When the University of California Board of Regents convenes
Wednesday and Thursday in San Francisco, it will address the
corruption in the UCLA Willed Body Program that has surfaced since
it last met in January.
UCLA Chancellor Albert Carnesale is scheduled to give a
presentation Thursday on the actions being taken to repair the
program.
Henry Reid, the director of the UCLA body donation program, was
arrested less than two weeks ago for allegedly selling donated body
parts. Ernest Nelson, who is not a university employee, was
arrested in connection for receiving known stolen property.
According to a university police search warrant, Keith Lewis, a
hospital lab technician in the pathology department, also
participated in the sale of body parts.
Lewis has not been charged with a crime but has admitted to
helping Nelson cut up bodies and receiving $2,000 in gratuities
from Nelson, the warrant stated.
Reports from the California Department of Health Services show
that top ranking officials at the UC had been alerted to possible
misconduct at UCLA over a year ago ““ raising questions as to
why problems had not been addressed sooner.
“There is an individual in Southern California who is
providing cadavers to a tissue bank licensed by this program for
use in (its) research,” wrote Tom Tempske, a laboratory
examiner for the Department of Health Services in a Feb. 20, 2003,
fax to David Taylor, medical services director at the UC Office of
the President.
“He has provided 66 cadavers to (the tissue bank) over
approximately two years. Based on information gathered in this
inquiry, it appears that this individual may be misrepresenting an
association with the University of California,” the fax
read.
Reid was hired in 1997 to reform the UCLA Willed Body Program
after lawsuits, which alleged the university handled donated bodies
without proper conduct and respect, tainted the program throughout
the mid-1990s.
But new information has arisen about the validity of
Reid’s credentials and practices while at UCLA.
University officials temporarily suspended the Willed Body
Program on March 9 and have said they are working to implement
policies and procedures to reform the program.
“I am confident that the medical sciences leadership and
former Gov. George Deukmejian will take whatever steps are
necessary to restore the integrity of the program. I will be
personally involved to ensure this occurs,” Carnesale said in
a statement March 8.
Carnesale’s presentation to the regents will constitute
the first official briefing the board will receive regarding the
Willed Body Program.
A lack of information has made regents reluctant to comment on
their possible courses of action, but some say the board likely
will oversee the university’s efforts to fix the program and
will step in only if the university’s actions do not seem
adequate.
“I would guess that the discussion would be about what the
university can and should do to make sure that the problems like
the ones that have been happening at UCLA won’t happen
again,” said Matt Murray, the 2003-2004 student regent.
Murray added that in addition to overseeing the UCLA Willed Body
Program, the regents’ responsibilities include making sure
willed body programs at other UCs also are functioning
properly.
The problems of UCLA’s program are not isolated within the
UC system. In 1999, the director of the willed body program at UC
Irvine was fired for selling spines to a research company in
Arizona.
The regents’ agenda also includes discussion of the state
of California education, student fees, UC eligibility, and the
possibility of competing to keep the stewardship of the Lawrence
Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos national
laboratories.
The Committee on Educational Policy will have a special meeting
to reaffirm the UC’s commitment to comprehensive review, the
university’s current admissions practice.
Also, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack
O’Connell will speak to the regents Wednesday about the state
of education in California.
“I am really looking forward to his speech ““ I
really don’t know what he is going to say,” said George
Blumenthal, a regent and vice chairman of the UC Academic
Senate.
The meeting also is set to include a presentation from the
Eligibility and Admissions Study Group, which examines the efficacy
of the UC’s eligibility criteria and makes suggestions about
how the UC could be more clear in its interaction with students and
parents.