diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/servlet/setup/JenaPersistentDataSourceSetup.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/servlet/setup/JenaPersistentDataSourceSetup.java
index 36d451301..b30b04921 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/servlet/setup/JenaPersistentDataSourceSetup.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/servlet/setup/JenaPersistentDataSourceSetup.java
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
 import org.joda.time.DateTime;
 import org.joda.time.format.ISODateTimeFormat;
 
+import com.hp.hpl.jena.ontology.OntDocumentManager;
 import com.hp.hpl.jena.ontology.OntModel;
 import com.hp.hpl.jena.query.Query;
 import com.hp.hpl.jena.query.QueryExecution;
@@ -35,6 +36,9 @@ public class JenaPersistentDataSourceSetup extends JenaDataSourceSetupBase
 	public void contextInitialized(ServletContextEvent sce) {	    
         ServletContext ctx = sce.getServletContext();
         StartupStatus ss = StartupStatus.getBean(ctx);
+        
+        // we do not want to fetch imports when we wrap Models in OntModels
+        OntDocumentManager.getInstance().setProcessImports(false);
 		
         // user accounts Model
         try {