FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 2, 2007
Contact: Anika Mitchell Perkins
(662) 329-7124

Overby to chair MUW Alumni Association Advisory Committee

COLUMBUS, Miss. -- Mississippi University for Women President Claudia A. Limbert announced today that Andrea Godwin Overby, a 1968 alumna and a past president of the MUW Alumnae Association, will serve as chair of the MUW Alumni Association Advisory Committee.  To be comprised of 10 MUW alumni, this committee will recommend to the University administration the focus and structure that the MUW Alumni Association will take.  In addition to the other members of the committee chosen by Overby, the University’s director of Alumni Relations, Jan Miller, will assist the committee in its work.

This week, the University announced its intention to disaffiliate from the MUW Alumnae Association, an independent membership-based organization.  The need to reconstitute the alumnae association arose from the dismissal of two employees in the University’s Office of Alumni Relations after an investigation of that office.  In 2006, the University administration learned that former alumni office employees may have engaged in conduct detrimental to the University.  An investigation uncovered a concerted effort by current alumnae association officers and board members, working with former alumni office employees, to undermine the University and the MUW Foundation.

For example, a current alumnae association officer wrote to the former alumni director in December 2005: “I am looking for a candidate to sue the [MUW] foundation.”   In another message to current alumnae association officers and board members, a current alumnae association officer said: “I may have found a really good way to get at the [MUW] foundation” by alleging that it violated federal law.  The alumnae association officer’s allegation was based on a misunderstanding of Foundation operations.  In addition, a former employee in the University’s Office of Alumni Relations distributed to three current alumnae association officers and board members confidential donor information from the proprietary files of the MUW Foundation.

Current alumnae association officers and board members also engaged in an effort to pressure the IHL commissioner and IHL Board to remove the MUW president before the end of her contract.  This effort was revealed in a November 2005 email from a current alumnae association board member, who referred to “the goal of the past-presidents’ group” to have Dr. Limbert removed.  This plan was also reflected in a January 2006 statement by one current alumnae association board member to another: “In essence, we have gotten rid of the [former VPIA] . . . now we are going after [Dr. Limbert].”   

The evidence uncovered in the University’s investigation of the alumni office, only a portion of which is mentioned above, led not only to personnel decisions but has also demonstrated the need to define more precisely the relationship between the University and the alumnae association.  In addition, there are operational problems with the conduct of the alumnae association.  For example, there are current alumnae association officers and board members who are not actually members of the alumnae association, an apparent violation of the association’s present by-laws.   
   
In August 2006, the IHL Board mandated that each university enter into an agreement with each of its affiliated entities.  The terms of the affiliation agreement, which the MUW Alumnae Association previously signed, and the proposed by-laws are designed to address the problems uncovered during the investigation of the alumni relations office.