Minutes of the Meeting of
at
Present: Elliott Barkan (San Bernardino), Chris Bettinger (San Francisco), Colin Campbell (SSDBA), Nan Chico (Hayward), Jim Gerber (San Diego), John Korey (Pomona), Ted Lascher (Sacramento), Ed Nelson (Fresno) Jim Ross (Bakersfield), Dick Shaffer, chair (San Luis Obispo), Rich Taketa (San Jose)
The meeting was convened at by Chair Dick Shaffer.
Agenda Items
1. Approval of Minutes
Winter meeting minutes were reviewed and approved.
2. Approval of Agenda
The agenda was approved.
3. Assessment of Student Research Conference
The Council briefly discussed the prior day’s Student Research Conference. The consensus was that it had gone well, with more papers (about 30) than had typically been presented in recent years, a wide variety of topics, and strong award winners. However, concern was expressed about the few number of papers using archival data from the SSDBA, ICPSR, etc.
The Council thanked Chris Bettinger for the Conference.
4. ICPSR Summer Program
John Korey and Dick Shaffer were named to the ad hoc subcommittee for approving funding requests for the ICPSR Summer Program.
Two questions were raised regarding eligibility for funding. First, the question was raised as to whether a CSU staff member with a Ph.D. and active research agenda– but no teaching responsibilities– should be eligible for funding. The consensus was that such a person should be eligible because it might benefit the whole system. Second, the question was raised as to whether FERPed faculty members should be eligible. The consensus was that they should, but only if funding was available after considering requests from regular faculty, students, and staff (i.e., FERPed faculty would have lowest priority).
5. ICPSR Biennial Meeting (
Current rotation list of campuses is as follows:
1.
The following campuses are off the rotation for the fall meeting because no representative attended an SSRIC meeting this academic year: Humboldt,
There was brief discussion of whether budgetary cutbacks would affect funding for official representatives to attend the meeting; Ed Nelson indicated that he believed such funding remained in the contract.
6. Other ICPSR
John Korey (a current member of the ICPSR Council) indicated that a slate of nominees for open Council positions had been approved. Among these nominees were two people with strong commitments to instruction and with an appreciation of fiscal
constraints faced by federations and other member institutions: Paula Lackie (
Korey said that nothing definitive had been decided about the ICPSR membership fee structure. He also said that he “thinks we’re okay.” He added that it’s more than a question of just maintaining the “federation” status; it’s a matter of developing a dues structure that’s reasonable for teaching institutions. The Council discussed the possibility of drawing more community colleges (currently only a single one is a member of ICPSR), perhaps by offering subscriptions without voting rights rather than memberships.
7. SSDBA
Colin Campbell reintroduced himself to the Council members. He is again in charge of the SSDBA, although this is only one part of his responsibilities at CSU Los Angeles (in fact, overseeing SSDBA represents only about 20% of his job). Peter Quan, Vice President for Technology, is Colin’s boss.
The Council held a lengthy discussion of the status of and need for the SSDBA. Concern was raised that the quality of service at SSDBA had slipped in the last couple of years. Some Members said that their campuses did not receive the services that
they had paid for, and that it was hoped that SSDBA would feel some obligation to improve services because of these previous payments? It was also hoped that the SSDBA would use the next year to try to rebuild both its services and its reputation. Beyond that, a larger issue was raised about the need for SSDBA given implementation of direct access to ICPSR data at many CSU campuses (and the ability of the remaining campuses to move to direct access if they choose). Because of direct access, individuals no longer need to go through SSDBA to get a great many relevant data sets. Council members indicated that SSDBA was at present needed to gain access to Field and Roeper data, although it might be possible to get at least the Field data from other sources. Given these changes and the current budgetary crisis, some Council members indicated they could not urge their deans to offer the current level of campus support to SSDBA. This suggested the need for considering a change in SSDBA services and fees, given that
After much discussion, a three part motion was made. The motion 1) requested that SSDBA as soon as possible develop a scaled down, less expensive service to be offered to campuses that would at a minimum include access to Field data and serving as a “hub” for ICPSR billing purposes, with second priority given to access to Roeper data, 2) authorized current SSRIC Chair Shaffer and/or incoming Chair Randy MacIntosh pursue alternative means of obtaining access to Field data if SSDBA could not develop a scaled down services plan, and 3) requested that SSDBA make provision for preserving access to all of its data files in the event it needed to shut down operations. The motion was approved.
8.
Ted Lascher reported on e-mail correspondence he received from Henry Brady, Director of the
9. Dates and Locations for 2003-04 Meetings
The following meeting dates and locations were approved.
Fall: Oct. 24-25,
Winter: Feb. 13-14,
April 30-May 1,
10. Other
Colin Campbell was thanked for returning to the Council and being willing to discuss the status of the SSDBA.
Dick Shaffer was thanked for serving as SSRIC chair.
The meeting was adjourned at
Ted Lascher, scribe
