perm filename RES[D,LES] blob
sn#024650 filedate 1973-02-13 generic text, type T, neo UTF8
00100 MEMORANDUM
00200
00300 13 February 1973
00400
00500 To: Members of the Committee on Research
00600
00700 From: Lester D. Earnest, Research Computer Scientist
00800
00900 Subject: Proposed Restructuring and Representation of
01000 Professional Research Positions at Stanford
01100
01200 References:
01300
01400 1. Helen C. Rauch, "The Non-Status of Professional Research
01500 Personnel at the Medical Center", undated memorandum.
01600
01700 2. E. G. L. Cilley, "Head Count Listings by School and Department
01800 for Academic Council Members and Non-Academic Council Members",
01900 memo to L. Earnest, Feb. 2, 1973.
02000
02100 3. Guide Memo 22.2 in "Administrative Organization, Policies, and
02200 Procedures", Stanford University, Sept. 15, 1967.
02300
02400 4. "Rosters", Office of the Academic Secretary, Stanford, Dec. 1,
02500 1972.
02600
02700 5. Memo from Lincoln Moses to Lester Earnest, Feb. 8, 1972.
02800
02900 6. Anne Coffey, "Lecturer Policy Changes Asked", article in The
03000 Stanford Daily, page 8, Feb. 12, 1972.
03100
03200
03300 It appears to me that the privileges of being a Principal
03400 Investigator of a sponsored research project and of being a Principal
03500 Advisor in PhD programs are being witheld from qualified members of
03600 our research staff. The effects are to stunt their professional
03700 growth, to invite clandestine circumvention of the rules, and to
03800 artificially increase the load on faculty members.
03900
04000 Discussion and resolution of these problems has been inhibited by the
04100 nearly total exclusion of research staff members from fact-finding
04200 and policy-making bodies of the the University. Unlike faculty and
04300 students, they do not even have a forum in which to discuss their
04400 interests.
04500
04600 I propose a restructuring of research positions, with a reduction in
04700 the number of titles and and increase in privileges for certain
04800 positions. I also advocate greater representation by staff members
04900 within the committees of the University.
00100 PROFESSIONAL RESEARCH POSITIONS
00200
00300 There are supposedly five steps on the existing University research
00400 ladder [Reference 3], as follows:
00500 1. Research Assistant (including Student Research Assistant and
00600 Senior Research Assistant),
00700 2. Postdoctoral Research Associate (or Research Fellow),
00800 3. Research Associate
00900 4. Research x (where x = Engineer, Physicist, etc.),
01000 5. Senior Research Associate (or Senior Research Engineer or
01100 Senior Scientist).
01150
01200 People at Step 1 typically have Bachelors or Masters Degrees. Steps
01300 2, 3, and 4 are generally at the Doctoral level, with slight
01400 variations in experience requirements. Step 5 is for those "... who
01500 have professional responsibilities approximately equivalent to those
01600 of Associate Professor or Professor." It is my impression that most
01700 people at this level have backgrounds comparable to full Professor.
01800
01900 While there appear to be five steps on the above ladder, in fact
02000 there are only three. Steps 2, 3, and 4 have essentially identical
02100 privileges and responsibilities and are treated as equivalent by the
02200 administration. From here on, I shall use the term "Research
02300 Associate" to cover all three.
02400
02500 People regularly make the transition from Research Assistant (here or
02600 elsewhere) to Research Associate, mainly by completing their
02700 Doctorate. From the appearance of the titles, there would seem to be
02800 an orderly progression of positions with increasing qualifications,
02900 responsibilities, and privileges. In fact, there is a barrier
03000 between the Research Associate and Senior Research Associate
03100 Positions.
03200
03300 It has been pointed out [Reference 1] that in order to qualify as
03400 Senior Research Associate, it is necessary to establish a substantial
03500 reputation in independent research. In order to do that in some
03600 disciplines, it is necessary to obtain a research grant. But
03700 Research Associates are not generally permitted to obtain research
03800 grants: Catch 22.
03900
04000 How can people get to be Senior Research Associates then? By
04100 establishing a reputation somewhere else, then coming here. (Some
04200 who have apparently made the transition here were in fact hired as
04300 Research Associates just because that could be done quickly with a
04400 minimum of fuss; they were subsequently promoted on the basis of
04500 prior accomplishments.)
00100 POPULATIONS
00200
00300 It is interesting to examine the current numbers of people in
00400 teaching and research positions at Stanford. I am indebted to Earl
00500 Cilley and D'Ann Downey for the following head counts [2]. (I didn't
00600 request the missing numbers. They are fairly large.)
00700
00800 Faculty
00900 Assistant Professors* 288
01000 Associate Professors* 204
01100 Professors* 539
01200 Teaching Staff
01300 Teaching Assistants ?
01400 Lecturers 285
01500 miscellaneous 231 (e.g. Acting/Visiting Professors,
01600 Senior Lecturer* 10 Instructors)
01700 Research Staff
01800 Research Assistants ?
01900 Research Associates 353
02000 Senior Research Associates* 43
02100
02200 If one regards the Assistant Professor and Research Associate
02300 Positions as comparable, it is interesting to note that Assistant
02400 Professors make up 28% of the faculty while Research Associates make
02500 up 89% of the corresponding research positions. This tends to
02600 support the view that there is a barrier of some sort above the
02700 Research Associate level. Either that, or most Research Associates
02800 are making the transition to faculty positions, which I doubt.
