The Medical College of Georgia has found the source of its new foundation: its existing real estate corporation.
Board members for the MCG Real Estate Corp. will meet Aug. 14 to decide whether to reorganize the group and become the Georgia Health Sciences University Foundation Inc.
The intent of the new foundation is to replace the 54-year-old Medical College of Georgia Foundation, whose members last month defied a request to resign and be replaced by a new board.
A rift between the medical college and its foundation came to a head, according to the college's provost, when the foundation turned down a $5 million request to fund a new dental school building, a priority for the college.
The real estate corporation is a two-year-old, 10-member organization that develops and manages real estate for MCG.
Andrew Newton, MCG's vice president for legal affairs, said it hasn't completed any land deals since its creation in 2006, but it does have a contract to buy the former Fat Man's Forest land on Laney-Walker Boulevard.
Mr. Newton said it is common for universities to have an affiliated nonprofit entity such as the real estate corporation because they aren't bound to the money-borrowing rules of a state entity. The real estate corporation could qualify for tax-exempt bond financing for a project, for example. The University of Georgia and Georgia Tech have similar corporations, he explained.
If the corporation board agrees, it will transform into a 19-member foundation that will have the same mission as the existing foundation.
The Georgia Health Sciences University Foundation Inc. is expected to begin operating after Sept. 10, when the school's agreement with the current foundation expires.
Reach Tim Rausch at (706) 823-3352 or timothy.rausch@augustachronicle.com.
Comments
Get rid of the 54 year old foundation that has served and replace with the two year old foundation that has done nothing. Great idea! Lets get rid of the over 200 year old Constitution and Govt while we are at it, and come up with a new Marxist or another socialism regime, or perhaps even better a fascist one would be a good argument for Obama to pursue.
Go for it Dr. Rahn, I'm with you on this.
How in the world did Obama get mentioned concerning MCG.
Finally, someone is realizing that the private sector, i.e., voluntary donations by alumni and friends of MCG, can do more to get the medical school off the ground that can waiting on government. I think it is shameful that our city Commission jumped the gun and put the taxpayers on the hook to buy the
Gilbert Manor land and give it to MCG. Far better to ask the alumni, friends, and employees of MCG to pony up a little cash first.
I am with Dr Rahn on this - get rid of Jim Osborne
Note the composition of the Board of Directors and tell why we shouldn't trust this original group. William E. Mayher, III, M.D. ( '64) Chairman of the Board William P. Brooks, M.D. Assistant Chair, Development Committee H. Gordon Davis, Jr., M.D. ('45) Past Chairman, MCG Foundation, Inc. J. Benjamin Deal, D.M.D. ('74) Murray A. Freedman, M.D. ('67) Second Vice-Chairman Ellen S. Goodrich, R.N. ('67) J. Daniel Hanks, Jr., M.D. ('69) Past Chairman of the Board J. Harold Harrison, M.D. ('41) Past Chairman, MCG Foundation, Inc. Charles D. Johnson, CPA Christopher J. Mann, M.D. Alva L. Mayes, Jr., M.D. ('61) Matthew McRae, Jr. M.D. ('73) Sylvester McRae, Jr. M.D. ('78) Julian W. Osbon Peter M. Payne, M.D. ('64) Secretary Daniel W. Rahn, M.D. President, Medical College of Georgia Lloyd B. Schnuck, Jr., M.D. ('68) 1st Vice Chairman and Treasurer Don L. Waters Cecil F. Whitaker, Jr., M.D. ('62) Past Chairman. Jim Osborne is staff-President & CEO, MCG Foundation, Inc. The Foundation is composed of a 38-member Board of Directors, including 14 ex officio members who hold official positions within the university. The board has the legal responsibility to govern the corporation-not Jim Osborne. Rahn is in a power struggle to take over everything. This is unethical. They voted unanimously not to support Rahn's request-he abstained from the vote. Now he usurps the whole board because he doesn't get his way. While I support a new Dental School not unethically. Lets just hope the alumni see the coup and drop funding or pursue legal recourse. Of course most don't care about ethics anyways. It is the State's medical school and only dental school so the State should be paying for it. Why should the alumni pay for it as they have already paid the school to get their degrees.
Sounds shady to me.
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