$Id: DCA-letter-to-SVP.txt,v 1.2 2008-05-29 13:54:29 mike Exp $

Copied and pasted from the Albuquerque Journal blog for 23 May 2008:
http://www.abqjournal.com/abqnews/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7346&Itemid=49

    Catherine E. Badgley, President

    Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

    [email removed]


    Dear Ms. Badgley:


    I have reviewed the SVP Executive Committee statement regarding
the allegations of unethical conduct by certain staff members at our
New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, and I wanted to
waste no time in commending the Society's Ethics Education Committee
for its thorough evaluation of a most complex case and its very
thoughtful response.

    I hope that the scientists involved in this case -- from Dr. Lucas
and his colleagues at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and
Science to Jeffrey Martz and William Parker -- will join me in
expressing appreciation and satisfaction with the Society's
conclusions regarding these allegations. I feel strongly that now is
the appropriate time to embrace the lessons learned together with
those "best practices" recommendations put forth by the Ethics
Education Committee.

    As for the Museum Board of Trustees/Department of Cultural Affairs
review of the allegations, there is no doubbest practicest in my mind
that the professionals that we appointed to this committee brought an
impartial orientation to their work. However, I can see that because
certain of the reviewers had some shared past experience with
Dr. Lucas, that there was a perception of conflict of interest. Lesson
learned.

    On the matter of publishing practices at the Museum, I have
requested that the Board of Trustees appoint a committee of staff and
board members to examine current practices and make recommendations to
the Board for any needed changes that would ensure adherence to the
best practices you have recommended.

    In closing, I have personally taken an especially powerful
observation from the SVP conclusions, and that is that there is a
common thread that runs through these individuals and their work --
they are all scientists working toward the enhancement of their
discipline, vertebrate paleontology. As the SVP conclusions imply,
better communication would seem to go a long way in furthering both
individual careers and the important, inherently social process of
discovery and announcement.

    Sincerely,

    Stuart A. Ashman

    Cabinet Secretary