall residents to drop most of lawsuit

More than three years of legal wrangling between Kansas University and residents of Miller and Watkins scholarship halls may be coming to an end.

Lindsay Poe, president of the Student Committee for the Preservation of Miller and Watkins Scholarship Halls, said her committee planned to drop most of its lawsuit against KU and Bank of America, which centered on maintenance issues in the halls.

“We feel like we’ve made progress on the whole thing since the lawsuit started,” said Poe, a senior from Wichita. “We feel like they’re finally starting to pay attention to what’s going on. They’re making an effort.”

A status hearing is set for Monday, when details of the lawsuit will be discussed.

Poe said two issues remained. Residents will request KU establish a committee, including students, to oversee maintenance planning at the halls. Also, she said, they want to prohibit Bank of America, which oversees the trust fund established by Elizabeth Miller Watkins for building maintenance, from using the fund to pay attorney fees.

Ken Stoner, director of KU student housing, said KU officials already met with scholarship hall members to determine maintenance schedules.

The lawsuit filed in March 2001 accused KU and the bank of not spending the interest from the trust for maintaining the buildings. It sought “more than $75,000” in damages.

However, the residents said in court papers filed recently that, after examining statements and court documents, they found no signs of mismanagement in the past five years, the statute of limitations.

“Initially, we started out seeking information,” Poe said. “We really didn’t know what we would find. There were a lot of rumors.”

Poe claimed victory in the suit, in part because needed repairs have been completed at the halls. Those include installation of air conditioning and fire sprinklers and shoring up of the foundation on the halls.

But Stoner said KU already had planned to make those improvements without the suit.

“Those three things were either completed or started when the suit was filed,” he said. “You’ll have to ask them what the victory was. I can’t ascertain any value in this other than horrendous legal fees.”

Poe said only a handful of the original 26 students who signed the lawsuit remained in the hall.

“We’re all getting ready to graduate in a year,” she said. “We’re not going to drop it, but we’re all ready to move on.”