Faculty Senate again approves resolution against Ward Center closing

By Jacquie Powers

The Faculty Senate, at its last meeting of the academic year, voted once again to approve a resolution, first approved a year ago, recommending that the Ward Center for Nuclear Sciences and its nuclear reactor remain in operation.

The vote, May 8, was 29-18. The center is scheduled to be closed in June, despite protests from some faculty, staff and students over the past year. The Faculty Senate first voted on the resolution to recommend continuing operation of the center at its monthly meeting in March 2001, after considerable debate on the issue at two earlier meetings.

Herbert Deinert, professor of German Studies, reintroduced the measure at the May 8 senate meeting, explaining that the move was prompted by pending changes in the university administration and board of trustees, as well as changes in the federal climate regarding nuclear engineering education. It would be more appropriate for Cornell's new president and trustees to decide on whether to close the center, Deinert explained.

Robert Richardson, vice provost for research, last year had asked the senate's Local Advisory Committee (LAC ) to review the Ward Center and make a recommendation about its future. Richardson had asked for the review by the LAC, composed of faculty from a variety of fields, because the original 1996 Faculty Senate resolution creating the Ward Center as a universitywide facility required a review. In addition, he said, the relicensing of the reactor by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) was scheduled for 2002-03, and the university had to make a decision about continuing its operation before then.

In February 2001, the LAC recommended that the reactor be decommissioned and the center's activities phased out. But the full senate rejected that recommendation and voted to ask that the center be kept open. The administration decided nonetheless to close the center, citing costs and other factors.

In other business last week, the Faculty Senate postponed voting on a resolution that would add the new, primarily single-function, nontenure track title of "clinical professor" to the university's roster of academic titles. The measure was tabled due to confusion over the wording of the resolution and amendments relating to the voting process.