The historic Mississippi University for Women Alumnae Association has been disaffiliated by Claudia Limbert, president of the school, acting upon the advice of Perry Sansing, her key assistant.
This means that the association, in existence for 118 years and started by the W's first graduating class, is no longer the W's affiliated alumni organization.
Alumni associations traditionally are affiliated with, but independent from, their university's administration. Limbert has created a replacement alumni association with hand-picked officers.
What started all this?
In 2005, some MUW employees lodged racial and sexual harassment complaints against President Claudia Limbert's vice president of institutional advancement, the administrator who oversaw the Alumni Office.
On the Monday following Homecoming 2006, Limbert retaliated by firing employee Tracey Dexter and removing Patsy McDaniel as Director of Alumni Relations, then seized the Alumni Office and records. The raid and firings were public and humiliating.
What does this have to do with the Alumnae Association now?
Certain past presidents of the MUW Alumnae Association had attempted to talk with Limbert in hopes of resolving the harassment situation before it worsened.
Instead, Limbert accused the past presidents of trying to "undermine" her authority.
Admittedly, some alums privately discussed personal opinions through a series of e-mails, even expressing their wishes that Dr. Limbert would somehow be removed from office. However, the Alumnae Association had never taken any action which can be construed as "anti-Limbert" prior to her initiating disaffiliation proceedings.
What happened next?
The Board of the Institutes of Higher Learning (IHL), which governs the college and university system in Mississippi, mandated that the state's universities and their alumni associations define in writing their relationship and responsibilities to each other. Although this was just a formality for seven of the state's universities, for MUW it was a different story altogether.
Did the W and the alumnae association do that?
Yes. However, the agreement the W administration wanted the association to sign was punitive and very different from agreements prepared and approved for the other colleges and universities in Mississippi.
What was different about the W's agreement?
The agreement the MUW alumnae officers were told to sign, under threat of disaffiliation, took away the right of the alumni to write and adopt their own by-laws, stacked the nominating committee process in the administration's favor, and required Limbert's approval of all internal operations of the association. These changes violate the IHL mandate that affiliated associations maintain "independence."
Why is this such a big deal?
It may sound simple, but autonomy is important to any alumni group. The university should not have the right to choose the officers or tell the association how to conduct its business. Yet that's just what Limbert is doing.
Why is the W's alumnae association being treated differently?
The commissioner of the IHL, Tom Meredith, has unlimited and unchecked power within the state's university system. For unknown reasons, he has refused to intervene to help the MUW Alumnae Association.
Is it true that the 118-year-old MUWAA no longer exists because it's been disaffiliated?
No. The University is no longer affiliated with the association. However, the MUWAA is a legally chartered organization and continues to exist. It is no longer the official, affiliated association, according to the IHL, Tom Meredith and Claudia Limbert. The MUW Alumnae Association continues to function with elected officers, assets and members throughout the U.S. and abroad.
The Limbert-appointed MUW Alumni Association exists too, but only as a hand-picked board. It has not been able to produce bylaws or membership; only a few alums are participants. In fact, the appointed president has stated that the group has no members.
This new group is affiliated but they are operating in violation of the affiliation agreement that required by-laws within 60 days of signing (this date passed in May). Although they claim to be following Robert's Rules of Order, they are in violation of that because they do not have by-laws approved by membership.
Technically, they have no membership because they've failed to invite members and offer by-laws for approval. They are a board and officers at this point, nothing more.
I've heard that alumni chapter meetings are being held. How can that be if the association has no members?
The alumni association formed through Dr. Limbert's efforts is sending representatives to chapter meeting of the historic MUW Alumnae Association without informing members of the changed organization.
Apparently, the appointed group is using the chapters chartered by the original association. In fact, the Alumni Office several months ago refused to assist our chapters with meeting details. The Alumni Office has not informed the duly elected officers of the MUW Alumnae Association when chapter meetings are scheduled. Additionally, MUWAA members have been told that they must sign a pledge of allegiance and affiliate with the new group in order to receive any assistance from the Alumni Office.
We believe this is simply wrong and are doing everything we can to ensure our members attend these meetings and share the truth with our alums.
Why won't Limbert negotiate with the MUWAA?
Frankly, we don't know. We offered several proposals for creating a new set of by-laws as mandated by the affiliation agreement. Some of our officers even offered to step down if it would help preserve the historic association.
But Limbert rejected our proposals, refused to offer any compromise of her own, hired a lawyer and advised us to do so too. The lawyers continued the process, but were unsuccessful in negotiating a version of the by-laws that was acceptable to both parties.
How has this affected the original alumni association?
While Limbert's new association's hand-picked officers proclaimed their commitment to inclusion and accessibility, they selected only themselves as interim officers.
The MUWAA maintains it historic positions and has taken legal steps to stop Limbert from creating her own alumni association.
Can't someone in state government help?
Even the Governor's power is limited when dealing with the IHL Board. He can only appoint members to the Board, not manage them.
The IHL Board is a closed system with a commissioner who has too much power (a provision placed in the state constitution many years ago). No one, not even a college president, should have the power to disaffiliate an independent organization, and certainly not without specific cause and due process.
Can we expect any help or support at all from the state government?
The Mississippi Legislature unanimously supported our position and passed a resolution in both houses asking Limbert to negotiate in good faith and stop disaffiliation. We also gained support from the Inter-Alumni Council or IAC (a group made up of representative alumni from each public university in the state), newspaper editorial writers and many tenured faculty members.
Has anything been done legally to try to stop the disaffiliation?
W alum and lawyer Julie Hussey filed on behalf of the MUWAA for a Temporary Restraining Order to halt the disaffiliation process. The judge assigned to the case ordered the parties into mediation with a court-appointed mediator. Our compromise was rejected by the University.
The two parties did reach a partial compromise that postponed a ruling from the judge.
The University agreed to remove the affiliation of the new hand-picked alumni association from the April IHL meeting agenda in exchange for the MUWAA's agreement to continue negotiating and postpone the hearing. The University further agreed "not to place this item back on the IHL Board agenda prior to Judge Colom's hearing the motion for preliminary injunction to dismiss." The judge accepted the agreement and scheduled the hearing for May 8.
The MUWAA has also offered to the new group compromises and proposals for merger as part of the court-mandated negotiations and proceedings. All offers have been rejected or simply ignored. The new group claims to have "no timeline" for resolution since they are not officially part of the court case.
What happened May 8?
The MUWAA presented its case for recognition and affiliation of the original association, along with a request that the hand-picked association not place its affiliation on the IHL agenda in May. Because both sides had not completed arguments, the judge continued the hearing until June 6.
Did anything get resolved then?
No. In fact, between May 8 and June 6, the W's administration did seek and receive affiliation of its alumni committee at the IHL meeting, contrary to what they had said they would do.
What is the MUWAA's position now?
The ultimate goal is to halt disaffiliation so that the members have an opportunity to work out a solution through established norms of parliamentary procedure.
The judge in the case will issue her decision in late June or in July.
How do I know which alumni association I want to be part of?
One significant way to evaluate opposing positions on a controversial issue is to look at who supports each side. The 118-year-old Alumnae Association includes two former members of the Mississippi Supreme Court (one of whom was also interim president of MUW), a former member of the State Appeals Court, a former member of the IHL Board and hundreds of other women and men who hold important positions not only in Mississippi, but throughout the United States. At last count, the MUWAA petition had almost 1,000 signatures. The petition to support Limbert, sponsored by the created alumni association, had 65 names.
What can I do to help?
Join with the hundreds of alums and friends who are working to keep our 118-year-old traditional and original alumnae association intact and in service to the W. Go to www.muwalumni.com. There you'll see some of the editorials and letters to the editor mentioned earlier. Read the full-page ad that ran in Mississippi newspapers. Meet lots of other alums whose goal is to preserve the dignity and history of Mississippi University for Women.