Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2007 | While I am pleased to see some of our worthy San Diego State University projects highlighted in your Jan. 18 article “One University’s Pork is Another’s Bomb Simulator,” the remarks made by James Savage warrant some rebuttal.
SDSU has cooperated with defense department officials to retrain military personnel displaced by base closings, much to the advantage of the San Diego economy as these 1400 trainees entered fulfilling new careers. We have developed technologies that had advantaged our troops in Iraq. We are engaged in training personnel in language and cultural areas that improve the communication that must ultimately resolve conflicts between our disparate societies.
The single most objectionable comment from Savage is that SDSU neglects the rules, does not belong to research organizations, and is interested only in the money because it is desperate.
Contrary to this misstatement, SDSU faculty and SDSU Research Foundation employees are members of professional organizations including the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the Council on Governmental Relations, the Society of Research Administrators, and the National Council of University Research Administrators, inter alia. SDSU faculty serve as grant reviewers, on the editorial boards of some 150 journals, members and officers of professional research organizations including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society for Microbiology, the Research Society on Alcoholism, the Society of Toxicology, and the Society for Medical Anthropology.
Like other premier research institutions, SDSU receives funding from a variety of sources to support research and educational programs that enhance the local, national, and international communities. We are proud of our record of service to the region as well as the work done on a daily basis by our faculty to contribute to the social order.
Thomas R. Scott is the Vice-President for Research and CEO of the Research Foundation (interim) at San Diego State University