College of Law

MATT LAMKIN
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
THE UNIVERSITY OF TULSA COLLEGE OF LAW
3120 EAST FOURTH PLACE
TULSA, OKLAHOMA 74104
Matt-Lamkin@utulsa.edu
April 11, 2015
Dear Minnesota Legislator,
As alumni of the University of Minnesota and teachers and scholars of medical ethics, we are
writing to call on the legislature to open hearings into the Universitys mishandling of the
extensive problems in its Psychiatry Department and to seek the resignations of University of
Minnesota President Eric Kaler and other senior officials involved in covering up that scandal.
Although the problems in the Psychiatry Department predate Mr. Kalers tenure as president, his
failure of leadership in addressing those issues has allowed them to fester for years, inflicting
incalculable damage on our alma mater. While Mr. Kaler has stated his goal is to make the
University of Minnesota one of the nations best public research universities, under his tenure it
has instead become a global poster child for research misconduct and institutional
corruption. The Universitys mishandling of these problems is now taught in medical ethics
classes around the world.
In response to the AAHRP and Legislative Auditors reports that confirmed longstanding and
widely publicized criticisms of the Universitys treatment of vulnerable research subjects, Mr.
Kaler has claimed that he was previously unaware of these problems. You do not need to be a
medical ethicist to see that Mr. Kalers statement is not only disingenuous but false. The ethical
breaches in the Markingson case have been glaringly obvious for years. To take only a few
examples:

The problems in the Universitys Department of Psychiatry have been the subject of
unrelenting media attention, starting before Mr. Kaler entered office and continuing
through the present day. These problems have been featured in news locally, nationwide,
and across the world, in outlets including The Wall Street Journal, TIME, Science, Nature,
The British Medical Journal, The Medical Journal of Australia, The Chronicle of Higher
Education, Scientific American, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, The St Paul Pioneer
Press, Mother Jones, Minnesota Public Radio, MinnPost, and even the Universitys own
Minnesota Daily.

When Mr. Kaler took office in 2011, Dr. Carl Elliott a faculty member at the
Universitys Center for Bioethics sent him materials alerting him to the serious issues in
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the Psychiatry Department. When Dr. Elliott asked to meet privately with Mr. Kaler to
discuss the problems, Mr. Kaler refused.

In 2012, the Minnesota Board of Social Work found that Jean Kenney, the University
employee who served as the coordinator for the study in which Dan Markingson died, had
improperly made medical diagnoses and administered prescription drugs, made mistakes
about medication dosages, omitted critical information relevant to suicide prevention, kept
records devoid of any clearly articulated, consistent set of treatment goals, and
repeatedly signed a physicians initials in Markingsons chart. These serious problems
clearly belied the Universitys claim that it had done nothing wrong in its treatment of
Markingson, yet Mr. Kaler continued to insist the University was blameless.

In 2013, more than 250 ethicists, physicians, and scholars including editors of the
worlds most prestigious medical journals signed a petition to Governor Dayton calling
for an independent investigation into Mr. Markingsons death. Mr. Kaler still took no
action.

In December 2013, the Universitys Faculty Senate voted for an inquiry into clinical
research practices at the University. The Resolution on the Matter of the Markingson
case expressly stated that the inquiry was to resolve questions [that] continue to be
raised about the policies and procedures followed in the Markingson case. Yet Mr. Kaler
sought to avoid any consideration of that case or other abuses, stating that the inquiry
would instead focus solely on what we are doing now and what were going to do
moving forward.

In May of 2014, Leigh Turner, a professor of bioethics at the University, posed the
following question to the Board of Regents at a meeting at which Mr. Kaler was present:
Are you prepared for the possibility that if a legitimate, independent investigation occurs,
the University of Minnesota could be exposed as an institution where research misconduct
occurred and you dismissed all requests to investigate possible wrongdoing? The
following month, at the invitation of former Governor Arne Carlson, Turner arrived to
discuss the Markingson case with Carlson, Kaler and Richard Beeson, the Chair of the
Board of Regents. Kaler and Beeson refused to allow Turner to participate in the meeting
and threatened to cancel the meeting unless he was excluded.

Given the foregoing, Mr. Kalers claim that he was previously unaware of these problems
including as recently as last month leaves only two possibilities: either he is not being truthful,
or he is far too oblivious to be entrusted to lead the states flagship university. In either case, for
Mr. Kaler to claim ignorance at this point is an insult to the legislature as well as to the people of
Minnesota.
Mr. Kalers leadership has failed on every level. Morally, his intransigence has allowed the
Department of Psychiatry to continue conducting research on vulnerable subjects with grossly
inadequate protections. From a legal and financial perspective, his failure to acknowledge and

address these problems places the University in jeopardy of lawsuits and puts at risk millions in
funding both from the belated suspension of clinical trials and the potential to lose federal
research grants. From a public relations standpoint, by allowing these issues to fester he has
destroyed the institutions credibility and subjected the University to an unending stream of
negative press worldwide. The fact that the Markingson case required an investigation by the
Legislative Auditor at all is a failure of leadership of staggering proportions.
The University needs a leader who understands the gravity of the situation and has the credibility
to address it. It is clear that Mr. Kaler is not capable of meeting these demands. Even after all
the revelations, he seems intent on continuing down the same path. After announcing his
intention to reform, he appointed a review committee comprised of many of the same people who
have participated in the cover-up or turned a blind eye to it. We agree with former Governor
Arne Carlson that the reputation of the University cannot be restored until Mr. Kaler and other
senior officials are replaced.
The Legislative Auditors report stated, The insular culture at the university has shown that it
will not address these issues. This culture, manifested in the Universitys current leadership, will
prevent any restoration of public trust. James Nobles, the Legislative Auditor, went on to say,
My only hope is that the legislature is now involved and will stay involved.
We agree. Accordingly, we are writing to call on the legislature to open hearings into the coverup of abuse and misconduct at the University of Minnesota. We are especially troubled by the
growing evidence that the misconduct extends well beyond the Markingson case and that
University officials have hidden the extent of the problems. Please hold President Kaler and
senior administrators accountable for the damage that continues to be done to the reputation of
our university.
Sincerely,

Matthew D. Lamkin, JD, MA, Assistant Professor, University of Tulsa College of Law
Emily Smith Beitiks, PhD, Assistant Director of the Longmore Institute on Disability, San
Francisco State University
Joseph E. Davis, PhD, Director of Research at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture,
University of Virginia
Alicia Hall, PhD, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Mississippi State University
James Harold, PhD, Professor of Philosophy and Chair, Mount Holyoke College

Susan Hawthorne, PhD, Associate Professor of Philosophy, St. Catherine University

Ramona Illea, PhD, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Chair, Pacific University
Monica Greenwell Janzen, PhD, Philosophy Faculty, Hennepin Technical College
Britt E. Johnson, PhD, JD, Assistant Professor of Bioethics, Kansas City University of Medicine
& Biosciences
Greg Kaebnick, PhD, Editor, The Hastings Center Report
Matt McGeachy, MA, Toronto
Barton Moffatt, PhD, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Mississippi State
University
Susan Parry, PhD, Philosophy Faculty, Hennepin Technical College
Elita Poplavska, PhD, Assistant Professor, Riga Stradins University
Maran Wolston, MA, Philosophy Faculty, Minneapolis Community and Technical College