An IRB and a board of directors aren't remotely similar. UMN actually does have a board of trustees but they've had literally nothing to do with this incident.

An IRB and a board of directors aren't remotely similar. UMN actually does have a board of trustees but they've had literally nothing to do with this incident. The senior administration (and the CS&E department prior to the mailing list blowup) never even knew that this research was happening.