 | Board of Visitors minutes March 21, 1986 |  |
GIFTS, GRANTS AND CONTRACTS
A report on gifts, grants and contracts showed that private gifts to the University and its Foundation amounted to $3,075,600 for the period January 1, 1986 to February 28, 1986, and that restricted grants and contracts for the same period totaled $8,537,818.
The President spoke of the University's roll in matters of research funding, which he said should be content neutral. He said that there has recently been concern at many universities, including this one, about research sponsored by the Strategic Defense Initiatives Office -- the so-called Star Wars project. Some faculty here and elsewhere have made clear their desire not to accept support from that source, and have given their reasons. Such opposition is not always a rejection of SDIO as such, but rather reflects resentment at the occasional practice of refunding under SDIO continuing research which has been funded (and for which renewal was sought) from another agency such as the National Science Foundation. When renewal comes back marked as SDIO, the faculty concern -- even among those who might have accepted SDIO support had it been explicit -- is understandable.
Such a statement seems to me an entirely appropriate expression of faculty view, on scientific far more than political grounds. He contrasted such statements with efforts that have been made at a few universities to compel an institutional policy forbidding even willing faculty from accepting SDIO support. He said we should resist such pressures, and for much the same reason as we appreciate statements of individual faculty preference.
He said it is our task to make sure that procedural conditions and guidelines have been complied with -- that research grants will respect the rights of human subjects and of laboratory animals, and will ensure nondiscrimination in all facets of the project. To these guidelines he added classified research, since he believes it is the principal investigator and not a government agency that should make the final judgment about publication and sharing of research findings. That last issue is now under review in a committee of faculty.
He said that with limited exceptions individual faculty should be free to seek (or not seek) funding from various sources. The University should not sit in judgment on the content of research, or the uses to which results might be put, or the mission of the sponsoring agency. He concluded that in this as in other areas of university life, faculty are the best judges and the judgments are largely individual and personal.
| Board of Visitors minutes March 21, 1986 | |