University of Arizona Policy on Corporate Relations

 

January 29, 1999

 

To:        Vice Presidents, Deans, Program Directors and Department Heads

 

From:     Peter Likins, President

 

Subject:  The New University Policy on Corporate Relations

 

Please inform all relevant staff, faculty and appointed personnel

 

Attached is the new University of Arizona Policy on Corporate Relations. It was written by the University Committee on Corporate Relationships (UCCR) -- a campus-wide group of faculty, students, administrators, and trademark experts, with advice from a university attorney -- and passed by the Faculty Senate this last December 7. I welcomed the initiative of the Senate in establishing the UCCR last year, and I am pleased to endorse the recommendations of the committee as reflected in the attached policy statement.

 

I now ask that you transmit this policy to everyone in your area who in your opinion may have any connection, actual or potential, with a relationship between a corporation and the University or any of its parts.

 

I have approved this recommended general policy because I believe it provides a good set of overall standards by which we should judge the suitability of any proposal for a relationship between the University and a corporation. Obviously there will be a continuing need for reasonable interpretation. The "philosophy" and "purpose" sections of this document are intended by both the UCCR and myself to be general guidelines, not rigid dictates to be applied narrowly and in exactly the same ways to each individual case.

 

In addition to a general philosophy which I certainly endorse, this policy describes the several kinds of contracts and arrangements to which it applies from now on. It also provides an avenue for adjudicating violations that employs the University Committee on Ethics and Commitment (UCEC). Its procedures allow, above all, for a process by which new or revised contracts and arrangements can be assessed by representatives of the entire campus community before they are concluded. Although many arrangements are routine and minor enough not to require a full process, I reserve the right to ask that any proposed relationship with a corporation that has significant campus impact be thoroughly evaluated by the UCCR, whom I have asked to make recommendations to me on these matters. The UCCR itself may ask to examine any corporate contract-in-process, maintaining appropriate confidentiality where necessary, with the understanding that their group conclusions are always recommendations to the President. Under certain circumstances and in cases of University-wide importance, either I or the UCCR may request that some proposed arrangements be brought to the Faculty Senate for open discussion and advice to the President, again before a new contract is signed.

 

In these times, we want neither to discourage nor to blindly encourage relationships with corporations, which can either legitimately enhance or sadly compromise our educational mission, academic freedom, and moral integrity. Instead we should have regular methods by which we adjudicate each possibility on its own merits within a philosophy and policy that clearly maintains high ethical standards as hallmarks of our University. I believe that the attached policy moves us very much in this direction and I ask that it be carefully followed throughout all parts of our institution. Many thanks.

 

Attachment: University Policy on Corporate Relations