6 to 7 page Budget Proposal related to OSU Athletic Revenue Sharing

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Executive Summary

Queensborough Community College (QCC) has some institutional strategic goals that relate to

faculty research and student participation in research activities, which affect grant management which is

a revenue source. 26% of QCC’s revenue sources come from government grants and contracts (IPEDS

2020). This revenue stream is the second largest revenue steam after local appropriations which

account for 31% of the schools revenue (IPEDS 2020). This budget proposal supports the attainment of

the following institutional strategic goals: Goal 1: Increase enrollment in STEM majors, Goal 2: Increase

faculty scholarship and research impact, and Goal 3: Adopt best business practices; redesign business

processes and streamline administrative functions.

This budget proposal is to request the creation of budget lines and allocation of continued funds

for dedicated staff and supportive resources for QCC’s Office of Research. There is a need for dedicated

full-staff in the Office of Research. Specifically, being proposed are full-time salary lines for (1)

leadership/ Dean for Research, (1) Human Research Protection Program (HRPP Coordinator), an

additional (1) Grants Compliance Specialist, and (2) Administrative Assistants. Additionally, the college

would benefit from investing in an Electronic Research Administration (eRA) system that would support

these personnel in the management of research award administration duties.

The academic hallmark of QCC is Undergraduate Research. The college provides some of the

best Undergraduate Research experiences for students in the City University of New York (CUNY),

through programs funded by private sponsors and government sponsors at city, state, and federal

levels. While faculty conduct their research, they provide research opportunities to students, which

increases enrollment in STEM majors, and create pathways to four year institutions and also, they are

able continue their own individual research.

Also, some faculty conduct pedagogical research that can involve student data or student

surveys. All of this research activity, especially in the cases that are funded through external sponsors or

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in the cases where human subject research is involved require a watchful compliance eye so that the

faculty, staff, and college are protected from negative consequences in the form of litigation or

discontinuation of funding. The current employee and organizational structure that support sponsored

research projects does not feasibly support the school in providing effective compliance guidance and

support. Based on the 2020 IPEDS Data, 26% of QCC’s revenue comes from government grants and

contracts. This is the second largest revenue source following local appropriations at 31%. This budget

proposal will justify the necessity for additional staff and resources at the QCC’s Office of Research.

Institutional Context

QCC is one of the community colleges in the largest public university network in the nation. QCC

is a medium-sized, public, two-year community college that is part of the City University of New York

(CUNY). CUNY is the nation’s largest urban public university and is a network of 25 colleges in the five

boroughs of New York City. This network has two-year, four-year, and professional studies colleges. QCC

is one of seven community colleges in CUNY. The college is a Hispanic-Serving Institution. The college is

accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and is organized into “five

academies—Business, Health Related Sciences, Science, Technologies, Engineering, & Mathematics

(STEM) Academy, Liberal Arts, and the Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA)” (QCC, 2021b, para. 5).

QCC’s mission is to provide an “affordable, high-quality education to pre-college, college, and

lifelong learners” (QCC, 2021a, para. 1). QCC’s largest revenue source is local appropriations accounting

for 31% of the schools revenue stream. Government grants and contracts come in a second, accounting

for 26% of the school’s revenue stream. Tuition and fees only account for a 15% of the school’s revenue

stream. State appropriations account for 21% of the school’s revenue stream. The school does not have

any return on investments, and basically nonexistent sources or relationships that yield private gifts and

grants. The student retention rate is 62% (IPEDS 2020) and graduation rates 28% (IPEDS 2020). QCC’s

expenses per full-time (FTE) student are:

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QCC’s expenses per full-time (FTE) student (IPEDS 2020)

Instruction per full time enrollment $11,048

Research $106

Public Service $99

Academic Support $1,238 Institutional Support $ 2, 389 Student services $1, 841 Other core expenses $2,656

The Office of Research provides support to the campus community’s research and student

research experiences, the Office’s key role is to promote research activity. The office collaborates with

the Office of Grants/Sponsored Programs to provide grant proposal support, award management, and

provide compliance support. The main goal of QCC’s Office of Research is to promote integrity and

embrace values and principles.

