2008-05-03: Spring 2008

Minutes
SSRIC Business Meeting
Cal State Univ, Long Beach
3 May 2008

Present: Greg Bohr (SLO), Stafford Cox (Long Beach), Sarah Hill (Fullerton), Robin Högnäs (Bakersfield), Jennifer Imazeki (San Diego), John Korey (Pomona), José Moreno (Long Beach), Kathy Naff (San Francisco), Ed Nelson (Fresno), Lori Weber (Chair, Chico)

  1. Minutes. The minutes from the Winter 2008 ( Pomona) meeting were approved.
  1. Mailing list. The updated mailing list was circulated and amended as needed.
  1. Announcements.

Ed et al. are revising the SPSS workbook for version 16.

SSRIC engagement with Elizabeth Ambos on the Ed. D. program development is still under consideration.

  1. Subscriptions. Subscription drive starts in July. Lori will send out announcement to campus representatives to make sure that current campus contact people are known.

Discussed whether we should solicit letters of support from provosts, alumni, Elizabeth Ambos, trustees, etc. to include in subscription letter. Ed and Lori will contact Chico and Fresno provosts at provost meeting to ask if they’d be willing to provide such a letter.

Suggestion that we should send out subscription letter early to allow campuses to plan ahead. However, Ed pointed out that we can’t send out letter until individual campus costs are known.

Lori encouraged all representatives to think of people on campus from whom SSRIC subscription support can be obtained. We need to ‘sell’ the SSRIC – José pointed out that faculty development is one attractive service we provide.

  1. Budget. The proposed 2008-09 budget was distributed. Ed reported that the data subscription prices are almost certainly the final numbers.

José and Stafford suggested that the amount budgeted for the student conference be raised to $3000 (up from $2300). Additionally, they pointed out that campus support (e.g. facilities and catering) is crucial to conference success.

Conference line item raised to $3000.

Discussion of the TR module fellowships – no applications this year. We need to work to publicize this opportunity, including soliciting applications from people already doing this type of work. Query: can we find a way to work with E. Ambos to develop new faculty development grants (similar to past NSF attempt), such as seminar for instructional module development, or a west coast ICPSR meeting, etc?

The point was made that it is very important that all campuses subscribe this year, and increasing usage is one way to encourage that.

Budget (with amendment) approved unanimously.

  1. Field Institute. Ed reported that the Field Institute declined to accept the recommended Faculty Fellow (Lippe). As a result, one of the question credit recipients (Wachs) was moved to Faculty Fellow, and all the question credits were awarded to McGoldrick.

All of last year’s allocated questions have been run or are scheduled.

Due to some confusion, the 2005 question credits awarded to Stephen Kroll ( Sacramento State) were never run. According to Field, it is too late to revisit the issue, and the SSRIC will encourage Kroll to apply for a future award.

The Field Workshop is scheduled for Friday, 12 December 2008, at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco, in conjunction with the Pacific chapter of AAPOR.

  1. Summer workshop stipends. Kathy reported that three workshop awards have been approved: two faculty members ( East Bay, Pomona) and one graduate student ( East Bay) for $1000 each. An additional faculty member is waitlisted for a course; if he doesn’t get in the other approved faculty members’ awards will be raised to $1500.

One graduate student applicant was not recommended.

  1. Workshops. Ed reported that eight workshops were held this year: four database, two SDA, and two SPSS.

The following campuses expressed interest in workshops for next year: Pomona (DB), Chico (DB and/or SDA), CSULB (DB), Fullerton (SDA), San Diego, San Jose.

Suggestion: contact faculty development personnel at individual campuses to publicize workshop availability, and perhaps send a representative to their meeting. Stafford will develop a list of these people.

  1. Meeting sites. The Fall 2008 meeting will be held in San Jose on October 3-4 or  September 26-27 (second choice). Lori will follow up with Rich. [UPDATE: The businss meeting will be on Friday, Oct. 3, and the workshop on Saturday, Oct. 4.]

The Winter 2009 meeting will be in Fresno (Tenaya) on January 30-31 or February 6-7. Ed will check on availability. [UPDATE: The businss meeting will be on Friday, Feb. 6, and the workshop on Saturday, Feb. 7.]

The Spring 2009 Student Research Conference will be in Sacramento, the last weekend of April or the first weekend in May. Lori will follow up to confirm.

San Jose is volunteered as an alternate conference site. SLO volunteered as an alternate meeting site.

  1. Andrew’s report on DIVA, etc. (via phone). The web site is up and running, with John as webmaster. José asked about problem of e-mail bouncebacks; Ed and Andrew replied that some campuses have aggressive spam filters. Any bounced e-mail addresses should be forwarded to Andrew and John as a first step.

DIVA/SSRIC collaboration. Plans to start in June with some ‘showcase’ pieces (possibly including Lori’s TRD module) to demo system. Lori will be SSRIC liaison. Andrew and ExComm will meet in June.

IASSIST meeting. Will be held at Stanford May 27-30. DIVA has a poster session. Mainly aimed at people with data preparation interests, but data often as classroom applicability and conference may become pertinent to SSRIC in future. Lori reported that IASSIST is interested in increasing involvement from Social Sciences faculty.

SDA. Ed reported three proposals are in for SDA conversion. John asked how difficult it would be to update an SDA dataset – Andrew says it would require reprocessing but should not be a problem. Datasets requiring updating should be submitted with current batch of new proposals.

Faculty Profile Database. Andrew has been contracted by CO to build a CSU-wide database of faculty research profiles, intended to provide a comprehensive list of expert contacts and enhance collaboration. Would SSRIC be interested in being included in pilot project? Andrew will send out info, and follow up with Lori.

  1. SDA proposals. Ed reported three SDA requests have been submitted (one from Lori, two from John). All proposals approved.
  1. ICPSR undergraduate research paper. Ed reported that papers are judged by a six-person committee (including Ed, John, Lori). Quality of papers is very high. No submissions from CSU in last two years. Lori asked if other SSRIC members would like to cycle on to committee – José will be put forward.
  1. Executive Committee. Kathy requested that Lori, Ed, and John serve as ExComm members.
  1. Committee Structure. The current committee structure is listed on the web site. The following assignments were approved:

TRD – no change

Field – Add Susan Garfin as an alternate.

CA Social Survey – delete committee

Web liaison – John Korey (no change)

Workshops and outreach – Ed Nelson (no change)

C.O. partnerships – consider deletion (John will check with Mike Reibel on role of committee)

  1. MiniTab CSU site license. List of renewal fees and commitments was distributed. Stafford reported that the license will be cheaper if fewer campuses are involved. He will e-mail a list of campus contact people.
  1. 2008 Student Research Conference.

There were a total of 43 presentations from 11 campuses.

José will develop a Zoomerang survey of student experience.