Changes to the Faculty-Staff Handbook regarding the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee membership were adopted unanimously Tuesday by the University of Idaho Faculty Senate.
The changes approved relate to requirements to be a member on that committee.
Blair Ehlert, the coordinator of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), spoke at the Faculty Senate about such changes.
Ehlert said the new requirements have been imposed on the IACUC by their regulating bodies and the Faculty Staff Handbook needs to be updated to reflect the new regulations. These regulations stipulate that the committee must have no less than five voting members where it had previously been no less than seven. Additionally, the regulations are more specific about the roles some of those members must fill. The members of the IACUC must include a chairperson, an attending veterinarian, a practicing scientist with experience in the field of animal research, a non-scientist and an individual with no affiliations with UI.
Ehlert said the changes should be made to align university policy with regulations regarding the people who must be sitting on the IACUC. She said doing so would reduce administrative burden.
Ehlert said the current Faculty-Staff Handbook section on the IACUC does not align with those requirements and said they need to be changed to do so.
Ehlert said she has made an effort to make sure the committee members reflect the diverse departments that require institutional review from the committee and the specific animal expertise needed for facilities at the university. She said she hopes the handbook is worded in a way that aligns it with current regulations but doesn’t restrict the committee more than necessary.
Faculty Senator Richard Seamon inquired about the specific requirements for members of the IACUC. Ehlert said the committee member who is not university affiliated cannot have any immediate family that is affiliated with the university and cannot have any history with lab animal research. She also said the non-scientist is required to have no history with lab animal research.
Seamon said he didn’t think those rules were made clear in the changes to the handbook. Ehlert said the handbook only needs to outline regulations and not provide all the rules in depth.
Ehlert said if a faculty member needed to know exactly what the requirements are for being on the IACUC they could consult the specific regulations.
Ehlert said the two sets of regulations the IACUC are required to follow are outlined by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare. The changes in the handbook are designed to be a general overview of both those regulations, Ehlert said.
Elizabeth Brandt, Faculty Secretary, said members of the IACUC are not appointed by the Committee on Committees, the university group that usually handles that type of appointment. As such, the handbook does not need to include overly specific information about requirements, she said.
Brandt said the Institutional Biosafety Committee, which appoints members to the IACUC, are aware of the requirements so including extra information in the FSH is unnecessary.
Gavin Green can be reached at [email protected]