Two Calls for Interest: Inaugural Cross-College Research Symposium and Faculty IRB/HRPP Liaison

March 9, 2022

Dear Faculty Colleagues:

The creation of “new knowledge through scholarship and research” is baked into the Baruch College mission. I am committed to making the research, scholarly, and creative activity of our faculty visible and also to improving the infrastructure that undergirds that research. This message delivers two calls for interest, the first related to research visibility and the second an infrastructure improvement.

Inaugural Cross-College Research Symposium: Call for Participants

Provost Innovation Fellow Katherine Pence and I invite all faculty to submit a proposal to share their research with faculty colleagues in the Baruch community at the Inaugural Cross-College Faculty Research Symposium in a fun PechaKucha format on Friday, May 13 as part of the weeklong Spring Research and Creative Inquiry Celebration!

This daylong in-person celebration and showcase of faculty research and creative activity will include two faculty PechaKucha sessions, presentations by Innovation Seed Grant research teams, an engaging keynote lunch speaker, and will culminate in a cocktail reception for attendees.

What is a PechaKucha?

20 slides. 20 seconds of commentary per slide. PechaKucha (Japanese for “chitchat”) is a presentation format in which presenters show 20 slides and talk about them for 20 seconds each (approximately 6.5 minutes total). The 20 slides automatically advance after 20 seconds, forcing the presenter to be concise. The snappy format is both informative and fun and allows for scholars from many disciplines to find common ground for sharing their work.

Why present in this format?

It’s fun! It’s an opportunity to share what you’re doing with colleagues from across the campus. And, it’s a great way to discover the exciting range of research and creative activity being conducted across the College, to find colleagues with overlapping interests to foster possible future collaborations, and to learn from each other. Conversations about each presenter’s work can continue over wine and snacks at the end of the day.

Where do I submit to present my research?

Faculty are invited to apply to present a PechaKucha by supplying their name, position title, department, school, and three-sentence description of the research project they plan to present. Participants will be selected by the Innovation Fellows to represent a diversity of topics, disciplines, and schools at Baruch. Deadline for applications is Friday, April 1. Applicants who have been selected will be informed by Friday, April 15. Apply at this survey. Lang Fellows are particularly encouraged to share their sponsored research to this broader audience.

How do I create a PechaKucha presentation?

Key to a PechaKucha presentation is that the slides are primarily images rather than text. Too much text is hard to digest in 20 seconds; images are more immediately engaging. The presenter describes the content and concepts orally to align with each image. Presentations must be designed in PowerPoint or Google Slides and submitted to Katherine.Pence@baruch.cuny.edu by Monday, May 9. Given the tight time constraint, it’s important to create a script and practice it so that when you present live you will be in synch with your rapidly advancing slides. Maybe this will be challenging, but it will be part of the fun!

And there isn’t really a right or wrong PechaKucha as long as you use 20 slides and advance them every 20 seconds. Feel free to present on research work in progress or on completed projects. Here are two how-to videos:

Questions: Contact Katherine Pence at Katherine.Pence@baruch.cuny.edu.

Faculty IRB/HRPP Liaison: Call for Letters of Interest

The Faculty IRB/HRPP Liaison will serve as the liaison between the HRPP function in Baruch’s Office of Research Compliance and Outreach (ORCO) and Baruch academic researchers (faculty and students) conducting, or planning to conduct, human subjects research. This is a 50% assigned time position. Faculty will receive nine (9) units of reassigned time during the academic year, and one month of summer salary will be provided at the adjunct overload rate for work undertaken during the summer.

Specific Responsibilities

The Faculty IRB/HRPP Liaison will:

Conduct workshops monthly to help researchers understand the importance of balancing participant-protective procedures with compliance considerations when developing their research protocols. Workshops may be held within research methods classes and publicly.
Provide consultative support to researchers on the logistics of developing and submitting new protocols and amendments to approved protocols through the IRBManager system; priority for consultation to be given to first-time researchers, including student researchers.
Assist researchers with the revision requests they receive when their protocols are under review.
Assist in developing, in collaboration with ORCO staff, research materials to supplement those provided by CUNY Office of Research Integrity and Compliance (e.g., informed consent and debriefing templates, recruitment materials that meet compliance guidance, independent researcher agreements) to facilitate the approval of research protocols.
Undertake initial and ongoing training offered by CITI (HSR and RCR administrator modules and refresher modules as required), attend pertinent CUNY research compliance trainings, and attend one national research compliance conference.
Engage in other related projects as assigned by the Office of the Provost.

Requirements

Tenured associate professor or professor at Baruch College
Firsthand experience as a PI with human subjects research and the HRPP/IRB process at Baruch/CUNY
Knowledge of principles of ethical conduct of research and best practices with human subjects
Ability and willingness to work collaboratively to troubleshoot, to facilitate research/ORCO relationships, and to foreground the rights and welfare of human participants in Baruch research
Familiarity with applicable federal regulations related to human research subjects protections
Working familiarity with 45 CFR 46 (“the Common Rule”) and other governing federal, state, and CUNY regulations, policies, guidance, and best practices concerning human subjects research, including The Belmont Report

To Apply

Send your letter of interest of no more than two pages and current CV to provost@baruch.cuny.edu by Friday, March 25. Please write “IRB/HRPP Liaison” in the subject line of the email.

I sincerely hope that you will all participate in the research symposium on May 13, where we will have an opportunity to convene in-person, and please consider whether the position of IRB/HRPP Liaison is of interest.

Best wishes,

Dr. Linda Essig
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs