Students advocating for an alternative to animal dissection in biology courses have received support from the Student Government Association and University President Robert Caret in recent weeks.
Members of Tiger PAW (People for Animal Welfare) will meet with the biology department Tuesday afternoon to discuss their objections with chair Richard Seigel.
The SGA unanimously supported the group’s efforts in an April 26 vote.
“The SGA resolution will help make it more official...we have a student basis of support,” said Tiger PAW president Nicole Zeichner, a junior geography major.
At an SGA-sponsored “Study Break” meeting with student groups April 8, Caret said Towson used to offer alternatives to dissection and seemed surprised that they are no longer available.
“Talking to President Caret really encouraged us,” sophomore animal behavior and psychology major Lauren Peck said. “When he [worked at Towson] previously, this was implemented in the biology department.”
Caret said he would definitely support another policy at Towson, Zeichner added.
“He also said that he would e-mail the biology department and ask them to meet with us,” she said.
Tiger PAW members said they had been frustrated by the biology department’s lack of communication on the issue.
“We’ve made several attempts to contact the biology department,” Peck said. “They don’t ever answer us back or write us back.”
Seigel disputed that statement.
“I don’t know why they would say that,” he said, adding that the group had never requested a meeting until last week.
Zeichner hopes the group can explain their position to the department.
“We’re going to ask what they think about it and if they are considering doing it…and tell them our feelings about it,” Zeichner said.
Tiger PAW has been advocating for a dissection alternative since Fall 2001.
“Just because students do not want to dissect animals doesn’t mean that they cannot be successful in these classes or in the majors/careers that encompass these courses,” the group’s resolution to the SGA said.
The group collected 800 signatures supporting a policy change last semester.
Zeichner said almost every student she spoke to while gathering petition signatures supported the effort.
“The only people that didn’t, said ‘I wouldn’t want a doctor that didn’t work on living animals,’ but Towson’s not a medical school—and even top medical schools have choice dissection policies,” Zeichner said.
She noted that Harvard, Yale and Columbia are among schools that offer alternatives for students.
“It’s really not a lot that we’re asking,” Peck said.
Tiger PAW’s SGA resolution noted that dissection alternatives are less expensive than actual animals. It referenced one organization that loans alternative resources to schools for free.
Peck recognized the need for an alternative when she dissected several animals in her zoology class.
“I didn’t mind it, but I could tell that other people did mind doing it,” she said. “It’s different when you’re doing a worm, but doing mammals or even fish is, to a lot of people, really inhumane.”
She thinks biology students should dissect animals, but it shouldn’t be required for general education classes.
“It’s not helping anything that they’re ever going to do ever again,” Peck stressed.
Tiger PAW members justified their resolution in a PowerPoint presentation to the SGA. The presentation noted that some students are ethically or religiously against the practice of dissection.
“Students may find it simply easier to avoid science classes altogether than to confront the teacher, challenge the curriculum and request an alternative,” one bullet point said. “This is how some of our most compassionate students are shut out of careers in biology and human health sciences.”
Instructors would still have flexibility in their lesson plans, the group said.
“The policy will not eliminate academic freedom,” the resolution said. “Instructors will still have the freedom to determine which alternatives will best teach the lesson, as well as honoring the beliefs of the students.”
Zeichner said the resistance to a student choice dissection policy baffles her.
“We think it is just [the biology department following] tradition,” Zeichner said. “It’s a reluctance to change.”
Seigel said the current policy was established by the University and is similar to other schools across the state.
“We’ve given this a lot of thought over the years,” he said.
Zeichner is optimistic about a solution.
“I’m hoping we’ll be able to work out some kind of policy that both the department and the group can agree on,” she said.
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