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Archive for the ‘Commissions’ Category

Let’s ask our state leaders: What were you thinking? Have you thought your actions through to a logical conclusion?

Posted in BESE, Boards, Civil Service, Commissions, Contract, Contracts, Education, Ethics, Governor's Office, Higher Education, House, Senate, Layoffs, Legislature, Legislators, OGB, Office of Group Benefits, Politicians, Privatization, Public Records on October 27, 2012| 17 Comments »

Whenever I see a story about some stupid criminal I find myself wishing I could be alone in a room with the poor sap just so I could ask him three questions:

• What was your thought process?

• Did you think this through to its logical conclusion?

• Did you ever, at any point in time, think this would end well for you?

That’s all. Just those three questions.

Until now, I had always limited this wish to stupid criminals:

• Like the guy who pulls up at the drive-through window of a bank and slips a note in it saying “This is a holdup.” The teller, pulls the drawer in, reads the note, flips it over and writes on the back, “I don’t see a gun,” and sends note back to the guy who obligingly puts his gun in the drawer and sends it in to the teller;

• Like the guy who writes his holdup note on any piece of paper with his name and address on it or who is wearing a work uniform with his name tag fully visible;

• Like the guy who tries to outrun police on the interstate;

• Like any idiot who tries to resist a half-dozen police officers;

You get the picture.

But now I have expanded my sentiments to wishing I could pose the same question to some of our bumbling state politicians—particularly our self-promoting, egocentric, ambitious, absentee governor who insists—with a straight face, no less—that he has the job he wants even as he ignores a multitude of problems at home while auditioning for any job that will promote his shameless career goals.

But there are others:

• Any legislator (like Noble Ellington or Jane Smith) who runs for office on the promise of looking out for the folks back home but then accepts a six-figure salary in some department for which he or she has zero qualifications. What were you thinking?

• Any agency head (like Louisiana Workforce Commission Executive Director Curt Eysink) who sends out an email saying there will be no merit raises for employees because of budgetary constraints while almost simultaneously approving a 41 percent increase for a single employee. What were you thinking?

• Any agency head (like Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Bruce Greenstein) who would attempt to withhold the name of the winner of a $300 million contract with DHH from a legislative committee charged with confirming his appointment as secretary. What were you thinking?

• Any agency head (like Department of Natural Resources Secretary Scott Angelle) who would resign in the middle of a major crisis involving a potentially toxic sinkhole in order to selfishly run for a public office that he thinks will set him up for a run for governor in 2015? What were you thinking?

• Any agency head (like Alcohol and Tobacco Control Office Commissioner Troy Hebert) who would send a uniformed agent to inspect bars where she had recently worked undercover and purchased drugs from dealers. What were you thinking?

• Any agency head (like Superintendent of Education John White) who, on the night before he was to testify before a legislative committee about the New Living Word school in Ruston, sent emails to the governor’s office that he would try to “take some air out of the room” and to “muddy up” the narrative over the his approval of 315 vouchers for the school that had no classrooms, no desks and no teachers. What were you thinking?

• Any agency head (like White) who, within a matter of a few weeks, would hire a $144,000 part-time public relations officer from Florida and a consultant from Los Angeles to serve as a shill for the Department of Education’s (DOE) computer Course Content at a salary of $146,000—both of whom are allowed to commute and/or work from their homes. What were you thinking?

• Any agency head who, while giving no merit increases for three years and while even laying off rank and file employees, continues to give healthy salary increases to employees already earning in excess of $100,000 per year. What were you thinking?

• Any legislator who sees nothing wrong with private Christian schools receiving vouchers but who goes ballistic when it is learned that an Islamic school applied for vouchers under the same program. What were you thinking?

• Any governor who, while busy traveling all over the country promoting his aspirations for a cabinet position should Mitt Romney be elected president, approves closures of and budgetary cutbacks for state hospitals where cutbacks and closures result in the loss of treatment availability for indigent citizens. What were you thinking?

• Any governor who, while spewing outright lies in his many out-of-state visits about how he has the most ethical, most transparent and accountable administration in the country, continues to hide his office behind a veil of secrecy, refusing to provide public records or to grant media interviews. What were you thinking?

• Any inaccessible, unreachable, unavailable, unaccountable governor who, in an attempt to further shroud public agencies from having to answer directly to Louisiana citizens, attempts to force disputes with state agencies to be handled via telephone hearings instead of face-to-face hearings. What were you thinking?

• Any legislator who allows this governor and these bureaucrats to snub their collective noses at the citizens of this state with their arrogant actions and their attitude of defiance and mockery.

• Any citizen of Louisiana who would rather watch Dancing with the Stars than hold these sorry excuses for public servants accountable.

What the hell are any of you thinking?

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100 pay increases approved for state’s top earners following Gov. π-yush 2010 pay freeze order; hiring freeze also ignored

Posted in Attorney General, Budget, Civil Service, Commissions, Economy, Education, Exemptions, Incentives, Governor's Office, Higher Education, Jobs, LSU, ORM, Office of Risk Management, Public Records, RSD, State Agencies, Transparency on October 22, 2012| 10 Comments »

Editor’s note: The information contained in this story was received via printouts from the Louisiana Department of Civil Service of those earning $100,000 or more for the years 2009 through 2012. Each year was listed separately. Accordingly, when the name of Patti Gonzalez of the Office of Risk Management did not appear until the 2012 printout, the indication was she had received a pay increase. This was not the case and there was no explanation as to why she did not appear in prior years but Ms. Gonzalez says she has not received an increase since March of 2010.

Likewise, no state elected officials received pay increases as their salaries are set in statute. Civil Service printouts did indicate pay increases for all but two statewide elected officials but this apparently was in error.

Rank and file state civil service employees have gone without pay increases, merit or otherwise, since 2009 but at least 104 managers, directors, supervisors and five statewide elected officials already making in excess of $100,000 a year have received increases over the past three years.

Not included in the tabulation were doctors, nurses, pharmacists, higher education professors or, with one exception, those who were promoted from one job to another and got raises.

Altogether, more than 3,200 state employees earning more than $100,000 per year accounted for an annual payroll of approximately $432 million—an average of about $135,000 each.

The average pay of a state civil service employee is approximately $39,600.

In most cases—but not all—the pay increases were 4 percent increases. A 4 percent increase for one making $100,000 would be $4,000. That would fund four such increases for workers earning only $25,000 a year.

There were those, however, who did better. Much better.

Michael Diresto went from $103,792 in 2011 to $118,792 this year, a $15,000 (14.5 percent) bump. He was listed by the Department of Civil Service as a “director” in the Division of Administration (DOA) for both years. On the DOA web page, he is identified as an assistant commissioner for policy and communications.

Bruce Unangst, executive director of the Real Estate Commission, also saw his annual salary balloon from $109,000 in 2011 to $125,000 this year, a 14.7 percent increase.

In the governor’s office itself, Executive Counsel Elizabeth Murrill did extremely well for herself. Her 2011 salary of $110,000 grew to $165,000 this year—before her transfer to DOA where presumably, it will remain the same. Her one-year pay hike was a whopping 50 percent, according to Civil Service records.

In the Department of Insurance, 14 employees earning $100,000 or more received 4 percent increases from 2011 to 2012 while four others, including an attorney supervisor, did not. Insurance Commissioner James Donelon this year also hired former state legislator Noble Ellington, who had no experience in insurance, as deputy commissioner at a salary of $149,900.

Five of 14 employees of the Port of New Orleans Port Commission who earn $100,000 or more were awarded pay raises ranging from 5.5 percent to 7.5 percent.

At the Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH), several employees received pay increases from 2011 to 2012 despite the pay freeze. They included Executive Director Robert Marier, who went from $196,102 to $205,899 (5 percent); Associate Director Cecilia Mouton, from $185,640 to $194m916 (5.1 percent); Executive Director John Liggio, from $119,044 to $125,068 (5 percent), and Executive Director Lisa Schilling, from $107,702 to $134,638 (25 percent).

None of the four changed job classifications, according to the Civil Service report. One who did change classifications got a 14.8 percent increase, a lower percentage than Schilling. Courtney Phillips was promoted from a Medicaid Program Manager 4 at $102,814 per year to Chief of Staff at $118,019.

One other executive director, six DHH attorneys, a deputy director, a deputy secretary, a budget administrator, an economist and a program director received no salary increases from 2011 to 2012.

