Research – University Policy Committee (R-UPC)
Meeting Minutes – Video Conference

Tuesday, May 22, 2007
1:00 p.m.

CHAIR:   Richard Kennedy
PRESENT:   Nancy Tuchman, Ann Bezbatchenko, Kim Williamson, Duarte Mota de Freitas, and Fred Wezeman, 
EXCUSED: Barbara Rosenwein, Christopher Walker, and Marcia Hermansen
RECORDER:  Carol Wojtulewicz

Dr. Kennedy opened the meeting by asking everyone to introduce themselves and indicated that there were no minutes for review as the R-UPC had not conducted official business since 2004.    

I. Review of Responsibilities

Since the R-UPC had been inactive, the committee briefly reviewed the Purpose, Charge, and Membership:  
 

A. PURPOSE

• Promote and improve the overall quality of Loyola’s research programs and grant proposals
• Responsibility – University-wide policies & procedures pertaining to research matters and grant proposals in all schools and departments.
• Serve as the locus of dialogue in the formulation of University-wide policies (in concert with other regulatory requirements), programs, procedures and guidelines that relate to research and grants.
  

 B. CHARGE

• Review, evaluate and initiate policies related to conflicts of interest in research and misconduct in scholarship.
• Review, evaluate and initiate policies related to intellectual property rights, including copyrights and patents.
• Provide advice on programs and procedures which support research and grant proposals.
• Where appropriate and allowed by regulations, provide advice, review procedures and initiate policies related to research compliance including the use of human subjects in research, the use of non-human animals in research, the use of DNA materials in research, radiation safety, bio-safety, and laboratory safety.
• Oversee the work of those committees and task forces charged with responsibility for implementing policies within the purview of the R-UPC.
• Ensure appropriate consultation with faculty, staff and students in the committee’s deliberations.
• Ensure regular communication among and between University Policy Committees as well as with elected representative bodies and councils, including Faculty Council.
  

C. MEMBERSHIP
The membership should represent a broad spectrum of perspectives.  Committee size should not exceed nine members; five faculty, one staff, one graduate student, the Provost’s designee and the Vice President for Health Sciences’ designee.  The faculty and staff members will serve staggered three-year terms, renewable once. The R-UPC Chair is elected by and among the R-UPC membership.  The Provost and the Vice President for Health Sciences will serve as administrative liaisons.  The committee is supported by the Office of Research Services- Lakeside and the Office of Research Services-LUMC.  Membership as of May 2007 is noted below:

Research University Policy Committee (R-UPC)
NAME	Membership 2007-
Kennedy, Richard, CHAIR Senior Associate Dean, Research 708 216-8434 - SSOM	(ex-officio)
Tuchman, Nancy Assoc. Provost/Research & Centers, Interim Dir, Ctr for Urban Environmental Research & Policy & Prof Biology  773 508-2475 - LSC	(ex-officio)
Bezbatchenko, Ann Academic Advisor, School of Business 312 915-7050 - WTC	June 2009
Hermansen, Marcia Professor, Theology 773 508-2345 - LC	June 2009
Mota De Freitas, Duarte Professor, Chemistry 773 508-3091 - LSC	June 2007
Rosenwein, Barbara Professor, History 773 508-2223	June 2007
Walker, Christopher Graduate Student	June 2007
Wezeman, Frederick Professor & Associate Dean, Graduate School 708 21-61165 - SSOM	June 2008
Williamson, Kim Associate Professor, Biology 773 508-3631	June 2008

As noted above, the terms of three members will expire in June 2007; Duarte Mota de Freitas’ agreed to serve a second term if appointed/elected.  Dr. Kennedy will look into the procedure in place to nominate or assign members.

 

II. Meeting Dates

Those present agreed that meeting twice per semester would be adequate.  Meetings will be confirmed for September, November, February and May.  Video conferencing will be utilized.

 

III. Old Business

Faculty Council (FC) directed the R-UPC to set-up and prominently communicate procedures by which departments can set reasonable work loads for graduate students and by which departments can support undergraduate research.  FC requested that the R-UPC report back in written detail its deliberations.   

A. Graduate Student Activities (discussion summary)

Graduate students’ time and effort is devoted primarily to research, coursework and teaching.  In general, LUMC graduate students do not teach and receive a stipend as Research Assistants.  At the Lakeside Campuses, graduate student time and effort commitment varies significantly; expectations and stipends differ among departments, programs and colleges.  Dr. Kennedy will survey Dean Attoh and the Graduate Program Directors to determine source of the stipends, expectations regarding time and effort of the supported students, time to graduation and average expectation within their discipline (nationwide).  This information will be provided for review and discussion at the next meeting. Because of the diversity among programs both at LUC and nationwide, and because of possible differences in the sources of stipend support, the committee did not believe that it would be effective to establish a panel for reviewing graduate student workload and individual (student, faculty, program, department) requests for changes in time and effort commitment. 

B. Undergraduate Research (discussion summary)

Undergraduate students are often pressured by graduate/professional school entrance criteria and some career opportunities to have research experience.  Thus, it is important that LUC offer undergraduate research opportunities.  There are, however, costs to undergraduate research.  Faculty compensation (e.g., decrease in formal course load) and support of supplies for undergraduate research are two issues, and these vary among the programs at LUC.  In addition, it was noted that some indirect benefits to faculty do occur when working with students in undergraduate research.  Some students are very productive; some even produce publications. To address the FC’s charge to the R-UPC, it is important to understand the commonalities and differences among existing approaches.  Dr. Kennedy will poll department chairs regarding resources, supplies, and faculty credit/compensation. This information will be discussed at the next meeting.  Similar to its opinion regarding graduate student activities, the committee did not believe that it would be time-effective to establish panels for reviewing compensation for undergraduate research on a per student basis.

 

IV. New Business

The committee discussed other possible agenda items for future meetings.

A. Royalty/Licensing Income

Current Lakeside and SSOM policies regarding distribution of royalty and licensing income need to be reviewed and discussed.  At the September meeting, Drs. Kennedy and Tuchman will discuss current policies and proposed changes.

B. Bridge Funding

The SSOM Campus has an established program (Intramural Funding) for providing bridge funding to established research programs that have a temporary lapse in extramural support.  Proposals for bridge support are reviewed by the Research Funding Committee using the critique from the extramural agency and the investigator’s plan for revising the application.  This program has been very successful in terms of external funding outcomes.  Dr. Kennedy will provide details regarding this bridge funding program at the September meeting.  Similar programs are not established at the other campuses.   

C. Graduate Student Fringe Benefits Charges/Salary Recovery/Indirect Costs

A combined 42.8% fringe benefit rate is currently being charged to graduate student stipends (for new grants received from agencies allowing the charge).  This income is used to offset expenses of tuition and health care insurance.  There is concern that some faculty will not be willing or able to support graduate students from their extramural grants because of this increased cost (e.g., at SSOM the total annual charge to an external grant rose from approximately $23,000 to $33,000), and that this reluctance to take graduate students due to the financial impact will affect our Graduate School programs. 

The use of indirect costs and salary recovery from extramural grants was also discussed.  The use of these funds may vary among LUC colleges/campuses. At some colleges and universities, a portion of these funds are returned to the investigator, department and/or college.

All of these topics will be placed on the agenda for the next meeting.

 

With no further business the meeting was adjourned at 2:10 p.m.