EXTRA: Will MD Anderson Stand Up To OMB?
By
Leonard Zwelling
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aej3572
In the June 18 issue of Science, Editor-in-Chief H. Holden Thorp outlines the current threat to American science posed by the new rules proposed by the Office of Management and Budget that will largely negate the peer-review system and allow the executive branch to politicize the allocation of Congressionally authorized grant funding. The comment period on this proposal is open until July 13 and every academic institution receiving peer-reviewed federal funding ought to be vigorously opposing these new rules before the comment period closes.
I have only one question. Will the academic leadership of MD Anderson, Drs. Pisters. Koong, and Hagberg, rise to the occasion and comment in favor of the current merit-based, peer-review system and against the new OMB proposal or will they recede into the shadows for fear of angering Trump and his Luddite henchmen and not comment at all? And will any of us be aware of what MD Anderson does? Or worse, will MD Anderson take direction from UT, the Board of Regents, and the Governor and surely not oppose the Trump Administration?
If MD Anderson or its overseers in Austin do not oppose these new rules then they should have no qualms when the grant money spigot dries up in favor of research that is MAGA-correct, even if not scientifically so.
It is essential that the University of Texas weigh in against these new proposals as every academic institution in the country should. Whatever decision UT makes ought to be widely known to everyone. Let’s find out what UT believes in—science or hogwash?
In essence, will politics override quality science at UT?
