Emails: Dubois and UNCC administrators were surprised by Atrium-Wake med school plans – “Whaaaaa?!?!”
Top UNC Charlotte leaders were totally blindsided by the news in April that Atrium Health and Wake Forest University were collaborating to bring a medical school to Charlotte, according to university emails obtained by the Ledger under the state’s public records law.
After that announcement, the emails show, several UNCC alumni wrote to Chancellor Phil Dubois blasting him for blowing the school’s chance to land a medical school — including one that called for his firing and another that said Dubois was ensuring that “the University remains a third rate diploma mill.”
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This article was originally published in the June 19, 2019, edition of the Charlotte Ledger, a 3x/week e-newsletter focused on local business news. Subscribe for free today:
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Behind the curtain: The emails provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the reactions of some top university officials as they learned that their attempts to start a medical school in Charlotte were being circumvented by the Atrium-Wake alliance. Dubois had co-written an op-ed for the Observer that appeared March 22 – titled “Time isn’t right for a medical school in Charlotte” – saying he didn’t think a public medical school in Charlotte was politically or financially feasible.
Just three weeks later, on Wednesday, April 10, Atrium and Wake announced they had signed a memorandum of understanding to work on creating a medical school.
But the emails indicate that Dubois was in the dark about those plans.
He emailed Atrium CEO Gene Woods on April 3 to see if they could schedule a call to discuss “the topic that won’t die,” a reference to the medical school issue, following a visit by a medical-school booster. “Just want to make sure you and I are on the same page,” Dubois wrote to Woods.
Woods replied to Dubois: “Phil I’m tied up for the next few days but how about I give you a call next Tuesday?” – the day before Woods planned to announce Atrium’s plans with Wake, in what sounds like an attempt to give Dubois a courtesy heads-up. Dubois said he would have their assistants try to schedule a Tuesday call, which was complicated by Dubois’ travel schedule, since, he wrote, he planned to return from the Final Four that Tuesday morning.
There is no indication from the emails whether the two talked.
But after the announcement on Wednesday, there were tons of emails flying around as UNCC administrators tried to make sense of it:
- Shortly after the announcement, Dubois’ chief of staff sent a copy of the Charlotte Business Journal’s article about the medical school to UNCC trustees, promising that Dubois would brief them on the development.
- About 20 minutes later, Rick Tankersley, UNCC’s vice chancellor for research and economic development, wrote Dubois’ chief of staff: “Wow, didn’t see this coming.”
- Kevin Bailey, UNCC’s vice chancellor for student affairs, wrote to Dubois’ chief of staff: “Whaaaaa?!?!” with the “Scream” emoji beside it.
Then, the hate mail started pouring in.
At 11:46, someone with the email address that starts with “nineradvocate” wrote: “Great job on the medical school, you spineless cuck! Wake freaking Forest. … I guess I should also be congratulating you for doing the job you were hired to do: ensure that the University remains a third rate diploma mill.” Dubois forwarded it to a couple staff members, calling it “fan mail.”
In the afternoon, an alum wrote to the board of trustees, calling for Dubois to be fired. Dubois forwarded it to Woods, the Atrium CEO: “One of several, just so you know.”
Woods replied: “That is totally and completely unfair of them Phil. Really and truly sorry to hear.”
In response to a more polite alum who wrote in, Dubois said that the challenges of establishing a public medical school, the project he was working on with UNC officials, are much different than the private medical school Wake and Atrium are envisioning: “Don’t know enough details yet to say, but private is different than public, as you know, and the finances of doing this are much different for us/UNC than it would be for WF.”
WEB BONUS: Read the emails UNCC included as part of a public records request here:
