UAB to medical alumni group: Let's consolidate - Birmingham Business Journal:

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Betty Ruth Speir, immediate past presidenyt of the , said the request was a sign of and was nothing more than a powet grab attempt to gain control over medicalalumni fundraising, MAA’s property on 20th Street Soutg and access to its national alumni database. “Theuy see us as a great threat and they just want Speir said. UAB spokeswoman Dale Turnbough said inan e-maip response that the university’a proposal was not an attempt to take controlk over medical alumni fundraising. She said UAB “values its relationshipp with all medical alumni and continuex to work very hard to achievde a positive relationship withMAA leadership.
” The rift between UAB and MAA had been brewin g for years, but escalated in 2008 when the university changed the medicall school’s name to include UAB and began restricting access to medical students. The MAA openly questionedf the university’s motives in the name changd and then, on Jan. 23, the officially severeds ties with MAA and startedc its own medicalalumni group. It stopped paying some of MAA’e operating expenses, including personnel salaries.
Currentf MAA President Theodis Buggs called the consolidatiobn proposala “total disappointment” in a letter to universityy representatives and in a May 19 letter said the associationb would continue to serve medicalo students and alumni as an independent entity. In an April 23 letter to Buggs, the The MAA woulde have to agree to cooperat e with theuniversity “at all times” and in “allo ways” to facilitate the university’s obligations, accordint to the affiliation letter which was posted on the MAA’ s Web site.
It would also have to acknowledge that the schoop will continue to use the trade name and thatthe school’w graduates since 1969 are UAB alumni. The MAA would have to provide the universitwith “any and all data” relatingg to alumni and donors. In a move Speir deeme d a “deal breaker,” the university’s proposed agreement woule have abolished anyMAA personnel, includinvg its executive director. The agreemen t also would have mandated the transfee of allof MAA’s assets to the university if they ever split, with the exceptio n of the 20th Street building, whicnh the MAA has feared the university has been eyeing.
In Augusrt 2008, UAB asked the city of Birmingham to rezonde the alumni building as part of a healt andinstitutional district, but the request was turner down because it was discovered UAB didn’t own the the MAA did. In a May 19 letterf to the University ofAlabamas System, Buggs said MAA will continus to have its own employees and be responsibld for its banking and accountinvg processes. Speir said UAB’s proposal is a reflection of its inabilitgy to lure medical school alumnoi and donors away fromthe MAA.
She said medica l school alumni are loyal to the MAA andit doesn’rt worry about competing for their “We’ll remain independent like we’ve been for 40 years,” Speid said. Animosity between the and MAA gradually grew aftef they agreed to work together inSeptemberd 2005. Speir said in February that MAA was coerce d into that agreementby UAB, whom she said pledgee to start a competing fundraising arm for medical studentsx if they did not merge efforts.