2008 Woodie Awards
Letter to the Editor: Faculty demands openness in UH research
Prof. Beverly Keever
School of Communications
Issue date: 12/10/07 Section: Commentary
As the centennial year of the founding of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa ends, we pause to note the call by the Mānoa faculty senate for more openness.
The first call came early this semester, when the senate unanimously passed a resolution urging the Board of Regents to follow state law and publicly release documents to be discussed in its open meetings so as to make informed public participation possible.
On Nov. 14, the senate voted again to urge Mānoa's vice chancellor for research, assisted by the Office of Research Services, to maintain "an up-to-date publicly accessible list of all active classified, restricted, and proprietary research projects under the authority and responsibility of the Mānoa chancellor or being conducted by UH Mānoa researchers" at UH research sites.
The resolution is significant now as the UH system will soon begin to administer a controversial Navy University Affiliated Research Center.
In September, university President David McClain successfully urged the Board of Regents to ignore opposition from the acting Mānoa chancellor, the Mānoa faculty senate, UH student government, Native Hawaiian groups and numerous community and environmental organizations and approve its establishment on the flagship Mānoa campus, where most researchers working on UARC "task orders" are based.
Although no UARC research is to be classified, results of the research will be censored by the Navy to determine whether it is "sensitive and appropriate for public disclosure."
As the nature and location of this forthcoming UARC research is still a mystery, the Mānoa faculty senate has called for detailed public disclosure in the maintenance of the publicly accessible list of the "titles, brief descriptions of the location and scope of activity, the PI (principal investigator) name (by PI's permission), contract/grant/task order number, funding level, sponsoring agency (including program element number) and nature of publication restrictions (including time restrictions)."
In the new year, members of the campus and community and the faculty senate must ensure this openness becomes a reality. Perhaps it can also advocate for more openness in other areas of the university, the state's only institution of higher education to discover and provide a free flow of knowledge and information to students and citizens.
Prof. Beverly Keever
School of Communications
The first call came early this semester, when the senate unanimously passed a resolution urging the Board of Regents to follow state law and publicly release documents to be discussed in its open meetings so as to make informed public participation possible.
On Nov. 14, the senate voted again to urge Mānoa's vice chancellor for research, assisted by the Office of Research Services, to maintain "an up-to-date publicly accessible list of all active classified, restricted, and proprietary research projects under the authority and responsibility of the Mānoa chancellor or being conducted by UH Mānoa researchers" at UH research sites.
The resolution is significant now as the UH system will soon begin to administer a controversial Navy University Affiliated Research Center.
In September, university President David McClain successfully urged the Board of Regents to ignore opposition from the acting Mānoa chancellor, the Mānoa faculty senate, UH student government, Native Hawaiian groups and numerous community and environmental organizations and approve its establishment on the flagship Mānoa campus, where most researchers working on UARC "task orders" are based.
Although no UARC research is to be classified, results of the research will be censored by the Navy to determine whether it is "sensitive and appropriate for public disclosure."
As the nature and location of this forthcoming UARC research is still a mystery, the Mānoa faculty senate has called for detailed public disclosure in the maintenance of the publicly accessible list of the "titles, brief descriptions of the location and scope of activity, the PI (principal investigator) name (by PI's permission), contract/grant/task order number, funding level, sponsoring agency (including program element number) and nature of publication restrictions (including time restrictions)."
In the new year, members of the campus and community and the faculty senate must ensure this openness becomes a reality. Perhaps it can also advocate for more openness in other areas of the university, the state's only institution of higher education to discover and provide a free flow of knowledge and information to students and citizens.
Prof. Beverly Keever
School of Communications
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