UC Tobacco Researchers Protest Proposal To Reorganize Programs

The state Tobacco Education and Research Oversight Committee will convene a special meeting today to discuss a UC proposal to consolidate administrative functions for research programs that address tobacco, breast cancer, HIV/AIDS and other issues, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

The meeting was prompted by complaints from three tobacco researchers who in May sent an anonymous e-mail to a university list serve drawing attention to the reorganization proposal. The researchers, as well as a program assistant, have since been placed on indefinite unpaid leave.

Steven Beckwith -- UC vice president of research and graduate studies, who oversees the program -- said that peer review and oversight of the grants could be consolidated to reduce administrative expenses. He said all savings would be passed on to research programs.

Beckwith said that the reorganization plan is in the early stages and that nothing has been finalized.

However, one of the three researchers maintains that plans are farther along than Beckwith says.

Beckwith declined to comment on the researchers' leave situation (Schevitz, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/18).