AACII Meeting Notes
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Attendees: , Petruzzelli, R., Morris, D., Elices, R., Buckley, P., Brenton, P., Shansky, S., O’Connell, A., Breede, L., Sinkus, M., LeBlanc, R., Royer, M., Nicholas, D. O'Conaill, B., Dudley-Cowans, R, Valentine, O., Ludwig, A., LeBlanc, R., Kouchakdjian, Defandorf, J., Zimmerman, M.
Introductions and welcome. Pete Brenton asked that each member offer a suggestion for topics for the annual breakfast meeting:
Mary Ellen Royer- topics about Professional Development for staff
Robin Elices – Administrative Systems Steeering Committee feedback
Olympia Valentine – Information System & Training – Technologies, Atlas
Ana Ludwig –managing transitions,
Renee LeBlanc – Technology, audit, succession planning
Hasmit Kouchakdjian - Portfolio and project management s – IT Solutions –– data – long range project planning tool
Ronnie Dudley – Administrative Tools, Best Practices we can share Professional Development for staff
Macall Zimmerman –– assessing and analyzing data – more centralization? – Succession tools and data - currently using quickbase for process documentation – data and IT tools integrated for succession plans
Brian Onaill –– Culture at MIT and tolerance of toxic masculinity –
Richard Petruzzelli – Research Lab of Electronics – topic of ethics – what does it mean – find a shared and common language around ethics – if they are thinking about or want it addressed - Succession planning - AO FUN
Doreen Morris – Provost – OSP to OSATT information session
Andrea O’Connell –OSATT – workflow moving forward – how has it changed? Career Development and Succession planning – Retention – how is it being addressed?
Lisa Breede –retention as it relates to compensation – how we can move things forward faster – TRAINING – HR role, Finance – Communication – IS&T – Athena Kerberos accounts – broader people database – things we find out by mistake – sexual harassment training HAVEN – you cannot find it on your own. Pieces of the way things are rolled out – how is it being communicated?
Pam Schickling Buckley – OVPF – training – build formal training modules – FRC is a painpoint for people – in the next year there may be some changes and improvements – off-boarding is equally important as onboarding – with regular and temp staff
Jack Defandor – Koali– systems issue – redesign and improvement of eDACCA for the sake of PI certification. Communication with central offices - OSP. Revisiting gift policies – whether this committee will be taking up the topic
PB – discussion topic: When this council does have a meeting, what is the output? What is produced in the wake of the meeting – hand the guest a succinct summary of what the council felt was the response to your presentation/discussion. Council will produce, circulate, edit discussion and distill the information.
Roni Dudley – Gather the takeaways – we ask questions – the follow up is important. Document discussion at meeting and request follow up meeting to discuss the outcome.
PB: today’s meeting is a follow-up with Siri Nillson
PB: Documented summary a good idea?
RE: Documentation helpful, do we reach out to gather more feedback? Broaden the reach of the group and disseminate things you do. AO/FO list serve – publish on a web site?
AOC – AACII – it is not known across campus/not transparent -
PB – Departments ought to express their community expectations on the website – provide a template for ethics – is that our role and mission?
PSB – Highlight where the available resources are -
PB – grab the resources and provide departments with guidance for documenting community values around ethical and community values – what is and what is not acceptable – standard of how we decide whose money is unacceptable
AOC – each department should create their own – each group and each department are affected differently - provide a summary and bring it here – AAC II
Roni Dudley – This would be a good breakfast topic – what is our role? How can we help you?
Lisa Breede – Bring in partners: Onboarding – there are many resources – that are not all in one place. Not just limited to a crisis – bring the right departments together – then the AAC II website can be a resource –
PB – summary for the president’s report – include summary of what AAC II has done (like a PDR) and summarize
PB – will reach out to Marianne Kirkbride
RE – who are the right resources? Marianne is Mind Hand Heart – who should we engage for the breakfast?
LB – Could they come to AAC first
PB – breakfast in January – so October meeting –
RE - one good thing to come out of this is heightened awareness and training about Ethical Behavior
Lisa Breede – Ombuds, HROs, OGC
RE – Breakfast about recent cases in the news? Are we drafting a document?