Debra Schum, listed as an executive officer in the Department of Education (DOE), got a 20 percent pay raise, from $110,000 in 2011 to $132,000 this year while Kerry Lester, also an executive officer with DOE, got a $5,000 increase, from $150,000 to $155,000 during the same time frame.

But what is particularly interesting about the DOE payroll is the seemingly inordinate number of new hires of people at six-figure salaries, especially in the Recovery School District.

State Superintendent of Education John White has brought in no fewer than 10 new employees at salaries in excess of $100,000 this year alone—and that’s not even counting Deirdre Finn, a part time contract employee who will be paid $144,000 a year to work as communications manager for the department—from her home in Florida.

The idea of hiring a commuting employee, apparently borrowed from DHH and Carol Steckel, who is being paid $148,500 a year as a “confidential assistant” to DHH Secretary Bruce Greenstein to commute back and forth from her home in Alabama, seems to be catching on.

David “Lefty” Lefkowith is being paid $146,000 to commute back and forth from Los Angeles to work at DOE as a “director,” according to Civil Service records. He describes himself in a DOE video, however, as a “deputy superintendent.”

Other new, six-figure employees added by DOE this year include:

• Gary Jones, Executive Officer, $145,000;

• Melissa Stilley, Liaison Officer, $135,000;

• Michael Rounds, Deputy Superintendent, $170,000;

• Hannah Dietsch, Assistant Superintendent, $130,000;

• Francis Touchet, Liaison Officer, $130,000;

• Stephen Osborn, Assistant Superintendent, $125,000;

• Sandy Michelet, Executive Director, $120,000;

• Kenneth Bradford, Director, $110,000;

• Heather Cope, Executive Director of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, $125,000.

For the Recovery School District (RSD), both the high turnover and six-figure salaries are significant. That’s because there is substantial turnover despite the high salaries and that turnover has stymied any progress the already troubled RSD might have realized.

No fewer than 20 employees earning six figures have left the RSD since 2009, records show.

For the three years from 2010 to 2012, there was a turnover rate among those earning $100,000 or more ranging from 29 to 44 percent from the previous year Civil Service records indicate.

Of 24 RSD employees earning six figures for the current year, 15, or 62.5 percent, are new hires, records show. These include:

• Stacy Green, School Nurse, $145,000;

• James D. Ford, Administrative Superintendent, $145,000;

• Dana Peterson, Administrative Superintendent, $125,000;

• Adam Hawf, Administrator, $120,000;

• Mark Comanducci, Executive Director, $115,000;

• Helen Molpus, Administrative Chief, Officers, $115,000;

• Kizzy Payton, Administrative, Business Office, $110,000;

• Hua Liang, Administrative Chief, Officers, $110,000;

• Nicole Diamantes, Administrative, Other Special Programs, $105,000;

• Isaac Pollack, Administrative, Principal, $105,000;

• Desmond Moore, Administrative, Principal, $105,000;

• Betty Robertson, Other Business Services, $105,000;

• Robert Webb, Administrator, Other Special Programs, $105,000;

• Sametta Brown, Administrator, Regular Programs, $100,800;

• Ericka Jones, Administrative, Principal, $100,000;

• Eric Richard, Administrative, Principal, $100,000.

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LWC director sends email announcing no pay raises: oops! he forgot about one who will get a $19,430 (40.8%) bump

Posted in Broadband, Internet, Civil Service, Commissions, Governor's Office, Higher Education, Layoffs, Legislature, Legislators, OGB, Office of Group Benefits, Politicians, Privatization, State Agencies on October 8, 2012| 6 Comments »

State Civil Service employees have gone without a 4 percent merit pay raise for three years now because of budgetary restrictions, brought on in large part by a Piyush Jindal administration that refuses to apply for federal grants for needed projects and by Jindal’s insistence on granting more and more tax breaks to corporate entities who take the money and, in at least one case, cease operations within a year or so.

No one is saying that grant money can be used to fund employee pay raises but when federal funds for broadband internet ($80.6 million), early childhood development ($60 million), and $5 billion a year in tax exemptions are taken out of the budgetary mix, the money must be made up from other sources.

Because of constitutionally mandated spending, there are only two areas where cuts may be made: higher education and health care. And of course, there is always the suspension of pay raises.

