Kroger’s self-checkouts slow down Customers have complained about Kroger’s newly renovated self-checkout stations because of their slow and inefficient service. A6
Michigan’s oldest college newspaper
Author Ron Hansen comes to campus Short stories, Shakespeare, and scripture — a visiting writer shares his stories. B1
Vol. 140 Issue 23 - 30 March 2017
Hillsdale looks into creating research review boards By | Madeleine Jepsen Assistant Editor The lack of institutional ethics review boards has prevented some Hillsdale College faculty and students from publishing their research. Based on recommendations from the biology department, the college is looking into establishing such review boards, said Chris VanOrman, dean of natural sciences and professor of chemistry. The Journal of Mammalogy refused to publish Associate Professor of Biology Jeffery VanZant’s research, because Hillsdale does not have an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, or IACUC. The lack of an Institutional Review Board, or IRB, has prevented publication of a student research project involving vaccination surveys, Wyatt McDonnell ’15 said. Not having an IACUC at Hillsdale limited Professor of Biology Bob Miller’s research on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome to chick embryos instead of mammalian embryos, Miller said. IACUCs provide oversight in ethical research involving vertebrates and have detailed guidelines for sample collection, animal care, and minimizing the pain or discomfort of the research animals. These committees, which must have at least five members, include an institution administrator, a senior faculty member with experience in vertebrate research and publication, a veterinarian, a scientist in a field other than biology, a community member not employed by the college, and a theologian or philoso-
pher. The committee reviews research proposals to ensure best ethical practices. IRBs deal with human research and help ensure personally identifiable or medical information is properly collected, analyzed, and stored for behavioral or biomedical research. “We have faculty members who produce art, people who write and publish academic papers and books, yet some faculty members, because we have no IACUC, can’t do what they are trained to do,” Miller said. Since chicks are unable to completely function as independent organisms until several days after hatching, their lack of viability renders IACUC regulations less strict. This allows for the publication of Miller’s work. “I have to go through and point out the guidelines to prove I’m not committing an ethics violation,” Miller said. Since the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, protects the privacy of medical information, McDonnell said proper steps to ensure confidentiality of information is important from a legal standpoint as well as an ethical standpoint. “In my mind, having a rushed, stamped review board applies also to childhood education research, sociology, psychology, economics — there are a lot of areas to which this applies,” he said. “It’s in Hillsdale’s best interests to have these review boards not only from a standpoint of, ‘We take this seriously.’ It also provides a better research environment for faculty members recruited in the coming years, and it
Senior Christine Scanlan works on a research project with Professor of Biology Bob Miller during summer 2016 on developmental biology. Cindy Hoard | Courtesy
provides legal protection to the college, as well.” Although these committees help prevent ethics violations and HIPAA violations, Miller and McDonnell said, founding an IRB or IACUC would not incur additional federal or state oversight unless researchers applied for and received federally funded grant money from the National Science Foundation or the National Institute of Health. After a year of working with Vanderbilt University’s IACUC and IRB, McDonnell and Matthew Drogowski ’15, a second-year medical student, wrote a letter in January 2016 to Hillsdale College’s administration asking the college to consider founding an IRB and IACUC. VanOrman said he has discussed the prospect with department chairmen and is researching the process of starting these review boards at Hillsdale. “If we decide to move forward with these committees, I will also need to get approval from administration,” VanOrman said in an email. “I’m just not that far into the process yet. I’m hoping to get something figured out by the end of this coming summer.” The review board members volunteer their time to serve.
Some organizations accredit such committees and provide professional development for board members. To join these nonmandatory organizations, however, the college would incur a small cost. Miller said he researched the IACUC establishment requirements in the past and drafted the paperwork necessary to establish a Hillsdale committee five or six years ago, but no further action was taken. Additionally, Miller said approval from a Hillsdale IRB or IACUC would allow for publication of research projects that would otherwise be declined by journals because of the lack of review by an ethics committee. He also said this would help the college to recruit new faculty members, who are coming from institutions where IACUCs and IRBs are a given. McDonnell said establishment of these review boards at Hillsdale would allow for publication and recognition of Hillsdale’s research and would help the college recruit young researchers. “By not having these boards, we’re stopping research from being published in respectable places and putting us on the map for things we’ve been good at for over a century,” he said.
