The Muse, vol. 57, no. 16 (01 February 2007)

              The Muse
Matt Mays makes
contact
Arts p. 15
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Volume 57 Number 16
www.themuse.car
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DUNCAN DEYOUNG
MUN President Axel Meisen briefs the university community on Dr. Paul Pencharz's report on how the university handled their investigation into Dr.
Ranjit Chandra's research in the 1990s.
Push for funded research
stirs controversy in arts
MUNFA says pressure
causes fearful climate,
dean assures tenure
not in jeopardy
BY SHEENA GOODYEAR
The union representing faculty at
MUN says new profs in the Faculty
of Arts are feeling pressured to seek
outside funding for research, something they claim flies in the face of
their collective agreement with the
university.
Dean of Arts Reta Tremblay says
she encourages all faculty to seek
funding, but that nobody will be denied tenure for not securing it.
At least a dozen junior faculty
members have complained of feeling pressured to get grants, according to MUN Faculty Association
(MUNFA) President Bill Schipper.
"What we kept hearing, and what
the dean kept telling them in various venues, is about how she really was going to insist that they apply for external research money,"
said Schipper.
"Many of them found it intimidating," said MUNFA Vice-President
Jon Church. "Some of them just
weren't ready."
The collective agreement between
university faculty and administration defines research broadly, and
does not require that it be funded.
"Academic freedom gives us the
right to choose not only what we
research, but whether we choose to
even get a grant, or apply for one,"
said Church.
MUNFA met with Tremblay to
voice their concern and then notified their members via a memo
that was leaked to the Muse.
Tremblay says it is a non-issue.
"I am encouraging faculty
members to apply for funded
research," she said. "But that
does not mean that they're going to get it. And that does not
mean that it has an impact in
"record of research, scholarship, or
creative and professional activities
appropriate to the rank".
"The collective agreement provides you with criteria for [tenure]
... they have to have demonstrated
effectiveness in teaching, and they
have to have demonstrated effective-
" Excellent teachers are also
excellent researchers, and
excellent researchers are also
excellent teachers."
Dean of Arts RETA TREMBLAY,
on her role of recommending
terms of their renewal or their    yOUHg pfOfS tO apply fOf
tenure."
Securing grants, or other
forms of funding requires a
large amount of research along
with the preparation and presentation of a written proposal.
An anonymous, non-tenured professor in the Faculty of Arts suggested this type of approach punishes
profs who focus on teaching rather
than research.
But Tremblay says research is a
key element of being a professor.
"Excellent teachers are also excellent researchers, and excellent researchers are also excellent teachers," said Tremblay.
The collective agreement says
tenure criteria include: competent
teaching, academic service, and a
ness in research. Part of my job is to
encourage people to apply for external funding," said Tremblay.
History professor Robert Sweeny
is the chair of the Faculty of Arts
Research Committee. He says the
administration is pushing a scientific formula of research on the arts.
"Our administration, which is
made up of mostly people from engineering and the sciences at the
top level, has no understanding of
what's going on in the arts, thinks
that an appropriate model for arts,"
he said.
Sweeny notes that research in
most scientific areas requires money. Most researching faculty have
graduate students working beneath
them in a laboratory setting, and use
expensive equipment.
Because a lot of this research has
applications - like new medicine,
technology, or policies - they can
often secure private or public funding.
Arts research is different,
he says.
"It's much more contemplative and reflective and distanced. It's what we could call
in the sciences 'fundamental
research'," he said. "If you're
actually involved in a more
long term research project
in, say, what makes the culture of Newfoundland tick,
well that's a more fundamental question. I think it's an important one to be asked in the faculty of arts at the Memorial University
of Newfoundland, but it doesn't actually require outside funding."
Sweeny says the university pushes for funded research in the arts to
offload the small costs of arts research - offices, computers, and the
occasional conference.
But this push creates a climate
of fear among non-tenured staff,
he says.
"Those people can, in fact, be
pressured. The climate at the university is such that many of them
are scared," said Sweeny.
MUN wrestles bring
home some Au79
Sports p. 23
February 1, 2007
MUN
gets
served
Whistleblower
launches lawsuit
against university
BY KATIE HYSLOP
Memorial University President
Axel Meisen and Vice-President of
Research Christopher Loomis entered the next phase of damage control in the Dr. Ranjit Chandra scandal, with a public briefing on Dr. Paul
Pencharz's report on research integrity on Jan. 29.
The report came exactly a week after Dr. Chandra's former research assistant and registered nurse Marilyn
Harvey, filed a lawsuit against the university.
Dr. Chandra is a former MUN professor of pediatric medicine accused of
scientific misconduct in 1993 based on
information brought forth by Harvey.
He was cleared in 1996, after an investigation by an independent committee.
Suspicions were raised again when
Dr. Chandra tried to submit an article
related to his research to the British
Medical Journal in 2000. The editor
raised concerns about Dr. Chandra's
research with the university, and Dr.
Chandra resigned in 2002, before the
issue was resolved.
CBC's The National aired a two-
part special on Dr. Chandra in Jan.
2006, prompting MUN to take another look into his research methods.
Dr. Pencharz, a staff physician at the
Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto,
was commissioned by MUN to look
into research policies and procedures
relevant to Dr. Chandra in June 2006.
His report found that MUN followed
the correct procedures and policies
when they investigated Dr. Chandra
in 1994.
"The MUN policies were all sound
and fully in keeping with those governing research involving humans
subjects at the time," Dr. Pencharz
wrote in his report.
On the heels of the report's release,
Harvey asserts that MUN did little to
protect her reputation after blowing
the whistle on Dr. Chandra in 1993.
In her statement of claim, Harvey
purports that MUN not only tried to
cover up Dr. Chandra's possible scientific misconduct, but threatened her
to keep silent about her claims. She
also says MUN did not come to her
defence when Dr. Chandra sued her
for the theft of his research in July
of 2000.
Harvey declined an interview with
the Muse, but made her dissatisfaction
with the university clear in the statement of claim: "The acts of [Memorial
University] are so high-handed, dis-
SEE 'REPORT' PAGE 8
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