january 2005

Updating two of 2004's biggest stories: Artist case becoming costly; Grad student unions push on
| By J.D.Miller and A.McCook

To ring out 2004, The Scientist revisited several of the year's best-read stories.

Artist bacteria case becoming costly

Steven Kurtz, the Buffalo art professor awaiting trial on federal charges of mail and wire fraud, has received a worldwide outpouring of financial and emotional support since his case made national news this summer.

Kurtz and Pittsburgh genetics professor Robert Ferrell were both indicted in July after Ferrell shipped bacteria to Kurtz to use in an art project. That act allegedly violated a materials transfer agreement Ferrell had signed with the supplying company promising he would keep the bacteria inside his own lab. Kurtz pleaded not guilty in July and is free on bond. Ferrell has still not been arraigned, however, because he has been seriously ill and undergoing medical treatment since early summer.

Since July Kurtz's and Ferrell's supporters have raised over $60,000 for their defense by holding fund-raising events around the world, according to Ed Cardoni, fiscal agent for the defense fund of the Critical Arts Ensemble, a collective of five artists Kurtz helped found.

Some $40–50,000 has already been spent. About $20,000 went to the lawyers representing eight of Kurtz's artist colleagues, whom the government subpoenaed in June. Most of the rest went to Kurtz's lawyer, Paul Cambria. "I think we're paid up through September," Cardoni said.

No money has yet been spent on Ferrell's defense, because he has not yet asked for financial help. Kurtz's next pre-trial court hearing is scheduled for January 11. By John Dudley Miller

Grad student unions push on

Despite a recent US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision forbidding graduate students at private universities from unionizing, students at the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, and Yale University have been meeting to discuss the best way to unionize.

"It's actually been going really well, because the issues haven't changed for graduate students," said Maris Zivarts, a graduate student in biology at Yale and a member of the Graduate Employees and Students Organization, which seeks to be recognized as a union.

The decision, which was against Brown University but applies to all private universities, reversed the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRM's) decision 4 years ago under the Clinton administration that let graduate assistants at New York University unionize. This time, the board ruled that graduate assistants are students, not employees, which prevents them from organizing.

According to Zivarts, students can form a union without NLRB certification, although this would mean that students can't turn to support from the NLRB in case of a strike or employer misconduct.

In November, the national council of the American Association of University Professors endorsed the right of graduate students to unionize. This endorsement is "great," Zivarts said, because it responds to the often-weighed critique of unions: that they might interfere with the relationship graduate students form with their supervising faculty. However, Zivarts argued that this relationship likely suffers more when students are struggling to pay their bills.

However, Zivarts conceded that the endorsement likely won't do much to convince school administrators that unions are a good idea. "It should make a difference to them," Zivarts says. "But I don't think it will." By Alison McCook

Links for this article
S. Pincock, J.D. Miller, "Following up, part 1," The Scientist, December 20, 2004.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20041220/02 

J.D. Miller, "Kurtz pleads not guilty," The Scientist, July 9, 2004.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20040709/04/ 

A. McCook, "Govt: no grad student unions," The Scientist, July 26, 2004.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20040726/01