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After Tribute to Tuzin, Academic Senate Lights Up in Research-Funding Debate
Paul K. Mueller | May 7, 2007
He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one;
Exceeding wise, fair-spoken, and persuading:
Lofty and sour to them that loved him not;
But, to those men that sought him, sweet as summer.
With this brief but eloquent eulogy (from Shakespeare’s Henry VIII), Chair Henry Powell and UCSD’s Academic Senate acknowledged the recent loss of Donald Francis Tuzin, one of their own.
Tuzin, 62, professor of anthropology and former chair
of the Academic Senate, died on April 15. Powell spoke
movingly of Tuzin’s humor and grace as he faced
his final days, and the assembly observed a minute
of silence in tribute. The senate included in their
reflection the victims of violence at Virginia Tech.
Before a spirited, and sometimes heated, debate about a UC Regents’ proposal to restrict tobacco-industry funding of university research, the assembly addressed customary business.
Powell read a letter from Chancellor Marye Anne Fox,
then attending the Association of American Universities
meeting in Washington, D.C., who announced a Town
Hall on Monday to discuss campus preparedness. Fox
also noted the “significant loss of a wonderful
friend”with the passing of Tuzin, and spoke
of his guidance and mentorship. She provided an update
on the growing success of the Collaboratories program,
supported by the Hendrickson Fund, supporting 30 faculty-proposed
projects and 37 students, and emphasized that the
diversity of the projects, and their interdisciplinary
scholarship “are indicative of exceptional students
and faculty.”
Chair Powell followed with updates of his own, noting
that UC President Robert C. Dynes will be on campus
on May 25, to discuss long-range budget and planning
issues, and to help explain why UC plans to spend
$8.5 million to have consultants study UC-system efficiency;
and he reminded members of the June 30 deadline for
opting out of electronic W-2 filing, saying a better-worded
notice explaining employee options is forthcoming.
Vice Chair James Posakony asked the assembly to vote
on a slate of candidates for vacancies on the Committee
of Committees. All the nominees were unanimously
approved. Next, the assembly heard a report by the
Committee on Education Policy, an update on academic-integrity
issues that found backlogs in cases being reduced,
and good progress being made by faculty and Student
Affairs in understanding and enforcing policies. The
assembly also approved a concentration in global health
for the public health program conducted jointly with
San Diego State University.
The new business – a follow-up response to the UC Regents’ proposed RE-89, “adoption of policy restricting university acceptance of funding from the tobacco industry” – sparked sharp words and heated talk. Although the Senate Council has already forwarded an “official” response to the regents – vigorously reaffirming academic and scientific freedom, and opposing such restrictions – John Pierce, professor of family and preventive medicine at the Moores Cancer Center, asked that the assembly consider, in effect, a “supplemental” response, and perhaps eventually put the issue to a vote before the entire faculty.
The quorum that was present earlier had been lost by some early departures, so no vote could take place, but members took turns articulating – sometimes forcefully—the sensible arguments available to both supporters and opponents of the restrictions.
Some in favor of the restrictions said that a resolution can be so carefully and narrowly worded that most kinds of research would not be affected; their counterparts argued that this kind of restriction opens a dangerous door, adding that the interlocking organizations, investments, partnerships and governing boards among modern corporations make it problematic to define the “tobacco industry.”
The issue was still smoking-hot when the Academic Senate adjourned after a two-hour session, and is sure to appear on future agendas.
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