Article Tags: ClimateGate
Editor’s Note: Students and community members will hold a Rally for Academic Integrity this Friday to demand a fair and full investigation of Climategate scientist and Penn State professor Michael Mann. Read the story below.
I am a sophomore at Penn State. Climategate is an embarrassment to my school, and to every student of Penn State. The university’s so-called “internal inquiry” into Michael Mann’s scientific misconduct concluded with the virtual exoneration of his behavior, and ignored key evidence in the Climategate scandal. In short, inquiry was little more than a whitewash—an assault on academic integrity.
The university’s internal review consisted of a mere three Penn State employees, who have strong incentives to protect the school’s reputation and the millions of dollars it receives from global warming research grants. There was no external oversight. The inquiry was set up in such a way that there was a conflict of interest. This is bad not just for science (which thrives on impartiality), but also for our university: even if the inquiry was thorough, Penn State’s reputation would still be stained simply by refusing to allow an outside investigation.
What’s worse, the review consisted of looking at a mere 47 emails (out of thousands in question), interviewing Mann, analyzing materials he submitted, and asking only two biased sources about his credibility. Penn State hardly conducted a “thorough investigation” of alleged wrongdoing by Mann.
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Source: psu.campusreform.org