September 22, 2000
Minutes
Present:
Chris Bettinger San Francisco State
Jim Gerber San Diego State
Frank Gossette CSU Long Beach
Tony Hernandez SSDBA
Ted Lascher Sacramento State
Ed Nelson CSU Fresno
Jim Ross CSU Bakersfield
Rich Taketa San Jose State
Gene Turner CSU Northridge
Spring 2000 Minutes
The Spring 2000 minutes were approved without objection.
Long Term SSRIC Issues
Ted brought up the list of issues raised at the Spring, 2000 meeting. The question was what to do about them. We had discussed the possibility of conducting focus groups. The workshop for this meeting was originally to deal with how one organizes a focus group. However, unfortunately, Richard Serpe, who was going to lead the workshop, was unable to attend the meeting due to his workload. No further action was taken.
SSRIC Meeting Attendance
The council discussed the difficulties in getting council members to the meetings. Jim Gerber spent a fair amount of time last year contacting members directly. Suggestions for improving attendance included:
1. Move the Fall meeting back to October to avoid scheduling the meeting in the first week of the term for those on quarters.
2. Identifying a campus alternate who could attend if the designated representative was unable to attend
3. Getting funding for travel to the meetings by communicating with deans the importance of the SSRIC meetings. Actions include a letter from the SSRIC chair to deans thanking them for participation, a letter on the SSRIC appointment to be sent to deans (Ted will draft), and including deans on the SSDBA mailing list (Tony). Ed will check for the availability of a reflector list for Social and Behavioral Science Deans.
Student Research Conference
Ted Lascher raised the question of how to increase participation. The conference provides a venue in which students can present their work, addressing the council's goal of supporting student access to and use of social science data. One question was whether should we be doing a conference? If not, then what are the alternatives to promote numeracy and use of the SSDBA. Plus, we have a continuing concern with competition from the statewide student conference.
A number of ideas were proposed:
1. Allow works in progress at poster sessions.
2. Have the Field Faculty Fellow make a presentation as one of two keynote speakers or have the faculty fellow present at a plenary session.
3. Allow registration on the SSDBA web site. Provide lunch only for those who have registered?
Other options
We could sponsorship a California Social Survey to generate a more complete survey for California. This would provide a database for generating student research. The survey could be conducted via regional labs. We would need to identify a role for SSRIC. The consensus was to pursue the possibility. A subcommittee consisting of Jim Ross, Ed Nelson, Ted Lascher, John Korey, Richard Serpe, and Jim Gerber was formed to investigate the idea and seek funding sources. They will report back at the winter meeting.
Meeting schedule:
The schedule for SSRIC meetings was discussed. The remaining two meetings are scheduled as follows:
Winter meeting: February 9-10
Spring meeting: April 27-28
Some members expressed concerns about the Friday-Saturday schedule. We will continue the schedule for this year, but will review the meeting days for next year.
Members listed possible workshop topics:
1. Focus groups
2. Statistical techniques
3. Census 2000
4. GIS
Ted will check with Richard Serpe again for the a focus group workshop at the Winter meeting. Jim Ross and Jim Gerber will check with people they know who might be able to conduct such a workshop if Richard cannot.
SSDBA
Tony Hernandez discussed changes at the SSDBA. They have installed a new Sun server and disk array. It is a faster, more reliable, and larger capacity configuration.
Other new features include:
1. Automated account setup.
2. Faculty will be able to manage student accounts, including granting and denying access.
3. Anonymous FTP: will be able to search for data sets not currently on-line. Small data sets will be sent via e-mail, and large data sets will be put up on the anonymous FTP site. One issue: ICPSR data must be secured. Tony will investigate adding security features to the process.
4. Users can now create custom subsets.
4. A workshop is scheduled at Long Beach in October, with registration via the SSDBA web page.
5. STF 4 data is now on line.
Tony will investigate when GSS 2000 will be available.
Send ICPSR and other CDs to campus libraries?
Need to update the link from the Teaching Resource Depository (TRD) to SSDBA.
Field Poll
Ed Nelson discussed the Field Poll items. Ed will be sending RFPs for faculty fellow, question credits, and student interns in September. He will be sending this information to SSRIC members, campus deans, and research-oriented faculty.
We may need a replacement for Richard Serpe on the Field committee. Ted Lascher will check the by-laws and will ask Ted Anagnoson if OK.
Tony Hernandez indicated that he was having difficulties with two of the Field Polls for 2000. He is working with Mark DiCamillo to resolve the issues.
Research-Oriented Faculty List
Ed Nelson and Tony Hernandez will work out a way to manage the mailing list. Ed will see if he can figure out how to export his mailing list and send to Tony. Tony will investigate the possibility of setting up a system to allow SSRIC members to access and update the mailing list.
ACCESS
Ed Nelson is chair of ACCESS for this year. A meeting is scheduled for October 12 to discuss the future of access. The Academic Technology Advisory Committee (ATAC) is serving as Chancellor Reed’s advisory committee.
Ed will distribute a brief history of his involvement with ACCESS/AIRC.
Institute for Teaching and Learning (ITL)
Ed Nelson indicated that ITL will be issuing an RFP for regional workshops. The funding will cover up to $1000 per person, with a minimum of 20 participants required. Campuses will cover other costs (facilities, lunch, etc.).
He raised the possibility of developing regional workshops for CSU and community college faculty using SDA. SDA is an on-line data analysis package from UC Berkeley. A large number of data sets are becoming available in SDA format. A program of two workshops (North and South), with a two-tier structure might be possible. The first level would be available to non-CSU faculty, and the second level would be oriented to the CSU, including use of SSDBA.
Submitted by Richard Taketa.
