The University System of Georgia is suing the MCG Foundation for refusing to stop using the name connected to the Medical College of Georgia, according to court papers filed today in Richmond County Superior Court.
The suit is the latest in a dispute that started in the summer of 2008 over the control of the fundraising organization. University foundations generally work in harmony with the school's administrators, and in exchange the school permits use of its name, logo and other references to the foundation's efforts to raise money.
This suit complains that when then college President Dan Rahn resigned from the foundation board in September, 2008, the organization was obligated to stop using the school's name.
The foundation began in 1954, 31 years before the University System's Board of Regents registered the trademark for the college name.
In January of this year, the regents sent a letter to foundation officials asking them to stop using the name, and the next month they replied that they would be changing the foundation's name. The foundation did change its name, and then in June changed it back.
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Online Extra: See documents related to the lawsuit. (PDF format)
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I wonder how many furlough days this is going to end up costing MCG employees?
The Arch Foundation of UGA was created under similar circumstances to the "Georgia Health Sciences University Foundation" related to Dr Michael Adams and his removal of Vince Dooley as AD. The UGA Foundation attempted to modify its contribution to Dr Adams salary. Dr Rahn began to behave as Dr Adams acolyte. Both foundations still exist and have their assets. Dr Rahn attempted to take assets from the MCG Foundation to build a new dental school and make MCG the "Dental Branch" of the USG, while establishing Athens as the main "Medical Branch" of the USG. The MCG Foundation refused to go along with this act; nobody, or very few, had given money to the MCG Foundation believing it would be used to support a medical school in Athens and/or the "Dental Branch" in Augusta. This was "bait and switch" by the Board of Regents. The regents are not attempting to gain the assets of the MCG Foundation, here. The MCG Foundation has "deep pockets" and should be able to fend off this misdirected attempt to bully them into submission. The recent Rahn Affair with Little Rock and the behavior of the Board of Regents in relation to GA med school expansion is a low water mark in state governance.
Thank you, Dan Rahn, for all the great things you did for Augusta. *snort*
This has been a long time coming and I for one am glad to see it. And they should sue for the funds as well.
Hahhhhhaaaaaaa OMG LMA OFF about that