Month: March 2013

Research Administration Transforming

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Associate Vice President for Administration and Chief Business Practice Improvement (BPI) Officer Bill Dracos reported to the council at its March 19 meeting on BPI’s project to transform research administration at Emory, an effort ongoing since Fall 2011. In April, two pilot “Research Administration Shared Service Centers” will launch in public health and several departments in the medical school. The goals of this effort include simplifying and streamlining the process of administering research grants, from pre-award to post award. Located near the departments they serve, the shared service centers are designed to move many key activities of research administration closer to faculty, to better provide assistance from professionals with detailed knowledge about the individual awards. Following the roughly six-month pilot period, additional centers will phase in in other schools. Eventually, ten to twelve centers will open across campus. “Many of the pre-award functions you experience now won’t change,” Dracos said. “But on the post-award side, you should see improvement.” For more information about the Transform Research Administration Project, visit tra.emory.edu (requires Emory ID and password for login).

 

Class and Labor Committee Phase II Begins

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In the March meeting, Provost Claire Sterk spoke to the Faculty Council about Phase II of the work of the Committee on Class and Labor. Last month the council heard a report on the concluded first phase of the committee’s work, which focused on staff. Phase II will focus on the ways in which class and its related distinctions of power and status affect the life and work of faculty members. The charge for Phase II includes an examination of the role of class in faculty work relationships; Emory’s role as an employer in the academic labor market; recruitment, promotion, advancement, and professional development for faculty; and the role of non-tenure-track faculty.

“The focus will be on faculty and their working relationships,” Sterk said, “in other words, the complexities related to distinctions of power and status.”

 

Committee on Online Education Forming

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Senior Vice Provost for Undergraduate and Continuing Education Lynn Zimmerman spoke to the council about the creation of a new Faculty Advisory Committee on Online Education. Two weeks after the call went out in early March, seventy-six faculty had been nominated (both self-nominations and nominations by others) to serve on the committee. This body will advise the provost on shaping Emory’s goals and vision for online education, establishing standards and proposal guidelines for university-wide online course offerings (such as Coursera courses), reviewing and selecting proposals for university-wide online courses, and considering policy issues such as licensing, intellectual property, faculty workload, and compensation issues. “Our goal at this point is to create a balanced group that is very representative,” Zimmerman said, “We are thrilled to have such a deep pool to draw from.”