Student Research Committee Proposal

11-8-22

Proposal for the Formation of a New Committee on Student Research

Justification / Motivation

As our understanding of equitable student recruitment has grown, we have identified problems with the traditional method of selecting student researchers. Student interest in research has grown disproportionately compared to the availability of research opportunities. This has led to inequitable access to research opportunities across student populations. For example, the practice of requesting a research opportunity directly from a faculty member is not equally familiar across the student population. 

Several steps have been taken in recent years in order to address these equity and access issues. To make the process of applying for positions in a lab more transparent, a Google Doc was created by the anti-racism task force in which research opportunities and number of spots were listed, along with a common deadline for applications. However, the pandemic impaired implementation, not all faculty participated in the effort, and it was too effort-intensive with no one to lead it. In the previous academic year, only three labs were still accepting applications by what was supposed to be the common deadline. Additionally, the DEI interns have worked to make information about research opportunities in the department more widespread by holding open houses, sharing opportunities, and creating handouts. Some faculty members have also participated in similar efforts without any recognition for their work. Finally, a few research faculty have made their own individual laboratory hiring practices more equitable. However, since there are only a few faculty making this effort, they tend to receive a very large number of applications, which they then have to read and fairly evaluate, and are able to accept only a small percentage. Furthermore, it is unsustainable to continue to rely on unrecognized individual work to solve the departmental problem of inequitable research opportunities.

It is necessary to develop a streamlined approach to student research opportunities that promotes the engagement of all students. We propose that a new committee should be formed to tackle this challenge. Someone has to synchronize efforts, liaison with individual faculty, collate information, run the process, and to keep everyone informed throughout.  

Divergence from the DEI Committee

The DEI Committee carefully considered developing the structures and systems that this proposed committee would be tasked with, but we encountered three fundamental challenges. First, this lies outside the purview granted to the DEI committee by the Department. Second, the composition of the DEI Committee is ill-suited to the challenge--by design, it is divided between faculty, staff, and students, and these structures are up to the research faculty to create. Third, the strongest leaders in the department in equitable lab procedures are the ones with the expertise to design these policies, and those leaders are ill-represented on the DEI Committee. 

Objective of the Committee

A committee should be endowed with the authority to develop and implement a common system for the hiring of student researchers which will be capable of meeting the needs of individual faculty and labs, while establishing a departmental structure and process so that students have greater and more equitable access to the process. 

Proposal

The committee should be composed of junior and senior research-active faculty. In the first year, members should be elected by faculty in the department who self-identify as research-active. The number of members can fluctuate depending on the process development, with numbers being larger in the first year (7 members) and second year (5 members) as the process is being developed.  Each discipline should be guaranteed representation on the committee if the discipline has someone willing to serve. After a process has been established, one member should be from each discipline, either elected or appointed by the convener at the discipline’s preference (no less than four committee members.) The length of term on the committee should normally be two years, with half of the membership being replaced each year. 

After a process has been implemented, this committee may take on the responsibility of allocating summer research funds (currently the responsibility of the discipline conveners.) The committee may partner with the DEI committee to provide equitable hiring training for faculty members. The committee should work with the DEI interns to facilitate events and information dissemination with regard to student research. (Optionally, this committee might have its own student membership down the road.)