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Instructional and Research Support Committee Meeting: 01/23/2008

Instructional and Research Support Committee Meeting
January 23, 2008

Present: Nancy Place, IRSC Chair; Carolyn Brennan, Nives Dolsak, Cynthia Fugate, Munehiro Fukuda, Selina Mohammed, Pete Nye and Becky Reed Rosenberg

Guests: Jason Beard and Elizabeth Fischtziur

Introduction

Nancy opened the meeting with introductions:  Nancy Place, Chair of the IRSC, Education Program; Becky Reed Rosenberg, Director, Teaching, Learning Center (TLC); Elizabeth Fischzsiur, Director, Marketing and Publications; Jason Beard, Web Designer; Selina Mohammed, IRSC member, Nursing; Carolyn Brennan, IRSC member (ex officio, Director, Office of Research Support; Pete Nye, IRSC member, Business; Nives Dolsak, IRSC member, IAS, Barbara Van Sant, Administrative Coordinator, GFO and Munehiro Fukuda, IRSC member, CSS.

Adoption of Agenda

            Agenda was approved.

Approval of IRSC minutes of November 19, 2007.

            IRSC minutes of November 19, 2007 were approved unanimously.

Report on Undergraduate Research Grants - Nives, Pete and Selina

            Selina, Nives and Pete reviewed 5 faculty proposals for Collaborative Undergraduate Research Program grants for the academic year 2007/08.  Nives submitted a memo to Becky Rosenberg, Director of TLC dated November 29, 2007 which outlines her feedback on the review process and her recommendations on the process.  She distributed this memo to the IRSC for review.  She recommended 3 procedural changes to the form used by the grant applicants:

1. Explicitly ask faculty about their process of mentoring students. 
2. Consider requesting faculty to provide timelines for projects.
3. Propose that if the faculty should plan to encourage students to present this research at professional meetings, the faculty explicitly plan for - ideally budget for - students' presentation at a variety of venues.  Encourage faculty to explore lower cost, shorter lead-time presentation venues for students.

Nives also recommends that the review process use a dual approach to reviewing the grant applications.  She states in the memo that the recommendations are based on her review of the proposals from the perspective of the pedagogy and that some of the proposals were outside of her area of expertise.  She would therefore recommend a second review by someone who could address the appropriateness of research methods proposed or contribute to the evaluation of the application in that field. 

Becky spoke to a concern voiced about the timing of presentations before graduation.   She told the IRSC that if students graduate and are still able to present at conferences, UWB or elsewhere, we can fund them as co-presenters.  Becky will re-draft the form for the Collaborative Undergraduate Research Program grants and detail explicit budget parameters. 

IRSC discussion

• Students are encouraged to present at a conference, but it is not a requirement upon graduation.
• The opportunity to present at the UW undergraduate research symposium should be more assessable for UWB students, how can we support this?
• The TLC has $10,000 a year for funding Collaborative Undergraduate Research Grants, five grants are awarded to faculty for $2000 to be used for a variety of research expenses.  These grants are resources for faculty and student collaboration in areas of faculty research.
• In addition to the collaborative grants, the TLC has resources to fund attendance at conferences for faculty and students.
• The TLC has extended the calendar for science faculty to apply for funding, since their research can go into summer.

Grants awarded this year went to Kari Lerum, IAS; Becca Price, IAS; Munehiro Fukuda, CSS; Mike Stiber, CSS; and Clark Olson, CSS.

Nancy thanked Selina, Nives and Pete for collaborating with Becky to review these grant proposals.

Report on the Technology Policy Advisory Group - Munehiro

            This group is planning a meeting in March.

New Business

       A.   Making UWB's intellectual capital more visible in the community:

            Nancy opened discussion on the IRSC's role in promoting communication both internally and externally to showcase UWB's intellectual capital.  This is a growth point in the life of this campus and it is vital for us to communicate what we are accomplishments are and the contributions that UWB is making to the region.  The IRSC identified 3 areas that could have a positive impact on delivering these goals:                                                                                                                                                                       

             i.    Public relations

             Nives pointed out that UWB will at times hire external consultants to work on issues that could be undertaken as a project by faculty and graduate students here, we should be taking advantage of our expertise.  On the positive side, in policy analysis, UWB students have worked with community partners on projects.  UWB can look to our faculty and students for consultation and solutions rather than going to external sources. 

