Board Protest Stops a Shake-Up of the Dahlem Conferences

摘要

Berlin—A crisis over the future of the prestigious Dahlem Conferences in Berlin that was brewing into a major furor has been calmed—at least for now. On 14 February, president Dieter Lenzen of the Free University in Berlin, which administers the conferences, agreed to reinstate a staff member whom the administration had dismissed and to protect the meetings from outside meddling with the scientific agenda. Lenzen took these steps after he received a letter from members of Dahlem's scientific advisory board charging that the university was damaging the scientific reputation of the meetings and announcing their decision to resign. Several had said they would try to reestablish the conferences outside the university. But Lenzen's last-minute change of heart appears to have mollified at least some of the critics, who say they will give the university another chance.