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January 13, 2005

Another Strike at Academic Freedom

Ignacio Chapela, a member of the Cal’s department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management faculty, appears to have been denied tenure for performing the basic research that should mark a faculty member’s career. As reported by Richard Brenneman, The Berkeley Daily, Chapela’s final class “marked the end of the latest chapter of his battles for academic freedom and his challenges to an increasingly corporatized academic culture.�

Brennenman framed Chapela’s situation as follows:
“When Swiss biotech giant Novartis (now renamed Syngenta) struck a five-year $25 million deal with the College of Natural Resources’ Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, Chapela was quick to criticize, citing the obvious potential of conflicts of interest and corporate control of research. His frankness did nothing to endear him to college Dean Gordon Rausser, one of the architects of the agreement. But the crowning blow followed from a discovery made by Chapela and one of his graduate students, David Quist, one of the founders of Students for Responsible Research. A native of Mexico, Chapela has remained deeply involved with his homeland, conducting research and helping indigenous people work toward economic self-sufficiency.

Quist and Chapela discovered strands of genetically modified DNA in the genome of native strands of corn cultivated in the heart of the region where maize was first domesticated. Chapela and Quist submitted their findings to Nature, the British scientific journal which remains the world’s preeminent scientific publication. Their publication in November 2001 ignited a firestorm.

Their discovery wasn’t the first instance of artificial genetic intrusion. Reports have surfaced of strands of DNA conferring resistance to the pesticide Roundup finding their way into the weeds the herbicide was designed to kill. But the Chapela/Quist discovery was especially troubling to the agribusiness giants whose patented strains of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are being spread throughout the world and generating huge profits. The implicit threat their research raised was of homogenized crops, of a reduction of genetic diversity that could render crops far more vulnerable because diverse varieties with a wide range of resistances would vanish into a giant genomic blender.

The attack was instant and fierce. A British web site posted scathing critiques from non-existent scientists who turned out to be creations of a corporate advertising and Nature received letters, one from a UC Berkeley colleague of Chapela, who questioned the scientists’ methodology. the end, Nature published a partial retraction—the first in the publication’s history—that advised readers to make their own interpretations of the findings.

Chapela was already up for tenure when the Nature furor erupted, but the flap didn’t prevent department members from voting 32 to 1 in favor of tenure, followed by tenure recommendations from both his department chair and the dean of the College of Natural Resources. On Oct. 3, a five-member Campus Ad Hoc Committee voted unanimously in favor of tenure. The first blow came on June 5, 2003, when the university’s budget committee made a preliminary vote against tenure. Then, on Nov. 12, the vice provost asked the ad hoc panel chair to reevaluate tenure in light of a new critical letter, prompting the resignation of the chair.

After another negative vote from the budget committee, Chancellor Robert Berdahl denied tenure on Nov. 20, 2003, despite repeated tenure recommendations from the chair and dean.�

Coupled with Meranto’s case, the question becomes where are the professional and political organizations which are effectively battling the conservative and corporate forces which increasingly mark academic life?

Posted by sparks at January 13, 2005 9:51 AM

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Comments

Two questions: what was in the letter? And, has the AAUP been contacted?

Posted by: joanna at January 15, 2005 1:40 PM

I don't know what is in the letter. I have written Ignacio Chapela to see if he will write something for our site. I will let you know when this occurs. We seem to get quite a few posts about faculty being attacked this way. If you know of any cases, please let us know. Steve

Posted by: Steve Parks at January 17, 2005 9:54 AM