WASC: Scholarships of Discovery, Application, and Integration Scholarships of Discovery, Application, and Integration Statement of Questions Addressed Methodology Findings, Interpretations, and Analysis Discussion, Recommendations, and Conclusions For questions regarding the WASC Self Study contact the WASC Coordinating Office.   Statement of Questions Addressed The paradigm of the university as a center of learning for all members of the academic community necessarily includes faculty scholarship as an essential element. Scholarship often termed "professional development," is the process by which faculty engage in life-long learning and remain at the forefront of their disciplines. It is also the process by which new knowledge is discovered, applied or integrated. Cal Poly recognizes scholarly activity as a central part of its mission: As a predominantly undergraduate, comprehensive, polytechnic university serving California, the mission of Cal Poly is to discover, integrate, articulate, and apply knowledge. This it does by emphasizing teaching; engaging in research; participating in the various communities, local, state, national, and international, with which it pursues common interests; and where appropriate, providing students with the unique experience of direct involvement with the actual challenges of their disciplines in the United States and abroad. In its Strategic Plan, Cal Poly also recognizes and endorses, as part of the expectations for faculty, the four types of scholarship identified in the Carnegie Foundation report entitled Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professorate (The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Princeton University Press, 1990). These are the Scholarships of Teaching, Discovery, Integration, and Application. Equally significant is our recognition of the role such scholarship plays in creating and enhancing an environment that fosters student learning. Recently, the significance of student involvement in experiential learning and the methods and processes of inquiry have been reaffirmed by various national groups. The National Science Foundation in 1996 issued Shaping the Future: New Expectations for Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology. The Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land Grant Universities in 1997 published Returning to Our Roots: The Student Experience, Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities. The Council on Undergraduate Research in May 1999 made public its report of Testimony to House Science Committee, April 1998. Two major assessment and planning initiatives have made similar affirmations within the CSU. The system-wide Academic Senate has emphasized the need for graduates to be "skilled in using various methods of inquiry: scientific, philosophical, problem-solving and artistic" and to be "able to analyze and evaluate both quantitative and qualitative data" and to recognize "the limits of empiricism" (Baccalaureate Education in the California State University November 1997). In its Cornerstones Report of December 1997, the CSU expressed "a commitment to encourage student involvement in scholarship, research and creative activity under faculty guidance, because these activities are central to the teaching mission of a comprehensive university." Similarly, in Cal Poly’s own planning documents, the involvement of students in hands-on research and creative activities and the importance file:///C|/WINNT/Profiles/mtoomey/Desktop/pdf/scholarship_disc.html (1 of 27) [2/9/2000 3:44:26 PM] WASC: Scholarships of Discovery, Application, and Integration of developing analytical, critical thinking and evaluative skills, is a recurring theme Visionary Pragmatism and University Strategic Plan college and unit strategic plans). Thus, Cal Poly views faculty scholarship to be inextricably intertwined with educational program quality and student learning and to be a vital component of the intellectual environment of the University. The following general questions were posed to evaluate faculty scholarship: 1. To what extent do Cal Poly faculty engage in the scholarships of discovery, application and integration (Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professorate), thus continuing to learn in their fields and to contribute to the learning of society? 