FIN Commons

Skyline College’s process of inquiry has proven to be a wonderful collaborative effort that has great support from faculty, students, and administrators. You’d think that the campus research approval committee would be the last barrier to our success, and like us, you’d have another “think” coming. We are interested to know if any other colleges have experienced difficulty in getting their research committee to agree to the research parameters of the inquiry projects.

Skyline’s FIN group had no idea what was in store when we presented our proposal. We were given a 9-page packet of protocols and instructions from our research committee. The informed consent page template alone had 11 points to it, and there were over 40 numbered steps and clearances that we had to surmount before being approved. We dove in with aplomb, and got the proposal kicked back to us. Most of all, they were concerned that the video process would endanger student privacy and felt that students were being put at undue risk of unprotected identity (despite an informed consent clause stating that pseudonyms would be used and permission signatures would be obtained).

We were shocked to confront this, mainly because we are pretty sure that we aren’t the first research group to use video (!). After much emailing among our FIN group, we rewrote our proposal, and now, we wait to see what the committee’s response is. Meanwhile, our research hovers in the near future, waiting for the flag to drop so we can speed towards it. If anyone else has had such experiences with their research committee, we’d be interested to know how you dealt with it. FIN would do well to consider this potential snag prior to future inquiry projects so that they can provide the appropriate support to groups to help them get their research off the ground.