Suppose this request was presented by an animal rights activist whose stated
goal was to shut down all animal research on your campus.  Would attendence at
the meeting really further their mission?  Would denying them access or
creating obstacles to full access further their mission even more?

Charlie Hathaway

Quoting Barbara Gray <xxxxxx@COFC.EDU>:

> Our IACUC (public primarily undergrad instituion) deals mostly with
> teaching protocols (primarily rats and mice) and some field research
> (birds, frogs, fish, turtles)...no biomedical research or toxicology
> studies.  We have received a request from a student to attend an IACUC
> meeting so that she can complete a Bachelor's essay on animal research
> ethics. According to her proposal, she intends to "focus on the legal
> issues involved in animal research...codes of ethics...and organized
> institutions such as the IRB [sic] that evaluate proposals and supervise
> ongoing research on aninmals" and to try to assess "how closely these
> laws are actually followed" (no additional detail of who is to be
> studied in the determination of compliance with the laws).  The proposal
> is sufficiently sketchy to prevent us from assessing her personal stance
> on use of animals in research.
>
> This is the first time anyone--student, faculty member, or John Q.
> Public--has asked to attend any of our compliance committee meetings as
> an observer.  We have explained that much of the work goes on outside
> the committee meetings and have suggested to that we can provide much
> more useful information by meeting with her, suggesting references that
> she has not yet identified (including all the government, AALAS, AAALAC,
> etc. materials), and explaining our policies and procedures.  But the
> faculty advisor is still pushing for her attendance at a meeting without
> strongly supporting the other information collection methods we have
> suggested..
>
> My thoughts at this point are, at the very least:  (1) require the
> student to meet with us (IACUC chair and staff) to more fully explore
> the nature of her proposed project; (2) based on outcome of the
> exploration meeting, submit her request to the entire IACUC for review
> and approval (3) as a condition of approval, require her to do some
> indepth background work before attending the meeting (4) restrict her
> attendance to protocol reviews for which the investigator has given
> permission for her inclusion and (5) require her sign a confidentiality
> agreement about specific protocols.
>
> However, before I spend a lot of time on this, I'd like to know if
> anyone else out there has had a similar request and how you handled it.
> Even if you haven't, if there are potential pitfalls, please give me a
> heads-up.Note that we are aware that this is a widely debated topic on
> our campus.  We don't want to appear that we are trying to hide
> anything; on the other hand, we do have concerns about confidentialty,
> appropriateness, and ramifications.
>
> Thanks!
> Barbara
>
> --
> ==================================================================
> Barbara H. Gray, Director
> Office of Research & Grants Administration
> College of Charleston
> 66 George Street
> Charleston, SC  29424
> Campus Location:  407-G Bell Bldg.
> Office: 843.953.5673  Desk: 843.953.5885  Fax:  843.953.6577
> e-mail:  xxxxxx@cofc.edu   URL: http://www.orga.cofc.edu/
> ==================================================================
>
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