September 22, 1994: Vol26n3: Military recruiting: an issue with wide-ranging effects

By CHRISTINE VIDAL
Reporter Editor
The University at Buffalo finds itself walking a painful line between
the federal government and other people whom it serves over the issue
of military recruiting on campus.
	At risk is $885,000 in research funding for breast cancer
research, and possibly millions of dollars of additional funding that
the Department of Defense (DOD) has threatened to withhold if it is
determined that UB does not provide military recruiters with adequate
access to campus. However, UB is under a state judicial order that
enjoins the university from providing the services and facilities of
UB's Office of Career Planning and Placement and to any employer who
discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation.
	And while the funding of research is an issue critical to any
university, the broader issue could be even more devastating. Also at
risk is the intellectual and creative energy that drives research.
	Research does not thrive in an atmosphere of uncertainty, says
Dale M. Landi, UB vice president for research.
	If a resolution is not reached by the end of this month, David
Lawrence, UB associate professor of chemistry, may lose his Army
Medical Research and Development Command funding for breast cancer
research.
	A member of the UB chemistry faculty since 1985, Lawrence is
among the nation's leading scientists in bioorganic chemistry, an
interdisciplinary field that involves chemistry, molecular biology and
medicine.
	Lawrence's grant would fund his research to develop inhibitors
for a specific type of protein kinase, an enzyme that has recently
been shown to be highly activated in 30 percent of all breast cancer
cases.
	And now the funding for that research is at risk.
	"The whole thing is absurd," Lawrence said. "More than 40,000
women die of breast cancer in this country every year and Congress is
telling them, we can't cure your cancer because the military is not
allowed to recruit on this campus."
	The past four months have been a research-funding roller
coaster for Lawrence, who was notified in May that his breast cancer
research proposal was rated one of the most promising by top cancer
specialists who screened the 2,800 proposals that were submitted.
	Lawrence's grant was part of total appropriations of $210
million, the first funds that Congress ever has specifically earmarked
for research on breast cancer. Because the money was allocated under
the 1993 military appropriations bill, it fell to the military to
allocate the funds.
	However, a statute passed in 1973, in the wake of the unrest
of the Vietnam era, requires the DOD to deny grants and contracts to
college and university campuses that do not afford military recruiters
access to campus.
	And in July, the DOD announced that it was delaying Lawrence's
grant because of the uncertainty of the military recruitment issue at
UB, or on any other SUNY campus. SUNY trustees decided not to appeal a
State Supreme Court ruling. That ruling supported a lawsuit by a
former UB law student who charged that permitting military recruiters
on campus violated an executive order by Gov. Mario Cuomo prohibiting
state agencies from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation.
	Then in August the DOD indicated that it would release the
funds because there was no evidence that military personnel were
unable to recruit at UB. However, they retained the option to
terminate funding in the future if it is determined that recruiters
are being barred from campus.
	As of Sept. 16 Lawrence still had not received funding for his
research. "It is my understanding that the check is in the mail, but
Sponsored Programs has not officially received the check from the
Army," he said.
	So David Lawrence waits. In the meantime, the delay has
"completely disrupted the research," he says.
	"I had four graduate students who had no means of support as
of Sept. 1," he said. "I had no way to support them and neither did
the department, and their future was at stake." In the meantime, the
university has put money into an account that will support the
students until the grant money is received, and will then be paid
back.
 post-doctoral fellow also has taken a
	position at another university as a result of the funding
delay. "Now I have to go through the process of hiring someone else"
to work on his breast cancer study, a process that will take six to
eight months, Lawrence says.
	The uncertainty that Lawrence and other researchers face could
cost both the university and the Western New York community, says Vice
President for Research Landi.
	"The uncertainty may make it difficult to recruit new faculty,
make it difficult to retain faculty if the status of research awards
remains unsure," Landi said. "The longer it goes, the greater the
consequential costs UB could face."
	Concerns over funding could affect the quality of graduate
education by further compromising the stipends to graduate students
involved in the projects. And that could make recruitment and
retention of both faculty and graduate students difficult.
	"UB receives $50 million a year in federal funding for
research. The quality of graduate education here is very much
determined by that research support," Landi said.
	Likewise, diminished research support could spin off into the
local economy. UB's technological innovations, many of them arising
from federally funded research, are utilized by Western New York
industries to develop new products, improve current products and
improve production processes. Economists estimate that every $1 UB
spends on research adds $2.50 to the local economy. Likewise, for
every two people UB employs with federal research funds, another three
jobs are added to the local economy.
	"What tends to go unsaid in this debate and tends to get lost
is, what we are here to do," Landi said. "The training of future
faculty who will be teaching tomorrow's students and hopefully
advancing knowledge in areas of science that are important to
improving the quality of life - those fundamental considerations tend
to be lost in this kind of debate. The debate instead tends to focus
on dollar amounts of awards, whether the recruiters can come on
campus, and whether they should or not."