But surely this proves malice aforethought. If you interact with someone under false pretences to deliberately mislead them, then you are effectively lying to them. In fact, if you are doing so in order to receive something of value from them (such as their time reviewing your code) then it could even be seen as fraud.
Did they tell their IRB that their research involved deception? Before declaring the project exempt from oversight, the IRB should have required that the researchers answer a question like "Does your research involve interacting with people who are not aware of your project and who would act differently if they were aware?"
Until the IRB process at the university contains at least this level of protection against such ethical failings (not just in Computer Science research but across all areas of study) I think it is right for the kernel team to refuse to interact with members of that institution.