Tennessee Tech Disavows Maligned Glider Kit Study Pending Review
Tennessee Tech’s president has sent a letter to the EPA urging that it not to use the university’s glider kit environmental impact study pending an investigation into the validy of its results. Photo: Tom Berg
“>
The president of Tennessee Technical University, Philip Oldham, has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to withhold any use or reference to a controversial study ithe university conducted on the environmental impact of glider kit vehicles until it has fully investigated the validity of the study’s results.
The study, titled “Environmental & Economic Study of Glider Kit Assemblers,” came under fire after it was revealed that Fitzgerald Glider Kits funded the research, which was used to counter restrictions on glider kiit mnaufacturing put in plce by the Obama administration. According to a report by The Washington Post, Fitzgerald paid about $70,000 to finance the study and later agreed to build a new academic research center for TTU.
In a Feb. 19 letter to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt obtained by the New York Times, Oldham writes that “knowledgeable experts within the University have questioned the methodology and accuracy of the report,” and that the university would be pursuing a peer review of the study to assure its validity. He also sent the same letter to Rep. Diane Black (R-TN) and to Tommy Fitzgerald, owner of Fitzgerald Glider Kits.
Oldham was under pressure by TTU’s faculty to disavow the report and a letter that was sent to Rep. Black who used the information to fight the glider kit restrictions in Congress. The faculty said that the study damaged the university’s reputation and integrity.
A memo from the interim dean of TTU’s College of Engineering Darrell Hoy further detailed the allegations of misconduct in research pertaining to the glider kit study, which are being subjected to peer review. The …Read the rest of this story