Accordingly, Curt Eysink, executive director of the Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC)–once known by its archaic nom de plume, the Department of Labor–sent an email to all his employees on Sept. 26 which informed them thusly:

Dear Fellow LWC Employees,

As you are aware, the LWC has experienced significant reductions in funding over the last four years as the demand for our services increased. That has put a lot of added pressure on many of you, and you should know that your efforts are greatly appreciated. Unfortunately, the combination of funding reductions and increased services also puts a tremendous strain on our budget, and we continue to struggle to maintain staffing levels in certain areas.

Yesterday afternoon, I submitted a request to Civil Service for the Layoff Avoidance Measure of withholding performance adjustment pay increases (or merit increases) for the upcoming year. I sincerely regret that this is necessary for a third year in a row, but I made this request to minimize the impact of budget pressures on our levels of staffing and on the agency.

I appreciate your dedication and patience as we work through these tough financial times. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Well, wasn’t that special? Eysink, in an effort to avoid layoffs, was willing to allow his employees to bite the bullet on behalf of the greater good by denying them pay raises, even though he “sincerely” regretted the action.

But wait. While he was sacrificing 4 percent increases for virtually his entire agency, Eysink was apparently attempting a backdoor salary bump of some $20,000 per year (40.8 percent), from $47,570 to $67,000, for a single employee.

Jonie Smith, Emerging Workforce Manager (for programs involving community action agencies, veterans and disabled workers), was approved by the state Civil Service Commission for an increase from $47,570 to $67,000 despite restrictions that would have limited her increase to only $53,000.

This is the same Civil Service Commission that rubber stamped the privatization plan for the Office of Group Benefits that will cause about 120 workers in that agency to lose their jobs. (Is it just us, or does anyone else see the Civil Service Commission as becoming just another Jindal dancing monkey in much the same mode as the Ethics Commission and the Louisiana Legislature?)

Not that one member, at least, didn’t try to discourage the big raise.

Briefly, here’s a recap of what went down:

Smith apparently got a job offer from the private sector and Eysink felt she was just too valuable to lose. Civil Service rules allow a state agency to match a private sector offer and in this particular case a match would have boosted her salary by $5,430, or 11.4 percent—nearly three times the 4 percent merit raise for state employees—if such raises still existed, which, of course, they don’t.

Even at that, agency officials lobbied for $67,000, causing commission member Scott Hughes to balk. Hughes observed that a lot of good employees have already been lost to layoffs. Another 1500 or so are slated to lose their jobs (just in time for Christmas, no less) through massive cutbacks in services by the LSU healthcare system.

“I’m not going to cast a vote to set a precedent for one employee,” he said, adding that other agencies might attempt similar moves. “I believe it’s a barn door we are opening that will not get shut.”

Commission Vice Chairman John McLure pooh-poohed Hughes’s concerns. “Given the current economic situation and the downsizing we have approved, we won’t see much of this,” he said somewhat incredulously.

Apparently, McLure has not been paying close attention to the news lately (see Tim Barfield, whom Jindal appointed Revenue Secretary at twice the salary of his predecessor).

It should also be noted that while Eysink pays the obligatory lip service to his employees by telling them how much he values and appreciates their dedication and patience, at least one staff member is valued and appreciated considerably more than the rest. Either that or he’s simply lying about how much he appreciates his workers in the first place. Of course, lying is certainly not new to this administration.

Remember Jindal’s disingenuous State Employee Appreciation proclamations the past three years? Were they not so cynical and such classic examples of sick humor, they’d almost be laughable. Almost.

Hughes did have one ally in Civil Service assistant director Jean Jones.

While Ashley Gautreaux, LWC human resources director described Smith, who has worked for the agency since December of 2010, a “critical” employee, Jones said based on Civil Service records, Smith barely meets minimum job qualifications for the job she is in.

The commission predictably went along with the $19,430 per year pay raise with Hughes casting the only negative vote.

One LWC employee emailed LouisianaVoice expressing an attitude of being quite “p—sed” at the action.

