Posted on: Thursday, April 14, 2005
Senators want facts on deal by UH, Navy
By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer
After a joint hearing, two state Senate committees are calling for a task force to determine how classified military research by University of Hawai'i professors and students would affect the state.
The decision followed three hours of passionate debate at the legislative hearing yesterday.
UH leaders want to sign a deal with the Pentagon and the Navy that would create a Navy Affiliated University Research Center on campus — an agreement that could bring $50 million in new government contracts, some dealing with classified research.
But the issue has proven so controversial on campus and among Native Hawaiian groups that lawmakers want the university to report on the proposed deal's costs, the pros and cons, alternatives and the impact that such a center may have on students, faculty and the community. Lawmakers would like the first of four reports by July 1.
The resolution now goes to the full Senate for a vote.
Among those who spoke against the research was Miriam Sharma, a professor in Asian studies who criticized school officials for stressing only the monetary benefits. "Is our University of Hawai'i so impoverished and so desperate for funds that its administrators are willing to prostitute us to any and all bidders?" Sharma said.
Karl Kim, a professor of urban and regional planning, wanted lawmakers to amend the resolution and urge the university to abandon the research center.
"As you have seen today, there has been a long-standing aversion to doing secret research because it conflicts with the fundamental purposes of a public university and is inconsistent with our values of peer review and open disclosure," Kim said.
Manoa Chancellor Peter Englert promised that the research would not harm Hawai'i's land or its people. He also stressed that school researchers could propose projects and accept them from the Navy, but they would be in charge.
"It is important to recognize that it will be UH faculty researchers that are in the driver's seat and will determine what projects are proposed or accepted and no faculty member or student would ever be forced to engage in any research project they did not wish to accept," Englert said.
Professors and administrators from fields of science and technology urged lawmakers at the joint hearing of the Senate Committee on Higher Education and Committee on Military Affairs to kill the resolution. They spoke of the benefits of outside money on a large scale.
"If you want to do big science, if you want to do cutting-edge science, you can't do it on a shoestring," said Klaus Keil, interim dean for the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology.
Increased money would make it easier to recruit first-rate faculty and broaden the talent pool of graduate and undergraduate students, Keil said.
Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012.
