In an opinion piece for AL(dot) com, Will Ferniany, the former CEO of the UAB health system and recent Ivey appointee, likened President Trump's administration to Nazi Germany.
Governor Kay Ivey appointed Ferniany to the Alabama School of Healthcare Sciences (ASHS) Board on August 19, 2024. According to a statement by her office, the ASHS will be the fourth residential specialized high school in the state, offering rurally focused health care training to students.
The proposed school set for construction in Demopolis has been the focus of appropriators in Alabama Legislatures as costs have reportedly increased from $62 million to $80 million.
In his op-ed, Ferniany opens with, "German Lutheran Pastor Martin Niemöller wrote the famous piece 'First They Came for the Jews.' It is a powerful reminder of the dangers of indifference and the importance of speaking out and acting against injustice. Based on the actions of the current administration, Niemöller's words have never been more relevant. I have updated his words for our times to remind us that being involved and speaking out is as important now as it was in the early days of Nazi Germany."
In one line of his rewrite, he says, "They took books out of libraries, threatened librarians and insisted we only read what they deemed acceptable," seemingly objecting to efforts of lawmakers and parents to remove sexually explicit materials from school and public libraries.
In another line, he says, "They suppressed the ability for people to vote, in the name of stopping fraud (that did not exist)," promoting the discredited idea that Voter ID laws or clean voter rolls disenfranchise voters.
Ferniany's piece claims, "They forced state governments, local governments, universities, and private businesses to stop helping those in our society not as fortunate by stopping efforts to give everyone equal opportunity."
In a release announcing his retirement in April 2021, the University credited Ferniany with launching UAB's diversity, equity and inclusion programs, stating, "[Other] initiatives spearheaded by Ferniany addressed promoting leadership and diversity in the Health System, starting with the creation of the position of chief leadership development officer, establishing training courses and scholarship opportunities. The Office of Diversity and Inclusion was created in early 2017. UAB Medicine was named "Best Workplace for Diversity" by Birmingham Magazine in 2018 and held diversity conferences in 2018 and 2019, canceling in 2020 due to COVID-19."
According to UAB tax records available on ProPublica, Ferniany was paid $2,024,740 in 2022, the year following his retirement, and $949,254 in 2023.
Ferniany recently decried Trump's cuts to UAB in an interview with Alabama Daily News (ADN). In the same article, ADN reported, "UAB's indirect cost rate currently sits at 48.5%, which means for every one dollar given towards a research grant, UAB receives about 48 cents toward indirect costs associated with that research. The proposed cut would limit that rate to 15%."
Among the cuts to UAB was the cancellation of $796,569 worth of National Institutes of Health grants to the University of Alabama at Birmingham so UAB could study how gender identity influences pain sensitivity.
Editor’s Note: The link to the press release announcing Will Ferniany’s appointment has been updated to reflect an achieved copy of the original release. See the follow-up story here.
Apryl Marie Fogel is a Birmingham resident who frequently appears on and guest hosts radio programs around the state. She can be reached at [email protected].
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