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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

Final town hall meeting hears from social sciences

Advocating for a secure data system, facilitating collaborative research and having a broad understanding of IU’s many disciplines were among the characteristics that six faculty members presented as part of what their ideal candidate for executive vice president and vice provost for research would ?possess.

In the most recent of four town hall meetings at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Hoosier Room of the Indiana Memorial Union, faculty, particularly those in the social sciences, were invited to share their ideas on what kind of candidate should be chosen to fill the position left vacant by the retirement of Sarita Soni.

Michael Wade, professor of biology, is currently serving as interim VPOR.

“These town hall meetings have been extremely instructive in terms of giving us a perspective that we would not have otherwise,” said Beth Plale, chair of the committee and professor in the School of Informatics and Computing.

Plale said the committee was formed during the summer, and the search is internal, meaning that only IU faculty will be considered.

Jason Baird Jackson, associate professor of folklore, said he appreciated the fact that the search is internal.

“I think given the number of things that are at play on our campus right now, I think this person is going to need to have a high degree of IU literacy,” Jackson said.

Jane McLeod, professor of sociology, said she thought it would be helpful to have a candidate with a good understanding of how research in the social sciences ?functions.

“Historically, my experience has been that the office has not had the best understanding of how social science really works,” she said.

She said research funding seems to focus on larger collaborative projects, which are not the types of projects many sociologists at IU end up pursuing.

She also made a point to say the lack of collaborative projects is not because of sociologists being unwilling to participate in this kind of research.

Multiple faculty members present expressed a desire to have a candidate with an ability to see connections and shared interests across campus to encourage collaboration.

“I think it’s a great idea because despite individual best efforts, you don’t know who you don’t know,” said David Mank, professor in the School of Education.

Jackson said he felt Wade had been doing a good job of facilitating collaboration across schools in his interim role.

Mank also highlighted the importance of recognizing differences in how each resource center operates and the business models for their funding.

Faculty also brought up the complications brought about by the structure of the position, as the VPOR reports to multiple supervisors.

McLeod said she hopes the selected candidate will be willing to advocate for structural changes within the office to improve the way it functions.

Plale also brought up the idea of translational research, which Mank defined as evidence-based research being applied outside of the University.

“For the social sciences, this is a deep tradition,” Jackson said.

Mank made a point to highlight that translational research can be a complicated, drawn-out and often messy process.

Jackson also voiced facility-based concerns, pointing out that members of his staff work in close proximity to mold, which raises a health concern.

McLeod said, aside from just facilities, research technology, such as secure data storage systems, are the types of things for which the VPOR should advocate.

Plale said the search committee have received 12 nominations thus far, and the next step will be to interview the nominees.

Following the interviews, Plale said the search committee will recommend two to three finalists to the Provost Lauren Robel

These finalists will then participate in town hall meetings where they will be asked questions about their vision for the position.

“I think there’s additional movements at foot that we’ve heard about in our conversations, but I think Lauren is interested in making hires a bit more strategic,” Plale said.

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