The Baruch College Faculty Handbook

Last
updated on 6/10/05

In May-June 2005, the following
three memos were circulated by email to all members of the
full-time faculty.

May
20, 2005 – IRB (I)

This
will be the first of three notices to the Baruch community
over the next week regarding changes in the College’s Institutional
Review Board (IRB). This notice is intended to convey our
strong support of the IRB’s mission and to urge members of
the faculty to bring all relevant research — all research
with human subjects, including survey research and research
by students — to the Baruch IRB.

The
IRB works to advance ethical research with human subjects
and to ensure that researchers follow the federal regulations
promulgated by the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP),
a branch of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
As such, the board is an extremely important part of the research
community at Baruch. IRBs protect human subjects, but they
also protect researchers themselves from potential noncompliance
with federal regulations. This protects the ability of all
of us to conduct research.

We
believe that researchers need to ensure their familiarity
with both the federal regulations and with the ethical precepts
on which they are based. To that end, the next academic year
will see outreach from members of the IRB in the form of presentations
and workshops. Moreover, starting next fall, all researchers
submitting protocols to the IRB will be required to complete
a new online training course. (CUNY’s Office of Research Conduct
is making arrangements for this course. More details will
be available this summer.)

For
more information about Baruch’s IRB, see: http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/irb/

For
more information about OHRP and about IRBs in general, see:

• • http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/about/
    

• • http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/irb/irb_guidebook.htm
    

More
to come.

Kathleen
Waldron, President

David
Dannenbring, Provost

Dennis
Slavin, Associate Provost

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May
24, 2005 – IRB (II)

With
this, our second notice to the campus community about the
IRB, we would like to acknowledge the skillful leadership
that Professor David O’Brien has provided to the Baruch College
IRB since 1994. Dr. O’Brien has demonstrated an extraordinary
grasp of the often complex regulations developed by the federal
Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP). He played a
major role in guiding Baruch through a CUNY-wide audit in
the late 1990s and in devising a remediation plan for CUNY.
Over the years he has helped to steer the college away from
several instances of potential noncompliance; indeed, a recent
review of the Human Research Protections Program at Baruch
found no instances of noncompliance in the IRB review process.
Under Prof. O’Brien’s guidance, the Baruch IRB has helped
to protect research subjects, researchers themselves, and
the college.

Prof.
O’Brien has worked tirelessly as the volume of research with
human subjects at Baruch has grown, especially in the past
two years. After 11 years as its Chair, he has asked to step
down from the IRB to devote more time to his own research
in experimental epistemology (see http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/psychology/people/DOBrien.htm
). Baruch College owes David O’Brien a profound debt of gratitude
for his skill and dedication and looks forward to enjoying
the fruits of his renewed scholarly labors.

The
other faculty members of our IRB have served on the board
anywhere from five to 17 years with little or no support other
than recognition for service to the college. Their responsibilities
have been significant: many research protocols must be carefully
read and evaluated, and protecting human subjects by following
federal guidelines sometimes requires the board to ask experienced
researchers — senior colleagues — to amend protocols that
they have worked on and developed with care. The members of
the current board have done this difficult work conscientiously
and well. For their hours of excellent service we would like
to thank: Nancy Aries (SPA), Kapil Bawa (Marketing), Alfred
Friedland (Math), Harold Goldstein (Psychology), and Gregg
Van Ryzin (SPA).

Kathleen
Waldron, President

David
Dannenbring, Provost

Dennis
Slavin, Associate Provost

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June
6, 2005 – IRB (III)

The
new Chair of the Baruch College IRB will be Prof. Donald Vredenburgh
of the Department of Management. Out of concern for the need
to rotate membership of all college committees, we have asked
five additional members of the faculty to join with Prof.
Vredenburgh to form a new board: Profs. Lauren Block (Marketing),
Harry Brent (English), Karen Lyness (Psychology), Thomas Main
(SPA), and Shoshanna Sofaer (SPA). Three of the new members
will serve two-year terms; the others will serve for three
years. At the conclusion of their first term, each member
will be eligible for a second three-year term (i.e., the maximum
will be six years of consecutive service). Membership is by
Presidential appointment, in consultation with the Provost
and the Deans.

IRBs
also include a community member. Father David Kossey, who
joined the Baruch IRB this past academic year, will remain
as our community member.

Ms.
Keisha Petersen will continue as the administrator of Baruch’s
IRB. Her office is in VC 8-215, where she divides her time
between the IRB and the Department of Psychology.

In
March 2005 the College hired Dr. Jeffrey M. Cohen as a consultant
to help us review our IRB procedures. Dr. Cohen reviewed records
and interviewed 18 members of the faculty and several administrators.
His report, “Evaluation of Baruch College’s Human Research
Protections Program,” contains several recommendations,
most of which we have taken or plan to follow up in the months
to come. A copy of the report will soon be linked to the IRB
page in the Faculty Handbook. [The
report is now available online.]

Our
email of May 20 (IRB -I) indicated that CUNY’s Office of Research
Conduct would be arranging for a new online training course.
The recently issued CUNY Research Newsletter provides additional
information about the training and describes what the new
training (CITI) will mean for those who completed the previous
training (CBT). See p. 6: http://www1.cuny.edu/portal_ur/content/research/news/rnews_6_05.pdf

Anyone
with questions about the IRB is encouraged to call Keisha
Petersen at 646-312-3780 and to investigate the website:
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/irb/

Kathleen
Waldron, President

David
Dannenbring, Provost

Dennis
Slavin, Associate Provost