2. What additional actions are appropriate to helping increase both qualitatively and quantitatively the University’s scholarly achievements? Before attempting to develop approaches to answering these questions, a working definition of faculty scholarship, intended to encompass the broad range of scholarly activities of faculty at comprehensive universities, was adopted: Scholarship is defined as contributions to a field of learning that are recognized by peers as advancing the field, be it through the discovery, application, integration or dissemination of knowledge, or through the creation, performance or interpretation of artistic, musical or literary works. It should be noted that faculty accomplishments and contributions to their fields that occur outside the university, through private consulting arrangements, were not included in the analysis undertaken for this report. (Top) Methodology Faculty scholarship was addressed in three ways, by: ? Quantifying and describing faculty scholarship. ? Assessing current policies and programs that either support or hinder faculty scholarship. ? Quantifying and describing the benefits to students of faculty scholarship. Specific questions were articulated for each of these approaches and are listed below. Quantifying and describing faculty scholarship: 1. What types of scholarship are engaged in by Cal Poly faculty? 2. What percentage of faculty engages in scholarship? 3. How much external funding is obtained in support of scholarship? How does it compare with other CSU campuses and/or similar comprehensive universities? 4. How many faculty receive professional awards or recognition from external entities (e.g. awards from professional societies; service on editorial boards of journals; service as reviewers of grant proposals or journal manuscripts; election to professional societies/organizations and service as officers in such societies/organizations)? 5. How extensively do faculty publish in peer-refereed journals? In other professional publications? 6. What creative contributions other than scholarly publications do faculty make in their disciplines (e.g. artistic and literary works, inventions)? 7. Assessing current policies and programs that either support or hinder faculty scholarship: 8. What formal university/college programs exist to support faculty scholarship? 9. What, if any, does the university do with organizations such as federal and state agencies to encourage support of faculty scholarship at Cal Poly? 10. To what extent are facilities, equipment and other physical resources adequate to support faculty scholarship? What specialized/unique resources are available? file:///C|/WINNT/Profiles/mtoomey/Desktop/pdf/scholarship_disc.html (2 of 27) [2/9/2000 3:44:26 PM] WASC: Scholarships of Discovery, Application, and Integration 11. Are library resources appropriate and sufficient to support faculty scholarship? 12. What conditions or factors prevent optimization of the level and quality of faculty scholarship at Cal Poly? 13. To what extent do policies permit/promote scholarship? 1. 2. 3. 4. Quantifying and describing the benefits to students of faculty scholarship: To what extent do teaching and scholarship merge? To what extent are students involved in faculty scholarship? What opportunities exist for student research experience off-campus? What impact do student research experiences have on career choices/employment? A variety of information sources were utilized to answer these questions. Table 1. correlates each question with the data sources used to address it.   Table 1. SOURCES USED TO OBTAIN DATA ON FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP QUESTIONS ASKED SOURCE What types of scholarship are practiced by Cal Poly faculty? C,D,E What percentage of faculty engages in scholarship? C,E How much external funding is obtained in support of scholarship? How does this compare with other CSU campuses and/or similar comprehensive universities? E How many faculty receive professional awards or recognition from external entities? A,C,N How extensively do faculty publish in peer-reviewed journals? In other professional publications? C,D What creative contributions other than scholarly publications do faculty make in their disciplines (e.g. artistic and literary works, inventions)? C,S What formal university/college programs exist to support faculty scholarship? D,G,R What "lobbying," if any, does the University do with organizations such as federal and state agencies to encourage support of faculty scholarship at Cal Poly? D To what extent are facilities, equipment, and other physical resources adequate to support faculty scholarship? What specialized/unique resources are available? D,E,J,K Are library resources appropriate and sufficient to support faculty scholarship? O What conditions or factors prevent optimization of the level and quality of faculty scholarship at Cal Poly? F,P To what extent do policies permit/promote scholarship? G,H To what extent do teaching and scholarship merge? I,D To what extent are students involved in faculty scholarship? I,Q What opportunities exist for student research experience off-campus? R SOURCES USED: file:///C|/WINNT/Profiles/mtoomey/Desktop/pdf/scholarship_disc.html (3 of 27) [2/9/2000 3:44:26 PM] WASC: Scholarships of Discovery, Application, and Integration A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H. I. J. K. L. M. N. O. P. Q. R. S. Accreditation reports College strategic plans Academic Senate program reviews Departmental information Grants Development Office database and Information Academic Senate Research & Professional Development Committee Survey Retention, Promotion and Tenure information Campus Administrative Manual and other CSU and Cal Poly policies Senior projects and theses Foundation/Sponsored Programs information Foundation and University Facilities departments Benchmarking information Other (specified) Cal Poly "Credit Report" Library Survey 1998 and Task Force Report on Library Collections 1998 Cal Poly Strategic Plan and Academic Senate resolutions Data from RGP Office Graduate Status Report and Career Services State Faculty Support Grant program (Top)   Findings, Interpretations, and Analysis Quantifying and Describing Faculty Scholarship Q. 1. What types of scholarship are practiced at Cal Poly? Creative and scholarly activities of Cal Poly faculty fall into the following categories: ? design, conduct, and publication of original research and research-related projects; ? artistic and musical design, performance and display; ? creation, publication and reading of literary works; ? design, construction, discovery and communication of new physical/chemical/biological/agricultural/engineering materials, processes, products or theories; physical structures and equipment; economic models and marketing plans; ? design, creation and implementation of new forms of teaching/learning in support of pedagogy. Some of these scholarly activities are summarized and discussed elsewhere in this report. Examples of creation and scholarship that fall in the artistic and literary works categories are described in further detail below. The scholarly and creative activities of Cal Poly faculty range from individual efforts to large, multi-million dollar projects that involve many faculty and students. In professional programs such as engineering, agriculture, architecture and business, applied research is emphasized. Specialized centers and institutes, involving groups of faculty, have evolved around specific research themes.. Nevertheless, interdisciplinary programs and collaborations among faculty in scholarly pursuits, particularly those that require cooperation across colleges, continue to be rare. (Additional information on special labs and projects) Q. 2. What percentage of faculty engages in scholarship? Each college in its Faculty Personnel Policy Statements includes remarks to encourage creative and scholarly activities in support of promotion and tenure under subheadings such as "professional growth and file:///C|/WINNT/Profiles/mtoomey/Desktop/pdf/scholarship_disc.html (4 of 27) [2/9/2000 3:44:26 PM] WASC: Scholarships of Discovery, Application, and Integration development," "professional development and achievement," "research" and "creative scholarly achievements." Program reviews, carried out by the Academic Senate on a five-year cycle, document the extent of scholarly activity of the faculty in each program. As discussed below, because of non-uniform reporting, it is difficult to quantify many of the measures of scholarly activity using these reviews. In addition, while all departments purport to require professional development activities for retention, tenure, and promotion, the definition of professional development varies among departments. Based on the information available to this subcommittee, we concluded that a significant majority of Cal Poly faculty engage in some type of scholarship or creative activity. Participation in externally funded projects in support of scholarship, however, is much lower. In 1993-94 11.8 % of faculty were awarded grants or contracts. This percentage decreased each subsequent year and in 1997-98 it was only 7.9 %. Q. 3. How much external funding is obtained in support of scholarship? How does this compare with other CSU campuses and/or similar comprehensive universities? Table 2 provides quantitative information on the amount of external funding in support of faculty scholarship at Cal Poly, 12 other CSU campuses, and one comprehensive university outside California (Northern Arizona University). Table 2. Award Information on Externally Sponsored Grants and Contracts at Cal Poly and Twelve Other CSU Campuses, and a Comparable Non-CSU Institution 93-94 94-95 95-96 $ / FTE Institution # Dollars (millions) FTE $ / FTE (Thousands) # Dollars (millions) FTE $ / FTE (Thousands) # Dollars (millions) FTE (Thousands) San Diego 628 $ 67.3 1019 $ 66.0 638 $ 65.9 1052 $ 62.6 594 $ 73.6 1072 $ 68.7 Sacramento 445 $ 23.7 819 $ 28.9 537 $ 29.1 827 $ 35.2 551 $ 34.2 828 $ 41.3 Chico 218 $ 14.8 592 $ 25.1 259 $ 20.2 602 $ 33.5 250 $ 19.8 609 $ 32.5 Sonoma 60 $ 6.8 269 $ 25.2 84 $ 5.9 247 $ 23.9 96 $ 8.8 267 $ 33.0 San Jose 340 $ 26.5 997 $ 26.5 387 $ 28.6 1003 $ 28.6 328 $ 25.9 988 $ 26.2 Northern Arizona University 277 $ 18.3 543 $ 33.7 293 $ 20.5 572 $ 35.8 327 $ 20.9 628 $ 33.3 LA 114 $ 13.8 586 $ 23.5 137 $ 16.9 578 $ 29.3 131 $ 14.3 617 $ 23.2 74 $ 7.3 445 $ 16.5 74 $ 7.8 458 $ 16.9 83 $ 6.4 464 $ 13.7 Fresno 198 $ 11.2 717 $ 15.6 230 $ 12.3 722 $ 17.0 227 $ 13.9 715 $ 19.4 Humboldt 151 $ 5.6 350 $ 16.0 188 $ 7.5 372 $ 20.2 165 $ 6.7 378 $ 17.7 Hayward 54 $ 3.2 420 $ 7.6 54 $ 4.4 445 $ 9.9 65 $ 4.5 463 $ 9.7 San Luis Obispo 169 $ 8.9 697 $ 12.8 123 $ 8.0 699 $ 11.4 114 $ 7.7 713 $ 10.8 Northridge 111 $ 8.9 891 $ 10.0 112 $ 8.7 903 $ 9.7 98 $ 8.6 896 $ 9.5 50 $ 4.1 665 $ 6.2 63 $ 4.1 664 $ 6.2 42 $ 5.7 680 $ 8.4 San Bernardino Pomona   96-97 97-98 file:///C|/WINNT/Profiles/mtoomey/Desktop/pdf/scholarship_disc.html (5 of 27) [2/9/2000 3:44:27 PM] WASC: Scholarships of Discovery, Application, and Integration Dollars Institution # (millions) $ / FTE FTE (Thousands) Dollars # (millions) $ / FTE FTE (Thousands) San Diego 621 $ 85.0 1123 $ 75.7 733 $ 92.6 1150 $ 80.5 Sacramento 546 $ 29.7 845 $ 35.2 526 $ 34.4 868 $ 39.6 Chico 245 $ 24.8 613 $ 40.5 252 $ 23.7 628 $ 37.7 Sonoma 103 $ 7.4 278 $ 26.6 78 $ 9.7 287 $ 33.6 San Jose 353 $ 28.9 991 $ 29.1 337 $ 32.2 990 $ 32.6 Northern Arizona University 320 $ 19.6 731 $ 26.9 334 $ 20.6 751 $ 27.4 LA 147 $ 13.0 629 $ 20.6 111 $ 13.1 647 $ 20.2 86 $ 5.3 472 $ 11.2 100 $ 8.6 473 $ 18.2 Fresno 200 $ 12.0 726 $ 16.5 194 $ 13.2 746 $ 17.6 Humboldt 155 $ 5.9 399 $ 14.8 174 $ 6.5 402 $ 16.2 Hayward 78 $ 3.8 460 $ 8.3 86 $ 5.8 473 $ 12.3 104 $ 6.7 743 $ 9.0 96 $ 8.5 769 $ 11.1 Northridge 94 $ 6.3 904 $ 7.0 132 $ 9.7 928 $ 10.5 Pomona 75 $ 7.2 689 $ 10.5 70 $ 6.6 690 $ 9.6 San Bernardino San Luis Obispo Data are provided for a five-year period, from 1993-94 through 1997-98. The data report the amount of external funding obtained for grants and contracts carried out by university faculty and staff. The overwhelming majority of these grants and contracts support faculty scholarship. Some, however, support student activities and training programs, so the data provide only an index, not an actual accounting, of support specifically for faculty scholarship. This table includes only grant and contract funding managed by the Cal Poly Foundation. A small amount of grant funding is received directly by the university. The same is likely to be true for most of the other campuses listed in the Table and would not significantly affect rankings. Cal Poly ranked tenth among the fourteen campuses that responded to our survey in the amount of grant and contract funding in ‘97-’98, and twelfth in funding per full-time equivalent faculty (FTEF), which adjusts for the different sizes of the reporting campuses. With the exception of San Diego State and CSU--Chico, the annual award amounts have not shown a significant increase from ‘93-’94. Rather, award amounts tended to fluctuate from year to year. Annual expenditures on grants and contracts at Cal Poly did increase steadily each of these years, from $5.9 million in 1993-94 to $7.5 million in 1997-98. The corresponding figure for 1998-99 is estimated to be $9.8 million. Expenditure data are a more accurate reflection of actual grant and contract activity since they do not include multi-year awards, as do the annual award totals. Given Cal Poly’s excellent academic reputation both within and outside the CSU, and the outstanding qualifications of our faculty, there appears to be much room for growth in the amount of external funding the faculty secure to support their work. Cal Poly should rank much higher among its sister institutions, particularly since the professional programs that make up the majority of our academic offerings have greater availability of funding than do non-professional programs. Particularly troubling is the decline each year in the number of awards to Cal Poly faculty, from 169 in ‘93-’94 to only 96 in ‘97-’98. This is directly correlated with the number of proposals submitted (284 in ‘93-’94 and 207 in ‘97-98) and reflects a