02900
03000 PRIVILEGES
03100
03200 There are two privileges that are important to research career
03300 development that are not automatically conferred upon Research
03400 Associates, namely:
03500 1. the right to do thesis supervision, and
03600 2. the right to be a Principal Investigator and the consequent
03700 right to offer support to other research staff and faculty.
03800 Both of these privileges can be granted on an ad hoc basis. The
03900 first is often granted on request, at least in my department. The
04000 second is held rather closely. The reasons usually given for
04100 withholding these privileges are as follows.
04300 1. Research Associate appointments are reviewed much less carefully
04400 than are appointments carrying Academic Council membership. Such
04500 appointments are often made upon the recommendation of a single
04600 faculty member.
04700 2. Granting Principal Investigator status to Research Associates
04800 would make possible a self-perpetuating research establishment
04900 of essentially no benefit to the University.
05000
05050
05100 ______________________________
05200
05300 * Members of the Academic Council
00100 The first reason is certainly valid as things stand. Of course, it
00200 is usually rather hard for a Research Associate to attract graduate
00300 students anyway, since the latter correctly regard such affiliations
00400 as less powerful "politically". If he does interest a student, then
00500 the Research Associate must then qualify (or requalify) himself as an
00600 Advisor. Alternatively, a faculty member may be made the Advisor of
00700 record, while the Research Associate performs the function. Of
00800 course this seldom advances his career much.
00900
01000 In the case of interdepartmental programs, Research Associates are
01100 flatly denied the privilege of being a Principal Advisor as a matter
01200 of policy. This just happened to a member of my laboratory. He was
01300 formerly an Associate Professor at UCLA, but preferred to be on our
01400 research staff, he thought.
01500
01600 With respect to the "empire-building" fear cited above, I believe
01700 that this is ill-founded. Young researchers generally have a
01800 difficult time rounding up support even when given a hunting license
01900 and substantial encouragement. If it did start to get out of hand in
02000 a particular case, it should not be hard for the Department Head to
02100 put on the "brakes".
02200
02300 RESEARCH STAFF PROPOSAL
02400
02500 I propose that a new position be created intermediate between the
02600 current Research Associate and Senior Research Associate. Candidates
02700 for this position would be expected to have qualifications equivalent
02800 to Associate Professors and would be given careful academic review.
02900 This position would automatically carry the two privileges discussed
03000 above, but would not include membership in the Adademic Council, as
03100 does the Senior Research Associate.
03200
03300 As I see it, this would provide a useful and needed intermediate step
03400 on the research ladder and would avoid some redundant review of
03500 qualifications.
03600
03700 The particular titles used for the various positions are not
03800 particularly important in my view. One possibility would be to
03900 convert the current Research Associates of various flavors to, say,
04000 "Research Staff Members" and then reintroduce "Research Associate" to
04100 cover the new intermediate position.
04200
04300 BROADER ISSUES
04400
04500 The policy-making bodies of the University do not appear to be giving
04600 much consideration to professional staff needs in general. I have
04700 been frustrated about this for some time. Others have recently
04800 expressed concern over particular aspects of this problem [1,6].
04900
05000 There are a number of questions that ought to be seriously
05100 considered and answered openly, even though the answers may remain
05200 unchanged. The following examples might raise a few hackles.
05300
05400 1. Why does the University devote substantial resources to
05500 faculty and student housing, but nothing for the staff?
05600 2. Why is there a Student Union and a Faculty Club, but
05700 nothing for the staff?:
05800 3. Why are some faculty members granted tenure, while all
05900 research staff members are specifically denied it, no matter how long
06000 their service?
06100 4. Why does the faculty enjoy sabbatical leave periodically,
06200 but it is unavailable to other professional staff members?
06300 5. Are the above privileges so allocated for the good of the
06400 University as a whole or because the faculty is operating it as a
06500 rather exclusive club?
06600 6. Or is everything simply being done in accordance with
06700 tradition, which makes it alright.
06800
06900 The reason that such questions and other calmer ones are seldom asked
07000 is that there is no forum in which they can be asked. The
07100 professional staff has been systematically excluded from fact-finding
07200 and policy-making bodies of the University.
07300
07400 I made a count of committee memberships in the most recent Rosters
07500 [4], with the following (possibly slightly defective) results:
07600
07700 COMMITTEE OF THE SENATE ACAD. COUNCIL UNIVERSITY TOTAL
07800
07900 Number of committees 5 7 8 20
08000 Administrators 3 8 30 40
08100 Faculty 25 54 33 112
08200 Teaching Staff 0 1 0 1
08300 Research Staff 0 1 0 1
08400 Students 2 26 34 62
08500
08600 TOTALS 30 90 97 217
08700
08800 I was rather surprised to find that I am the only representative of
08900 the research staff on any committee. I was particularly surprised to
09000 note that the Committee on Faculty and Staff Affairs includes no
09100 representatives of either the research or teaching staffs!
09200
09300 Although the professional staff is fairly numerous, they are not at
09400 all organized, unlike most other groups within the University. As
09500 long as this pattern persists, their interests can be ignored safely.
09600
09700 They could, of course, form a union or an equivalent "professional
09800 organization." Most, I suspect, would rather pretend that they are a
09900 part of the establishment. If they are given a bit more
10000 representation here and there and at least one committee is seriously
10100 charged to consider their problems, they can probably be kept in
10200 line. Otherwise, comes the revolution. . . !