Students wonder what's going on with the DNA cluster project and why there is so much secrecy. "It is time to stop the aura of secrecy with which the DNA cluster project has been covered... The question is, when exactly is the administration planning on releasing the business plan? And why are they holding it back so vehemently?"

The debate surrounding the DNA cluster project picked up again in the last couple of weeks.

On the one hand, the city of Peterborough presented Trent with a list of nine issues that it wants addressed in return for the two million dollars it is planning to spend on the DNA cluster project. The city is basically requesting land for various projects (a new bridge, a future ring road on the east bank, a sports field, affordable housing, etc.). It also wants an expedite resolution for a long-standing project on a power generation project in the Otonabee river.

President Patterson was queried at the last senate meeting on the land requests, and provided no conclusive answers. The only answer she gave was that the proposed site for the sports facility was an absolute no because it is located on the Nature Areas. Some of the proposed projects would be beneficial to the university, such as a new bridge or the expansion of the rotary trail into campus. Others, such as a strip of land on Water St. for affordable housing, are potentially contentious because of its commercial value. The university has yet to formally respond to the city, but it appears that the Board of Governors discussed these issues at their closed session last Friday.

More controversially however, the Trent administration refused to release the DNA cluster business plan to the city of Peterborough. At a city council meeting, two councilors asked Trent to provide the city with a copy of the business plan. The councilors were told they wouldn’t get it.

When exactly is the the administration planning on releasing the DNA cluster business plan?

This event immediately raised the question of how real a partner the city of Peterborough is if it can’t see the business plan behind the cluster. The city is giving two million dollars to the project, and is listed as an official partner in the website. Given all this, how can it be that it would not be allowed to have at least a look at the business plan? Apparently not even two million dollars will buy you access to the business plan.

Trent is supposedly a public institution, where information should be freely accessible. Moreover, the bulk of funding for the DNA cluster project comes from public sources. Nevertheless, the Freedom of Information Act does not apply to universities the same way it applies to other public institutions and they are under no legal obligation to release it.

It is time to stop the aura of secrecy with which the DNA cluster project has been covered

Given the controversy surrounding the DNA cluster project and its financial viability for Trent, holding back on the business plan is only adding more fuel to the fire. The Board of Governors will only talk about the cluster in its closed sessions and not even the city gets to see the business plan. On the other hand, proponents of the project continue to speak publicly only on the virtues of DNA research (DNA is the molecule of life...) and promising high-tech jobs for Peterborough, but not on the contentious topics of commercialization, intellectual property rights, contingency plans if the cluster flops and financial responsibility.

The question is, when exactly is the the administration planning on releasing the business plan? And why are they holding it back so vehemently? They already have blueprints for the first set of buildings, which are supposed to be up by December this year, but nobody is to see the plan behind it.

Proponents of the cluster are confident of the revolutionary potential of DNA research for Peterborough and Trent. It is about time they also present, with confidence, a fully developed project for the community to see and scrutinize, and stop the aura of secrecy with which they have covered the DNA cluster project.