1998-1999 Annual Report

The California State University



SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH AND INSTRUCTIONAL COUNCIL

(SSRIC)



(http://artemis.calstatela.edu/ssric/

)



27th Annual Report



1998-1999

ORIGIN AND MISSION

The Social Science Research and Instructional Council (SSRIC) is the oldest of the 10 disciplinary councils in the California State University system. It began in 1972 as an advisory group to the Office of Information Resources and Telecom­munications. Today, the Council continues its liaison with the Chancellor's Office and is dedicated to assisting CSU social science students and faculty in their learning, teaching, and research.

GOALS

The Council develops and coordinates programs to extend the quantitative skills of faculty and students by:

  • Providing a forum for sharing information about social science data and computer products.

  • Initiating and conducting training programs.

  • Recommending computerized social science projects in the CSU curriculum.

  • Encouraging the collection and distribution of social science data and computer‑ related instructional and research materials.

  • Advising CSU administrators on policies related to providing quantitative social science data for research and instruction.

ORGANIZATION

The Council is composed of one representative from each CSU campus except for the Maritime Academy. It meets on various campuses three times during the academic year. Each meeting includes a business session and either a workshop or the annual Student Research Conference.

MEETINGS

Fall

The Fall 1998 business meeting was held on October 8 in Redwood Shores, California at the home of Nan Chico, the Council representative from CSU Hayward. The minutes of this meeting are available online at http://artemis.calstatela.edu/ssric/minfal98.htm

. Highlights of the meeting included:

  • Introduction of Larry Jordan as Director of Analytical Studies & Data Administration at Cal State Los Angeles. This office now houses the CSU Social Science Data Base Archive (SSDBA) specialty center.

  • Planning for the Student Research Conference.

  • Announcement of the Council’s newly reorganized Website.

  • Discussion of grant opportunities and funding for the databases.

On October 9 a workshop was held at CSU Hayward on use of the CSU Merlot Project.

Winter

The Winter 1999 meeting was held on February 25-26 at CSU Sacramento. The first day was devoted to the 23rd Annual Student Research Conference. Traditionally, the Conference has been held in the spring. The decision was made to hold it earlier this year as an experiment to avoid conflicts with several other student conferences also held in the spring.

The experiment seems to have been a success in that there was a significant increase in the number of participants, with approximately fifteen students from eight campuses presenting papers. The Council decided to continue the experiment next year, with the Conference to be held at CSU Dominguez Hills in February 2000.

At this year’s Conference, as has become traditional, prizes were awarded for the best undergraduate paper (the Charles McCall Award), the best graduate paper (the Betty Nesvold Award), and the best paper using archival data (the Gloria Rummels Award). The winners were:

  • The Charles McCall Award: Terceira Berdahl (Sacramento), “One Step Further: A Multivariate Analysis of Factors Affecting Prison Sentence Length in Murder Cases from Large Urban Counties in the United States”

  • The Betty Nesvold Award: Deborah Franklin (Sacramento): “Teen Birthrates in California: What Really Matters?”

  • The Gloria Rummels Award: Carla Corbett (Sacramento): “A Study of Workplace Gender Composition and Female Gender-Role Attitudes: A Feminist Organizational Perspective”

Ted Anagnoson, Council representative from CSU Los Angeles and recently returned from a two-year stint in Washington D.C. with the Department of Health and Human Services, delivered the keynote address. A special plaque was awarded to Gene Geisler of San Francisco State University for his pivotal role in the founding of the Council in 1972 and for his many subsequent years of service to and on the Council. Because of an illness in his family, Gene was not able to attend the Conference. David Tabb, San Francisco State's current Council representative, accepted the plaque for Gene.

At the Conference, the Council noted with great sadness the sudden death in December 1998 of Penny Crane, who for many years had served as liaison between the Council and the computing staff of the Chancellor’s Office, and after whom The Field Institute internship is named. Her friendship and her wisdom will be sorely missed.

On February 26, the Council heard a presentation by a representative of the Legislative Analyst’s Office. The regular business meeting followed. Highlights included:

  • Introduction of Tony Hernandez as Director of the SSDBA.

  • Election of Jim Gerber of San Diego State University as Council Chair for AY 1999-2000.

  • Selection of meeting sites and dates for AY 1999-2000.

  • Awarding of Field Institute Question Credits and selection of The Field Institute Faculty Fellow.

Spring

The Spring business meeting was held on April 29, 1999 at Cal Poly Pomona. The minutes of the meeting are available online at http://artemis.calstatela.edu/ssric/minspr99.htm

. Highlights of the meeting included:

  • Selection of awardees of funds to attend the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) Summer Program.

  • Ratification of the priority list for attendance at the biennial meeting of Official Representatives of the ICPSR, to be held in Ann Arbor in October 1999.

  • Discussion of the development of the Teaching Resources Depository and of future means of funding this and other projects.

  • Discussion of developments at the SSDBA.

On April 30, the Council moved from the Pomona campus to freeway-close CSU Fullerton for a workshop on the SSDBA and the Teaching Resources Depository. Faculty from area CSU campuses joined with council members as participants. The workshop received funding from the SSDBA.

CURRICULUM MATERIALS

The Council continued its work on the Social Sciences Teaching Resources Depository (http://www.csubak.edu/ssric/

) established in AY 1997-98. A keywords component to the depository was added allowing users to search on keywords for substantive content, methodological/statistical issues, and SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) concepts. We also added a section to which faculty could post or link to their syllabi for courses relevant to the depository. The Council offered campus workshops on using the Depository and the Social Science Data Base Archive. These workshops were offered on the Bakersfield, Stanislaus, Fullerton, and Sonoma campuses and received funding from the SSDBA. Each workshop consisted of a session on the SSDBA and a session on using the Teaching Resources Depository. At Bakersfield a third section was offered on using SPSS. A session was also offered at the annual meeting of the California Sociological Association in Riverside during October. The Council exhibited the depository at "Tilt 99" (Technology in Learning and Teaching) in Pomona during March. Articles on the depository were published in Footnotes (newsletter of the American Sociological Association), the newsletter of the California Sociological Association, and the ICPSR Bulletin. (The last of these articles is available online at http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/ICPSR/About/Publications/Bulletin/Spr99/article.html

.)

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Sales of the SPSS Primer continued to go well. Royalties are donated to Council‑related activities. We began work on a third edition (version 9) to be published in January 2000. The book is also available electronically on the Teaching Resources Depository Website.

ACCESS

Ed Nelson, Council representative from CSU Fresno, represented the Council on the CSU Academic Councils and Committees for Educational System Services (ACCESS), and served as ACCESS chair.

SSDBA

The Social Science Data Base Archive has continued to grow under its new leadership. Its Website may be found at http://artemis.calstatela.edu/

THE FIELD INSTITUTE

Elizabeth Nelson (CSU Fresno) was awarded The Field Institute Question Credits for 1999. Ted Lascher (CSU Sacramento) was named The Field Institute Faculty Fellow for 1999. The annual Field Institute Workshop, normally held in May, was postponed until October in order to move it closer to the March 2000 California primary.

ICPSR

Ed Nelson continued to serve as a member of the ICPSR Board of Directors. Judith Calvo (CSU Fresno) and Nadine Misiazec (San Diego State University) were each awarded $1,500 to help defray the costs of attending workshops at the 1999 ICPSR Summer Program.

CAMPUS REPRESENTATIVES

An up-to-date list of campus representatives to the Council, with information about each member’s phone number, mailing address, email address, and Homepage may be found at http://artemis.calstatela.edu/ssric/reps.htm.