The Chronicle of Higher Education
News Blog
In the Comments

"Some college administrators seem so distracted with fund raising, academic infighting, and community initiatives that they set up their emergency communications departments very poorly. Training is poor to nonexistent, secretaries are pressed into service with tremendous responsibilities for running 'notification systems' 24/7 and on weekends because no one else knows how to do it and the administration won’t pay for additional staff. Procedures are seat-of-the-pants and dependent on HIPPO (highest paid person’s opinion), except when something like Virginia Tech happens and there is some sort of scramble to do something different." --Donna

Most Colleges Avoid Risk Management, Report Says

Recent Posts

Jill Biden Shines a Global Spotlight on American Community Colleges

Connecticut Public Colleges Lose 200 Professors to Early Retirement

U. of Georgia Paid 2 Fraternities $2.4-Million to Relocate, Contracts Show

New Allegations in Admissions Controversy at U. of Illinois Suggest Ex-Provost Played a Role

Sonoma State U. Foundation May Lose $350,000 on Loan to Former Board Member


Most Commented This Month

College Suspends Student for Working in Gay Pornography | 58

President Obama's Visit to Notre Dame Carries Barely a Hint of Controversy That Preceded It | 58

Drug Sting Nabs 21 Students at U. of Illinois | 57

Faculty Members and Union Protest Staff Layoffs at Temple U. as 'Cruel' | 57

North Dakota Board's Vote Puts 'Fighting Sioux' Mascot on Thinner Ice | 57

By Category

Athletics
Community Colleges
Government & Politics
Information Technology
International
Money & Management
Northern Illinois
Research & Books
Short Subjects
Students
The Faculty

Blog Archives

Search

Keep Up to Date

Daily news blog: RSS  / Atom

Daily news reported by The Chronicle: RSS

Contact us

May 17, 2008

Blue-Ribbon Panel Assails Planning for High-Security Lab at Boston U.

An 11-member panel convened by the National Institutes of Health to review plans for a high-security biomedical lab at Boston University said on Friday that the university’s neighbors needed to be included in reviews of threats posed by the lab’s research, and that NIH and university officials needed to operate more transparently to dispel “problems with trust,” according to The Boston Globe.

The panel, meeting for the third time, also released interim findings that included a call to re-evaluate the danger posed to the lab’s South End neighbors should hazardous bacteria or viruses escape.

Controversy over the university’s plans to open a Biosafety Level 4 lab has stretched on since 2003. The lab would be one of several in a new facility devoted to research on emerging infectious diseases.

The blue-ribbon panel that is now reviewing the project was created by the NIH director, Elias A. Zerhouni, after a National Research Council report last fall said that an earlier safety evaluation was “not sound and credible.”

Supporters of the lab said it would create jobs and tackle critical questions. Robert McCarron, vice president for state relations and general counsel of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts, told the panel that there “is an urgent need in this country to conduct research aimed at finding causes, diagnoses, and cures for the alarming number of recently emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.” —Lawrence Biemiller

Posted on Saturday May 17, 2008 | Permalink |

Comments

  1. They are going to make the juice that will wipe us all out

    — dan brown    May 18, 08:23 AM    #

  2. Perhaps Logan Airport should be closed to avoid all those pesky viruses that might come into Boston and Cambridge from other places. Is the issue really safety, or are those who oppose the facility really against the kind of research that would be done there for other reasons?

    — Joe Erwin    May 19, 05:59 AM    #