ACTION ALERT: Help Dr. Ignacio Chapela

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" News Update from The Campaign " <newsupdate

 

ACTION ALERT: Help Dr. Ignacio Chapela

Tue, 21 Dec 2004 03:54:32 -0600

 

News Update From The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods

----

 

Dear News Update Subscribers,

 

As some of you may know, Dr. Ignacio Chapela has been fired from his

position at the University of California, Berkeley. The Campaign to

Label

Genetically Engineered Foods is requesting your help in fighting for

Dr.

Chapela.

 

Dr. Chapela publicly criticized the corporate ties between UC Berkeley

and

Novartis, a giant biotech corporation, and has published research on

the

contamination of Mexican Maize by GM corn.

 

We are not alone in our support -- Dr. Chapela was approved 32 to 1 by

the

Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management to remain

at the

University and unanimously approved by the five-member Campus Ad-hoc

Committee. Why was he fired? The budget committee turned him down!

 

The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods has launched an

ACTION

ALERT in an effort to help Dr. Ignacio Chapela get his position back

and

receive the tenure he deserves:

http://www.thecampaign.org/alert_chapela.php

 

We are targeting several people in this ACTION ALERT:

 

1) UC Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau

2) UC Berkeley President Dynes

3) California Governor Schwarzenegger

4) Select California State Senators

5) Select California State Assembly Members

 

The messages to each recipient is slightly different so you will want

to

send the instant e-mails to each of them.

 

Posted below is the e-mail to California Governor Schwarzenegger that

also

contains the text of the message to UC Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau.

 

Also posted below is an extensive article from the Berkeley Daily

Planet.

 

Please support Dr. Chapela by taking part in this important ACTION

ALERT:

http://www.thecampaign.org/alert_chapela.php

 

Thanks for your activism!

 

Craig Winters

Executive Director

The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods

 

The Campaign

PO Box 55699

Seattle, WA 98155

Tel: 425-771-4049

E-mail: label

Web Site: http://www.thecampaign.org

 

Mission Statement: " To create a national grassroots consumer campaign

for

the purpose of lobbying Congress and the President to pass legislation

that

will require the labeling of genetically engineered foods in the United

States. "

 

***************************************************************

 

MESSAGE TO CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER THAT ALSO

CONTAINS THE MESSAGE TEXT TO CHANCELLOR ROBERT BIRGENEAU:

 

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

 

As Governor of California, I am writing to inform you of a great

injustice

that is taking place at the University of California, Berkeley.

 

You may have heard about a professor at UC Berkeley, Dr. Ignacio

Chapela,

who was recently denied tenure under extraordinary circumstances.

 

Dr. Ignacio Chapela is an Assistant Professor Division of Ecosystem

Sciences

at UC Berkeley as well as an outspoken critic of the university's ties

to

the biotechnology industry. After publishing an article in Nature in

November 2001 which said that native corn in Mexico had been

contaminated by

material from genetically modified corn, his tenure was denied.

 

Nature withdrew its support for the article; the first time it has ever

done

so, amid allegation of a flawed methodology by Professor Rine, who sat

on

the budget committee which reviewed Chapela's tenure. Later studies

have

validated the findings published in the Nature article.

 

Despite a 32 to 1 decision by the Department of Environmental Science,

Policy, and Management and a unanimous approval by the five-member

Campus

Ad-hoc Committee, Professor Chapela was denied tenure by the budget

committee, on which Professor Rine holds a seat.

 

Below is the message I have sent to the University's Chancellor Robert

J.

Birgeneau. I request that you also contact Chancellor Birgeneau and

express

your concern over this matter.

 

*************************************

 

Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau

Office of the Chancellor

200 California Hall #1500

Berkeley, CA 94720-1500

 

Dear Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau,

 

I am writing to inform you that I am one of the many people worldwide

who

believes that the tenure process for Professor Ignacio Chapela of the

Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM) has

been

shocking.

