By Rosalind S. Helderman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 9, 2010
RICHMOND -- Academics from across the country are rallying against a subpoena issued by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II seeking documents related to the work of a former University of Virginia climate scientist, even as the university says it is preparing to comply with Cuccinelli's request.
Cuccinelli (R) issued the civil investigative demand to the university last month for all documents related to five grant applications made by Michael Mann, a climate-change expert who joined Penn State in 2005.
Cuccinelli also sought all e-mails between Mann and 39 other scientists as well as any correspondence between Mann and research assistants, secretaries or administrative staff with whom he worked from 1999 until he left the university.
In a statement Thursday night, a spokeswoman for the university said the school is "required by law to comply." She said that the university received an extension from the original deadline and that documents are now due July 26.
"The University has never received a complaint or allegation of academic misconduct on the part of Professor Mann," spokeswoman Carol Wood said in an e-mail. "While we may not understand the basis of the [demand], we will gather what information may still reside at the University."
Cuccinelli has said he is investigating whether Mann defrauded taxpayers as he sought grants. In several interviews this past week, Cuccinelli has rejected the notion that he is targeting Mann over the scientific conclusions on climate change with which he disagrees.
"We're not investigating his academic work," Cuccinelli said Friday on "The Kojo Nnamdi Show" on WAMU radio. "That subpoena is directed at the expenditure of dollars. Whether he does a good job, bad job or I don't like the outcome -- and I think everybody already knows his position on some of this is one that I question. But that is not what that's about."
U-Va.'s Board of Visitors is coming under increasing pressure from the school's faculty and others to ask a judge to set aside the demand.
"I think the university should take the strongest possible stand on this," said Patricia Wiberg, chairwoman of the Environmental Sciences Department, where Mann worked. "There are legitimate disagreements that can be held within the scientific community. If that were to constitute fraud, it would change the whole game in terms of doing research."
Also urging the board to resist the subpoena are the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Association of University Professors, which this past week sent the university a joint letter on the issue.
And on Friday, the magazine Science published a letter by 255 members of the National Academy of Sciences decrying "political assaults" against climate scientists.
…
U-Va. urged to fight subpoena of climate scientist's documents
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment