Rose Rubin, a grant administrator at Great Eastern University, had been serving for many years as a nonscientific member of the school’s IACUC. She attended almost all the committee’s meetings and had become very familiar with reviewing protocols, inspecting laboratories and animal facilities, and reviewing allegations of protocol noncompliance. Prior to joining Great Eastern, Rubin was a grant administrator at Starling College, a nearby private institution.

Rubin kept in touch with some former colleagues at Starling, including Dr. Melinda Marx, who recently had become the chair of Starling’s IACUC. Knowing that Rubin was currently serving on the Great Eastern IACUC, Marx asked Rubin if she had the time to serve as the nonaffiliated member on the Starling IACUC. Rubin said that she could arrange her time to serve in that position, but she was not sure if her past employment at Starling would be considered as having some form of allegiance to the college even though she did not receive any financial or other benefit from the school after she left. Rubin also wondered if serving on two different IACUCs would raise questions from both IACUCs about maintaining confidentiality of IACUC activities. On the other hand, she reasoned, her knowledge of IACUC operations and her many community service activities would make her an ideal nonaffiliated member. Marx told her that she would have to sign a confidentiality agreement similar to the one used at Great Eastern, but she believed that Rubin would be an ideal nonaffiliated member on the Starling IACUC.

What is your opinion about Rubin serving on the Starling College’s IACUC?