Tuskegee University to regain property from VA Department of Veterans Affairs to return 65 acres donated by school 90 years ago
Mary Orndorff Troyan
Montgomery Advertiser
June 12, 2013
WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs will donate 65 unused acres and about 20 buildings to dramatically expand Tuskegee University under a property transfer that is awaiting congressional approval.
Tuskegee said it plans to use the area for more classrooms, dorms, research labs and faculty offices for several new degree programs.
Legislation sponsored by Rep. Mike Rogers of Saks and endorsed by the entire Alabama House delegation is part of an ongoing effort to return the property that the college originally gave up 90 years ago for the creation of a medical facility for black war veterans.
In 1923, the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute donated 300 acres for what would eventually become the Tuskegee VA Medical Center. But now, the Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System — created in 1997 through a merger of the VA medical centers in Montgomery and Tuskegee — no longer needs the property.
“The … transfer would allow CAVHS to provide these unutilized, empty buildings for job creation in a severely economically depressed local community while at the same time providing CAVHS and the community access to future clinical interns for the CAVHS system,” said Tracy Boleware, a spokeswoman for Tuskegee University.
The property includes several cottages, apartments, a dining facility and garages dating back to the 1920s and 1930s, as well as a pavilion, softball field and a building that was used for medical treatment, Boleware said. She said it will require a “significant investment” by the university to renovate and modernize the facilities.
The college plans to add fencing to establish the new campus boundaries, add roads and install utilities.
Tuskegee University is a private, historically black college but it also receives some financial support from the Alabama Legislature.
The college is planning new degree programs in public health, educational psychology and counseling, agricultural and environmental engineering, civil engineering, mass communications, forensic science, bioethics and information systems and security management. There will also be more academic programs in nursing and allied health, Boleware said, which will provide education and training for VA employees and veterans.
Tuskegee University President Gilbert Rochon started discussing the property transfer with VA officials soon after he took office in 2010, where they decided it could be a benefit for the school and the VA.
“The university’s expansion plans could be accommodated and the VA could cut costs associated with providing heating, air conditioning and power for unused buildings,” Boleware said via email.
Rogers said the transfer allows Tuskegee to “grow their educational mission at no cost to the taxpayer.”
His bill was assigned to the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013306120036
_______________________
113th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1612
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 17, 2013
A BILL
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) In 1922, Tuskegee University voted to donate three hundred acres of land to the United States to build a veterans’ hospital, a portion of which is described in section 2(a).
(2) The property is administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs and has been used as space for the Tuskegee Veteran’s Hospital.
(3) Tuskegee University (hereinafter referred to as the `University’) is a State-related land grant institution of higher learning that intends to use the property described in section 2(a) to further the education and general welfare of its students.
(4) As provided in section 2, the conveyance of the property to the University would promote the University’s educational mission and related purposes and result in savings to the Federal Government.
SEC. 2. LAND CONVEYANCE, DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS PROPERTY, TUSKEGEE, ALABAMA.
(a) Conveyance Authorized- The Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall, without consideration, convey all right, title, and interest of the United States in and to a parcel of real property, including improvements thereon, consisting of approximately 64.5 acres located at 2400 Hospital Road, Tuskegee, Alabama, including building numbers 19-29, 50-51, 59-60, 62-63, 80, 94, 96, and 124, to Tuskegee University, for the purpose of permitting Tuskegee University to use the property to further the education and general welfare of its students. In carrying out the conveyance under this subsection, the Secretary may survey all or a portion of the property to be conveyed if the Secretary determines such a survey would be necessary or desirable.
(b) Hazardous Substances- Notwithstanding section 120(h) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (42 U.S.C. 9620(h)) or the Solid Waste Disposal Act (42 U.S.C. 6901 et seq.), in the conveyance of the property under subsection (a), the Secretary shall be only required to meet the disclosure requirements for hazardous substances, pollutants, and contaminants, but otherwise shall not be required to remediate or abate the release of any hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant, including petroleum and petroleum derivatives.
(c) Cooperative Authority-
(1) LEASES, CONTRACTS, AND COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS AUTHORIZED- In conjunction with, or in addition to, the conveyance under subsection (a), the Secretary may enter into leases, contracts, and cooperative agreements with the University related to the conveyance authorized under subsection (a).
(2) SOLE SOURCE- Notwithstanding division C of subtitle I of title 41, United States Code, or any other provision of law, the Secretary may lease real property from the University on a noncompetitive basis.
(3) NON-EXCLUSIVE AUTHORITY- The authority provided by this subsection is in addition to any other authority of the Secretary.
(d) Additional Terms and Conditions- The Secretary may require such reasonable terms and conditions in connection with the conveyance under subsection (a) as the Secretary considers appropriate to protect the interests of the United States, except that the conveyance may not require further administrative or environmental analyses or examination.
______________________
Tuskegee University
Click images to enlarge. To return to Dilemma X click your back arrow
During the 1940s and 1950s, the federal government greatly expanded its involvement in hospital care with the passage of the Hospital Survey and Construction Act, which provided federal funding for the construction, expansion, and renovation of public and non-profit hospitals. Co-authored by Alabama senator Lister Hill, and popularly known as the Hill-Burton Act, the 1946 law contained a non-discrimination clause that required all federally funded hospitals to provide service “without discrimination on account of race, creed, or color.” But the legislation also included a loophole that allowed states that already had separate hospital facilities to ignore the non-discrimination clause as long as hospital facilities “of like quality” were provided for black citizens. That provision was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1963.
The Hill-Burton Act had a significant impact on black hospitals throughout the South.
Tuskegee University’s other medical history
John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital
In 1892, Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) opened the first hospital for African Americans in Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute Hospital and Nurse Training School, to provide care for the school’s faculty and students and to train black nurses. The hospital expanded after physician John A. Kenney was appointed director in 1902 and began serving the surrounding African American community. It was renamed the John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital, following a donation in honor of Andrew, who was governor of Massachusetts, and became a center for the postgraduate training of black physicians in the Deep South.
Although most public hospitals made some provisions for black patients—on a segregated basis—few institutions gave black physicians privileges in their facilities. Virtually all of these hospitals were run by white doctors, and many resisted adding African Americans to their staffs, as they were often in competition with them for patients. Moreover, black patients often found themselves subject to discrimination from white doctors and nurses at public hospitals and were segregated into basement wards at most facilities. Even public hospitals that catered mostly, or even exclusively, to black patients regularly refused to allow black doctors to use their facilities.
In 1987 the era of Tuskegee University’s John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital ended with its closure.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Alabama
_____________________________
Tuskegee University’s John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital complex is now home to the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care at Tuskegee University and the Tuskegee University Legacy Museum
This is the nation’s first bioethics center devoted to engaging the sciences, humanities, law and religious faiths in the exploration of the core moral issues which underlie research and medical treatment of African Americans and other underserved people. The official launching of the Center took place two years after President Bill Clinton’s apology to the nation, the survivors of the Syphilis Study, Tuskegee University, and Tuskegee/Macon County for the U.S. Public Health Service medical experiment.
Tuskegee University campus
College of Veterinary Medicine expansion
Dilemma X 
June 13, 2013
Did you know?, Educational