Briefed about a potentially widening fertility clinic scandal at UC Irvine, the UC Regents began to wonder aloud in November about the appropriateness of continuing to pay the UC faculty accused of wrongdoing at the clinic.
UCI Chancellor Laurel Wilkening gave a full report on the scandal to the Regents and included in her remarks information, gained only last month, on a list of an additional 210 patients, some of whom, UCI believes, may be at risk of having been parties to transfer of embryos without their consent. It is not clear how many, if any, of these patients may have been victimized in this way, but UCI is making a concerted effort to contact each of them. The list of additional patients had, since early October, been in the possession of an Orange County attorney UCI hired in connection with the case. The attorney realized only in November, however, that he was in possession of documents containing the names, at which time he acknowledged his mistake.
Beleaguered for months now by an issue whose moral and financial dimensions are enormous, Wilkening received no criticism from the Board for her handling of the case. Indeed, President Atkinson said that "My judgment is that Chancellor Wilkening has exhibited integrity, tenacity and outstanding leadership in guiding the campus through this difficult set of problems."
Some Regents did, however, begin to ask critical questions about one part of the controversy: is it appropriate that the three faculty accused of misconduct in the scandal continue to receive UCI paychecks? Ricardo Asch and Sergio Stone, both UCI professors of obstetrics and gynecology, have been relieved of UCI responsibilities, as has UCI professor in-residence Jose Balmaceda, and Asch and Balmaceda are thought not even to be in the United States. Yet all three faculty remain on the UCI payroll. Balmaceda has received the one-year's notice of termination required for in-residence faculty, but, as tenured faculty, Asch and Stone have considerably more procedural rights.
Authority to dismiss tenured faculty members rests with the UC Regents, who act on recommendation of the President, following consultation with the chancellor. The chancellor must in turn, however, "consult with the appropriate advisory committee(s)" of the Academic Senate prior to making a recommendation. Late this summer, Wilkening transmitted charges against Asch and Stone to the UCI Senate's Privilege and Tenure Committee. The committee's deliberations are confidential, however, and, as such, the public has no idea where the matter stands. The issue thus would seem to pit the rights of due process for tenured faculty against the interests of taxpayers and public employers.
Regent Howard Leach asked at the meeting whether it would be possible to pay the professors' salaries into an interest-bearing escrow account pending outcome of the University's deliberations. Meanwhile, the San Francisco Chronicle editorialized on the subject on November 20 in an article entitled "UC Irvine Scandal Demands Tenure Reform."
It is notable that these issues have been raised only two months after the UCI administration moved to dismiss Asch and Stone, since, if history is any guide, a long road may lie ahead. In September 1988, the UC Santa Barbara Privilege and Tenure Committee received charges against UCSB history professor (and former chancellor) Robert Huttenback, alleging that he violated the faculty code of conduct in connection with his felony convictions for embezzlement and tax fraud. Eight months elapsed between the date the UCSB P&T committee received those charges and the date it convened a hearing on them.
Defenders of UC's Privilege and Tenure procedures note that P&T hearings involve formal presentation of evidence from attorneys representing both the University and the faculty against whom charges have been brought. Justice is always slow, this argument goes, and UC P&T hearings are not exceptions to this rule. Nevertheless, the University has been looking into ways to speed up such procedures. A seven-member Senate-administration Disciplinary Procedures Taskforce, chaired by former Academic Council Chair Daniel Simmons, has just submitted a report to President Atkinson. Among the issues the report deals with is that of expediting hearings that involve allegations of serious misconduct.