Case 9c :
"Whose line is it anyways?"
Delia was always known to be stubborn. Periodically, Professor Pokaski wished she had joined another faculty and she was not even his student. During one exchange, he felt this sentiment strongly. Said Professor Pokaski apologetically,
"I know the spectrometer is in our facility, but it was paid for by specific grant for this project and we are not permitted to profit from its rental or use by others or by ourselves for external projects. During the duration of this grant, this spectrometer essentially belongs to the grants agency. Once the grant expires, we will happily turn this into a community use machine. I am sorry".
Delia put her hands on her hips and said pleadingly,
"I do not think that the grants folks are watching your every move when using this equipment. I just need to do validations, I am not looking to re-run my entire thesis worth of analyses, just a few. This will take me one steady night of analysis, maximum".
Professor Pokaski replied firmly,
"Delia, you know I cannot allow you to do that. You are not a listed user, you do not have a password. It would be fraud to give you mine. I am not content to jeopardize the entire group's funding because you do not wish to wait in line for the departmental equipment".
Delia left her supervisor's office disappointed. Fortunately, she only had to turn a corner to find a possible solution to her problem. Delia looked up to find Almond, a graduate researcher in the Pokaski lab, walking down the hall with a cup of coffee. She exclaimed flirtatiously,
"Almond, hi! Almond, do you work on the marine soil project that uses that new spectrometer in 624? Professor Pokaski has told me I could use it to run some validation samples, but I do not have a password. Can I borrow yours? This will only take me tonight. Maybe you can join me for part of the night? I will bring us dinner."
Delia knew that Almond quite liked her. She did not like him back, but if flirting for a night got her access to the facilities she needed to finish her analyses, then it would be worth it.
Almond replied shyly,
"Hello Delia. I have access, but I believe our Professor says we can only use that for the soil samples. I do not think you can use it".
Delia replied convincingly, touching Almond on the arm,
"Oh, it can only be used for soil samples, that's true, but that is all I have to run, too. My samples are from the project before the marine reclamation hazards project—you know, the study we used to get the grant for this?", said Delia convincingly. "This is all part of the same big project".
Almond felt uneasy. He knew that the spectrometer was restricted to marine soil use by the grant that Professor Pokaski got from the big international environmental organization. But, Delia was right—Delia was almost always right—it was part of a bigger research agenda. Almond thought to himself, 'She only has a night of samples to test and it would be nice to be able to spend time with her in the lab…' then said hesitantly,
"Okay, Delia, meet me at 10pm and we will run your samples together".
Delia jumped up and down exclaiming,
"Thanks, Almond, you are the best".
Case Questions
- What are the research problems here?
- What might be the reasons that the granting agency restricts use of the spectrometer to the grantee laboratory?
- What other resources might Delia use that are more appropriate than her friendship with Almond?
Imagine you are Almond:
- What might be the reason for your decision?
- What ought you to have done differently here?
- What are the risks and rewards from your actions?
Imagine you are Professor Pokaski and, in a weeks' time, you discover that Almond helped Delia to use the spectrometer for off-project analyses by using his password:
- Which student do you believe has done something wrong? What is that which they have done wrong?
- Now that your students violated the terms of your grant, what do you do? Do you report this to the agency?
- What might you do differently as the supervisor to prevent this from occurring in the future?