A word to the Wise: be wary when you mess with a street-wise Italian guy from Philly.
That’s Eugene P. Trani, the outgoing president of Virginia Commonwealth University, to be precise.
Trani’s 19-year tenure at VCU has been marked by huge successes and some serious questions about abusing his power. On the plus side, Trani has taken VCU, basically a third tier commuter school, and taken it clearly into second-tier status. He’s raised the level of student and expanded the programs the school offers, including a number of overseas outlets such as one in Qatar.
Richmond’s renaissance around Monroe Park and Broad Street is also an achievement that only a very rare man or woman can claim credit for.
On the negative side, Trani has been criticized for big-footing neighborhoods such as Oregon Hill as he’s rebuilt and expanded. He is a bit of a megalomaniac, renaming the venerable Medical College of Virginia as VCU med school, to the chagrin of legions of MCV grads. Trani did so because a USA Today reporter got MCV mixed up with UVA — not exactly a serious reason. Trani was also under heavy criticism for the scandal in which Richmond’s former police chief won a bachelor’s degree without meeting requirements.
My issue with Trani was that he got so involved with the Richmond power structure that he threw his weight around with no checks or balances. He has been criticized for spending so much time on bricks and mortar projects that he squandered opportunities to enhance VCU’s rep as a research center.
It badly needed it since on Trani’s watch, in 1999, the National Institutes of Health banned VCU (and MCV) from doing any research work on human bodies after failing to keep federal privacy rules in line. In recovery, Trani hired a well-regarded scientists to do a makeover of VCU research. The woman, a South African by background, did just that, but later quit in a controversy involving Trani’s backing of highly questionable, strictly confidential research contracts with Philip Moris USA.
Many first rate schools decline to take tobacco money. Others that do, such as the University of Virginia and Duke, accept money only if they control the research. In VCU’s case, Trani gladly took the money and called the contracts “research service agreements” which supposedly meant they weren’t really research. In the original deal, anyone who questioned the contracts was to be immediately reported to Philip Morris. Groups such as the Association of American University Professors said that Trani’s view that the contracts were not research was nonsense.
Trani wanted to protect Philip Morris because the tobacco giant bailed out his faltering Virginia Biotechnology Research park. So when the New York Times called a year or so ago when it was breaking the story about the secretive research pacts, Trani wouldn’t talk to them.
I smelled something funny, especially since the local newspaper, which pushes Trani and VCU hard, had its “investigative” reporter take a look. He concluded that nothing was amiss because the University of Louisville, another low-ranked school in another tobacco town, had similar pacts.
So, I did some of my own investigating which was published a year ago on richmond.com. My story, which somehow is no longer available on Richmond.com’s server after Media General bought the Website, outlined the research issues and noted that some faculty and administrators were fearful of Trani’s reaction if they questioned thet tobacco research. Later, as national attention stirred, a faculty panel put in place by Trani recommended against such future pacts. I also blogged on this site about the controversy.
Well, this month, Richmond magazine has a cover on Trani. To wit:
“On hearing the comments of a local blogger, describing his administrative atmosphere as “Neo-Stalinist,” Trani tilts his head as if playing Name That Tune and names the writer instead. “Is that Galuszka,” he guesses correctly, naming a contributor to the Bacon’s Rebellion blog, Peter Galuszka.
“He doesn’t even now what neo-Stanlinist is!” Trani replies with a touch of amusement “I do! That’s my field!” (He is, in fact, an expert in Russian history).
My, but Trani does have a long memory. He’s wrong, however, about me not knowing what neo-Stalinist is. I first visited the Soviet Union as a college student in 1971 and spent years studying the language. I later spent a total of six years in the 1980s and 1990s there as an American news correspondent, some of which involved me being followed around or phone tapped by KGB officials. I probably have more time on the ground in Russia than Trani does. As for him being a Russian history expert, perhaps, but as part of my job I spent lots of time talking with academics, economists and Russian officials, including Boris Yeltsin. I never heard Trani’s name but look forward to reading some of his books.
Anyway, Trani’s getting some payback. His legacy is important but highly mixed.
Peter Galuszka
