Lambuth University has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, one of several steps expected to lead to a transfer of the Jackson, Tenn., university to the Tennessee Board of Regents and through the state board of regents to the University of Memphis.

The filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Tennessee dated Thursday, June 30, came the same day a group of Jackson leaders took to the Lambuth board an offer to purchase the campus and its assets. The Lambuth board accepted the offer. The meeting was on the last day the private school was scheduled to be open.

The same board voted April 14 to close June 30 and not accept applications for the fall 2011 semester.

The April decision set in motion a complicated process unlike any seen recently in Tennessee Higher Education – the conversion of a private university to a public university.

The transition had already been explored in 2009 when Lambuth first encountered financial problems and University of Memphis officials weighed running the university, affiliated with the United Methodist Church.

The plan is for the Jackson group, which includes West Tennessee Healthcare, a nonprofit hospital group, the Jackson Energy Authority and Jackson-Madison County government, to pay off about $10 million in debt owed by the university or negotiate a lesser amount with creditors. With the debt paid or settled, the state of Tennessee would then make Lambuth part of the Board of Regents, the statewide higher education apparatus that includes the University of Memphis. From there, the regents would approve the University of Memphis running the school.

University of Memphis officials have said their intent is to take over starting in August with the fall semester.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam included $5 million in the state budget for the fiscal year that began Friday, July 1, expressly for the University of Memphis to run Lambuth.

The Tennessee Higher Education Commission is still working on what amounts to an inventory of the campus as well as specific contingencies in the transition. The study will answer as many questions as possible about the details of day-to-day operations scheduled to begin in a relatively short amount of time as a university with one set of procedures converts to a higher education system with a different set of procedures.

The THEC study is working toward an Aug. 1 deadline for completion.