sh_ub.clear
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Statement of Professor Stephen C. Halpern
Professor of Political Science, UB, June 28, 2012
These are difficult times for public universities. Diminished financial
support is taking a drastic toll. It has produced a frantic search for money. While
understandable, that scramble for dollars can undermine the unique stature,
legitimacy and public trust universities enjoy. That public trust derives from the
perceived independence of the university. The independent search for truth is
the noble enterprise at the core of university life. It is the core value at stake in
the controversy over UB s Shale Institute.
Consistent with the value of independence, legitimate academic research is
not undertaken to benefit any one interest. In conducting research, neitheruniversities nor faculty should be beholden to outside interests, answerable to
them, or dependent upon them. Even the appearance of such dependence
compromises a universitys integrity .
Independent research about the safety of fracking is a proper and
important subject for scholarly inquiry. It can inform public debate nationally
and in our own state. But it is imperative for universities to take the most
vigorous measures, open to public scrutiny, to insure that research priorities andresults are not skewed to curry favor or future funding from outside interests.
That imperative is especially compelling in the case of research on the
safety of fracking. For in that case, powerful forces outside of the academy have
a huge financial stake in the outcome of academic research. In pursuing their
own private interests, those forces may be willing to provide or withhold
significant funding to cash-strapped universities depending - - and here is the key
- - depending - - on whether they conclude that their interests will be served by
the research conducted at the university. That is the concern at the heart of the
controversy about UB's Shale Institute.
How can UB dispel that concern? Simply. It can be transparent. It can
disclose for public accountability all of the documents bearing upon the founding,
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funding, hiring and expenditures in connection with the Institute. The citizens of
New York deserve no less.
There may be perfectly good answers to the many questions raised about
the Shale Institute. But the university has never really addressed thosequestions. It can do so only by the fullest disclosure of all documents bearing on
the formation and operation of the Institute. For the sake of the university for
which we all have an abiding regard, it must do so.