It looks like Peter beat me to the punch on the latest developments at Virginia Commonwealth University (see “A Tale of Two Outrages.”) Rather than repeat the points he made, I want to amplify his comments about the “neo-Stalinist” atmosphere at VCU. I wouldn’t choose that particular, highly loaded adjective to describe the Trani administration — nobody’s been hauled off in the middle of the night and executed — but there is big, festering problem that must be dealt with.
By way of background: I criticized Style Weekly magazine last month in R’Biz for publishing an article that gave breathless credence to fears expressed anonymously by VCU faculty members and researchers that the administration would retaliate if they openly expressed their objections to the controversial contracts with Philip Morris USA. Style noted that “senior people” at VCU had left because of the Philip Morris controversy but did not identify them. The weekly failed to present any other evidence that the dissidents’ fears were grounded in previous VCU actions.
Well, I owe Style an apology. Peter’s subsequent reporting turned up the fact that one senior person (not “people”) at VCU — former vice president of research Marsha Torr — did depart in a controversy over Philip Morris a few years ago. And today we read in the Times-Dispatch that VCU officials made “improper threats” in an unrelated investigation into a degree improperly given then-Richmond police chief Rodney D. Monroe.
The controversy over Monroe’s degree erupted into a full-fledged uproar when two prominent VCU faculty members resigned their senior administrative positions in protest earlier this week. Robert D. Holsworth, a noted Virginia political commentator, stepped down as dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences, and Michael D. Pratt resigned as interim director of the school of government and public affairs. As Karin Kapsidelis reports for the T-D, the VCU board will take up allegations contained in letters written by two of the four senior officials — presumably Holsworth and Pratt — that “some improper interviewing” took place during the Monroe-degree investigation.
Kapsedelis quotes Dan Ream, president of the faculty senate, as saying that there were “improper threats made to potential tenure. … You don’t threaten tenure.”
Well, if VCU officials can threaten tenured professors, non-tenured professors and research staff cannot be blamed for being skittish about expressing their concerns publicly about the Philip Morris contracts. Add to this latest development the fact that the task force assigned to study the university’s research contracts and recommend new guidelines is chaired by Francis Macrina, the vp of research whose underlings negotiated the contracts, and there is every reason for outsiders to wonder about the integrity of the process.
VCU is the state’s largest, fastest-growing university, and it’s a pillar of the Richmond economy. VCU is an engine of economic development, critical to the growth of the life sciences sector in the region. Anyone who wants to build a more prosperous, livable and sustainable Richmond region needs to take an interest in what happens at VCU.
As Peter rightly asks in the context of this dual controversy, if William & Mary alumni were outraged by the culture-war antics (my word, not his) of President Gene R. Nichol, where are Richmond’s community leaders and VCU alumni? Why aren’t they expressing outrage — or at least concern — about events at VCU that go to the heart of academic and research integrity? It’s a fair question.