IRSC discussion 

• One of the limiting factors at UWB is the lack of communication; we do not have a comprehensive view what the programs are doing.
• Munehiro recently submitted a proposal to Microsoft for a project and although we are the closest campus to Microsoft, some of their program managers were not aware that research is being conducted at UWB. This is a public relations concern.
• We need to advertise UWB in the region.
• UWS highlights research of faculty and undergraduates; this is a venue for the community to come to campus. UWB needs to develop this; we need to bring the public to campus.
• Nives expressed thanks to the web developers for re-vamping the UWB homepage and highlighting events on campus. What can we do to further promote UWB?
• An addition to the homepage that features content on faculty publications, community projects and faculty/student research would publicize non-event news.
• UWB's Education Program is sponsoring a public presentation in Everett given by Dr. Andrew Shouse. This lecture has been widely promoted to the public and is an excellent example of how UWB can advance their presence in the community and foster communication and outreach.
• A UWB faculty Speaker Series could be a great first step in highlighting the faculty at UWB, their research and interests. This series would bring the public to campus and be one way to build stronger public relations.
• The Academic Affairs Office used to send out quarterly reminders to the campus community to gather information on faculty research, publications, grant awards or anything noteworthy to publish in a newsletter. This communication network was effective and should be re-visited.

Conclusion

            The IRSC can play a role in developing internal and external communication to promote the campus and faculty through advertising events and working with the Office of Public Relations and Communications.  One important way for this to happen is to re-establish a newsletter or in some way publicize faculty accomplishments through the web or in print.  Information gathering from each program is needed to collect and disseminate this news across the campus.  The IRSC will recommend developing a faculty Speakers Series at UWB.  Elizabeth Fischtziurz thanked the committee for suggestions and is dedicated to working with the IRSC to implement their recommendations and to foster ongoing collaboration.  Carolyn will add a sentence to the job description for the Academic Affairs program assistant position about publishing a newsletter.

            ii.   UWB Website

            Jason Beard talked with the IRSC about the UWB homepage and Web Services.  He welcomed suggestions to add an announcement system to advertise faculty lectures, publications or any important information on faculty research or achievements.  Although the calendar posts campus events, a caption that lists current accomplishments or items of interest on the faculty could begin to make our intellectual capital more visible.

IRSC discussion 

• It is not the purview of this committee to organize the Speaker Series, the IRSC will make the recommendation to the Executive Council.
• The first step is to find a way to surface information from each program and coordinate communication both internally and externally to draw attention to the array of events. A new calendaring system may help with that. Cynthia will keep the committee updated on functionality of this system as a tool for multi-layered calendaring.
• We need to look at faculty and student workshops, symposiums, presentations, etc.
• Bring research conversation to a campus level.
• Cynthia stated that LB1 205 is now open for use at the library. It offers a free venue for events, seats 60 and has a podium.
• Collaboration with Cascadia Community College could also help foster community partnerships and outreach.
• 2 events sponsored by the TLC are the Community Partnership Fair on May 7 (Cascadia Community College and UWB service learning) and the annual Space Huskies Community Science Fair on June 11.
• Academic Affairs will sponsor a campus luncheon with presentations given by faculty returning from sabbatical, sharing their research activities.
• It would be good to extend this idea beyond returning faculty to all faculty campus-wide.
• Should we look at rewarding faculty for the Speaker Series, if so, in what way?
• Another option for the Speaker Series is to tie the lecture to the Worthington Award - faculty receiving the award give a presentation at the conclusion of their project.
• Carolyn discussed the new approach to funding Centers at UWB. The approval of a new Center will launch the Center, but the Center must then become independently funded.

Motion

            The IRSC will make a recommendation to the GFO Executive Council to establish a Faculty Speaker Series showcasing faculty scholarly activities at UWB to the campus and broader community.  We recommend 3 widely advertised public events per year to make the intellectual capital of UWB more visible.  The motion was unanimously approved.

              iii. Undergraduate research symposium

             Nives submitted a report to the IRSC on "Strengthening the Collaborative Undergraduate Research Program".  She proposes three ways to support and strengthen collaborative undergraduate research at UWB:

• 1. Provide opportunities for students to present their research to professional/peer audience on UWB campus.
• 2. Support Student Learning Paths.
• 3. Develop a two-prong review process for the Collaborative Undergraduate Research Program

IRSC discussion 

• Nives - the UW undergraduate research symposium is one opportunity for students to present their research, but we need more opportunities at UWB at a campus level. While programs have graduate capstone/senior thesis presentations and internship symposiums, we need to develop an annual UWB undergraduate research symposium for student's work to receive visibility outside their programs. We need to foster a research culture at UWB that rewards and gives recognition to student's research.
• Nives - UWB needs to set up a support system that goes beyond the grant for collaborative projects and supports student's longer learning paths. With extended support, students could participate in an entire research project.
• Becky - the vision for these grants is that they are awarded in Spring with research beginning in September, this way students could target instruction that would prepare to cover general research issues.
• Long-term support on research projects would bring students in.
• Other campuses also support student initiated research projects.
• The IRSC could get involved in working with the Council on Undergraduate Research to get a NSF grant to promote undergraduate research in STEM.
• IRSC could coordinate with the STEM Task Force on this issue.
• Grants from TLC could support panel, poster or roundtable presentations.

Conclusion

            The IRSC will continue discussion on research issues presented at this meeting and carry these issues over to the agenda for IRSC February priorities.

The next IRSC meeting will be Wednesday, February 20, 2008.

Meeting adjourned at 12:00 pm

Minutes submitted by Barbara Van Sant