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UAF professor has grant pulled after expressing controversial views

by Ashton Goodell
Tuesday, October 20, 2009

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A University of Alaska Fairbanks professor says the university is putting a gag on free speech because it doesn't like what he has to say. 

When it comes to oil and the environment, Professor Rick Steiner says he and the university just don't agree, but the university says he's taken it too far.

Professor Steiner says he lost a federal grant and had to pack up his office, because he said too much. The university says it's not about speech, but that Steiner didn't hold up his end of the bargain.

"I speak publicly on controversial resource issues and yes I do, guilty as charged. But you know, that's the job of a diverse university faculty," Steiner says.

About a year ago Steiner criticized offshore drilling practices at the same time the University of Alaska and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration held a workshop on the issue of oil development in Bristol Bay.

Steiner claims the university stripped his federal grant for marine conservation because he criticized the oil companies that back the university.

"There's been a chronic problem with some of the statements I've been making," Steiner said.

"I've been very critical of bad practices and the irresponsible behavior of the oil industry for years in Alaska," he said.

He and an employee advocacy group, called PEER, or Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said NOAA put pressure on the university to cut the grant.

Steiner filed a grievance with UAF in February, and the statewide university president rejected the complaint this week.

In a written statement, the University of Alaska's spokeswoman, Kate Ripley, said:

"The university and President Hamilton believe in freedom of speech and academic freedom... We also don't agree that Professor Steiner's freedom of speech or academic freedom have been infringed."

Steiner and PEER claim that by taking away his office and his grant money, it weakened the university's stance on academic freedom on the campus.

"The University of Alaska has prided itself on its academic freedom principles, but when those principles are put to the test they are found to be non-existent," said Jeff Ruch, PEER's executive director.

But Ripley said in the statement: "Professor Steiner's office was moved so that he could be located with all the other MAP agents in that area. This move was discussed for years and was a management decision that is common practice."

"This whole idea of academic freedom and free speech, there's not a gray area in there. It's not a slippery slope, it's a cliff, either you're on top of it or you're off it. Either you have it or you don't," Steiner said.

Without it, Steiner says he'll likely retire, but they'll never shut him up.

UAF and Steiner have wrestled over the issue for the past 10 months. He says he wasn't really surprised with the university's decision, but that the underlying problem is shocking.

Steiner's research will still continue. The university is still paying him the same as before, and the university claims it is also paying for all of his research instead of NOAA.

Steiner says it's not about the money; it's the principle of limiting speech.

Contact Ashton Goodell at agoodell@ktuu.com