LSUMC Threat Charges to Be Probed

              LSLJMC threat charges to be probed
From staff, wire reports
The Senate Education Committee
will subpoena witnesses to investigate
allegations of administrative harass-ment
of professors at LSU Medical
Center.
The committee vote for subpoenas
Thursday followed an impassioned
criticism by Sen. Bill Keith, D-Moor-ingsport,
of administrators for
threatening professors with the loss of
their jobs if they spoke publicly in favor
of a separate chancellorship for the
facility.
Questions raised by Keith prompted
the panel to defer action on his bill to
establish a separate chancellorship for
the complex. The center operates under
the chancellor of the LSU Medical
Center system, who is based in New
Orleans.
The subpoenas will be issued for both
professors and administrators for a
hearing June 11.
Keith argued the chancellor's dis-tance
from the Shreveport center re-duces
administrative efficiency and
lowers morale at the school and
hospital.
After the meeting, Keith struck out at
Dr. Allen Copping, the chancellor, con-tending
the he ordered administrators
in Shreveport to harass and intimidate
professors favoring the separate chan-cellorship.
"He's behind the whole thing," said
Keith of Copping. "He's like an octopus
who reaches out with every tentacle he
can find to build him a political
kingdom in this state."
Keith declined to name any of the
administrators who had allegedly in-timidated
the professors. He said they
will be identified at next week's hear-ing.
H
e said he knows of no improprieties
by Dr. Ike Muslow, dean of the medical
center in Shreveport.
"Ike Muslow is a fine man," Keith
said. "He tries hard. He does his best.
But Ike Muslow is working in an im-possible
situation."
Copping, contacted in New Orleans
by telephone, was quick to challenge the
allegations, saying, "That's absolutely
not true. Absolutely not true."
"I have never told anyone that they
could not go to a hearing," said Copping
in reference to Keith's charges that
professors had been urged to stay away
from Thursday's committee meeting.
Copping added that he has never told
any of the center's administrators to put
pressure on personnel wanting to testify
before legislative panels.
"I have never indicated to any of my
administrators .... I have always told
them they could allow their professors
to go and testify even if it were in
opposition to the policies of the mediral
center," said Copping.
Local LSUMC officials said that they
knew of no harassment or intimidation
that prevented staff members from
testifying before the committee.
Muslow and some other officials
were unavailable for comment.
Officials reached by The Times in-cluded
Dr. Helmut Redetzki, head of the
Pharmacology Department, and Dr.
Charles Wood, professor of
pharmacology, who testified before the
special House-Senate Committee in
April and presented the case for a
separate chancellor here.
Redetzki said that since the issue is
under investigation, he didn't want to
comment, but he would be prepared to
talk under oath.
When Wood was asked whether he
had been advised not to testify before
the present committee, he answered, "I
haven't - not directly." Asked to
elaborate, he said, "I have to be very
careful — I was advised against it,
against going."
Wood said his views on the local
chancellorship are well known. "We do
need a separate chancellor. When the
chief administrative officer is 300 miles
away, that is a problem in itself," he
said.
He also said that a poll of the general
faculty last May produced support for a
campus-based chancellor.
Dr. Emil Kotcher, acting head of the
Department of Microbiology, said he
did not know about the harassment
charge, but "no one is scared to testify."
About the case for a local chancellor, he
said, "No comment."
Dr. Joseph Little, head of the Depart-ment
of Pediatrics, said, "I'm am-bivalent.
I think there is an argument
for a chancellor and one for the status
quo." He said that he knew of no one
who had been threatened or harassed.
Most members of the Shreveport
Medical Society are members of the
faculty, but Dr. Loyd C. Megison, socie-ty
president, said the group had not
discussed the matter in the past two
years. "I have no opinion at all," he said.
Megison said that he had heard of no
threats against anyone wanting to
testify.
Copping said he believes having a
single chancellor for the state medical
system is the most efficient and effec-tive.
"Of course," he said, "that involves
me personally, and I think the Board of
Regents, the Board of Supervisors and
the president have to make that de-termination.
"I think the center in Shreveport has
done extremely well aver the past year
and there is nothing but a bright future
for it."
Addressing the committee, Keith
nearly shouted several times in criticis-jng
the administrative setup and listing
problems he has known of or heard
about concerning the center's opera-tions.