Forbes’ ‘30 Under 30’ Ryan Walsh ’09 made Forbes magazine’s “30 Under 30” list in law and policy, after clerking for former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. B4
www.hillsdalecollegian.com
Mock trial misses nationals by half a ballot
By | Joshua Lee Collegian Reporter Hillsdale College Mock Trial’s A and B teams came short of advancing to nationals, on Sunday at the Opening Round Championship Series tournament in Hamilton, Ohio. The A team came a half ballot short of the six needed to advance. Hilldale won five-and-a-half ballots in the four rounds of competition at the tournament that included ranked opponents of Miami University, Ohio State University, and others. The B team also fell short and ended the season with a 3-5 score at the
Hillsdale, because their region’s top competition scored lower than the opening round in Ohio, Church said. “We gave it our best, but sometimes the judges like different tactics even though ours were good,” senior Lindsey Redfern said. In every round in the tournament, two judges award one ballot each to the team they independently thought won the round. The A team lost one of its ballots in its opening round against the University of Alabama, Birmingham, Church said. “I was confident we were
Hillsdale College’s mock trial A team earned five-and-a-half ballots at the Opening Round Championship Series tournament on Saturday and Sunday, missing qualifications for the national tournament by half a ballot. Jon Church | Courtesy
tournament. “This was Hillsdale’s best showing at ORCS, and normally we would have made it with that score, but this group of teams scored higher than normal,” A team captain senior Jon Church said. Other colleges not in the same region advanced to nationals with lower scores than
going to win and was shocked when I checked the score after the round,” he said. The A team worked extra hard in the next rounds, the students knowing they needed every ballot they could get to advance, Church said. “We went into our last round knowing we had See ORCS A2
members, however, did not receive the call at all, relying on family and friends to relay the information to them. Junior Aidan Donovan said he didn’t receive the college’s automated phone call during the lockdown, leading to some panic from family members. “I didn’t get the automated phone call from the college, but my mom did,” Donovan said. “She freaked out, and it probably got her more alarmed than she needed to be.” When Donovan went to check his emergency contact information, however, he noticed that he had written his parents’ phone number in the space asking for his cell phone number. This is why his parents were called instead of him. Like Donovan, junior Zoe Harness said her parents received the emergency call, but she did not. When her parents called her, she realized that the situation was more than a drill. “I guess that Grace DeSandro | Collegian just made me
realize the severity of the situation,” Harness said. “At first, it seemed like the college was just taking precautionary measures. But when my parents called, it made it a more active situation.” Harness did have her proper cell phone number in the portal but had her parents set as her primary contact in an emergency. While Harness said she thought it would be useful to set her cell phone to her primary contact, she chose to leave her parents on her form. “When it comes down to it, if I’m in an emergency situation on campus, I’ll know when I’m in danger,” Harness said. “But I think it’s important for my parents to know.” Butler said the emergency calls only go to the primary and secondary contacts on a student’s form, and it’s important to make sure they have their preferences clearly defined. Students, faculty, and staff can update their contact information by logging into the myHillsdale portal and clicking on the insurance and emergency contact information tab on the left side of the main portal page. “It is important for students to take a minute to confirm all emergency contact numbers are properly recorded in our emergency response system,” Dell said in an email to The Collegian. “This information is key to the efficient and accurate communication to campus during situations where urgent or important information needs to be relayed.”
Administration urges campus to update contact information By | Thomas Novelly Editor-in-Chief Following last week’s lockdown, Hillsdale College administrators are urging students, faculty, and staff to update their contact information, because many did not receive an emergency alert to their preferred phone number. When students and faculty members start their term on
campus, the college requires them to fill out an emergency contact form. But according to Executive Secretary Sheila Butler, some students and faculty members rush through the form and end up inputting the wrong numbers to alert them in an emergency situation. “It’s important, especially during an emergency,” Butler said. “They can’t be reached
unless the information is correct.” Associate Dean of Women Rebekah Dell sent a campus-wide email on Tuesday advising and informing students of how to change their contact info through the myHillsdale portal. Butler said overall, Hillsdale’s automated call during the lockdown was an overwhelm-
ing success. According to a report from the college’s contact database, the college made 3,378 calls, 87 percent of them successfully. More than 1,700 of the emergency calls went to voicemail, and more than 1,200 picked up. The other calls resulted in hangups, busy signals, or no answers. Some students and faculty
Emergency telephone alert responses
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