I was privileged to meet Dr. Chapela during my stay in the Bay area last
October for the meeting of the Sierra Club national Genetic Engineering Committee
(GEC).

This was forwarded to me by GEC corresponding member Paul Goettlich.

Tom Mathews
Voting Member,
Sierra Club Genetic Engineering Committee

Subj:    Ignacio Chapela
Date:   03-06-26 11:37:44 EDT
From:   [log in to unmask] (Paul Goettlich)
To: [log in to unmask]

Berkeley, California, 26 June 2003

I

We asked the captain what course
of action he proposed to take toward
a beast so large, terrifying, and
unpredictable.  He hesitated to
answer, and then said judiciously:
"I think I shall praise it."


        Robert Hass

Dear friends, dear colleagues,

Beginning at 6 o'clock this morning, as I  enter the final days of my
contract as a faculty member at the University of California at Berkeley, I intend to
mark and celebrate them, by doing what I believe a professor in a public
university must do: to further reason and understanding.  For the brief time that
remains of my terminal contract at Berkeley, I shall sit holding office hours,
day and night, outside the doors of California Hall.  This is the building
housing the Budget Committee of the Academic Senate, and the office of the
Chancellor, the two arms of our university governance in charge of my file.

I am saddened by the failure of the administration and the Academic Senate to
resolve in a timely fashion whether to grant me tenure at Berkeley.  I
believe that I have contributed to the mission of the university and my heart and
intellect are also vested in its health and growth.  All but one of the
colleagues who witness my everyday teaching and research in the Department of
Environmental Science, Policy and Management have repeatedly stated their support for
my tenure, and so have a set of external expert reviewers and the leadership
of my College.  To the extent that reason can assess, I do not know of any
other academic information on the case that might suggest that a negative decision
should be reached.  Yet as of tonight, well over a year into the part of the
process conducted in secret in California Hall, no decision has  been made, as
far as I am aware.  I must therefore conclude that there is another set of
criteria that counterweigh the strength of the case, but that such information
cannot be publically shared.   In the face of such lack of transparency and
accountability, I choose to hold office hours in public, in the open, and in the
midst of our beautiful campus.  I do so in celebration of my vocation and my
time at Berkeley, and not in the expectation that such an action will change
the course of the decision process, whatever that might be.


It has been suggested that the extraordinary delay in reaching a decision on
my tenure case without ostensible reason may be the result of, even
retribution for, my advising our campus, academe, the government and the public against
dangerous liaisons with the biotechnology industry, as well as my concerns
regarding the  problems with biotechnology itself.  Without doubt, the
uncertainty and reproach implicit in the silence on campus surrounding my case has had
grave consequences for my professional, public and personal life.  But such are
the wages of doing work that has significance for the world, and it will be
up to those sifting through the files of this case to discern the twists and
turns that brought us to this moment, and to pass the judgment of history on the
motives and actions of those involved, within and beyond our community.  It
is difficult to blame otherwise principled individuals for not voicing their
best understanding.  Fear is justified when even the president of the country
equates with criminal acts any questioning of the wisdom of deploying transgenic
crops.  Against the desire of some to banish critical thinking from the
birthplace of the Free Speech Movement, I choose to sit, openly available for
discourse, in the heart of our campus.


At least one person has said that I should be banned from the academic
system, implying that my work harms the public role of the university as a  hothouse
for the agbiotech industry. Indeed I have long stood against the folly of
planting 100 million acres with transgenic crops each year, without knowing even
the simplest consequences of such a massive intervention in the biosphere.  An
increasing number of scientists seem to be reaching the same position.  It
seems also true that research in my laboratory has prompted serious public
concerns that the industry would rather not address.  An industry on the crutches
of public subsidy for a quarter of a century, an industry that trembles in the
face of the simplest token of precautionary research, is hardly an industry
that deserves to carry the public trust, much less  our best hope for recovery
in a flagging economy.  It would seem rational that our university - and the
public - should strive to  keep an independent source of advice on the wisdom of
supporting such an industry.  Rationality, however, must take a back seat
when the university becomes grafted to a specific industry. Such has increasingly
been the case at Berkeley and at other universities.

At a time of rampant obscurantism and irrationality, I am proud of the
privilege vested in me by the public as a professor at Berkeley.  In fulfillment of
the duty attached to that privilege, I intend to share the light of
rationality during office hours over the next five days, together with those who might
wish to join me.

Fiat lux.

Ignacio H. Chapela
Assistant Professor (Microbial Ecology)
Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management



Logistical details and contacts:

I will sit in an "office" without walls.  This means that I will most likely
not have direct access to an AC electric wall outlet.  Nevertheless, I will
have a battery-operated cell phone (USA-510-207 7331). My cell phone will need
to be recharged occasionally; if you do not get an answer, please leave a
message and I will call back.

My email address is [log in to unmask] In case of server
breakdown, please use [log in to unmask] - email responses may be delayed for some
hours.

I will foreseeably be in my "office" 24 hours a day (except for short
unavoidable breaks) from Thursday to Monday midnight,  circumstances allowing.  Three
chairs will accommodate myself and two others in this transparent office.
Bring your own portable chair if you need to.  I hope to be able to offer tea and
biscuits, but that is not a promise.  These last days have been on the hot
side, but with any luck the natural "breathing cycle" of the Bay Area will bring
fog relief for at least some of the mornings between Thursday and Monday.  At
meal times, I will have space for company, although the seating may be less
than royal, and the menus are still being planned.

Despite President Bush's emphatic demands this week, the House has yet to
pass the BioShield legislation, and there may be further delays in the Senate.
Nevertheless,  I am making efforts to comply with the current spirit on our
campus and across the nation by surrounding my office with protective, gray, duct
tape, for added security.  Visitors from Toronto and elsewhere in the world,
please note that I will also have protective face masks and rubber gloves at
hand.

After midnight on Monday, I will be travelling to the Gen-ecology laboratory
in Norway until 22 July.  I will be underway for a week, subsequently
available via my alternate email account: [log in to unmask]

Please feel free to forward this email as you see fit.  I hereby decline all
copyright.

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