The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "independent study" ...
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Academics and Athletics At Michigan
A psychology professor at the University of Michigan taught at least 294 independent study courses during a three-year period, 85 percent of his time was spent with athletes. Those athletes coming close to losing academic eligibility were sent to study with John Hagen.
Tags: GPA; grade point average; curriculum; transcripts; NCAA; professors; degree; studies;
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The Jasons: The Secret History of Science's Postwar Elite
Author Ann Finkbeiner examines the history and activities of JASON. The JASON Defense Advisory Group is a group of university scientists, mostly physicists, who gather every summer to work on specific problems for the government. These problems are often military, and often classified. The group began in 1960, and counted Manhattan Project alums as some of its early members. Now, they are responsible for such innovations as the electronic battlefield, the laser guide star, a three-dimensional mapping system of the ocean's temperatures, which is used for oceanography studies and to chart global warming, and Star Wars (or Startegic Defense Initiative), the attempt to find a countermeasure for hostile ICBMs. The group is completely independent in its decision-making and in the choosing of its members, though it is funded largely by government organizations.
Tags: JASON; national defense; Manhattan Project; science; physicists; secret goverment organizations; technology; Star Wars; SDI
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The Price of Research
Doing a broader take on the "frog story", the Chronicle investigates the story of corporate influence in conflict with the values of scientific integrity and independent academic research. The "frog story" goes thus : After being hired by a pesticide manufacturer to study the effect of atrazine on frogs, Tyron Hayes - a Univ. of California professor- began to suspect that the company was trying to suppress his findings because they might threaten the re-approval of the product by the Environmental Protection Agency. After Mr. Hayes broke with his research sponsor, Syngenta, other academic scientists who continued to work for the company attacked his work. Allies of the company from the agriculture industry and critics of the environmental regulation also moved to discredit him.
Tags: herbicide
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Sins of the Father
An investigation by WFTS-TV revealed that the St. Petersburg Diocese refuses to do a credible independent investigation of one of the Bishop's favorite high ranking priests who is accused of sexual misconduct by a fellow priest, a woman who was studying to be a nun and the victim of sexual misconduct. Moreover, the church claims the priest took and passed a polygraph but they refused repeated requests to allow (WFTS-TV) to examine the questions and results. The three highly credible witnesses insist the abuse occurred when Father Robert Morris was a seminary student in the late 1980s. Father Morris, designated by the bishop to counsel all troubled priests, denied the allegations. Yet, because of our investigation and subsequent reports he is cleared. The bishop then conducts a sham investigation into the charges and clears Father Morris. The church investigation did not include interviews with two of the three credible witnesses: a priest and a woman who at the time of the misconduct was studying to be a nun."
Tags: St. Petersburg; Diocese; investigation; sexual misconduct; Catholic Church; Father Robert Morris; tape; transcript
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On Their Own
An investigation by the Sacramento Bee reveals that students in California's Independent Study programs earn credit for "watered-down and highly questionable courses." Deb Kollars found that "such schools have abysmal records when it comes to preparation for college, vocational education and dropout rates."
Tags: schools; independent study; california; classes; high school; students; education; system
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Watchdogs on Short Leashes
A Center for Public Integrity study reveals that "more than half of the nation's state legislatures have no independent oversight of elected legislators' ethical conduct." One of the major findings is that only 23 states have independent commissions that investigate or enforce violations of ethical conduct violations. Some lawmakers have used the budget writing process to 'punish' their ethics commission, the Center finds. The vast majority of the existing commissions fail to initiate any large investigations because they lack power and financial support. The report includes nationwide overview and state-by-state breakdowns, comparing the state commissions' budgets, significance of findings and actual enforcement power.
Tags: lawmakers; legislators; agenda setting; conflicts of interests; ethics statutes; accountability; disclosure
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Cancer Cluster in Silicon Valley
CBS News reports "that many workers who spent lifetimes making computer chips in Silicon Valley suffer from life-threatening cancers. The workers attribute their health problems to years of exposure to dangerous chemicals but the industry denies their claims and refuses to allow any independent health study of its employees. Government health agencies expressed alarm at the findings but our investigation discovered that not one agency was actively studying the cancer claims...."
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The Virus and the Vaccine
The Atlantic Monthly investigates the claim that a simian monkey virus known as SV40 may cause mesothelioma, a rare but pernicious form of cancer. From 1955 to 1963, the polio vaccine was mass produced using monkey kidneys and thus was contaminated with SV40. According to the magazine's investigation, "the presence of SV40 in human tumors has been reported on in more than forty independent research papers" but federal health officials, who cite two studies to the contrary, believe the positive results were caused by laboratory contamination.
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Bitter Pill: How a Drug Firm Paid for University Study, Then Undermined It.
The Wall Street Journal investigates how a large drug company sponsored and then buried independent research which concluded that its biggest product was no better than far cheaper rivals. Its suppression of the potentially devastating study included efforts to personally discredit the scientists and threat of legal retaliation.
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Professor Forced to Donate Deckhead
The story covered a Metropolitan State College of Denver business professor who, in one year, had taught only one independent study student, but was being paid $66,227, more than most professors. Her employment contract stated that "she would make four quarterly payments of $16,556.75," the sum of her entire yearly contract, to the Metro Foundation, a Metropolitan State College private charity. (December 6, 1996)
Tags: Stephenson Professor forced to donate deckhead Contest entry 3 pgs. Student entry