Argus reports "SDSU's cozy deal questioned"

[Nidaros]

Re: Argus reports "SDSU's cozy deal questioned"

Possibly, there will be another article on this situation in Sunday's Argus. I found this among the Saturday updates:

http://www.argusleader.com/article/2...DATES/90620004

[filbert]

Re: Argus reports "SDSU's cozy deal questioned"

Relevant to the discussion:

In The Governance and Performance of Research Universities: Evidence from Europe and the U.S. (NBER Working Paper No. 14851), authors Philippe Aghion, Mathias Dewatripont, Caroline M. Hoxby, Andreu Mas-Colell, and André Sapir construct an index of research productivity that is based on the Shanghai Ranking of World Universities, which includes measures of patents, the number of alumni who have won Nobel Prizes in science, publications appearing in citation indices, or numbers of highly cited researchers. Combining the Shanghai Ranking -- which awards 500 points to the best university -- with the results from a survey of governance policies at 196 European universities, the authors find that “the average Shanghai ranking for a European university that must get its budget approved by the government is just above 200 while the average ranking for a European university that does not need budget approval is 316. In general, each percentage of a university’s budget that comes from core government funds reduces its rank by 3.2 points.”
. . .
The NBER researchers find that in Sweden and the United Kingdom universities with high autonomy have high Shanghai ranking scores, while in Spain and the United Kingdom universities with low autonomy have low rankings. The results for state universities in the United States are similar.

An argument against tight government control over university policies . . .

[JACKGUYII]

Re: Argus reports "SDSU's cozy deal questioned"

I dont want to play moderator, but my memory tells me Frank signed up to this board some time back. Whether he comes here to lurk, I have no idea. Might be a good idea to be a little careful about what you might post.

Having been a tax preparer the last few years, and considering President's Chicoine publishhed circumstances, ie salary range, it might work to his advantage taxwise and PR wise to donate the Director fees from Montsano to the SDSU foundation for research other that which would be in Montesano's interest. Maybe its already in the President's plans, but I think it would be a good reverse play on Frank and the Argus if nothing else.

I can tell you I will not be careful about what I post about Frank and could care less if he reads this board or if my comments upset him. He brings all this on himself!

[Cowbell]

Re: Argus reports "SDSU's cozy deal questioned"

The problem I have with Frank K. is that he introduces legislation about things he doesn't have a clue about. Thus, he comes across as foolish.

In normal conditions, longtime legislators hold positions of leadership, thus power. Well, Frank K. holds nothing. Why? Because his colleagues know he is a loose cannon, not very smart and has little common sense. If you don't believe me, go to Pierre during the legislative session and discover for yourself that he is a circus act.

He loves the attention he's gets whenever the press pays attention to his antics. He's like the little boy who pisses out in the open and jubilantly exclaims, "Hey everybody, look what I did!"

[Hammersmith]

Re: Argus reports "SDSU's cozy deal questioned"

The problem I have with Frank K. is that he introduces legislation about things he doesn't have a clue about. Thus, he comes across as foolish.

In normal conditions, longtime legislators hold positions of leadership, thus power. Well, Frank K. holds nothing. Why? Because his colleagues know he is a loose cannon, not very smart and has little common sense. If you don't believe me, go to Pierre during the legislative session and discover for yourself that he is a circus act.

He loves the attention he's gets whenever the press pays attention to his antics. He's like the little boy who pisses out in the open and jubilantly exclaims, "Hey everybody, look what I did!"

So you're saying he's lakesbison?

[Nidaros]

Re: Argus reports "SDSU's cozy deal questioned"

So you're saying he's lakesbison?

You got it. Our lakesbison might have a little bit more polish, but not much.

