Research Policies Committee Notes
Research Policies Committee Meeting Notes
November 14, 1997
10:00-12:00 noon
4006 Fleming

RPC members present: Richard Altschuler, David Ballou, Jack East, Kelly Grove, James House (chair), Valerie Lee, David Musch, Anna Rath, Anil Subramani, Ben van der Pluijm
OVPR staff present: Julie Ellison, Lee Katterman, Tim Killeen, Fred Neidhardt, Judy Nowack, Jackie Hoats (staff)

Changes to the September and October meeting notes can be proposed to Jackie Hoats over e-mail (jhoats@umich.edu)

Update from the Chair: Discovery Process
Jim House sent a letter to Provost Cantor describing RPC's intention to send a message to faculty asking for input; the proposed message to faculty was also included for her review. Cantor is comfortable with the process and the message to faculty. As for the discovery process itself, Cantor has said the subgroup of deans is fairly well along in their work, though they must still go through the process of talking and working with the heads of institutes and centers. RPC input is desired as early as possible, perhaps as soon as early December. SACUA said they will post the message by e-mail to members of the University Senate. Jim House requested suggestions from RPC members about the content of the message to faculty. RPC members responded with minor changes. It was decided that a special meeting exclusive of OVPR staff would be arranged (December 5) to discuss the comments and December 2 would be the deadline for comments. A special RPC members-only e-mail group will be created to receive faculty comments. There was discussion of the level of specificity in the memo. It was noted that if the memo is too specific in stating items to which faculty should respond, then the nature of the "discovery" would be limited. The group acknowledged that the process will not result in a representative sample of opinions; it will be up to the committee to balance the views. Judy Nowack noted that there will be a Research Council meeting on December 1 and Nancy Cantor will be the guest speaker. It is likely that issues related to the discovery process will arise, and RPC members may be interested in attending.

Updates from OVPR
Fred Neidhardt talked about the discovery process. He said the October presentation by OVPR senior staff to the subcommittee of deans went very well. An outline of the presentation is in this month's RPC agenda. Neidhardt said the progression of the discovery process has been completely consistent with the substance and tone of the October RPC discussion with Provost Cantor.

Neidhardt said on October 23 in Washington DC Vern Ehlers launched the public portion of his discussions to produce a policy statement regarding support of research. He will be seeking the full support of congress, both political parties, and the administration. Ehlers invited a group of about 30 people with the goal of discussion on the components of a compact and expressing the views of the University. Rowena Matthews represented the UM and presented a paper at the roundtable.

Neidhardt said the committee on environmental studies at UM, chaired by the dean of SNRE, is doing a census of the enormous amount of work done in these areas throughout all schools at UM. A report is planned to document the range of such activities at UM, and a year-long colloquium on related topics will be sponsored by OVPR.

Neidhardt said he recently attended a meeting of the CIC Senior Research Executives. Next spring the group will go to Washington DC to meet with selected congressional representatives.

Neidhardt said the search is getting underway for a new director of the Reproductive Sciences Program.

Judy Nowack displayed a draft of the UM/ORI conference announcement. The conference is titled "Managing Integrity in Research" and will be held in the Rackham Building, February 10-11, 1998. Sessions and times are now in place. The current effort is to get publicity out in time. Harold Shapiro will deliver the keynote address and coincidentally a report of his committee, the National Bioethics Advisory Committee, is expected to be available around that time. There will be sessions on building and maintaining ethical norms and a culture of integrity. A panel led by Charles Eisendrath will look at media perceptions of academic integrity. If enough materials can be obtained from other institutions there will be a multimedia library open for browsing. A session for research integrity officers on alternative dispute resolution is also planned for the end of the second day. David Ballou said that researchers should ask themselves why they are doing research in the first place. If the motivation for research is not to get to the truth, if the reason for one's research is money or glory, then this will lead one onto the wrong path, he said. RPC members agreed and Jim House said that more than imposing structures for integrity, we need to build a foundation and start early with students during their undergraduate education.

Nowack said that Federal regulations governing the use of human subjects allow certain categories of proposals to be reviewed in an expedited way. Expedited review results in a much quicker turn-around for approval of these proposals. Nowack said that NIH-CDC came out Monday with a suggestion for a new broader articulation of what types of proposals can be expedited. It is open for comment until March 10, 1998. RPC members are invited to comment. The old procedure for expedited review will remain in place until the new one is formally approved.

