Research – Academic Senate

Charge

The University Committee on Research shall periodically review and make recommendations concerning policies and issues relating to the conduct and support of faculty research. This shall include, but not be limited to, services provided to scholars by the administrative units of the University. The Committee shall also provide liaison to the following University committees: University Libraries Committee and Information Services Committee.

Meetings: Contact committee chair for the date/locations of the committee meetings.

Specific Charge for 2022 – 2023 Academic Year

The Research Committee, as a strategic advisory group on University’s research, will explore two key areas during 2022-2023:

staffing and research infrastructure: The Committee will capture faculty experiences and concerns about current structures and policies around staffing as these relate to research productivity. While recognizing that what constitutes “research staff” and “research productivity” may vary widely across units at USC, the Committee will aim to identify recurring or particularly salient issues around staffing in the research context. For example, the Committee may explore faculty experiences and concerns about navigating school policies, University policies, and laws which affect research staffing; whether current policies allow research staff to grow in their positions; and overall, what staffing policies and structures would make better research environments for conducting research and the people involved.

culture and graduate students: The Committee will explore how faculty-driven culture issues in the research context affect graduate students. Given the Culture survey results showing graduate students are one of the most distressed groups at USC, the Committee will consider how faculty can create a productive working and learning environment for and with graduate students. More specifically, the Committee will identify key culture issues impeding graduate student well-being and research progress, such as lack of mentoring and toxic environments, and develop guidelines which can be discussed and utilized by individual faculty, departments, and/or schools. The Committee’s work may encompass informal interviews or focus groups with USC faculty, graduate students, or other stakeholders and review of relevant literature.

The committee will also address other issues as circumstances and the members’ interests call for.

Feedback, comments, and questions can be addressed to the Committee leadership.