That’s certainly easy to understand. Jindal has completely ignored this state since his re-election (with the exception of opportunities for camera face time during Hurricane Isaac). He is rarely even in the state anymore even as a dangerous sinkhole has caused evacuations in Assumption Parish. He is nowhere to be found even as the state’s economy is tanking, causing cutbacks in medical care, budget cuts to higher education which in turn precipitated tuition increases for already financially-strapped students—all while he pumps up salaries for his appointees (see Tim Barfield), fires doctors and college presidents and attorneys and continues to campaign for president—a goal, by the way, that he will never reach.

The question then is, with more than three years left for him to turn his nose up at the citizens who elected him, how much more of this boorish behavior is the state citizenry—and the legislature—willing to take off this arrogant Alfred E. Newman lookalike?

Perhaps Hammond attorney C.B. Forgotston said it best when he said it is time for us to move on because Bobby has. “It’s time for us to admit the truth: Bobby Jindal is finished with Louisiana,” he said.

“Bobby’s future is beyond the borders of Louisiana and he shows it every day. It’s time for the legislators to determine what type of state in which they want to live, not what Bobby leaves us.”

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π-yush Jindal’s Revamp of LSU Health System reveals his obsession with destroying everything with ‘public’ label

Posted in Boards, Campaign Contributions, Commissions, Contract, Contracts, Governor's Office, Health Care, Higher Education, Legislature, Legislators, Lobbyist, LSU, Privatization, Teague on September 16, 2012| 9 Comments »

When the LSU Medical Center, aka Charity Hospital of New Orleans, was closed for good following Hurricane Katrina, then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco managed to gain a legislative appropriation of $300 million for the construction of a new University Medical Center. The state secured another $475 million from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) for the project.

Originally approved to “serve the public purpose,” the mission of the new $1 billion facility quickly changed from a public to private purpose after Gov. Piyush Jindal was inaugurated in January of 2008.

There are several problems with this scenario, however.

First, a private board was created with a purpose to support the educational research mission of LSU, according to the board’s bylaws. Then, the board, known as the University Medical Center Management Corp. (UMCMC), had to be appropriately stacked with members favorable to Jindal. That took a little chicanery, but it was done.

When the makeup of the 11-member board was finally agreed upon, seven of the members, their family members and businesses turned out to be major contributors to Jindal, combining to give nearly $205,000.

Those seven include;

• Robert Yarborough of Baton Rouge—$73,500;

• Donald T. “Boysie” Bollinger of Lockport—$58,850;

• David R. Voelker of New Orleans—$45,000;

• Thomas A. “Tim” Barfield of Baton Rouge (recently appointed by Jindal as Secretary of the Department of Revenue)—$15,000;

• Dr. Christopher J. Rich of Alexandria—$5,500;

• Stanley Jacobs of New Orleans—$5,000;

• Darryl Berger of New Orleans—$1,000.

Additionally, three of the seven contributed more than $157,000 to Believe in Louisiana, a political slush fund set up for Jindal’s use by Rolfe McCollister, former Jindal campaign manager and publisher of the Baton Rouge Business Report. Those include:

• Bollinger—$125,000;

• Voelker—$25,000;

• Yarborough—$7,700.

While the stated purpose of the board is to support the education and research mission of LSU, the board does not include anyone directly involved in education and research at LSU, and requests by then-LSU President John Lombardi to appoint such individuals were rejected by the governor’s office.

Board members and Jindal spokespersons have consistently asserted the need for the board to be “independent” of LSU, which is not consistent with the public function of the hospital. To construct the new hospital, considerable private property in downtown New Orleans was expropriated, or taken at market value for the overall good of the public. Private entities are forbidden by law to expropriate property—for any purpose.

So, that naturally brings up the question of what happens to all that property that was expropriated in the name of LSU and University Medical Center for the good of the public?

Before the first meeting of the Jindal dominated UMCMC board the chairperson, who was appointed by Lombardi and who had the fault of being loyal to LSU and not to Jindal (read: no campaign contributions), was replaced by Jindal loyalist, Bobby Yarborough.

Color her teagued.

Yarborough, owner of Manda Fine Meats of Baton Rouge, served as campaign finance chairman for Jindal’s gubernatorial campaign. He now is not only chairman of UMCMC, but also chairman of the LSU Board of Supervisors, which oversees the LSU medical system.