[JACKGUYII]

Re: Argus reports "SDSU's cozy deal questioned"

I have mixed feelings on this whole topic, but I think if this keeps getting so much attention and scrutiny Chicoine may just say the hell with it and walk from SDSU and pursue other interests and we will be less the institution because of it. Maybe this man is simply lobbying to be President at his alma mater? http://www.gwtc.net/~fkloucek/

[JimmyJack]

Re: Argus reports "SDSU's cozy deal questioned"

I have mixed feelings on this whole topic, but I think if this keeps getting so much attention and scrutiny Chicoine may just say the hell with it and walk from SDSU and pursue other interests and we will be less the institution because of it. Maybe this man is simply lobbying to be President at his alma mater? http://www.gwtc.net/~fkloucek/

Nah. Frank's a little goofy, but he's a good retail politician. He's gotten himself elected over and over in his district by really paying attention to his constituents. One of the reasons some of the other Legislators dislike him is that he's not part of the legislator/lobbyist club, and I guess I kind of like that about him. But as a result Frank probably doesn't really have much of a constituency among his fellow legislators. So I wouldn't waste too much energy worrying about this silly bill (a bill that doesn't exist now in a legislative session that won't begin until January 2010.)

And of course he's just plain wrong on this one. South Dakotans have this bizarre tendency to reject those among us who are successful. I've never understood it. Frank has fallen into that trap in this instance. It's lowest common denominator stuff to be resentful about somebody else's success. I wish we could get past that as a state.

President Chicoine was hired by Monsanto because of his expertise. It's no small thing to get a Ph.D. and then create a distinguished record of scholarship and consulting as the President has. I wish my Ph.D. was worth something to Monsanto (or, really, to anybody else). And I certainly don't begrudge President Chicoine his success. South Dakotans should be proud that the expertise of SDSU's president is recognized.

Importantly, there is absolutely no evidence that this Monsanto obligation has negatively impacted President Chicoine's work for SDSU in any way. In fact, one only need visit campus and open your eyes. You'll see lots of evidence that all his hard work is paying enormous dividends.

[JackJD]

Re: Argus reports "SDSU's cozy deal questioned"

I thought I'd take a few minutes checking out some large corporations and seeing how many (not whether) university presidents, deans and professors serve on the boards. I decided to pick the following entities: IBM (technology); Caterpillar Tractor Co. (heavy-equipment including large construction and farm equipment manufacturer); Eli Lily & Co. (pharmaceuticals); Pfizer (pharmaceuticals with subdivisions involved in agriculture including hybrid seeds and farm chemicals); Clarian Health Partners (large-scale health-care organization); Dupont (diverse manufacturing and chemical company with divisions producing hybrid sees and farm chemicals); and General Mills (processed foods etc.). I picked the forgoing because of an interest I have/had (e.g. stock ownership) or contacts I have had with each of the companies. Every one had someone from academia on their board of directors. Take a look, for example, at Eli Lily & Co. and see the academic backgrounds of some of the directors -- more of a potential for conflicts than our Pres. Chicoine and Monsanto.

IBM: Shirley Ann Jackson, President, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Caterpillar Tractor Co.: John R. Brazil, President, Trinity University (TX)

Eli Lily & Co: Martin S. Feldstein, Economics Professor, Harvard University; Alfred G. Gilman, MD, PhD, Exec Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, U of Texas Southestern Medical Center at Dallas, and Dean, Southwestern Medical School, Regental Professor of Pharmacology and Director of the Cecil and Ida Green Center for Molecular, Computational, and Systems Biology, U of Texas Southwestern Medical Center; Franklyn G. Prendergast, M.D., Ph.D. , Edmond and Marion Guggenheim Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Professor of Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Mayo Medical School, Director, Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine, Director Emeritus, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center

Clarian Health Partners (large Indianapolis-based health care provider): Michael McRobbie, President, Indiana University.

Dupont (Pioneer Hi-Breds is a Dupont Company): Robert A. Brown, President, Brown University

Pfizer (owns DeKalb, taking over Wyeth Pharmaceuticals): Dennis A. Ausiello, MD, The Jackson Professor of Clinical Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Chief of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital; Michael S. Brown, MD, Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Sciences since 1989 and Regental Professor since 1985 at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas

General Mills: Paul Danos, Dean, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College; Raymond Gilmartin, Professor of Management Practice, Harvard Business School; Judith Richards Hope, Distinguished Visitor, Georgetown University Law Center; A. Michael Spence, Professor Emeritus and former Dean, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University.

