48 THE SCIENTIST | the-scientist.com
COURTESY OF JOEY RAMPAssuming the committee had misunder-
stood their proposal, Ramp and Rhodes
had multiple meetings with Pat Malik,
the director of DRES, and also spoke with
IACUC head Josh Gulley. Rhodes then
went before the entire committee to explain
the scientific rationale and assure them
that the experiment would be “pretty much
innocuous” for the mice involved—IACUC’s
main concern being for the welfare of the
animals and the scientific justification for
any harm they might endure. But again in
March, the committee denied the request.
“I didn’t understand w h y,” Rhodes says.
“I’m still surprised.”
The second rejection letter listed
four main objections, including concerns
related to the study’s purpose, the lack of
a hypothesis, and the possible biosecu-
rity risk. But none of the arguments “held
any water,” Rhodes insists. “It’s the kind of
experience where you think you’re going
crazy.... There doesn’t seem to be any legit-
imate reason why they would block us.”
Rhodes has never had another pro-
tocol rejected by the IACUC at U of I—
and he’s written a dozen or more—nor
does he know anyone who has had a pro-
tocol rejected. B. Taylor Bennett, senior
scientific advisor at the National Associ-
ation for Biomedical Research, says that
IACUCs “rarely reject a protocol outright
unless it involves projects that they are not
equipped to support, or where the biose-
curity of the animals would be an issue.”
Gulley says he is not able to comment
on specific IACUC submissions. Juraska,
who has not read the protocol, has con-
cerns about Ramp conducting the experi-
ment herself. “That would not be correctscientific practice,” she writes to The Sci-
entist. “A disinterested person should do
the actual experiment, one who does not
have a stake in the outcome and does not
even know whether the dog is in the room.”Ramp says she suspects that Sampson’s
ban from the psych lab and the IACUC’s
rejection of their proposal are related, and
stem from prejudice against people with
service dogs. In May, she filed a complaint
with the US Department of Education’s
Office for Civil Rights (OCR) alleging dis-
crimination by the university, the IACUC
committee, and Juraska.
“We think that the entire response of
the university reflects discrimination and
in some respects may reflect retaliation for
her efforts... to bring her dog in [to the
lab],” says Ramp’s lawyer Matt Cohen, who
specializes in disability rights.
The university declined to partici-
pate in mediation, Cohen says, and theOCR has initiated an investigation on
the IACUC’s rejection. (The agency is not
investigating Sampson’s ban from the psy-
chology lab course because the complaint
was filed more than 180 days after the inci-dent.) The university would not confirm or
deny the complaint or investigation.Ramp paves the way
Regardless of the outcome of her legal
case, Ramp is hoping that her story will
motivate the development of better guide-
lines for making accommodations for
people with service dogs in the sciences,
whether in laboratory classes or research
facilities with animals.
Service animals are becoming more
common—the number of active guide,
hearing, and service dogs in North Amer-
ica, Australia, New Zealand, and Asia
nearly doubled between 2009 and 2017,
from 10,769 to 19,144, says Chris Diefen-
thaler, operations administrator at Assis-
tance Dogs International. Thus, this is an
issue that universities are likely to face
more frequently.
According to Kaler, U of I is already
developing an update to its policy on ani-
mals on campus. Administrators have
been working for a year on a version that
will specifically mention labs. The new
policy has been reviewed by the universi-
ty’s legal team and has begun the process
of review by the university. Students, fac-
ulty, and other staff will have the opportu-A LWAYS THERE: Sampson
accompanies Ramp to a ceremony
for a Fred S. Bailey scholarship she
was awarded.It’s hard to come up with hard and fast rules that are simple
enough for everyone to follow and still are accept able legally.
—Jean Earle, ECLC of New Jersey