lower percentage of faculty both applying for and receiving grant and contract awards. Additional information on file:///C|/WINNT/Profiles/mtoomey/Desktop/pdf/scholarship_disc.html (6 of 27) [2/9/2000 3:44:27 PM] WASC: Scholarships of Discovery, Application, and Integration external support for faculty scholarship is available at Grants Development Office. Finally, it should be noted that restricted gifts are a source of some funding to support faculty scholarship received by the university through the Division of University Advancement. These were not quantified for the report but are thought to be insignificant when compared to the funding acquired through grants and contracts. Q. 4. How many faculty receive professional awards or recognition from external entities (for example, awards from professional societies; service on editorial boards of journals; service as reviewers of grant proposals or journal manuscripts; election to professional societies/organizations and service as officers of such societies/organizations)? It is difficult to provide a specific numeric answer to this question because the university does not maintain a formal database that tabulates the occurrences of faculty awards. However, specific information on some aspects of this type of faculty activity are reported in non-uniform formats by each department for the periodic program review conducted by the university at least every five years. In addition to this, we have accreditation reports, prepared for external professional boards, for all programs that can be accredited. Noteworthy faculty accomplishments are also reported in university news reports published by the University Communications Office. It is difficult to simplify the diverse range of documented evidence of faculty awards and recognition into a single summary table for this report. However, we can confirm that there is ample evidence to sustain the claim that Cal Poly faculty do seem to receive such awards in each of the subcategories identified in the question. Verification of this can be found in the Program Review reports available centrally from the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs or the Credit Reports (or Cal Poly Reports prior to 1994), which are archived by the University Communications Office. The latter, however, probably underestimate the extent of recognition since the information is self-reported. A representative university-wide sample of the summary tables from seven different program reviews (one from each of the six colleges and the University Center for Teacher Education), and a copy of the Credit Report, are included in Appendix I.3.A as a factual supplement in support of the above narrative. Q. 5. How extensively do faculty publish in peer-reviewed journals? In other professional publications? Table 3 provides summary data on the number of publications and full-time equivalent faculty (FTEF) derived mainly from the Program Review documents of the Academic Senate.   Table 3. Faculty Publications as Reported in Five-Year Program Review Documents. See text for explanation. COLLEGE Agriculture DEPARTMENT Rec. Admin. Agribusiness Animal Science Forestry/NRM Ag. Eng. Soil Science Orn. Hort. Food Sci./Nutr. Ag. Ed. Crop Science Dairy Science DPTC FTEF YEAR REVIEWED TOTAL PUBLICATIONS PEER­ REVIEWED 2 18 11 8 12 7 9 15 6 12 9 96-7 95-6 95-6 94-5 93-4 97-8 93-4 97-8 93-4 96-7 98-9 29 5 10 14 113 48 3 53 54 67 146 NR NR NR 8 NR 18 35 NR NR 2 18 64 NR file:///C|/WINNT/Profiles/mtoomey/Desktop/pdf/scholarship_disc.html (7 of 27) [2/9/2000 3:44:27 PM] WASC: Scholarships of Discovery, Application, and Integration Architecture Landscape Arch. City/Reg. Plan. Arch. Arch. Eng. 18 10 39 10 93-4 96-7 96-7 94-5 42 16 22 NR 23 NR NR NR Bus. Admin. Econ. Ind. Tech. 40 9 10 97-8 96-7 93-4 284 27 7 NR 16 1 Engineering Mech. Eng. Comp. Eng. Elec. Eng. Comp. Sci. Materials Eng. 25 14 29 33 7 94-5 97-8 96-7 95-6 95-6 58 16 38 35 40 NR NR NR 32 NR Liberal Arts History Modern Lang. Music Journalism Ethnic Studies Philosophy English Theat./Dance Psyc./H.D. Liberal Studies Speech Com. Social Science Graphic Com. Art /Design 15 6 10 12 5 14 33 5 25 2 13 17 35 14 95-6 94-5 94-5 93-4 97-8 97-8 96-7 94-5 97-8 93-4 96-7 96-7 97-8 93-4 15 27 14 1 NR 76 26 2 74 NR 22 42 30 6 NR NR NR NR NR 76 26 NR NR NR NR 42 NR 6 P.E.