Reporter Volume 25, No.8 October 21, 1993

By MARK WALLACE
Reporter Staff

The university's policy on misconduct in research in the sciences is
out of date, and may need to be expanded to include other fields and
other faculty concerns, including the addition of a policy for
conflict of interest cases, Dale M. Landi, vice president for
research, told the Faculty Senate Executive Committee last week.
	Congress has required the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop a new national
policy on misconduct, including a conflict of interest policy, by
December of this year, Landi said. Although UB is currently under no
official mandate to change its policies, he said, the NIH and NSF will
promulgate a proposed rule for conflict of interest cases for all
universities, and if UB wants to obtain NIH and NSF funds, "we will
then have to draft our own conflict of interest policy.
	"In fairness, it will have to include anyone involved in an
external funding search," Landi said.
	Philip Yeagle, chair of the Committee on Research and Creative
Activity, pointed out conflict-of-interest issues that might concern
faculty. First, the question of the intrusion of commercial funds onto
the campus. Second, faculty might want to know more about projects of
accountability research on the subject of conflict of interest. Third,
interdisciplinary research, and the need for communication on this
topic in the environment of decentralization. Fourth, how
undergraduates might benefit from faculty research. Fifth, how best to
continue supporting graduate student research.
	William Miller of Dental Medicine pointed out that conflict of
commitment problems did not involve research only, but included
teaching and other academic duties.
	John Boot of the School of Management said that it was
difficult to define the limits of conflict of commitment, and Charles
Trczinka of Management added that some people who put in less of their
total commitment to UB might still be more valuable to the university
than others who gave a greater amount of their total commitment. "I'm
questioning the wisdom that a general policy on conflict of interest
can apply to everyone," Trczinka said.
	Landi responded by saying that UB could craft a policy on
conflict of interest that it wanted, and which could include such
issues. 
	In other FSEC business, Judith Adams of Lockwood Library
reported that at the SUNY University Faculty Senate Meeting in Albany,
Gov. Mario Cuomo stated that he was proud of the way that the SUNY
system had dealt with its budget flexibility. She reported that Cuomo
supports "more flexibility" for SUNY and its individual campuses in
the future. However, Cuomo also stated at the meeting that he did not
support "differential tuition" for the SUNY Centers, Adams said.
	Charges were made by some of the SUNY colleges that the SUNY
Centers had overenrolled, thus threatening enrollment levels elsewhere
in SUNY, Adams reported. A perceived drop in the quality of students
throughout SUNY because of a lessening of standards for admission this
year was also a major concern at the meeting, she said. She noted that
Craig Conly of SUNY Central reported during the Operations Committee
Meeting that growth in enrollment has been in Arts and Sciences, not
in technical fields.