On Aug. 28, 2009, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for governance of the UMC was unanimously approved by Jindal’s hand-picked LSU Board of Supervisors. The MOU was signed by Jindal, then-Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) Secretary Alan Levine, John Lombardi and Tulane University President Dr. Scott Cowen.

Though there was a MOU, there has never been an agreement between the administration, LSU, DHH and the legislature whereby the legislature authorized a private corporation to manage this public hospital.

Original plans called for the new facility to be the primary teaching hospital of the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans and to also serve as a teaching affiliate of Tulane University School of Medicine.

The business plan for the medical center called for a three-year construction period with opening in 2015 with clinical education and research activities now being provided at the Interim LSU Hospital to be transferred to the new hospital upon completion.

With drastic reductions already implemented and more planned at the Interim LSU Public Hospital (ILH), one has to wonder what the board and the governor’s plan is to meet the expectations outlined in the business plan approved by the legislature.

That plan depends on continued care for the insured and includes the assumption that Medicaid coverage for the poor would expand under ObamaCare. Now the governor is headed in the other direction: cutting services at ILH and rejecting the Medicaid expansion.

Can he tell us what the new plan is? How will this private entity fulfill its public mission to provide care and to support the education and research missions of LSU? It is an issue worth following, particularly since those involved in crafting the original agreements for LSU—Lombardi, Cerise and Townsend—have all been teagued.

Those personnel changes are not surprising, given the fact that the administration makes a habit of regularly calling LSU Board of Supervisors members, even during meetings, with instructions on what to say and what not to say.

That practice would appear to fly in the face of oft-repeated claims by Jindal—particularly in his many out-of-state appearances at fund raisers and television interview shows—that his is the “most transparent,” most open and accountable administration in Louisiana history.

It does, however, appear to dovetail with his growing reputation of micro-managing all facets of state government, his propensity to take a dim view of dissent and to fire or demote any subordinate who disagrees with him, be they employees, cabinet members or legislators.

Now, he has ordered a new round of deep budget cuts for seven public hospitals in south Louisiana. The new directive calls for budgets to be slashed by 34.5 percent.

Significantly, the closure of any hospital or emergency room or any cut of 35 percent or more requires the concurrence of the legislature. The 34.5 percent cut manages to conveniently fall just below that plateau.

Legislators already are showing signs of frustration and discontent in the manner in which the administration is keeping them out of the loop in the decision-making process regarding the LSU system’s 10 statewide teaching hospitals that provide health care to Louisiana’s poor.

The 34.5 percent cutbacks are likely to result in the loss of up to 400 of the 1500 resident doctors at the 10 hospitals across the state, which can also cause yet another problem: the disposition of the contracts between those doctors and the state.

The administration’s belief that private hospitals would take those residents could be a miscalculation with serious legal ramifications.

The administration has already put staff and employees on notice at LSU Medical Center in Shreveport, E.A. Conway Medical Center in Monroe and the Huey P. Long Medical Center in Pineville/Alexandria that a request for proposals (RFP) will be issued “for the purpose of exploring public-private partnerships for the LSUHSC-S affiliated hospitals.”

Jindal’s latest ploy of keeping cuts half-a-percent below the level requiring legislative approval is not likely to sit well with many lawmakers, particularly those in districts served by the hospitals which both employ and treat constituents.

All of this is to say that the current state of the LSU health care system is one big mess, thanks in no small part to a state administration with chronic tunnel vision, a compliant LSU Board of Supervisors comprised exclusively of political cronies, and the loss through firings and reassignments of capable administrators.

Louisiana—and LSU—deserve better.

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Notable Quotables (in their own words)

Posted in Campaign Contributions, Commissions, Education, Governor's Office, Health Care, Higher Education, Legislature, Legislators, LSU, Notable Quotables, Politicians, Privatization, Transparency on September 6, 2012| 2 Comments »

“We’re the only state in the country that runs our own government-owned, government-operated hospitals. I’ll be the first to tell you that’s not the best way to provide health care. And we’re replacing that. We’re transitioning folks on our Medicaid program to privately-run insurance coverage.”

–Gov. Piyush Jindal, to Greta Van Susteren in a Fox News interview about his plans to dismantle Louisiana’s Medicaid program in favor of private insurers, neglecting to mention that those “government-run hospitals” also serve as teaching hospitals for medical students at both the LSU and Tulane university schools of medicine.

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