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"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
Jill Biden Shines a Global Spotlight on American Community Colleges
Speaking at a Unesco conference in Paris, the vice president’s wife stressed the importance of two-year institutions to the nation’s educational goals.
Connecticut Public Colleges Lose 200 Professors to Early Retirement
Administrators are scrambling to plug holes in their course schedules for fall, with most expecting to do so by hiring more adjuncts or increasing class sizes.
U. of Georgia Paid 2 Fraternities $2.4-Million to Relocate, Contracts Show
The two were among five with houses on property where the university plans to build new academic facilities.
New Allegations in Admissions Controversy at U. of Illinois Suggest Ex-Provost Played a Role
Linda P.B. Katehi, the incoming chancellor of the University of California at Davis, has insisted she knew nothing of the admission of politically connected applicants at Illinois.
Sonoma State U. Foundation May Lose $350,000 on Loan to Former Board Member
The foundation will be forced to issue fewer scholarships in the 2010-11 academic year because of a diminished endowment, a university official said.
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
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June 27, 2008
Senator Grassley Reports Contacting 20 Universities Over Financial Conflicts
Washington — Sen. Charles E. Grassley said this week he was investigating financial conflicts of interest among roughly 30 scientists at 20 research universities.
Senator Grassley, an Iowa Republican, has been making waves since last summer through his inquiries on the topic. He wrote pharmaceutical companies and requested details of their financial support to academic scientists, then asked the researchers’ universities about those scientists’ reporting of the monetary interests to those institutions. Under federal rules, academic scientists financed by the National Institutes of Health are required to make those disclosures, and universities are required to review and manage them.
Senator Grassley found instances where scientists reported smaller financial interests than they had received , and he began this month to release more details, starting with three psychiatrists at Harvard University and then, this week, a Stanford physician-researcher. (Stanford said in a statement that the faculty member, Alan F. Schatzberg, chairman of the psychiatry department, had followed its disclosure policy.) Mr. Grassley is expected to keep the heat on with more disclosures in coming weeks.
The NIH is also moving to take action, prodded by the Senate Appropriations Committee, which approved on Thursday a bill that would require the agency to consider stepping up its oversight of financial conflicts. The NIH’s director, Elias A. Zerhouni, had written Mr. Grassley last week saying that the agency had started such a review.
“I am hopeful that we can significantly enhance the identification and management” of conflicts, Dr. Zerhouni wrote.
In a statement, Senator Grassley said, “There’s mounting evidence that the NIH hasn’t done due diligence in keeping track of industry payments to medical researchers. With the objectivity and integrity of research at stake, along with public trust in the system, there are plenty of reasons for Congress to step in to establish penalties for grantees who fail to report financial conflicts and to bring transparency to taxpayer-funded medical research.”
For example, Mr. Grassley said, such researchers should face losing their NIH financing. —Jeffrey Brainard
Posted on Friday June 27, 2008 | Permalink |
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