[split] Medical Students Speak Out
I haven't seen the op ed submitted by the medical students posted to this board yet so I thought I would share. Thank you Kristin Olson for taking the lead on this. Below is Kristin's post on the Save UAB Football facebook page.
Below is the op ed submitted just now to AL. com on behalf of a large group of UAB medical students (over 70 undersigned). We BCC'd the BOT, and Dr. Watts in our submission:
To the editor:
We, the undersigned, are medical students at the University of Alabama School of Medicine. Some of us completed our undergraduate years here at UAB. Some of us came from other schools in Alabama or even out of state. Today, we are all Blazers. We are here because we believe in this university and we believe in dreaming big. Just last month, our researchers announced a possible cure for diabetes. UAB dreams big, and UAB achieves big.
Today, we received an email with the results of a strategic plan that did not include input from UAB students as part of its development. It cuts scholarships and slashes athletics in the name of fiscal responsibility. We cannot help but see a parallel in the chronic underfunding of medical research in recent years—also done in the name of fiscal responsibility. We trust that there is a more nuanced rationale behind the decision to cut UAB athletics today than simply a balance sheet. We do not believe that a balance sheet captures the true investment of the UAB Football program. We do not believe that the president of the university, who represents the best interests of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, would cut the UAB Football program, and by extension the entirety of UAB athletics in one form or another, because of a balance sheet. If it were an issue of a balance sheet, UAB would do what UAB has always done—fight to find the funding and fight to find the will to move forward to dream big and to achieve big.
As medical students, we are taught that communication is key- communication between our interdisciplinary teams, communication with our patients, and communication with each other. We saw a lack of communication this week, and that lack of communication and transparency left us as an angry Blazer community questioning the motives of the UAB administrative leadership.
The discontinuation of the UAB Football program has been presented chiefly as being an issue for the undergraduate side of campus. We respectfully disagree. It’s true that we might be unable to participate the way the undergraduates can on a regular basis, but we still follow Blazer athletics and reap the benefits that a full athletics program supplies.
We cannot in good conscience support a strategic plan that does not include input from UAB students. We cannot support a strategic plan that cuts scholarships and programs in the name of a better vision for UAB. We cannot stand idly by while this short-sighted vision calls the UAB Football program—that by every measure was starting to achieve the impossible—irresponsible to support. We came to a medical school and a university that dreams big and achieves big. We will accept nothing less.
"We would do Birmingham a great disservice if we dreamed too little dreams." Dr. Joseph Volker
Sincerely,
Kristin Olson, UASOM Class of 2017
Tim Fernandez, UASOM Class of 2017
Dhruv Patel, UASOM Class of 2018
Tushar Ramesh, UASOM Class of 2018
Amanda Shaw, UASOM Class of 2017
Jit Patel, UASOM Class of 2017
J. Heath Pelham, UASOM Class of 2017
Devanshu Kaushik, UASOM Class of 2017
Roshni Sheth, UASOM Class of 2017
Jonathan Antonetti, UASOM Class of 2017
Justin Evans, UASOM Class of 2017
Tripp Ference, UASOM Class of 2017
Jaskirat Singh Sethi, UASOM Class of 2017
Andrew Watson, UASOM Class of 2017
Jesse Faulk, UASOM Class of 2017
Matthew Beidleman, UASOM Class of 2017
Ynhi Thai, UASOM Class of 2017
Steven Allon, UASOM Class of 2017
Emily Wesson, UASOM Class of 2017
Jozef Pavnica, UASOM Class of 2017
Drew Buie, UASOM Class of 2017
Rebecca Shuford, UASOM Class of 2018
Heather Moore, UASOM Class of 2018
Briley Black, UASOM Class of 2018
Ashley J Pettaway, UASOM Class of 2018
Laura Crocker, UASOM Class of 2018
Raj Vachhani, UASOM Class of 2017
Adam Lam, UASOM Class of 2017
Nick Scanlon, UASOM Class of 2016
Rob Wians, UASOM Class of 2018
Mingchun Liu, UASOM Class of 2017
Bobby Sistani, UASOM Class of 2016
Winston Hong, UASOM Class of 2017
Nico Herrera, UASOM Class of 2017
Suzanne Wallace, UASOM Class of 2017
Anna Worth, UASOM Class of 2017
Jaya Madhav, UASOM Class of 2015
Raymond Oldham, UASOM Class of 2015
Michelle Chang, UASOM Class of 2017
Kayla Kebbel, UASOM Class of 2015
Mahmoud Mansour Elsayed, UASOM Class of 2018
Jason Miller, UASOM Class of 2018
Jeff Harper, UASOM Class of 2015
Ryne Black, UASOM Class of 2018
Charles Fryberger, UASOM Class of 2016
Katherine Shelton, UASOM Class of 2018
Hilary Flippo, UASOM Class of 2018
Hannah Turner, UASOM Class of 2018
Lauren Gibson, UASOM Class of 2016
John Thomas, UASOM Class of 2016
Claire Bourgeois, UASOM Class of 2018
Brandon Sherrod, UASOM Class of 2018
Jacob Fletcher, UASOM Class of 2017
Samuel Hand, UASOM Class of 2018
Cody Meyers, UASOM Class of 2018
Salmaan Kamal, UASOM Class of 2018
Xavier Baldwin, UASOM Class of 2017
Kevin Jiang, UASOM Class of 2018
Kaci Larsen, UASOM Class of 2016
Rucker Staggers, UASOM Class of 2017
Stephen Gragg, UASOM Class of 2021
Camli Al Sadek, UASOM Class of 2017
Christopher Ray, UASOM Class of 2018
Madeline Morgan, UASOM Class of 2018
Samantha Ashley, UASOM Class of 2018
Tooba Anwer, UASOM Class of 2017
Clark Alves, UASOM Class of 2017
Erin Williams, UASOM Class of 2018
Bonnie Gillis, UASOM Class of 2018
Kyle Cichos, UASOM Class of 2018
Ryan Densmore, UASOM Class of 2018, Former UAB Football Player
Deepa Etikala, UASOM Class of 2018
Bhavika Patel, UASOM Class of 2018
Danielle Fincher, UASOM Class of 2017
William Riley, UASOM Class of 2018
Katherine L Mascia, UASOM Class of 2017
Erica Young, UASOM Class of 2015
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[split] Medical Students Speak Out
