Vet prof's sanctions will remain

Administrators will not remove sanctions imposed on Veterinary School researcher Jorge Ferrer despite a faculty committee's report that the punishment infringes upon his academic freedom, Deputy Provost Richard Clelland said yesterday. The Faculty Senate Academic Freedom and Responsibility Committee also stated its uncertainty about whether Ferrer was given adequate opportunity to demonstrate the unfair nature of the sanctions, which prevent him from conducting certain experiments. But Clelland said the committee's decision served only as a recommendation to Provost Michael Aiken and the University administration, and is not a final decision. Clelland said Aiken will not lift the sanctions and, therefore, that Ferrer will remain restricted from certain research experiments until June 1992. In a statement published in last week's Almanac, Aiken said that "the administration disagrees with certain conclusions of of the [committeeM " Aiken said the administration feels the committee did not give sufficient weight to the issue of faculty responsibility in Ferrer's case. Aiken also noted the administration's disappointment that the committee did not place greater emphasis on the consequences that could potentially follow from the failure of a faculty member to follow his protocol. According to the Handbook for Faculty and Academic Administrators, "the Senate committee shall issue an opinion as to whether the provost's actions" were appropriate. The sanctions were imposed on Ferrer last February in response to an experiment in April 1990 that accidentally exposed students and staff to lambs carrying a leukemia-causing virus. In the incident, Ferrer failed to separate 14 lambs innoculated with the cancer-causing HTLV-1 virus from the rest of the flock at the University's New Bolton Center, located in Chester County. Although an investigating committee comprised of Veterinary School officials ruled last February that the individuals who came in contact with the infected lambs were not at risk of contracting cancer, Ferrer was found guilty of "lapses of judgement and poor communication." Vet School Dean Edwin Andrews said the sanctions were imposed in response to Ferrer's poor judgement in the incident. Ferrer filed a grievance complaint regarding the sanctions, which he said are unfair and harmful to his research project. "Because of their nature, these punitive sanctions will most likely destroy a research program which . . . has made fundamental contributions to lukemia and retro-virus research," Ferrer said. In a written response in Tuesday's Almanac, Ferrer said he disagreed with Aiken's statements about the committee's decision. He said that because two separate Senate committees examined the case, he does not believe the final conclusion could have been reached without giving adequate weight to the alleged hazard to human health. Ferrer also noted that the risk of transmission of the virus from the animals to humans "was, and is, virtually nil."