&K. Physics Chem./Biochem. Math Biology 14 30 25 45 26 93-4 97-8 97-8 94-5 95-6 22 86 37 31 188 12 86 '10 31 66 UCTE   14 93-4 18 6 TOTALS   713 1844 578 Business Science/Math   Each academic department undergoes such a review every five years. As a result, the data in the table indicate the activity in the five years prior to the review date. Where the program review document did not include information on FTEF, current data were obtained by phoning the department office. The data cited are from the most recent Academic Senate reviews of a particular department. No attempt was made to locate older records (if they exist) to develop a trend for each department. The reports are not uniform and the majority of departments did not differentiate between articles that were peer-reviewed and those that were not. Although the Academic Senate records portray the Cal Poly faculty as active professional writers, they do not allow an accurate assessment of types of publications. The data show a total of 1,844 publications out of which 578 are identified as peer-reviewed; the number of peer-reviewed publications may, in fact, be somewhat greater. Q. 6. What creative contributions other than scholarly publications do faculty make in their disciplines? In addition to traditional research and scholarly publications, creative contributions of Cal Poly faculty run the gamut of activities described under Question 1, above. Artistic and musical contributions are many, and file:///C|/WINNT/Profiles/mtoomey/Desktop/pdf/scholarship_disc.html (8 of 27) [2/9/2000 3:44:27 PM] WASC: Scholarships of Discovery, Application, and Integration include development of artistic works for exhibitions, competitions, commissions, corporate clients, and consignments. Examples include design of poster and T-shirts for Mardi Gras; development of product labels for Sea and Ski TM; sculptures for the lobby of the Cal Poly Theater; local, national and international exhibits of original artistic works in a variety of media, including photography; concerts and recitals by music faculty locally, statewide, nationally and internationally, often of original compositions; and composition and production of theater and dance. Literary works include writing and reading of original work (essays, short stories, novels, poetry) locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. Other examples are print and broadcast journalism (radio and television); computer animation and graphics; and architectural and landscape design. Funding sources encompass private, public and internal support (small seed grants funded through the State Faculty Support Grant Program, and other University programs). Assessing current policies and programs that either support or hinder faculty scholarship. Several questions were posed to assess the ways in which infrastructure and policies (formal and informal) affect faculty scholarship. Infrastructure includes library resources and collections; research facilities and equipment; and other physical resources. Policies include official CSU and Cal Poly policies published in the Campus Administrative Manual (CAM), UCAM and other authorized sources; university and college policies/programs that support research, including intervention with state and federal agencies in support of faculty scholarship; and any other Cal Poly/CSU policies or factors that affect optimization of the level and quality of faculty scholarship. Q. 7. What formal university/college programs exist to support faculty scholarship? Several university-wide and college-based programs exist to support faculty scholarship. A survey of the six colleges of the university and the University Center for Teacher Education (UCTE) revealed that all provide some sort of direct support for faculty scholarship or for grant proposal writing by faculty, although the mechanisms and amounts vary. The College of Business, for example, has a formal program that is used to evaluate faculty scholarship annually, and released time to support that scholarship is awarded accordingly. Similarly, the College of Liberal Arts has instituted a new program whereby 36 Weighted Teaching Units (WTUs) of released time are awarded annually to faculty to support their scholarly activities. Awards are made on a competitive basis. The College of Science and Math has a college "development" committee that allocates released time specifically for grant proposal writing. Likewise, the College of Agriculture allots $10,000 each year for this purpose (approximately 10 WTUs). Several colleges and the UCTE noted that they provide support for the scholarly activities of new faculty in the form of a reduced teaching load in their first year of appointment. Travel support for faculty to participate in professional meetings is also available through the colleges and UCTE. Matching funds for equipment and release time are also provided for faculty with grants. These matching funds are made available as part of a cooperative