Marvin Pomerantz, chairman and CEO of the Mid-America Group, has resigned as head of the fund-raising committee for the University of Iowa’s College of Public Health after faculty members rejected renaming the college after Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, causing the Wellmark Foundation to withdraw its $15 million donation.

“We operated under the university policies and the dean (James Merchant) decided to not honor those policies,” Pomerantz said in an interview with the Business Record. “I can’t raise money if we don’t know what the rules are and the rules can’t change once they start. We wish everyone the best of luck, but we’re not going to be part of it.”

According to The Cedar Rapids Gazette, published in Cedar Rapids, Pomerantz and committee member John Colloton, former director of University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, approached Wellmark about giving the college a naming gift. The Wellmark Foundation offered $15 million. However, the public health faculty nearly unanimously rejected the idea of renaming the college after the insurance company.

The donation was part of a fund-raising effort to construct a nearly $45 million building. U of I has commitments of $38.7 million in state and university money and the college has pledged to raise $6 million privately.

Merchant did not immediately return phone calls today. It is uncertain whether Colloton will also resign from the committee over the issue.