The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) has informed Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal that they will not hold their 2011 annual meeting in New Orleans, due to Louisiana's passage of a new state law that will make it easier to teach creationism in public schools.
“It is the firm opinion of S.I.C.B.’s leadership that this law undermines the integrity of science and science education in Louisiana,” wrote Richard A. Satterlie, president of the society’s executive committee, in a letter dated Feb. 5, 2009 to Governor Jindal.
The SICB has over 2300 members, mostly professional scientists who specialize in several biological disciplines, including physiology, ecology, behavior, genetics, development, and evolution. The organization joined a number of national scientific societies in strongly opposing Louisiana State bill SB 561 and, after the legislation was passed by the Louisiana House and Senate, the group urged Governor Jindal to veto it.
Jindal signed the controversial law into legislation in June, 2008.
"The SICB leadership could not support New Orleans as our meeting venue because of the official position of the state in weakening science education and specifically attacking evolution in science curricula. Utah, in contrast, passed a resolution that states that evolution is central to any science curriculum," Satterlie wrote.
The group has selected Salt Lake, Utah for the 2011 annual meeting instead of New Orleans, "in large part because of legislation SB 561," according to the letter. It did not elaborate on any of the other factors that were involved in the decision by the society's executive committee.
Perhaps another factor was the consideration that there would probably be fewer distractions in Salt Lake City than in New Orleans.