Why isn't UGA an AAU member school?

Does anyone know why UGA isn't a memember of the Association of American Universities? We are elite enough academically that we probably should be. Florida, Vandy, and GT are members, as well as a bunch of schools that aren't nearly as good as us like Oregon. Wonder why we never joined...

UGAChemDawg, following link allows one to build their own impression.

www.uga.edu/columns/091597/focus1.html

Looks to me like a case of bias against southern public schools then. No way we shouldn't be invited when Oregon, Iowa, and Michigan State are members.

They also appear to really dislike religious schools. Notice the conspicuous absence of Georgetown, Notre Dame, Boston College, BYU, Baylor, and Wake Forrest.

Understand your point. Looking a bit closer, Georgia Tech, Duke, Florida, Vanderbilt, Emory, Tulane, North Carolina and several Southwestern schools are members. May be that some of that lies directly on some institution heads.