Nowack noted that it is nearly time to select faculty to attend the 1998 Poynter Center Workshop on Teaching Research Ethics. She asked RPC members to please forward ideas for candidates.

Nowack said the 1998 Research Scientist Award nomination solicitation has been sent out to all research scientists and others around campus. Enclosed in the November RPC agenda is a list of eligible Research Scientists. This list will go to the Research Associate Deans group as well.

Undergraduate Research: Julie Ellison and Tim Killeen
Julie Ellison and Tim Killeen have been working together on the research and undergraduate education initiative. Tim Killeen said one of the reasons he came to OVPR was his interest in undergraduate research. Killeen said OVPR has historically felt very strongly about the integration of research and teaching. He noted that in July OVPR made a presentation to the Regents regarding research and undergraduate education at UM. The exhibits from the report are included in the November RPC agenda. Killeen said progress has been made on this initiative but there is a lot more to do and faculty input would be very helpful. Neidhardt, Ellison, and Killeen met with the president in April and made the case for why the integration of research and undergraduate education is so important. Killeen said that it is necessary to articulate clearly for the public the benefits of a research institution as large as UM and to make clear the positive effect the vitality of UM research has upon undergraduate education.

The OVPR report looks back to 19th century for UM's roots as the perfect place for undergraduate research. President Tappan made statements about the importance of the creation as well as the dissemination of knowledge. Tappan brought in zoologists and other scientists as some of the first professors in an effort to combine utilitarian and humanitarian principles in education. UM was also the home of the first microbiology laboratory. Additionally, UM introduced electives before other universities.

Research-related developments in undergraduate education in the last 10-15 years have included UROP (established in 1988), living and learning environments, and the women in science and engineering residence hall program. Killeen noted that in 1996 UM received the NSF Recognition Award for the Integration of Research and Education.

Killeen also noted that eleven years ago Homer Neal was the chair of an NSF committee which conducted a major review of science education (known as the "Neal Report"). So, the undergraduate education initiative does seem the logical next step for UM, and NSF is looking to us for leadership, Killeen said. Killeen said that UROP can only reach so many students, but does not reach NSF's goal of a research experience for all students. The current undergraduate research initiative attempts to find a way to "mainstream research" for undergraduates.

RPC members commented. David Ballou expressed concern that currently a student's research experience may involve only one professor who then is responsible for teaching the student about all aspects of research in their lab, yet students may benefit more from experiences in various labs. Perhaps classes are needed which are devoted to basics such as the scientific method, how to form hypotheses, instead of just the specific techniques of a certain discipline.

Julie Ellison said she comes to this issue from the humanities were the emphasis is on collaborative teaching more than on sponsored projects. One of the community benefits of the research and education initiative is that all faculty and students can buy into it and yet it doesn't have to always take the same form. The challenge is finding discipline-appropriate experiences since one model won't work for all disciplines. Then there is the question of scale, that is, how to reach more students. More questions include how to transform the lecture course format into an effective vehicle for learning about research, and how to build effective one-on-one relationships between faculty and students. Additional ideas include a capstone project or senior thesis, and a University course (such as "writing across the curriculum") on methods of research, not just techniques. It is important for students to attain fluency in a number of modes of expression. Ellison cited some existing programs and learning arrangements that could be models, such as the independent study model, the Fogarty program, and the community-based program model. She said a mutual learning relationship between faculty and student is key, including opportunities for intellectual risk taking and intellectual agency. She noted the importance of utilizing graduate students as mentors as well as the creation of inter-generational teams. The YoHA Course Community is using some of these approaches.

Ellison and Killeen showed the video on undergraduate research and education which was shown to Regents in July. Killeen noted that we need to find ways of distilling why the UROP programs are successful. This year 900 students are enrolled in UROP. In addition to increasing academic performance, student attrition drops by a factor of 2 for those enrolled in UROP.

Jim House said getting research training into courses is very important. Currently it is very hard to involve students on a project because it is a great effort to bring them up to speed on the required work. It could help if the graduate student population were tapped in order to help with training. House said Sociology does this. Ben van der Pluijm expressed concern that mainstreaming research education to all students may reduce the individual attention because faculty will be overextended. Speaking of current UROP programs, Valerie Lee said that depending on the specific circumstances of the project student expectations may or may not be met despite initial enthusiasms. Ellison said this is the very reason we need to think about how to improve upon the status quo. This topic will be continued at a future meeting.

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