QCC’s Office of Research is part of the Office of Academic Affairs. Currently, QCC’s Office of

Research is staffed by a Faculty Fellow for Research Activities, who is a faculty member that has been

released from teaching for three semesters. This Faculty Fellow serves as the Research Integrity Officer

(RIO) for the campus. This RIO role was previously held by a Dean for Research, but was eliminated due

to budget cuts due to the pandemic in August 2020. The college has paused all hiring and instead is

finding creative ways to cover crucial responsibilities. The RIO receives support in part from a Grants

Compliance Specialist that is part of the Office of Grants/Sponsored Programs. Additionally, one other

faculty member that is not formally part of the Office of Research, serves as the Human Research

Protection Program (HRPP) Coordinator, whose responsibility is to ensure that projects that involve

human subjects (people) adhere to HRPP regulations. That is a total of 3 employees working to support

an entire school in research compliance support.

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The Dean for Research will report to the Provost. The two grants compliance specialists and

HRPP Coordinator will report to the Dean for Research. Both administrative assistants will report to the

Dean for Research. One administrative assistant will work to support the Dean for Research. The other

administrative assistant will work directly to provide clerical and operational support of two grant

compliance specialists and HRPP coordinator. These changes will cost the college an approximate

additional $300,000 in salaries, including fringe benefits.

Current Proposed Change

(1) Faculty Fellow for Research Activities (RIO) (Released from teaching for 3 semesters) - $120,000

(1) Dean for Research – Full time- $150,000

Hiring (1) Full-Time Research Leadership

(1) Grants Compliance Specialist - $90,000

(2) Grant Compliance Specialists – Full –time -$180,000 (annual salary $90,000 each)

Hiring of (1) additional Full- Time midlevel support staff

(1) Human Research Protection Program (HRPP) Coordinator (Professor that in addition to instructional responsibilities, receives Non-Teaching Adjunct pay for HRPP coordinator responsibilities) - $49/per hour – (Works about 10 hours a week)- $2,500

(1) Human Research Protection Program (HRPP) Coordinator – Full-time -$98,000

Hiring of (1) Full-specialized Research Leadership

(2) Administrative Assistants – Full –time -$80,000 (annual salary $40,000 each)

(2) Administrative Assistants

Additionally, it is recommended that the college invest in an Electronic Research Administration

(eRA) system that would support these personnel in the management of research administration and

grants administration duties. If all goes well with these creation of positions, looking to the future it is

recommended that also CUNY invests in HRPP protocol management system, like IRB Manager.

Proposal

QCC’s reported an enrollment of 14,035 in 2019 (QCC 2020 Factbook). As mentioned before, the

academic hallmark of the college is undergraduate research. For a community college, QCC notably has

many Undergraduate Research Program opportunities where students can participate in undergraduate

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research and receive stipends for their participation. Also, many of these programs are funded by city,

state, federal, and private funders. Especially, when dealing with federal funding, effective post-award

management of research funding is of the utmost importance. Previously, QCC did not have dedicated

staff in place to provide research support and guidance. The College has had some recent challenges in

with research award mismanagement, and part of the corrective action plan is to have a strong research

supports, training, and compliance review practices in place for Principal Investigators, project

personnel, and students involved in research. Keeping this recommendation in mind, this proposal is for

the creation of full time staff lines that would outfit the operations of a fully operational QCC Office of

Research.

Cost /Benefit Analysis

Projected COSTS Projected BENEFITS Initial Costs

- Salaries (including fringe) -$300,000 - Office Space/Renovations- $85,000 - Supplies $15,000 - Furniture $25,000 - Equipment $80,000 - eRa Software &other Computer hardware/ software -

$200,000 - eRa software implementation-$0

Total Initial Costs: $705,000

Cost Benefits - Avoidance of fines for non-compliance especially with

federal funders - Minimize risk: The number of compliance issues and

mismanagement decreases - The number of faculty with experience in research award

management increases - Knowledge of best practices increases

Faculty & Staff Benefits - Increase faculty scholarship and research impact - Maximize efficiency: Increased accurate support in the

proper management of grants and sponsored projects. - Adopt best business practices and streamline

administrative functions. - Collaboration between Principal Investigators and

Research Administrators increase - Decrease the administrative burden of grants

management for PIs - Dedicated support to navigate the Internal Review Board

(IRB) process for projects that involve human subject research

- Streamline process, have information in a centralized place, decrease for the potential for error.