agreement between the colleges and the Provost’s Office, to encourage faculty to seek competitive federal funding. On such grants, the university will provide any matching funds required by the agency, usually on equipment, and will match any released time funded on the grant. The match is divided among the Provost’s Office (50%), the College Dean’s Office (25%) and the faculty member’s department (25%). In 1998-99 a total of ~$200,000 was allocated through this program. Internal funding is also available to help faculty initiate or redirect their scholarly activities, through programs administered at the university level. These are listed on Page 4 of Appendix I.3.B and include State Faculty Support Grants (through the Chancellor’s Office), University Services Summer Awards and Professional Development Grants (through Human Resources), and Assigned Time for Proposal Development (through Research and Graduate Programs). Approximately $300,000 is available annually through these programs. Faculty may access funding opportunities at the CSU system-level through the University Services and Faculty Fellows Programs, which recruit faculty to work as consultants for special projects of state agencies and the state legislature. Considerable resources are available to assist faculty in securing grant and contract support for their scholarly efforts. The Grants Development Office provides pre-award support, assisting in identification and file:///C|/WINNT/Profiles/mtoomey/Desktop/pdf/scholarship_disc.html (9 of 27) [2/9/2000 3:44:27 PM] WASC: Scholarships of Discovery, Application, and Integration dissemination of funding opportunities (facilitated by InfoEd’s Sponsored Programs Information Network, a leading commercial database), and preparation and submission of proposals. Workshops are held at least quarterly, and by special arrangement, to train faculty to use the database and educate them on funding opportunities in their disciplines. The Cal Poly Foundation provides post-award support once grants/contracts are awarded. Q. 8. What lobbying, if any, does the University do with organizations such as federal and state agencies, to encourage support of faculty scholarship at Cal Poly? Unlike other universities, Cal Poly has no formal lobbying program. The Office of Government and Community Relations, within the University Advancement Division, is responsible for tracking legislation at the federal and state level that affects the university, and working with local representatives to both the state and federal legislatures to promote Cal Poly’s programs. It also does extensive networking with local government and businesses, which has resulted in professional development opportunities for faculty. The Deans of the Colleges, Director of the UCTE, and the Dean for Research and Graduate Programs, as well as the President of the University, have served on national advisory boards and developed close relationships in specific federal agencies, on an individual basis. Cal Poly belongs to NASULGC (National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Universities) and has representatives on its various councils. NASULGC lobbies for its constituents at the federal level and strongly promotes university research. Q. 9. To what extent are facilities, equipment and other physical resources adequate to support faculty scholarship? What specialized/unique resources are available? As a result of funding by external sponsors, research-related equipment purchased for use on specific sponsored projects is available for use by faculty and becomes the property of the University after the termination of the projects. Two databases are available for locating such equipment - the Cal Poly Foundation’s fixed assets database and the university’s property management database. The Foundation maintains a fixed asset database of all equipment purchased on active and recently terminated sponsored projects. Data contained in the Foundation database include a description of the item, vendor, serial number, project number, location, as well as other fields used to track the item. Every year, the Foundation transfers items from the database to the university. The Foundation database is searchable by means of a request to the Foundation Business Office. However, data are not categorized in a fashion that would make the database easy for faculty to utilize to find research-related equipment. The university maintains a property management database of all equipment owned by the university. Equipment is coded per an Equipment Code Conversion Table (as required by the State Administrative Manual). The university currently iden