 

After three years and much international attention, Chancellor Berdahl

denied tenure despite the near-unanimous support from the reviewers

within

and beyond ESPM, including his department chair and the dean of the

College

of Natural Resources.

 

Additionally there was an obvious conflict of interest with Professor

Jasper

Rine who served on the budget committee reviewing Ignacio Chapela's

case.

 

This issue may represent the suppression of academic freedom and the

undermining of the University of California's credibility. In

addition, it

seems to show a failure of the tenure review process.

 

Chancellor Birgeneau, I request that you take immediate steps to extend

Professor Ignacio Chapela's employment and grant his full tenure.

 

Further, I request that an impartial, third party body examine the

conflicts

of interest that took place during the tenure review process; how those

conflicts of interest helped form the outcome; why the budget committee

overturned a unanimous vote by their own ad hoc committee of experts;

and

why Chancellor Berdahl recommended against tenure despite overwhelming

support not only from Dr. Chapela's department, but from anonymous

external

reviewers and the greater academic community.

 

I am sending a similar e-mail to members of the State Legislature and

the

President of the University of California as well. Again, I implore

you to

contact Chancellor Birgeneau and express your concern over this matter.

I

appreciate you taking the time to look into this.

 

Sincerely,

 

Your name here

Your address here

 

***************************************************************

 

Ousted Professor Holds Final Class

 

By Richard Brenneman

 

Berkeley Daily Planet

Friday, December 10, 2004

 

It began inside a classroom, where a world-renowned professor was

holding

his last session with students, barring a decision from UC Berkeley's

new

chancellor.

 

Then it moved outside as ever-growing numbers of students, academics

and

journalists marshaled for a march on California Hall.

 

It climaxed in a chant outside California Hall, a cascading chorus of

protest aimed at Chancellor Robert Birgeneau: " Justice Now! Justice

Now!

Justice Now! Justice Now! "

 

For Ignacio Chapela, a member of the Cal's department of Environmental

Science, Policy and Management faculty since 1995, the day marked the

end of

the latest chapter of his battles for academic freedom and his

challenges to

an increasingly corporatized academic culture.

 

An overflowing crowd of students, faculty, and supporters crammed into

his

last class. As the 8:30 a.m. class drew to a close, Chapella thanked

the

crowd and vowed to " keep raising hell. " After a standing ovation, the

group

led a march to the chancellor's office in California Hall. There they

protested Chapella's dismissal and called on the university to grant

him

tenure.

 

Chapela's once-promising career at Berkeley foundered on two critical

issues.

 

When Swiss biotech giant Novartis (now renamed Syngenta) struck a

five-year

$25 million deal with the College of Natural Resources' Department of

Plant

and Microbial Biology, Chapela was quick to criticize, citing the

obvious

potential of conflicts of interest and corporate control of research.

 

His frankness did nothing to endear him to college Dean Gordon Rausser,

one

of the architects of the agreement.

 

But the crowning blow followed from a discovery made by Chapela and one

of

his graduate students, David Quist, one of the founders of Students for

Responsible Research.

 

A native of Mexico, Chapela has remained deeply involved with his

homeland,

conducting research and helping indigenous people work toward economic

self-sufficiency.

 

Quist and Chapela discovered strands of genetically modified DNA in the

genome of native strands of corn cultivated in the heart of the region

where

maize was first domesticated.

 

Chapela and Quist submitted their findings to Nature, the British

scientific

journal which remains the world's preeminent scientific publication.

Their

publication in November 2001 ignited a firestorm.

 

Their discovery wasn't the first instance of artificial genetic

intrusion.

Reports have surfaced of strands of DNA conferring resistance to the

pesticide Roundup finding their way into the weeds the herbicide was

designed to kill.

 

But the Chapela/Quist discovery was especially troubling to the

agribusiness

giants whose patented strains of genetically modified organisms (GMOs)

are

being spread throughout the world and generating huge profits.

