Shortly after the death of former President Ronald Reagan,
people passing by the UCLA Replacement Hospital currently under
construction were reminded that the former president would have a
lasting legacy at UCLA.
Signs announcing that the medical center would be named the
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center were hung, after Reagan’s
death, on fences facing Gayley Avenue and Westwood Boulevard,
marking the construction site.
The decision to name the hospital after Reagan was not as
spontaneous as the appearance of the signs; rather it is a result
of a gift given to the hospital years ago.
Months after the medical center’s groundbreaking in 1999,
a group of donors pledged to pool $150 million in April 2000 as a
gift to help construct the hospital.
The $150 million donation was part of a larger fundraising
effort led by Jerry Perenchio, the chief executive officer of
Spanish-language media company Univision. In addition, the group of
donors pledged to donate $30 million to the Ronald Reagan
Presidential Library Foundation in Simi Valley.
The formal unveiling of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
was to be delayed until its opening, but it seemed appropriate to
put up the signs because of Reagan’s death, said Gerald
Levey, vice chancellor of UCLA Medical Sciences and dean of the
David Geffen School of Medicine.
The gift was presented to the university in a dedication
ceremony for which Reagan’s wife Nancy Reagan and campus and
hospital leaders were present.
“This magnificent new medical facility will be a lasting
tribute to my husband’s life and career,” Nancy said in
a press release in April 2000. “We are very proud that the
new Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center will be a reality, and we are
deeply grateful to those whose generosity is making it
possible.”
The $150 million donation was, at the time, the largest donation
ever given to UCLA and is surpassed only by entertainment mogul
David Geffen’s $200 million donation to the medical
school.
The signs have reignited uproar among those who feel
Reagan’s name is inappropriate for the medical center.
Some are offended the hospital will be named after Reagan,
saying that many had been prevented from receiving adequate health
care during Reagan’s presidency.
“Ronald Reagan’s policies were just devastating to
the neediest population of California,” said William
Cunningham, professor of medicine and public health. “He
undercut Medi-Cal and Medicaid “¦ the safety net to the
vulnerable of California.”
Many believe Reagan was also responsible for allowing the AIDS
epidemic to become even worse, said Cunningham, who has proposed
wearing armbands in protest of the medical center’s name.
“(Reagan) was really hostile to the activist and academic
community ““ who were supporting AIDS prevention and treatment
efforts ““ until it was quite late,” he said.
For others, the name of the hospital is a fitting tribute to the
former president.
“We have consistently told everyone that in addition to
being what is generally acknowledged by historians as a great
president “¦ (Reagan) and his supporters would have been
responsible for the premiere hospital in the world,” Levey
said. “We’re grateful to everyone who has made it
possible.”
The Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center will replace the current
medical center, which was damaged in the 1994 Northridge
earthquakes and is scheduled to open in 2005.