Harvard University has a famous tradition known locally as "every tub on its own bottom." Translated, that means that each faculty or school of the university is responsible for raising most of its own research money, and finders are keepers.
The Harvard name, of course, is ample bait to attract all sorts of funders,savory and otherwise. But just how low will Harvard go to get a grant?
Recently, it came out that John D. Graham, President Bush's nominee to be thegovernment-wide antiregulation czar based at the Office of Management and Budget,has taken loads of self-serving industry money to underwrite his Harvard Centerfor Risk Analysis. Among other things, Graham solicited tobacco industry moneyand worked with that industry to disparage the risks of secondhand smoke. Hisdean of faculty, Harvey Fineberg of the Harvard School of Public Health, madeGraham give the money back. Graham's center also published a study suggestingthat there was little need to be concerned about increased accidents caused bypeople using cell phones while driving. The study was funded by AT&T WirelessCommunications, according to Public Citizen. And the center also put out arisk-benefit computation--later reduced after peer review--contending thatautomobile airbags cost $399,000 for each year of life saved. Graham's story lineis that most government regulation doesn't pass the cost-benefit test. Is it anywonder that industry is eager to fund him?
The PR man for the center, David Ropeik, whose title is "Director of RiskCommunication," contends that all funders are self-interested--the federalCenters for Disease Control and Prevention no less than the tobacco industry.
Now comes word of a new "Kuwait Program," at Harvard's prestigious John F.Kennedy School of Government. The fledgling fund, in turn, is underwritten by theKuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences. Suggested grant topics forHarvard scholars include such subjects as water resources, air pollution, publichealth, and oil and petrochemicals. Not on the list, however, are topics likedemocracy and free speech in Kuwait, the status of women, guest workers, andreligious minorities. If you want funding to study those topics as they relateto Kuwait, Harvard's Kuwait Program Research Fund evidently can't help you.
Harvard does have an Office of Sponsored Research, which vets contracts forcompliance with protocols for research on human subjects and animals, and makessure Harvard gets paid on time. But the issue of whether the funder is tooself-interested to pass a smell test is not subject to university-wide review."That varies by tub," according to the Office's Elizabeth Mora. In other words,each faculty of the university decides its own ethical standards. Only veryinfrequently, as in the case of tobacco money, does the university's provostorder a policy for all of Harvard.
What's next for Harvard? The NRA Institute of Gun Safety? The Taliban Centerfor Faith-Based Services?
