Non-Routine External Requests for Study Participation
Increasingly we are asked to participate in research on higher education by everyone from dissertation students to higher education agencies. These requests may range from completing a simple one page form to providing very complex historical data to providing data files at the individual level. TJC must balance the value of the research effort to the public, to the higher education community, and to itself against the burden it presents on College resources (especially staff time) in responding. (This discussion is not meant to include the more informal peer-to-peer type of requests, e.g. queries posted on electronic discussion lists).
Because of the expertise of the Institutional Research office in conducting higher education research, any request for such a study should go to the Institutional office for a response strategy. In cases where the institutional burden is minimal, the Institutional Research office may make the decision of whether or not to participate. In cases where the institutional burden is higher, he/she will notify the Executive Cabinet, telling them:
- Who is requesting the study
- Nature of the data requested
- The purpose and intended use of the information
- What offices will need to be involved and to what extent
- What peer institutions are known to be participating
- Deadline(s) for responding
- Benefits (if any) of participation
- His/Her recommendation regarding TJC's participation
Executive Cabinet should then inform the Institutional Research office of its judgment, or whether it needs to be discussed further. (A subset of this group most closely involved with the subject matter may be consulted in lieu of the full group.) If the Institutional Research office decides that TJC should participate in the study, the Institutional Research office will notify all affected offices immediately, providing them with all the relevant materials. If the Institutional Research officer will be directly involved in providing data, he/she may serve as the study liaison, coordinating the responses of other involved offices. If the Institutional Research officer is not involved in providing data, a judgment will be made whether the response should go through him/her or whether it would be more appropriate for another officer on campus to serve as the liaison, using the same guidelines as described above under "exceptions."