Holtzman trial advances

General Faculty recommends PCRC move ahead

The General Faculty Council (GFC) has recommended the hearing panel of the Professional Conduct Review Committee (PCRC) move forward with all of the complaints of professional misconduct filed by Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Clayton Koppes and Associate Professor of Neuroscience David Holtzman.

Holtzman filed complaints of misconduct against Koppes, former acting Dean of the College James Helm and Neuroscience Program Director Catherine McCormick.

Prior to the GFC's recommendation, which was distributed to members of the General Faculty (GF) on March 14, the hearing panel agreed to move forward with Holtzman's complaints against McCormick, but not those against Helm or Koppes. The hearing panel agreed to move forward with Koppes' complaints against Holtzman. Though Koppes agreed to the conditions proposed by the PCRC, Holtzman rejected them.

After the hearing panel for Holtzman's complaints decided last semester that it could not hear the charges filed against Helm and Koppes because they were acting in their capacity as administrators, the PCRC and GFC have been trying to find a way that is agreeable to all involved parties to move forward with the complaints.

The GFC also recommends that Dean of the Conservatory Karen Wolff sit in on the hearing panel's meetings. Appendix H of the Faculty Guide, which describes the PCRC's duties and process, mandates that the dean heading the accused faculty member's division participate in the hearing panel's meetings. Koppes heads Holtzman's division, but is also an involved party.

The third part of the memo states: "This advice should not be construed as a precedent. At an appropriate time the GFC will take the matter of professional conduct complaints against an academic dean to the General Faculty." A proposal that would have amended Appendix H by adding clauses stating: "... should a charge of professional misconduct be directed against the dean, the other divisional dean should assume this function" and "... unless that dean has been charged with professional misconduct, in which case the other divisional dean should assume this function" - essentially the same recommendations the GFC sent to the PCRC - was defeated at Tuesday's GF meeting. (see related story) Holtzman said he had not been contacted by the hearing panel or notified of whether or not it is planning to move forward with the complaints.