CBS-TV5 (San Francisco, CA)
BERKELEY, CA — University of California, Berkeley faculty members passed a resolution today which in effect approves efforts to finalize a $500 million deal with the giant energy company BP to fund biofuels research and develop cleaner energy.
At a lengthy meeting at an auditorium at Boalt Hall, the university’s law school, the Academic Senate rejected a proposed resolution recommending that Chancellor Robert Birgeneau delay signing a contract with BP until there’s a formal review by the full academic community.
Instead, the Academic Senate approved an alternative resolution put forward by Randy Schekman, a professor of molecular and cell biology and chairman of the chancellor’s advisory committee on biology.
Schekman’s resolution says “grave issues of academic freedom would be raised” if the university were to deviate from the principle that no unit of the university has the authority to prevent a faculty member from accepting external research funding based solely on the source of funds.
The resolution says “any intervention on the basis of assumptions about the moral or political standing of the donor is unwarranted.”
However, the resolution recommends that Birgeneau appoint four Academic Senate committee chairs to provide oversight for the BP deal involving biofuels, which are fuels derived from renewable biomass such as cow manure.
UC-Berkeley spokesman Bob Sanders said that recommendation is acceptable to Birgeneau because one of his colleagues, Vice Chancellor of Research Beth Burnside, had already informally asked about having four committee chairs serve in an advisory capacity.
Sanders said a strong majority of faculty members “want Chancellor Birgeneau to negotiate the contract as long as it has proper safeguards.”
The proposed 10-year BP deal was announced with much fanfare at a Feb. 1 news conference in Berkeley attended by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, BP America chairman and president Robert Malone, UC President Robert Dynes, Birgeneau and other dignitaries.
Malone said the proposed Biosciences Institute would perform groundbreaking research aimed at the production of new and cleaner energy, initially focusing on renewable biofuels for road transport.
The institute would be established in July after campus and company negotiators complete a contract.
At a news conference before the Academic Senate meeting, Ignacio Chapela, an associate professor of environmental science, policy and management, said he fears that the deal will involve “a massive conflict of interest” between academic and corporate goals and “tarnish the university’s image.”
Playing on the names of the university and the energy company, John Simpson of the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights said, “We don’t want to see big oil have its latest outpost be UC-BP.”
Simpson said he believes BP “wants to wrap itself in a clean brand name and greenwash its justifiably dirty image.” He referred to a Texas refinery accident in March 2005 in which 15 people were killed and 180 were injured.
Simpson said if the Academic Senate doesn’t pass a resolution opposing the deal, he would take the matter to UC’s Board of Regents and urge it to step in.