Student Benefits - Increase the number of students that participated in

funded research programs making them more marketable by 5% the initial year, and by 10% the second year

- Increase enrollment in STEM majors

Ongoing Costs - Operating Expenses of Research $20,000 - Salaries, Benefits, & Postemployment benefits -$375,000 - Tech support and renewal of eRA management services -

$144,000 - Professional development and training - $10,000 - Market the eRA system to all levels of grants

management stakeholders $0 Total Ongoing Costs: $549,000

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Rationale

Much of the research that takes place at QCC is faculty member’s individual research or

pedagogical research .Faculty members have a commitment of teaching, research, and service that they

must maintain for a continued status of good scholarship. Faculty when approaching their research may

recruit students in mentor –mentee relationship as a criteria of a particular grant or sponsored project.

This scenario requires proper research compliance support and oversight from the college. Also,

sometimes faculty would like to collect and use student data from classes they teach, or partner with

colleagues to compare instructional methods in their respective classes under the same subject,

Institutional Review Board (IRB) Approval is needed in these cases. Many times faculty and staff do not

keep abreast of the compliance requirements needed to conduct research. They are busy conducting

research themselves and in many instances have had little formal education on educating trainees to

conduct research (Wright, 2008) Many times colleges fail to proactively provide appropriate compliance

oversight, but instead provide oversight reactively.

‘ “Mentor/PIs should provide a more formal process of initial training for their graduate students

as they join a research project. This should include coverage of IRB regulations and the responsibility

inherent in maintaining the integrity of research”. (Wright, 2008) But, often times with the demands of

being instructional staff and engaging students, PIs do not follow through on ensuring that students and

even them seeking the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training. QCC Office of Research could

ensure that those connections and actions actually take place, and take some of the administrative

burden in the form of recordkeeping, and monitoring policies that impact the faculty research

community, as well as monitor for funding opportunities. The creation for a budget line for a full-time

Dean for Research would demonstrate the college’s due diligence to establish an overarching

authoritative resource and oversight for support on research, potentially sparing the college from bad

publicity, and avoiding allegations of misconduct, and spending large sums of money research

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misconduct fines. The Dean for Research would provide RCR training to faculty, promote research

initiatives and community, and provide guidance to the two grants compliance specialists and HRPP

coordinator. RCR training of faculty and students is often a requirement for faculty and students in

federal research grants.

Research misconduct can really stain a faculty member’s record of scholarship, and is

considered a violation of the research community’s ethical standard. Rarely, does an individual intend to

commit research misconduct. . “In many instances (they) have had little formal education on educating

trainees to conduct research.” (Wright, 2008) The creation of budget line for two grants compliance

specialists to review funded projects routinely and make the Dean of Research aware of issues that arise

would assist faculty that has had little formal education from mishap. This support being available to

faculty will fill in the gaps where they may not follow through or keep up with policies that can have

impact of future funding for QCC. 26% of QCC’s revenue sources come from government grants and

contracts (IPEDS 2020). This is the college’s second largest revenue source after local appropriations.

(31%)

Two administrative assistants would provide basic clerical and administrative support. One

administrative assistant would support the Dean of Research. The other administrative assistant would

support the HRPP Coordinator and two grants compliance specialists.

There is a major distinction in the word of compliance between research and research that

involves human subjects (people). “These two sets of research regulations are distinguished from each

other by having different foci of enforcement, priorities of protection, oversight officials, oversight

procedures, seizure of evidence, standards of proof, expectations of privacy, and appeal procedures for

researchers who are subject to adverse findings and penalties”.(Bierer, 2014) Institutional Review Board

(IRB) Approval needs to be obtained before a research project involving people can take place. The fines

and the consequences for not adhering to ethical code of conduct for research involving human subjects

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are very large. At QCC, this human subject research is mostly pedagogical. The Dean for Research would

be responsible to promote ethical code of practice when research involves students, student data, new

instructional methods, use of and student information in a published work. The HRPP coordinator’s area

of support focuses on supporting faculty who have IRB inquiries, reviewing proposed protocols, and

issuing IRB approval. Currently, the HRPP Coordinator role at QCC is covered by a professor part time.

