Barbara,

The following is from our IACUC policy manual.

" 3.4.4. Procedures for IACUC Meetings Convened for Consideration of Protocols
 a) All committees conducting University business must be open to the
public unless suitable justification for exclusion can be presented.
Therefore, IACUC meetings will remain open to the public unless proprietary
and/or confidential information (e.g., trade secrets, methods and materials
under transfer agreement) is under discussion. In such instances, the Chair
may ask public attendees to leave the meeting for the duration of such
discussions or deliberations."

We would definitely allow the student to attend if the IACUC were meeting
to deliberate on protocols.  As you can see there are no prerequisites to
attending.  We adopted this policy a couple of years ago and have had
absolutely no problems. (In fact the policy change to make the meetings
open acted to dispel a lot of gossip about inequalities, improper use of
animals, etc.  I haven't checked lately but I don't think anyone has even
taken the committee up on the offer to attend if they so desire.)   I am
sure, however, that if the IACUC were meeting to discuss problems, protocol
violations, or something of that nature, we would (and could) justify
closing the meeting to outside parties - not because we have something to
hide but because, among other things, investigations of this nature can be
very damaging even if it is found that everyone has been performing
appropriately.

If her "essay" is an undergraduate classroom assignment, I don't see much
of a chance for problems.  If her intent, or the instructor's, is to
publish somewhere, you may want to ask her for an advance copy and the
opportunity to correct errors or point out misconceptions based on her
limited experience with IACUC "workings."  I don't think I'd get into a
contest with her over having authority to require changes...  That would be
to much like telling the faculty who want to accept publications
restrictions to "do as I say and not as I do."  Also, she does have faculty
guidance according to your inquiry.

As far as her stance on the use of animals, I don't know that it really
matters.  If she's anti-animal use and you prevent her from attending, she
may point to that as evidence of wrong doing.  If your IACUC is
appropriately reviewing and approving protocols, all she can legitimately
complain about is the regs themselves and the fact that she doesn't agree
with them.  To help her understand, I'd probably offer her a copy of the
regs (or access to them), the institutional policy manual, and blank
protocol forms.  I'd also make minutes of past meetings available to her so
that she will understand the meeting framework before she gets to the
meeting itself.

I know that our approach is to some institutions a very radical one but it
seems to work just fine for us in the context of the rest of our
procedures.  Our intent is to use the same approach with our IRB meetings
when the new policy is approved and implemented.

Just food for thought ...

Rosemary

At 04:20 PM 10/10/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>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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Rosemary H. Ruff
Associate Director, Review and Compliance
Biological Research Facility
139 Mell Street
Auburn University, AL  36849
(334) 844-5965 Voice
(334) 844-5938  Fax

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