Each time I checked a corporation, I found board members from academia. Usually the board members were from what most would consider to be nationally-known universities. The two large Pharma companies, Eli Lily and Pfizer, have academics on their boards who clearly have expertise in their core areas: research and production of drugs.


Sen Kloucek is just getting some press attention.

[76Rabbit]

Re: Argus reports "SDSU's cozy deal questioned"

Nice work JD. We're back to the McGovern theory where the folks in SD just can't stand it when one of our own becomes successful but we sure like to whine when we don't get looked at because we are from SD.

[NoVaJack]

Re: Argus reports "SDSU's cozy deal questioned"

I thought I'd take a few minutes checking out some large corporations and seeing how many (not whether) university presidents, deans and professors serve on the boards. I decided to pick the following entities: IBM (technology); Caterpillar Tractor Co. (heavy-equipment including large construction and farm equipment manufacturer); Eli Lily & Co. (pharmaceuticals); Pfizer (pharmaceuticals with subdivisions involved in agriculture including hybrid seeds and farm chemicals); Clarian Health Partners (large-scale health-care organization); Dupont (diverse manufacturing and chemical company with divisions producing hybrid sees and farm chemicals); and General Mills (processed foods etc.). I picked the forgoing because of an interest I have/had (e.g. stock ownership) or contacts I have had with each of the companies. Every one had someone from academia on their board of directors. Take a look, for example, at Eli Lily & Co. and see the academic backgrounds of some of the directors -- more of a potential for conflicts than our Pres. Chicoine and Monsanto.

IBM: Shirley Ann Jackson, President, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Caterpillar Tractor Co.: John R. Brazil, President, Trinity University (TX)

Eli Lily & Co: Martin S. Feldstein, Economics Professor, Harvard University; Alfred G. Gilman, MD, PhD, Exec Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, U of Texas Southestern Medical Center at Dallas, and Dean, Southwestern Medical School, Regental Professor of Pharmacology and Director of the Cecil and Ida Green Center for Molecular, Computational, and Systems Biology, U of Texas Southwestern Medical Center; Franklyn G. Prendergast, M.D., Ph.D. , Edmond and Marion Guggenheim Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Professor of Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Mayo Medical School, Director, Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine, Director Emeritus, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center

Clarian Health Partners (large Indianapolis-based health care provider): Michael McRobbie, President, Indiana University.

Dupont (Pioneer Hi-Breds is a Dupont Company): Robert A. Brown, President, Brown University

Pfizer (owns DeKalb, taking over Wyeth Pharmaceuticals): Dennis A. Ausiello, MD, The Jackson Professor of Clinical Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Chief of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital; Michael S. Brown, MD, Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Sciences since 1989 and Regental Professor since 1985 at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas

General Mills: Paul Danos, Dean, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College; Raymond Gilmartin, Professor of Management Practice, Harvard Business School; Judith Richards Hope, Distinguished Visitor, Georgetown University Law Center; A. Michael Spence, Professor Emeritus and former Dean, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University.

Each time I checked a corporation, I found board members from academia. Usually the board members were from what most would consider to be nationally-known universities. The two large Pharma companies, Eli Lily and Pfizer, have academics on their boards who clearly have expertise in their core areas: research and production of drugs.


Sen Kloucek is just getting some press attention.

Harvard, Stanford, Trinity, Brown, Dartmouth, Georgetown are all private universities. Isn't the Mayo Clinic a private, not-for-profit collective?
As a graduate of State (who casually knew the senator but hasn't seen him in at least 25 years) and later a grad-level fellowship student at Stanford, I can personally attest to the difference. The former is the public university of all the citizens of the state; the latter confines its interest more narrowly to alumni and students. One is overseen by a public, citizen board of regents, the other by a private board of visitors.

The president of another land grant university, Ohio State's Gordon Gee, last month resigned http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...v2WkQD98G1EU80 over from a mining company board after long-standing claims that it conflicted with his university position. Attack the messenger, if you will, but legitimate questions have been raised.

[Nidaros]

Re: Argus reports "SDSU's cozy deal questioned"

There was one thing about the Monsanto deal that did bother me. Who are they and what do they do. I had thought they were involved in pesticides, but wrong company according to their website:
http://www.monsanto.com/default.asp

They are very much an agronomy company. This seems to me to be a perfect fit for a partnership in research.

