VCU and its President Eugene Trani are coming off very badly in a public relations disaster that is largely to their making. In a recent front page article, The New York Times asked reasonable questions about taking money from Philip Morris USA under provisions that appear to violate even VCU’s rules in terms of research disclosure and academic freedom. But Trani – and the Richmond establishment – obfuscated, giving the school and the region a national black eye.
VCU spokespeople confirm that the language in the so-called “research services agreements” from Philip Morris USA forbade anyone from even talking about the contract. In a creepy stipulation, if the news media even asked questions, they were to be reported right away to the tobacco firm. Even VCU admits that its other “research service agreements” do not claim such stringent language.
Trani says the Times misunderstood and that all is on the up and up. The American Association of University Professors does not agree. Some 15 elite universities have banned tobacco funding altogether. And even when the nation’s No 12 researcher, Duke University, accepted a $30 million grant from Philip Morris to get people to stop smoking, it insisted on tough language that gave it complete freedom over research and the scientific inquiries, unlike VCU.
The research from the VCU contracts will be published after a review for proprietary information from Philip Morris. There may not be a massive erosion of academic freedom in the VCU case. It seems more that a less prestigious school anxious for corporate funding agreed to contract language that a more prestigious school might have refused on principle.
Philip Morris is what it is – a rich, secretive company that makes deadly products and is not afraid to throw its weight around. VCU is what it is, a third tier school. Trani and VCU have some soul-searching and some answering to do, especially since they hope to boost the school’s R&D at the Virginia Biotechnology Research Park, heavily funded by Philip Morris. Sleazy and secretive just isn’t the way to go. Read the column in Bacon’s Rebellion.
