Speech given by President Anjali Wagle to the Board of Trustees on Friday,
February 6, 2015.
To everyone in attendance today, thank you for letting me speak. As the
student representative, my role today is to describe the state of UAB from a
student’s perspective.
This past year has been one of tremendous development for our campus.
Enrollment has yet again hit record numbers. With that, student life at our
university continues to grow and to consistently reshape UAB’s image as a
university that offers a holistic experience. Our students have taken the lead
to constantly redefine what is possible as a university and as a community.
A vital component of the identity that students have created for UAB is
service. Student organizations at UAB have set standards for success that are
mimicked nationally. Recently our own chapter of Active Minds, a mental
advocacy organization, scattered hundreds of backpacks throughout the
campus with a story of a student who committed suicide attached to each
backpack. Multiple national media agencies covered this event and brought
positive attention to our university as groundbreaking in fighting the stigma
of mental illness. However, the true success of the many student
organizations at UAB is not measured by media attention, but by the impact
they have on UAB, the Birmingham community, and the world. Our
students are leaders in philanthropy, raising tens of thousands of dollars
amongst the Greek organizations alone for various charities. We’ve had
students who biked thousands of miles from California to Washington D.C.
to raise money and awareness for people living with disabilities. Our
medical students have set up a free clinic for the underserved populations in
Birmingham that is entirely funded and run by students. These are but a few
examples of the passion our hard-working students have for their fellow
human beings.
During my time at UAB, I have also seen tremendous revitalization in
Birmingham as a whole. This offers UAB a unique advantage in attracting
some of the brightest minds in the nation with our diverse community
nestled next to a burgeoning, cosmopolitan city. Our students actively
engage with our flourishing community and take the lead in all fields of
academics and research. Last year alone saw another 2 UAB students win
the Goldwater Scholarship for exceptional research, leading to a total of 17
UAB Goldwater Scholars since 2005. 2014 also saw 7 UAB students attend
the prestigious Clinton Global Initiative to share and further develop their
unique projects and ideas to better the world. And lastly, we are so proud to
have 2 Blazers become Rhodes Scholar finalists; with Ameen Barghi
finishing as a scholarship recipient. For a university as young as we are, it is
telling of UAB’s potential that we have had the most number of Rhodes
Scholars of any Alabama institution in last 15 years. These winners of some
of the most prestigious scholarships in the world are a testament to the
academic environment here at UAB. We are an institution with a culture that
recognizes that while knowledge is important, our faculty and students are
the ones who will change your world. I come today to share with you some
of the success and passion our students have for learning, for achieving, for
innovating, and for dreaming. We all love our university for its unwavering
commitment to nurture our minds, provide boundless opportunities, and
offer a unique and memorable experience.
However, there has been a clear shift in the tone of our campus these past
couple of months. As students, we have seen dramatic and sudden changes
to our university with little warning and no input. Our football team, a
symbol of persistence and hard work, achieved so much in one year. When
few gave them a chance, they drew inspiration from each other and became
bowl-eligible for the first time in over 10 years. Our football coaches, who
won multiple national accolades this year, worked tirelessly to develop the
players not only as athletes, but also as students, achieving one of the highest
APR’s in our history. Our football team’s quick turnaround parallels the
revitalization of a whole community. One of UAB’s key attracting features
for potential students is that like the city of Birmingham, we are young, and
we are growing. I came to UAB fully believing that I could have a
tremendous impact on the course of UAB’s future. It is very telling that one
of our mottos is “Ever Faithful, Ever Loyal.” Our students, our alumni, and
our faculty are faithful and loyal because we all contributed to where UAB is
today. I cannot tell you the number of times alumni have come up to me
these past couple of months just to share a story about what UAB was like 5,
10,or 20 years ago. They shared stories about the challenges and struggles in
going to a school that was labeled “just a commuter school” by others. They
told me about how they fought against the stigma that students who came to
UAB are either too poor or not smart enough to go to Alabama or Auburn.
They told me about how they worked tirelessly to bring a sense of student
life to UAB, from the early days of Coach Bartow’s “experiment” to what
we have today. The one defining feature of all their voices is that none held
any resentment. They did not resent what they did not have; they took pride
in what they built. UAB is now the largest employer and the highest-revenue
generating institution in Alabama. We have world-class research in fields
from medicine to archeology. We have a downtown area that has been
consistently ranked in the top 10 for up-and-coming cities in the nation.
Yet for the past couple of months, the only national attention we’ve
received is about failure. Students, alumni, and faculty are embarrassed that
the school they worked so hard for would be portrayed in such light. Their
achievements are overshadowed by an administration and a system that has
discounted the value of shared governance and equal representation.
Students, especially, have voiced a sense of worthlessness when they see
that their experiences are simplified to mere financial numbers. While many
believed that these recent decisions would be met with little opposition,
reality proved otherwise.
I have witnessed a resounding refusal by the UAB community to allow its
university to be downsized without objection. When pushed, our normally
soft-spoken community has decided to no longer remain silent. We have and
continue to make our voices heard. Yet the response we received from the
Board of Trustees has been truly disappointing to many of my constituents.
Following the Faculty Senate’s vote of no confidence, the Board’s response
acknowledged what had occurred but did not address the underlying
concerns of the faculty, the students, and the alumni. A vote of no
confidence is a vote of no credibility.
On campus and in Birmingham, there is a real and growing distrust
towards the Board. This distrust will not go away; it will continue to fester,
and build resentment. The health of the system is in question, ultimately
putting all of us at risk. I urge the Board to no longer avoid this problem.
Let’s repair that relationship to the people of Alabama who bleed Green and
Gold or Blue and White. Let us start sincere and transparent discussion
about the composition and manner of succession for the Board. Let us
engage the stakeholders, hear their concerns, and work to collaborate rather
than dictate. Let us show in action that education is not a zero-sum game,
and that 3 strong and independent campuses are better for all of Alabama.
I am excited to see what my alma mater will accomplish in the future.
Thank you.