Faculty To Report All Financial Interests

Faculty members will have one month to disclose their significant financial interests to the University, under the proposed implementation plan of university conflict of interest policies presented for the first time at yesterday’s Faculty Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

The presentation of the FAS’ new conflict of interest procedures concluded a sparsely attended, but brisk, meeting in which faculty unanimously passed motions to adjust the calendar of faculty meetings and create a standing committee to appoint degree candidates for a new Ph.D in Education.

REPORTING FINANCIAL INTERESTS

The FAS, in addition to all of Harvard’s professional schools, was first charged with crafting a conflict of interest implementation plan in May 2010, when conflict of interest policies were revised to standardize disclosure practices across the University.

The University is also responsible for complying with regulations imposed by the U.S. Public Health Service on institutions that receive grants from the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control, among others.

Alexander F. Schier, chair of the FAS Committee on Research Policy and a professor in molecular and cellular biology, presented the plan that the committee has devised for FAS.

Faculty members are no longer responsible for determining their own conflicts of interest. Instead, they must disclose “outside financial interests that relate to their institutional responsibilities” using a new online reporting tool.

The tool has already been used successfully by faculty at the School of Public Health and the Divinity School.

A financial conflict of interest arises when a faculty member’s University work is “inappropriately influenced by a secondary financial interest.”

Significant financial interests include compensation exceeding $5,000 from consulting or fiduciary relationships and equity interests. Previously, faculty only had to report interests above $10,000.

Faculty members must also disclose potential financial interests of their spouses or children. Disclosures will be evaluated by a “Designated Institutional Official” at each school.

The presentation emphasized that any data submitted will be kept in full confidence and used only for conflict of interest issues.

The plan to implement the policy is still a work in progress, and some faculty members requested clarifications and made recommendations.

Theodore C. Bestor, chair of the Anthropology department, suggested that the wording of the reporting tool should make clear that fiduciary responsibilities are related to personal scholarship.

Under current deadlines, FAS Dean Michael D. Smith and divisional deans will announce the new reporting tool on May 1, at which point faculty will have 30 days to disclose their financial interests.

LIBRARY TROUBLE

During the question period that begins every Faculty Meeting, faculty raised concerns about transparency in the library restructuring process and the manner in which library employees have been treated.

Citing colleagues in the Loeb Music Library who have been asked to submit employee profiles for potential job shifts, Anne C. Shreffler, acting chair of the music department, questioned what she said she felt was a lack of faculty engagement in such decisions.

“How, when, and in what form will the faculty be consulted about these far-reaching changes which will have such great impact on our research and teaching?” she asked.

University Provost Alan Garber admitted that faculty engagement early in the process was less than ideal.

“We have not, to be quite candid, effectively engaged the Faculty Advisory Board, but we’ve tried to change that,” he said. “Over the past three months, we have had 155 meetings with faculty and staff about the library transition. Some of those meetings have been only staff, and some have been only faculty. Not everybody has participated, but there has been a very extensive effort to engage the community.”

Ali Asani, chair of the department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, noted Harvard’s treatment of employees.

“How can we be compassionate and humane as we’re dealing with members of our community?” he asked University President Drew G. Faust.

Faust acknowledged the need for compassion.

“Part of that is offering to staff who have worked here for a long time and are eligible for a voluntary early retirement program the ability to choose that,” she said.

EDUCATING EDUCATORS

Faculty present also voted unanimously to approve a new Ph.D program in Education, to be offered jointly by the Graduate School of Education and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Interim Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Richard J. Tarrant addressed concerns about how the new program would affect the demand for library resources.

According to Tarrant, representatives from both Widener Library and Gutman Library concluded that the new program would not significantly change the demand for library resources by GSE faculty and staff.

“Should there be need for additional library resources, the Graduate School of Education is prepared to support those costs,” Tarrant said.

—Staff writer Radhika Jain can be reached at radhikajain@college.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Kevin J. Wu can be reached at kwu@college.harvard.edu.