Hillsdale College, University of Missouri Settle Lawsuit Over Bequest

Students walk about on the campus of University of Missouri-Columbia in Columbia, Mo., on Nov. 9, 2015. Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images

The University of Missouri settled a lawsuit brought against it by Michigan-based Hillsdale College for failing to honor the wishes of a late benefactor who willed the university $5 million to fund six professorships, on the express condition they be held by believers in laissez-faire economics.

Hillsdale claimed in the lawsuit that UM believed the conditions of the gift were “distasteful” and felt it was being “held hostage by a particular ideology.”