 

The implicit threat their research raised was of homogenized crops, of

a

reduction of genetic diversity that could render crops far more

vulnerable

because diverse varieties with a wide range of resistances would vanish

into

a giant genomic blender.

 

The attack was instant and fierce. A British web site posted scathing

critiques from non-existent scientists who turned out to be creations

of a

corporate advertising and Nature received letters, one from a UC

Berkeley

colleague of Chapela, who questioned the scientists' methodology.

 

In the end, Nature published a partial retraction-the first in the

publication's history-that advised readers to make their own

interpretations

of the findings.

 

Other research has since verified their findings, buy the damage was

already

done.

 

Chapela was already up for tenure when the Nature furor erupted, but

the

flap didn't prevent department members from voting 32 to 1 in favor of

tenure, followed by tenure recommendations from both his department

chair

and the dean of the College of Natural Resources.

 

On Oct. 3, a five-member Campus Ad Hoc Committee voted unanimously in

favor

of tenure.

 

The first blow came on June 5, 2003, when the university's budget

committee

made a preliminary vote against tenure.

 

Then, on Nov. 12, the vice provost asked the ad hoc panel chair to

reevaluate tenure in light of new critical letter, prompting the

resignation

of the chair.

 

After another negative vote from the budget committee, Chancellor

Robert

Berdahl denied tenure on Nov. 20, 2003, despite repeated tenure

recommendations from the chair and dean.

 

Chapela's supporters are hoping for a more receptive hearing from new

Chancellor Birgeneau, an academic with a history of involvement in the

civil

rights movement of the 1960s.

 

Professors, journalists and supporters joined the regular student

contingent

for Thursday's final class, an undergraduate course in environmental

biology. They filled the seats, lined the walls and sat on the floor.

 

The discussion was wide ranging- " part of the class is to show how

environmental biology is connected to everything else " -and he invited

all

those in attendance, students and others, to comment on a current event

and

show its connection to environmental biology.

 

One student raised the issue of Proposition 71 as corporate welfare,

the

voter-approved $3 billion in funding for stem cell research, embodied

in the

California Institute for Regenerative medicine.

 

" It's the bailout of an industry that was in pretty bad shape, " said

Chapela. " It's exempt from public scrutiny. The Legislature can scream

and

scream, but they really can't do much. "

 

Another student cited the Bush administration's decision to undo

protections

for salmon spawning runs and to include hatchery populations in the

census

of wild salmon.

 

Other issues raised included the implications of Bush administration

research bunker-busting nuclear weapons and UC's long-standing in

nuclear

weaponry and the planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain,

Nevada.

 

During the class volunteers passed out cut sections of ribbons, red and

earthy green, and audience members tied them to their forearms,

reminiscent

of two forms of protein on which so much of life depends, hemoglobin

and

chlorophyll.

 

As class drew down to the end, Chapela declared, " I will keep raising

hell

in different forms. "

 

After a standing ovation, one after another, professors rose to pay

tribute

to their colleague.

 

" Today is also my last class, " Professor Andrew Gutierrez told the

crowd.

Unlike Chapela, Gutierrez is retiring.

 

" I have come to the conclusion that Aristotle could not have made

tenure

here, " he said. " Honesty is not something that's appreciated at this

campus.

The Mario Savio Steps and the Free Speech Cafe are two monuments to

hypocrisy. "

 

Miguel Altieri, a professor of insect biology, urged the audience of

" the

need to remember that this is a public university. We cannot allow this

hypocrisy. "

 

Two weeks ago, Altieri said, he had written the new chancellor, " saying

this

was your chance. I didn't even get a reply. The university does not

belong

to the university or to the corporations. It belongs to us. "

 

Jennifer Miller, an assistant professor in the English Department, said

that

the last time she was in Chapela's classroom she'd been lecturing on

oppression.

 

" We are very, very lucky to have had Ignacio as a teacher, " she said.

 

Miller recalled a time when she and Chapela had been serving on a

committee

and Chancellor Berdahl had asked them what might cause them to leave

the

university.