This professor receives Non-Teaching Adjunct hours payment for the additional work outside of

instructional duties to support the faculty and the college. Human Subject research is too much of a big

stakes ticket item in order to have an employee serving part time to provide support. The two grants

compliance specialists will review and field HRPP inquiries to the HRPP Coordinator as they arise and

support with the preliminary screening of the protocols.

For this new and improved QCC Office to effectively service the campus community, eRA

software is a requirement. Staff reductions and high employee turnover in offices is one reason for QCC

to invest in an eRA system. QCC has had high employee turnover in the Office of Research and the

Office of Grants/Sponsored programs. Having sponsored project compliance information in a centralized

place, leaves the content and research award information available to employees at any time in the

Office of Research. Sponsors are adding transparency measures and sponsor demand receipt, review,

award management, and close-out of federal grants. In order for an eRA system or software to be

successful at an intuition, all the stake holders must be convinced of its value. Some of the budget would

might go to “other expenses”, as promotion of the ease of use of the eRA is important to get the campus

community board.

There will also be the need for an office space, equipment (such as computers, monitors, copiers) and

office furniture. The budget for these full-time staff would be phased in over time over three years.

CUNY has many budgetary challenges, therefore the roll out of this budget would be gradual to account

for CUNY’s budget constraints.

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Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 - Hire Dean for Research - Hire Administrative

Assistant - Purchase Office

furniture, equipment, and software

- Purchase eRA software - Train existing staff on

eRA software and begin implantation in internal department operations.

- Hire HRPP Coordinator - Hire 2nd Administrative

Assistant - Market and Train PIs

and faculty to use eRA system

- Hire Additional Grants Compliance Specialist

- Fully implement eRA system

In order to have functioning and effective QCC Office or Research, the budget must include Full-

time staff lines. It is pertinent to create staff lines for leadership, midlevel support staff, clerical support,

and a software to maximize efficiency, mitigate and minimize risks, and increase communication. For a

community college, QCC is very immersed in all things research at a faculty and student level. The

college must invest in the aspects which make it unique and marketable, by establishing resources and

staff that maintain grant funding, help the college avoid potential allegations, provide support o faculty,

protect the college, and build a solid reputation that increase the likelihood of future funding

opportunities. This proposal has demonstrated that the positive benefits justifies the additional

increased costs.

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References

Bierer, B. (2014, July). Research Misconduct Involving Noncompliance I Human Subjects Support by the

Public Health Service; Reconciling Separate Regulatory Systems. Hastings Center Report. Retrieved

June 25, 2021, https://onlinelibrary- wileycom.ezproxy.neu.edu/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/hast.336

Eyerly, R. (2000, November). The Long and Winding Road: The Politics of Building and ERA System. The

Journal of Research Administration., Retrieved June 25, 2021, https://www-proquest-

com.ezproxy.neu.edu/docview/216586328/fulltextPDF/897F5556476A4918PQ/1?accountid=12826

The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. (2020). IPEDS Data Feedback Report: CUNY

Queensborough Community College (IPEDSDFR_190673) [Data Set]. National Center for

Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/dfr/2020/ReportPDF.aspx?unitID=190673

Queensborough Community College. (2021a). Mission, Queensborough Community College. Retrieved

June 25, 2021, from https://www.qcc.cuny.edu/about/mission.html

Wright, D (2008, May 28). Mentoring and Research Misconduct: An Analysis of Research Mentoring in

Closed ORI Cases, Science and Engineering Ethics, Retrieved June 25, 2021,

https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.neu.edu/content/pdf/10.1007/s11948-008-9074-5.pdf

postsecondary/reports/2020/10/28/491739/tapping-local-support-strengthen-community-

colleges/