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.