Roni – start with awareness
Richard P – how do we start the conversation around ethics – creating conditions that people feel safe, respected which would allow for more discussions – how culture starts to shift
BOC – MIT should remove Toxic People – before it hits the news – be proactive
RP – ethics are in the gray – what is our common understanding – looking for thought partners
Jack Defandorf – a number of the ethical questions are already addressed in audit principles and policies. What Brion brings up is if someone who is faculty is toxic – how does an Administrator get support around keeping that in check.
PB _ ICEO – is vacant at the time Theoretical Topic: Building a Culture of Ethical Behavior – how to be the agent of change or how to build a culture –
PB - PBS and LB – it is a dialogue – who are the panelists? How do you market it – a how to Navigate and how to move forward
Jack – how about Allison Romantz as a potential speaker?
PB – questions: Volunteer – logistics committee – manage the task of space food, av, etc. – short term the only work is space. Media Lab or Koch – make reservation and lead the committee – Mary Ellen Royer volunteered
October Poster Session – come to the poster session – willing to stand at the table and present – discuss what the council does and what we do – also he will be sending the poster around
Siri Nilsson
IPIA and Agreement Compliance Officer
Siri led a discussion about collection of IPIAs.
How are the IPIAs collected? How it is centralized.
Present Assignment Agreement – policy requests that it’s the responsibility of the DLC to collect the IPIA The first way most employees encounter the IPIA is thru the Atlas New Hire system – it is a tile in the new hire application – electronically signed – no social security number required. It is not a required application. Compliance is 75% Grad students get it thru the new graduate student portal – tile IPIA signed = sent to TLO –IPIA is also available in Atlas.
TLO enforces compliance by doing a Monthly Audit. Sends e-mail
TLO reaches out directly from Graduate Students – and gets a good response
IPIA not signed comes up in audit but an out of date IPIA does not.
When an invention disclosure comes in to the office. Per federal regulations, collecting IPIA at time of invention submitted is too late. It does not benefit MIT and does not satisfy the requirement.
State of Compliance – IPIA not on file – sponsored research requires IPIA on file - $ at risk - - challenge on TLO side – at time invention is disclosed IPIA – at some point it may become mandatory
It has been proposed to make the IPIA mandatory (similar to I-9 – signed as a condition of employment – it is hard to work it into the sponsored research questions – IPIA work moving in a research compliance group – under Research Administration Services Office – closer to the sponsored research processes – 2 camps – message we got clearly without - at the time someone’s effort goes on a grant – it could be tied in to the TLO system with all the other systems that do the checks – TLO’s database being revised – better place – SAP now has TLO’s data – in a better position than before
800 faculty and researchers forms are out of date. Best practice is to sign an IPIA any time someone changes positions.
Undergraduate research opportunities program – out of compliance to the extent we have no mechanism for collecting the IPIAs from UROP students. It is extremely challenging to collect IPIAs for UROP office. IPIA is a required component of the UROP application. Text geared toward undergraduate – and is now a requirement. Administrators no longer need to do this – how to communicate with Administrators and Students? Newsletter will announce – not a change in policy – a change in implementation – some faculty will know this is coming – response generally positive – pressure off staff – how are we communicating IPIA policy to students – clear FAQ with Graphics and guidance documents – any questions students have should be directed to TLO – October and November reminder will be sent out
Sandbox students do not need to sign. The message from Vice Chancellor is to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation. Beaverwork space at Lincoln Lab –government rights attached to the work has not been well-communicated to students.
Anyone performing research under a federal grant must have an IPIA on file
We are trying to be very clear that students own most of what they do. Much more of what faculty do is under the research umbrella.
Some of the nuances around the collection of IPIA is not filtering down to those who are collecting. Outreach to those who will not sign?
Visiting Students compliance is 10% - they complicate inventions – Grad 20 forms are uploaded – how does this process work? How can we capture these students and work with their home institutions? Student retains ownership of their thesis. When student comes in IPIA should be in place but we are challenged to get it on file at all.
We are challenged to figure out how to get these message out – without building a hard stop into the onboarding process.
Visiting students can access IPIA in Atlas. It must be printed out and then it must be signed by their home institution – you get the Kerberos when you land here - you cannot do the transaction until you get the Visa
Cross registered students like Wellesley Students
Siri has built and will soon launch guidance documents for Administrators and one for Visitors (to provide information to their home institutions). She acknowledges there will always be objections to overcome.
Guidance for Graduate Students: right now OGC is reviewing one for grads, one for undergrads and one for faculty. The TLO is updating its website around UROP and guidance docs will be posted.