One thing I do know is that the size of the average farm in South Dakota has increased several fold in the past two or three decades. Bigger machinery more land under cultivation and the corn varieties 10 to 20 years ago can not produce sufficient yields for the average farm operation to break even. New and better varieties are needed and the world hunger problem is long from being solved so research at SDSU is a very legitimate and important role going into the future.

This all makes sense to me for our President to be involved as board of director at Monsanto. I just don't see how Monsanto could manipulate the research conducted in the plant science department at SDSU. If the results are not good, would they want to trick the entire state into buying their plant seed? Does not compute in my book. There is a Thomas Edison story about conducting a number of experiments in one day and none of them worked. Edison's assistant was a bit frustrated, but the great inventor was still very patient and told his assistant that we learned something today. We learned that these things we tried do not work. So I think the research between SDSU and Monsanto will be viewed much the same way as Edison viewed his unsuccessful work.

I know its a South Dakota tradition to be suspicious of multi-national corporations, but this is one time we should not be that way.

Since Frank has a farm operation why is he trying to nibble at the hand that feeds his mouth?

[Nidaros]

Re: Argus reports "SDSU's cozy deal questioned"

Harvard, Stanford, Trinity, Brown, Dartmouth, Georgetown are all private universities. Isn't the Mayo Clinic a private, not-for-profit collective?
As a graduate of State (who casually knew the senator but hasn't seen him in at least 25 years) and later a grad-level fellowship student at Stanford, I can personally attest to the difference. The former is the public university of all the citizens of the state; the latter confines its interest more narrowly to alumni and students. One is overseen by a public, citizen board of regents, the other by a private board of visitors.

The president of another land grant university, Ohio State's Gordon Gee, last month resigned http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...v2WkQD98G1EU80 over from a mining company board after long-standing claims that it conflicted with his university position. Attack the messenger, if you will, but legitimate questions have been raised.

I don't think the institutions cited by JackJD would really matter whether they are public or private. SDSU is hardly a public university anymore. For a long time now, only about 28 per cent of the total budget at SDSU comes from legislative appropriations. The rest of the support comes from other sources much like private institutions. I believe state assisted has been the term for the six SD institutions of higher ed that really represents what was formally a public institution. I guess the word's public and private can apply to other things than budgets. I think in each one that was cited, if we were to look more into the details, each institution had some kind of a partnership with the corporation. The board seat served a purpose for the educational institution. Our situation seems to be completly different from that what occurred at Ohio State. I suspect that President Chicoine would take similar action if this relationship with Monsanto does not work out.

[LakeJack]

Re: Argus reports "SDSU's cozy deal questioned"

Harvard, Stanford, Trinity, Brown, Dartmouth, Georgetown are all private universities. Isn't the Mayo Clinic a private, not-for-profit collective?
As a graduate of State (who casually knew the senator but hasn't seen him in at least 25 years) and later a grad-level fellowship student at Stanford, I can personally attest to the difference. The former is the public university of all the citizens of the state; the latter confines its interest more narrowly to alumni and students. One is overseen by a public, citizen board of regents, the other by a private board of visitors.

The president of another land grant university, Ohio State's Gordon Gee, last month resigned http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...v2WkQD98G1EU80 over from a mining company board after long-standing claims that it conflicted with his university position. Attack the messenger, if you will, but legitimate questions have been raised.

You left off Michael McRobbie, President, Indiana University from JD's example. Also U of Texas Southwestern Medical Center is part of the University of Texas system so Alfred G. Gilman, MD, PhD, Exec Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, U of Texas Southestern Medical Center at Dallas, and Dean, Southwestern Medical School, Regental Professor of Pharmacology and Director of the Cecil and Ida Green Center for Molecular, Computational, and Systems Biology, U of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, is a leader of a public.

[NoVaJack]

Re: Argus reports "SDSU's cozy deal questioned"

. SDSU is hardly a public university anymore. .

Now this is something I've not heard. It's been awhile since I turned a book there. Have they changed the charter/mission of South Dakota State University?