The University of New Hampshire sent a letter Friday (September 7) to the banned chair of the biochemistry and molecular biology department, John Collins, saying that he can be reinstated but no longer as the chair of the department, Collins told The Scientist.
Collins, who has been chair of the department for two years, was banned from campus on June 29, a day after allegedly kicking a trash can, yelling and making threats about another faculty member, Stacia Sower.
The letter came after an August 20 meeting between the university administration and Collins during which the university said it had concluded its investigation into the incident. Collins has been banned from the campus since June and requires a police escort to be on campus.
In addition to losing the position of chair of the department, Collins said he would be required to write a formal letter of apology to the university provost and to Sower, take an anger management class, and maintain a letter in his personal academic file outlining the incident.
"The provost's review was profoundly incomplete," Collins told The Scientist, "My lawyer and I are formulating our response. My lawyer will be talking to their lawyer over the next couple of days."
What happened in June was very different from how the incident was portrayed in the media and in court hearings over the summer, Collins said. He added that his outburst on the day of the incident was not in earnest; after receiving a parking ticket, he was in the department building with a woman who worked in Sower's lab who egged him on to "get out his anger," and he yelled to "mock" her suggestion.
At the August meeting Collins presented to the provost several dozen affidavits from other faculty members regarding incidents each had had with Sower. Collins threatened to file for an injunction against the university's ban and present the affidavits in federal court if the university did not reinstate him, apologize for their actions against him and pay for all his legal fees.
Research on the oncogene SARC in Collins' lab has ceased since he was banned from campus; a manuscript that was meant to be submitted for publication in July is still sitting on his desk, he said. "This ban from campus has devastated my research and had a devastating impact on me and my graduate students," Collins said. "It's unworkable to go there and try to do work with a police officer standing over me."
The university did not return calls to confirm the contents of the letter or offer comment.
Sower sought a restraining order against Collins following the June incident. The court hearing regarding that order will be October 30.
Sower declined to comment on the situation.
"There has been a lot of support [for Collins] from the faculty," said Andrew Laudano, assistant professor in the biochemistry and molecular biology department. "People here do not consider him a threat."
Andrea Gawrylewski
mail@the-scientist.com
Links within this article:
A. Gawrylewski, "UNH makes offer to banned professor," The Scientist, September 10, 2007.
http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/53575
John Collins
http://biochemistry.unh.edu/Faculty/Collins/index.html
A. Gawrylewski, "Biology dept. embroiled in controversy," The Scientist, July 19, 2007.
http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53383
Stacia Sower
http://www.unh.edu/biochemistry/sower/index.html
Andrew Laudano
http://biochemistry.unh.edu/Faculty/Laudano/index.html
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[Comment posted 2007-11-07 09:18:24]
Although I personally have not dealt with Dr. Stacia Sower, her reputation at UNH is not as positive as she would like others to believe. I personally have known former graduate students of Dr. Sower who feared her on a daily basis. Her cruelty towards these graduate students caused them daily stress and anxiety. Her moods were unstable then and clearly are still unstable now.
Upon reading of this conflict between Dr. Collins and Dr. Sower, my knowledge of the two lead me to believe that Dr. Collins is by no means a threat to anyone.
[Comment posted 2007-10-27 14:53:55]
While the facts of what actually occurred certainly ARE under dispute, no one, including Dr. Collins, is disputing that his behavior was inappropriate. However, it in NO WAY rises to the level of criminal, or even close to criminal. The judge gave his ruling of not guilty before even hearing from all the witnesses for the defense because it was clear that the prosecution did not have a case.
While Dr. Collins is outspoken, does not go along with the crowd, and can rub some people the wrong way, he is most certainly not an "outrageous jerk" as the writer states. Dr. Collins is well liked and respected by most of the faculty and staff at UNH and by virtually all of his students. This is apparent by the degree of support he has received from his colleagues. The poster suggests that the lack of support for Dr. Sower from the biochemistry department is due to professional jealousy. They forget that Dr. Collins' support does not end with biochemistry. He has extremely strong support from most of the faculty in the entire college of Life Sciences. Does he/she suggest that this is all due to professional jealousy? That there are no well published, respected faculty in the entire college? This is obviously not true. There is no need for professional jealousy among the faculty of biochemisty or the college at large. The reason that Dr. Collins has the support of his peers and Dr. Sower does not is no mystery. It is a result of their own behavior over many years.
This entire incident is not worthy of all this attention. As a poster wrote in response to a previous article, if this incident involved anyone but Dr. Sower, the police would never have been involved. It would have been handled with a simple apology to the appropriate people and that would have been the end of it. But instead it did involve someone who chose to use it as an opportunity.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and it is great that we have a forum such as this to voice them. But the only way to get a really accurate picture is for the whole story to come out with interviews from the people who know the parties best. Dr. Collins has nothing to fear from such an approach. I wonder if the same can be said for Dr. Sower.
[Comment posted 2007-10-25 16:38:38]
[Comment posted 2007-10-25 13:47:59]
Thank you for your comments. They are an excellent representation of Dr. Stacia Sower's professionalism.
[Comment posted 2007-10-24 09:43:28]
Thanks for reading. I appreciate your comments, and would welcome the opportunity to have you contribute comments to my continuing coverage of this story. So that our readers know, I have repeatedly attempted to contact Stacia Sower supporters, like you, Anonymous, who have posted to our message boards. However, I have consistently been told that they cannot comment and that I should contact the UNH PR department, which I've also done. I would welcome a call from you to make sure we can tell this story in as full a way as possible.
Andrea Gawrylewski
Staff writer, The Scientist
[Comment posted 2007-10-23 16:04:46]
[Comment posted 2007-09-12 13:58:40]
[Comment posted 2007-09-12 11:49:41]
[Comment posted 2007-09-12 04:06:55]
This woman has made enemies all over the college. Her behavior has been at best overlooked by and at worst enabled by the administration for years. It is a relief to many that the story is finally beginning to trickle out. Thank you, The Scientist.
Anonymous