 

" He said, 'Is there something so wrong that it would cause you to

leave?'

 

" Ignacio and I replied, 'If there was something so wrong, the last

thing we

would do is leave. We would stay and fight. "

 

Then everyone filed outside and began the march on California Hall.

 

After a pair of chants calling for tenure, the audience listened as

speakers

addressed them through an amplified bullhorn.

 

First up was Dan Siegel, Chapela's attorney in his fight for tenure and

a

veteran of the '60s protest movement.

 

" The last time I came to California Hall, I was sitting in, " he said.

" I was

arrested for protesting the actions of another chancellor. "

 

Birgeneau, he said, " is caught in the conflict between doing the right

thing

and doing the expedient thing. As time goes on, we may need to escalate

our

tactics, but we will succeed. "

 

Siegel pointed to another colleague of Chapela's who had run afoul of

corporate power, " Professor Tyrone Hayes of the Department of

Integrative

Biology, whose research discovered the unintended consequences of

corporate

intervention into biology. "

 

Hayes discovered the effects of the pesticide Atrazine on frogs, which

developed severe malformations when exposed to the toxins.

 

Hayes then stepped forward. " If we lose Ignacio, diversity in the

biological

sciences will decrease by 50 percent. Isn't it a coincidence that

Ignacio

and I have wound up on the wrong side of the same corporation that was

funding research here at the university? "

 

Hayes said he had consulted for Novartis and his work had been

published in

Nature and by the National Academy of Sciences. " I was lucky I had

tenure;

the vice chancellor wrote a letter saying I shouldn't be doing any work

here

on campus.

 

" This is bigger than frogs or corn. "

 

David Quist, Chapela's collaborator on the transgenic corn research,

said

Chapela's tenure case should've been open and shut. " Then we get to the

top

levels of the administration and they show him the door. "

 

Carolyn Merchant, professor of environmental history, philosophy, and

ethics, said the denial of tenure is " unethical and unprecedented. I

would

urge the chancellor to look at the process and grant tenure, Right

here.

Today. Now. "

 

" Something is rotten, not in Denmark, but here in Berkeley, " said

Ethnic

Studies Professor Carlos Munoz. " This case send a clear message that

faculty

who challenge the dominant paradigm are not welcome, especially if they

don't accept corporate funding. "

 

Barbara Epstein, professor of history at UC Santa Cruz, blasted the

tenure

denial. " The university is egregiously violating its own rules. I hope

this

struggle continues. "

 

Joe Nielands, emeritus professor of biochemistry, came to UC Berkeley

in

1952. In a firm, clear voice, he decried " the privatization and the

corporatization of the university, " harkening back to the days when the

school's funding came primarily from Sacramento.

 

" The Budget Committee knows the chancellor wants to get his hands on

that

corporate loot. . . Chapela is exactly the kind of person we need

around

here. He has wisdom, and above all he has courage and integrity. "

 

After more praise from John Garcia, instructor at the University of San

Francisco, it was finally Chapela's turn.

 

It wasn't his first time outside California Hall. After his denial of

tenure, Chapela had brought a desk and held " office hours " outside

administration headquarters in protest of the decision.

 

Chapela said the idea of the march first came up Saturday, and when the

word

got out, e-mails and phone calls poured in from around the world.

 

" You are standing here for many others, " he told the crowd.

 

" At exactly the moment this was scheduled, the university scheduled

another

media event, " a press tour at the university Richmond Field Station,

where

the university is planning a major corporate/university research park

adjacent to Campus Bay.

 

" Now we are all students and teachers together, and I hope you will get

the

word out. "

 

And then came the last chant, " We Want Justice! " repeated over and over

again.

 

While Birgeneau refused to meet with the protesters, one of his staff

did

agree to accept copies of a letter signed by 145 university professors

and

174 others calling for a review of Chapela's case and extension of his

employment.

 

Calls placed to the Chancellor's office met with no response.

 

 

 

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