Author: P Hasselbacher

Surprise Full UofL Board Meeting Today.

With 24 hours of notice, a meeting of the full newly appointed University of Louisville board of Trustees will be held. A main item on the limited agenda is approval of a budget for the current academic year. It contains the controversial 5% tuition increase and at least one other mandatory fee increase directly affecting students. I suspect that President Ramsey and /or his aids felt great pressure to approve a budget before the judicial hearing today in Frankfort following which the very legitimacy of the Board may be prolonged for some time more.

It is difficult to believe there has not been much discussion among Board members and the administration ahead of this meeting out of public view. I wonder how that could have been done without triggering open meeting requirements? The fiasco of the first meeting of this Board over apparent violation of open meeting law sharpens the focus on how the University and its Board of Trustees conducts their business. If the matter today is handled in a rubber-stamp manner we will be able to see the future. No human being can grasp the UofL budget in a single week! Continue reading “Surprise Full UofL Board Meeting Today.”

First Meeting of UofL Board. Fresh Start or Not?

Old habits die hard.bevin-bridgemen-07132016

For those hoping for a “fresh start” at the University of Louisville, last Wednesday’s Board of Trustees meeting must have been more than a little disappointing. Earlier in the day, the Attorney General requested that the Board take no actions with long-term consequences until the matter of the legality of its appointment process is adjudicated by the courts. The day before the meeting, one of the newly appointed trustees resigned, presumably because his public statements about science, religion, and minorities generated too much public opposition – in my opinion a failure of the vetting process. He was replaced by another nominee from the list of 30 generated by the Governor’s Postsecondary Education Nominating Committee who also happens to be a partner in the law firm that handles the bulk of the University’s outsourced legal work. The replacement trustee is a well-respected and competent individual, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with attorneys serving on nonprofit boards. However, if I were an attorney seeking some of the University’s business, or a party in opposition to the University in some litigation, I would see such an appointment as more of the inside baseball that is often attributed to UofL. Continue reading “First Meeting of UofL Board. Fresh Start or Not?”

President Ramsey Leaves Board Meeting Abruptly and Did Not Return.

Ibevin-ramsey07132016n what began as a routine initial Board of Trustee meeting in which Governor Bevin began in person with an expression of gratitude to the new members has progressed in a dramatic way.  In the middle of the Executive session in which personnel  matters were discussed, President Ramsey was quickly accompanied out without allowing opportunity for questions.  His spokesperson told the assembled reporters that Dr. Ramsey would not be returning to the meeting and would have no comment.

When the Executive session was over, the rest of us reentered the meeting room to a panel of very sober/glum/subdued faces. New Chairman Pro Tem Bridgeman reported that personnel and litigation had been discussed but that no decisions were made and that there was nothing to report. The meeting was concluded quickly thereafter. Continue reading “President Ramsey Leaves Board Meeting Abruptly and Did Not Return.”

Indigent Hospital Care in Louisville at a Crossroads.

Both state and city contributions to the QCCT charity care fund are no longer needed and have now been eliminated.  Will funding be needed again if Medicaid expansion is reversed? If so we need a better way to provide medical services to this population.

Perhaps the most innovative aspect of the 1983 contract under which Humana assumed management of our state-owned University of Louisville teaching hospital was the Quality and Charity Care Trust Agreement (QCCT).  In exchange for a fixed minimum of financial support from the City of Louisville and the State of Kentucky to fund indigent inpatient medical care, Humana promised to provide all necessary indigent care to eligible citizens of Jefferson County and to a limited number of out-of-county individuals.  It appeared to me at the time that the arrangement worked well, but I came to realize that as a consequence, the brand-new University Hospital would be explicitly defined for the community as a trauma center and poor-people’s hospital.  To the extent that University Hospital inherited the mantle of the formerly segregated Louisville General, University Hospital remained the place where people of color, those at the margins of society, or those served in the teaching clinics of the medical school were expected to be cared for. Private patients were admitted elsewhere. The Hospital has yet to shed this unfortunate constraining heritage. I have written a fair amount about this program. Continue reading “Indigent Hospital Care in Louisville at a Crossroads.”