Her questions highlighted the fact that one thing being retained from the old policy is the belief that student participation in research must be voluntary. Faculty supervision of such projects raises issues of coercion, but George said there are simple ways of addressing the concern. But it does involve the potential for coercion, and it's our responsibility to look out in these situations. We don't make the rules, but we can not put the university at risk for losing government research funding because we don't follow them. Duke is sensitive to this issue in part because the federal government shut down many research projects at the medical center for several days in 1999 over questions the government had about the IRB process.
Officials say the campus has to be just as vigilant on the issue.
George said the IRB committee and ORS are working with campus faculty members to ensure they are aware of their responsibilities on human subjects research, even in fields where it's been less of a consideration in the past. Interestingly, Fuqua is also very sophisticated and compliant with these issues. I do think it is fair to say, however, that all departments are better informed than they were a year ago. Lorna and I have spent a great deal of time visiting departments and performing other educational activities to inform the campus of this issue.