William Regelson, MD, responding to Cusanovich's demands that he be brought up on charges
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August 19, 1998
Michael A. Cusanovich Dear VP Cusanovich: Does your arrogance represent the behavior of all the Administrators at your University or are you a sorry exception? How dare you assume that my anguished correspondence to your University officials is worthy of an "Academic Reprimand" from my President or VP for Research here at VCU. I would be happy to examine the documents that you say you have from the Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee which Dr. Likins claims, justifies the firing of a respected tenured faculty member. Please also provide me with the minutes of your previous Ethical Committee, which cleared her of data fabrication. My defense of Dr. Kay is based an what you did to her! Two years of persecution, which appears to have developed because she accused you of ethical and financial malfeasance that led you to seek to destroy her. Reading the account in the Chronicle it is obvious that what was done to Dr. Kay was highly questionable. From my review of her Vitamin E published data re: Band 3 the results am significant despite problems with technicians that may have selected data. If you want to hair-split, Dr. Kay was not guilty but culpable, and the integrity of her data and work remains intact. Unless you can show us deliberate falsification of dam that makes all her work meaningless we must continue to defend her! Now many scientists with knowledge of gerontology or glycoproteins were involved in your hearings? None! In your review of her "guilt" was there any reference to the integrity of die $4.6 million she raised from NIH in the eight years of her faculty participation? Does your University still claim a royalty interest in her patents, or is all that the result of Dr, Kay's prevarication that you must denounce? Please tell us what does blood drawing have to do with scientific integrity? Dr. Cusanovich, you have denied this woman DUE PROCESS, avoided an outside review of her work, and not removed yourself from a persecutorial role when you had an obvious serious dislike of her because she openly complained about YOU to your legislature. You need psychiatric counseling if you think that your letters to my University officials will have any effect on my attitude toward you? Instead, your letter to them reinforces my conclusion that them are serious problems at the University of Arizona because of your egocentric behavior. Do you think I care as to how my university administrators Dr.'s Trani or Dewey will respond to your letter? Maybe at the University of Arizona, faculty trembles at the sound of your voice, but here I am not afraid of my Administration who I am pleased to say have respect for DUE PROCESS. (A copy of out recent Ethical Guidelines was sent by me to help your misguided President). I cannot cease to refrain from commenting on your behavior anymore than I would refrain from responding to the misbehavior of our President Clinton, and you were not even elected! MT. Cusanovich, is it true that you have presided over a cost to your University of $10 million in lawsuits? How do you survive having just encouraged another lawsuit from Dr. Kay, who would have been happy to leave your sorry University if you hadn't pilloried her with phony accusations. Please keep your defensive letters coming. The more visibility this gets the better for out scientific society, which can more readily review the issue to establish the truth. Again, as I told Dr. Likins, we in Aging Research have to know the truth. You and your colleagues have either borne False Witness or Band 3, as a proven biomarker will induce the personal senescence that I think you deserve. To be academically fair please tell us the nature of Dr. Kay's disdain for you in your own words or send me more letters like the one you sent to my administration. (It explains it all!) Sincerely yours,
William Regelson, MD Copies to:
VCU
University of Arizona |
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