Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter has announced that his office will review “and take appropriate actions” regarding what an Academic Senate committee termed an “egregious” violation of academic freedom at the UC Davis Health System.

Hexter’s response came June 8 after the senate’s delegate body earlier that day admonished health system officials for the alleged violation concerning Professor Michael Wilkes, an expert on prostate cancer.

In a message on his website, Hexter said: “Academic freedom is sacrosanct at UC Davis, and the underlying assertions in this matter are deeply troubling. My office will review this case and take appropriate actions.”

The Representative Assembly acted on three resolutions from the Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility. The assembly cast a single vote on all three resolutions, approving them as amended, 52-0.

The assembly then voted 50-0 to approve a resolution of its own. It “condemns health system and campus legal counsels for drafting inappropriate and apparently threatening letters that violated a faculty member’s right to academic freedom.”

The resolutions, which have been sent to the chancellor, are posted here.

The case stems from “a free UC Davis Men’s Health Seminar” Sept. 28, 2010, hosted by faculty members of the School of Medicine and held on the Sacramento campus, according to the senate committee’s investigative report. The advertisement for the event stated: “Prostate Defense Begins at 40” and “Know Your Stats.”

Wilkes learned of the program on Sept. 16, according to the committee report. That same day, he sent an e-mail to health system officials noting his concern about the forthcoming presentation, especially in regard to the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test.

“Prof. Wilkes suggested it was contradictory for UCDMS (School of Medicine) to teach evidence-based medicine and concurrently host an event promoting the use of PSA, which he characterized as ‘far away from evidence-based,’” according to the committee report.

The program went on as scheduled. Two days later, on Sept. 30, the San Francisco Chronicle printed an opinion piece titled “PSA tests can cause more harm than good,” by Wilkes and a colleague from another university.

This precipitated “inappropriate retaliatory statements of disciplinary sanction and legal action in the hours and days following the publication of a professional expert commentary perceived by some to be against university interests,” the Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility wrote in its report.

The senate committee’s investigative report is available online, as part of the Representative Assembly’s agenda for the June 8. The report begins on page 62.