The Public’s Growing Mistrust of the

University

Rachel Griego

September 18, 2006

The University as a Local and Global Citizen

“10 Things You Should Know About Corporate Corruption on Campus”

1. Tuition costs are growing

2. Downsizing of teaching efforts

3. Big Business influence

4. Increase in industry funding

5. “Selling Off the University…Piece by Piece”

“10 Things You Should Know About Corporate Corruption on Campus”

6. Conflicts of Interest

7. Misleading/Inaccurate research

8. Focus away from students

9. Only money matters

10. “The Threat to U.S. Innovation”

Academic Duty

TO TELL THE TRUTH:

“THE RELATIONSHIP between universities and their public is more dependent on trust than

on anything else”

~Don Kennedy

Conflicts of Interest

Can be very vague Public is not aware of

possible conflicts of interest

“Are Conflicts of Interest Hazardous to out Health?”

oregonstate.edu/research/Images/coipres.gif

Big Business Influence

Companies are being invited in Direction towards “commercially oriented

areas of science”

Berkeley – Novartis Agreement

• $25 million

• Support for 5 years

• Access to gene-

sequencing technology and

DNA database of plants

•First rights to negotiate

licenses to patents

•2 seats on a 5-person

committee which selects

research projects

Why the controversy?

Involved an institution rather than an individual

Ignacio Chapela = critic of the agreement – Genetically modified corn in Mexico– Denied tenure

http://www.ecplanet.com/canale/varie-5/diritti_umani-65/0/0/15875/it/ecplanet.rxdf

Misleading/Inaccurate research

Ghostwriters and “Guest Writers” Concealing information

– Human Guinea Pigs

www.sfu.ca/mediapr/files/sfunews/opinion.jpg

Skewing data in one’s favor

Examples

Tyrone B. Hayes at U.C. Berkeley

– “Frog Man”– Atrazine turns male frogs

into hermaphrodites

www.nrdc.org/onearth/03win/images/brief_frog.jpg

Conclusion

Tighter Conflict of Interest Regulations– Outside source – Federal Regulations

Decrease Pressure to Patent and Promote “open source”– Monopoly

Amend Bayh-Dole “Federal Oversight of Clinical Research”

Conclusion (continued)

Research Teaching

Conclusion (continued)

Colleges and Universities are unique institutions

Americans responsibility “to make sure that the world of higher education is not for sale”

http://www.cnn.com/US/9810/07/college.costs/story.college.costs.jpg

Works Cited

Kennedy, Donald. Academic Duty. Harvard University Press:1997.

Washburn, Jennifer. University Inc.: The Corporate Corruption of American Higher Education. Basic Books:2005.

Washburn, Jennifer. University Inc.: 10 Things You Should Know About Corporate Corruption on Campus. Campus Progress: 2005. <http://www.campusprogress.org/features/121/university-inc-10-things-you-should-know-about-corporate-corruption-on-campus>