Lack of Oversight of Felner Conflicts Compromises Research Integrity at U of L

C-J's Nancy Rodriguez scores with an exclusive on the lack of fiscal oversight in the Felner case at The Ville.

Ex-U of L dean didn't file financial disclosure forms
U of L uses data to spot conflicts

Former University of Louisville education dean Robert Felner, who is under investigation for possibly misusing federal research money, never filed financial disclosure forms required by the university to show possible conflicts of interest.

The university, responding to an open records request by The Courier-Journal, could find no financial disclosure records filed by Felner during his five years at U of L. The review was conducted by the research integrity program, part of the university's Office of Research, according to William Morison, the university's archivist who handles open records requests.

Since 2005, Felner has overseen a $694,000 federal education grant that is now being investigated. Much of the grant -- $450,000 -- went to a former colleague and friend, Thomas Schroeder, who was president of an education-research center in Illinois that he said he created at Felner's request in 2001.

If Felner had filled out the disclosure forms, he would have had to include his financial relationship with the Illinois center, and the fact that Felner was a paid director of a research center at the University of Rhode Island, which received some of the grant money.

Under the university's financial disclosure policy, Felner and all other faculty or staff involved in research were required each year to show any economic or monetary interests outside their employment with the university, including outside consultant fees, equity interests in publicly held companies and royalty income under a patent license.

Financial interests of spouses and partners, as well as dependent children, are also required as part of the disclosure, which is filed with the office of the university's executive vice president for research.

"The success of the university's research program depends upon that integrity and the public's confidence in it," the university's policy reads.

"Financial conflicts of interest in research strike at the heart of a university's integrity."

John Drees, spokesman for U of L, said last night that he didn't know why Felner had not filed the forms. He said the head of the research office and another staffer who have knowledge of the disclosure process were both out of town and unavailable for comment.

Policies under review

"The university is undertaking a review of all its policies related to grants and contracts," said Drees.

As dean, Felner was responsible for ensuring that anyone in his department involved in research, including himself, complete the disclosure forms "in a timely manner." That may have included Schroeder, who was hired by Felner as a grant research assistant from 2005 through April of this year.

The policy notes that researchers who do not complete the form or who file "an incomplete, erroneous, or misleading" form may be subject to sanctions that range from a letter of reprimand to dismissal.

The university's Research Integrity Specialist is also charged in the policy with maintaining an up-to-date list of covered individuals, current and proposed research and current disclosures.

The grant Felner managed was to be used to create a center that would conduct research aimed at helping schools improve student achievement under the federal No Child Left Behind law. But no local or state school officials have ever heard of the center, or its research.

Standard at UK

The practice of asking researchers to disclose potential financial conflicts of interest is standard among research universities, including the University of Kentucky, which has a similar policy to U of L, according to James W. Tracy, UK's vice president for research.

"It's required, particularly on federal grants and contracts. You must declare any conflict of interest, and then if there is a conflict, then a conflict-of-interest committee tries to put together a management plan to manage the conflict," he said.

In some cases, if a conflict is deemed too serious, a researcher may not be able to serve as the principal investigator on the project, he said.

UK requires that researchers involved in grant applications file accompanying financial disclosures, he said. At UK, the sponsored-programs office is responsible for ensuring those forms are completed and in place before money is allowed to be spent, he said.

"It's a common practice, and the emphasis on declaring conflicts of interest is becoming even more profound," Tracy said. "Many journals, particularly in the medical fields, require a statement of the authors that there is no conflict of interest with the research they are doing."

Assurances required

In addition to individual filings, U of L's policy requires that agencies or entities that enter into a subcontract funded through a grant must show they are in compliance with the university's conflict-of-interest polices -- before funds are released.

University officials could not determine yesterday if either the Illinois center or the University of Rhode Island center were aware of the policy or provided the assurances.

The University of Rhode Island's National Center on Public Education and Social Policy -- which Felner directed until 2006 -- received two $60,000 contracts. Felner served as director of that university's College of Education before becoming the dean of U of L's College of Education and Human Development in 2003.

Schroeder's National Center for Public Education and Prevention Inc. in Illinois also received several contracts totaling $450,000 to provide and collect survey data as part of the federal education grant.

Schroeder said he returned to Felner, at Felner's request, two checks totaling $250,000 he received as part of that grant. The checks were deposited in a Louisville bank account. Another $200,000 check to Schroeder's Illinois center, which Schroeder says he knows nothing about, also went into that bank account.