June 1, 2000

Academic Opportunities

Seed Grant Applications Sought

The Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences (CSSS) Seed Grants Program announces a new round of seed grants for the year 2000-01. The Seed Grants Program provides funding for promising research at the intersection of statistics and the social sciences. The goal is to stimulate scholarly initiative by encouraging faculty to explore new directions in research and scholarship that contributes at the cutting edge to the development of statistical methods for social scientific problems. Although we encourage collaborative research across disciplines - particularly between statisticians and social scientists - such collaboration is not a formal requirement of the program. We are particularly interested in projects that show a high probability of leading to extramural funding. Thus, the funds will typically be used to pursue pilot studies, feasibility studies, or preliminary research that initiates a larger line of research. A subsequent extramural grant that derives from seed grant funding would be administered through CSSS. Awards will be in the range of $10,000-20,000, and typically include one-month summary salary for a principal investigator and one quarter salary for a research assistant. We expect to make as many as 10 awards on an annual basis.

Eligibility: Only faculty holding the following ranks at the time of the award are eligible to apply: Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, Research Professor, Research Associate Professor, and Research Assistant Professor. Faculty with acting appointments at the time of the award are ineligible. Faculty who have received a CSSS award as PIs are ineligible to receive another until three years following the termination of the first. A PI may submit only one proposal per round. Co-PIs may submit more than one proposal, but no more than one of the proposals will be funded. A proposal that is not funded may be resubmitted in a later round only if it is substantially revised or if resubmission is recommended by the review committee.

Research Project Requirements: Research projects must use statistical methods to address a social scientific problem. Strong proposals will use innovative statistical methods to address cutting-edge social scientific research questions. Collaborative interdisciplinary research such as between a social scientist and a statistician is encouraged but not required. All personnel funded by the grant are expected to participate regularly in the CSSS Seminar Series, both by attending and by giving at least one seminar on the project topic. The proposal should indicate which member(s) of the research team will be the primary seminar participants.

External Support: Proposals that show promise for future extramural funding will be given preference. Indeed, PIs who plan to submit an extramural grant proposal based on their Seed Grant proposed project can increase their chances of receiving a Seed Grant Award by guaranteeing that they will submit an extramural proposal through CSSS immediately after the funding period. In such cases, the review committee may grant awards conditional on the PI submitting an external grant within a year of the funding period. In general, support will not be given merely to extend or supplement existing funded research projects. Instead, proposals should seek to initiate new research ideas. An extramural proposal that derives from a project funded by the Seed Grants Program is expected to be administered through CSSS.

Application Form: A cover page and detailed instructions for preparing the four-page proposal can be found on the CSSS Web site, http://www.csss.washington.edu, and go to the Seed Grants page.

Deadline: The deadline for CSSS Seed Grant proposals is Sept. 15. Awards will be announced by Nov. 15. Submit proposals to Gayle Gray, Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences, B-308 Padelford Hall, University of Washington, Box 354322, Seattle, WA 98195.

Questions: Questions on preparing a proposal should be addressed to: Professor Ross L. Matsueda, Associate Director of CSSS, Department of Sociology, Box 353340, 616-2432, matsueda@u.washington.edu.

Other News

Change of Location for Board of Regents Meeting

At the direction of the President of the Board of Regents, the location of the following meeting has been changed. The June 9 meeting of the board of Regents will be in the Walker Ames Room, Kane Hall, UW Seattle campus at 10 a.m.; it is currently scheduled to be held in Bothell. The Regents will meet in formal session to take official action on personnel appointments and changes, gifts and grants, contracts and agreements with outside agencies and other university business.

Staff Salary Increases

In accordance with legislative general fund appropriations, the following salary increases will apply to professional and classified staff, effective July 1, 2000.

Professional Staff: The July 1 salary adjustment for professional staff will be based on a 4 percent average allocation for 2000-2001. The 4 percent average adjustment includes funds coming from a combination of the 3 percent state appropriation for salary increases, state appropriations for recruitment and retention, and funds available from tuition increases.

Individual salary increases are to be awarded on the basis of merit, equity and market considerations. To assist appointing authorities with market and equity salary considerations, the Human Resources Compensation Office has provided reports reflecting market and equity salary analysis for their organizations.

Classified Staff: A 3 percent across-the-board general salary increase for WPRB and Contract Classified staff. This is in addition to regular step increases. These across-the-board classified staff adjustments will be implemented automatically as a salary table modification. The Compensation Office will provide department payroll coordinators with information for processing adjustments. Updated salary tables for classified staff will be available on the Web by July 1. The Web address is: http://www.washington.edu/admin/ocpsp/.

Faculty Lecturer Named

Professor of English James Tollefson has been named the annual Faculty Lecturer for 2000-2001. The lectureship honors faculty members whose scholarship is widely recognized by their peers as original, creative and substantive. Their achievements must have had a demonstrable impact on their profession, on the research and performance of others and on society in general. It includes an honorarium of $3,500. The lecture will be given in early winter quarter.

2000-2001 Permit/U-PASS Distribution

Please be on the watch! New (’00-’01) annual parking permits/U-PASS stickers will be distributed with the June 9 paychecks and are valid upon receipt. If you do not receive your permit/U-PASS on June 9, check with your payroll coordinator right away. If you still have not received it by June 16, call Parking Services (685-1543, press “0”) or visit one of our offices (3901 University Way N.E. or Health Sciences #T-466A). Please notify us promptly. Your paycheck will continue to be debited unless we hear from you. Note: Current (’99-’00) permits and U-PASS stickers are valid through June 30. North lot permit holders may be notified regarding lot reassignment when Sound Transit & law school construction projects commence (approximate start date - December 2000).

Commencement Rehearsal

A commencement rehearsal for all commencement and college marshals will be Friday, June 9 at 10:30 a.m. in the Don James Center at Husky Stadium.

Admissions seeks faculty/staff recruitment expertise

Enroll@u.washington.edu has been established to allow UW faculty and staff who have sent children off to other colleges this year to share their positive experiences with admissions staff. Our goal is to continuously improve UW admissions and recruitment programs and practices. Please send us any ideas or suggestions you believe would enhance our outreach efforts.

President’s Staff Forum

Seeks New Members

The President’s Staff Forum is looking for eight new members to replace members who are completing their two-year terms. Incoming members will serve for two years, and half the forum will be replaced each year. Several alternates will also be selected. The application asks for basic personal information, two or three references, a brief description of issues you would like to discuss with President Richard L. McCormick, and a description of why you want to serve on the forum. The application is available on the Web at: http://www.washington.edu/president/staff-forum/. Paper copies may be obtained by calling (206) 543-5010, or sending a request to Box 351230. Applications are due Friday, June 16. The forum will make recommendations to the president by July 15, and new members will attend their first forum meeting on Sept. 18.

The forum was created by McCormick in 1998 as a way to incorporate staff input into deliberations on major UW initiatives and issues. It meets with McCormick bi-monthly to discuss developments affecting the campus community. The president has also kept the forum apprised of major policy developments, legislative proposals, various task force reports, and proposed tuition increases. The only topics not open for discussion at these meetings are those reserved for discussion between the University and unions representing staff. These are described on the staff forum Web site.

During its first year, the forum has created the idea.net Web site (http://www.washington.edu/president/staff-forum/idea.net) to serve as a virtual suggestion box for the UW community. Most recently, the forum hosted a campus Conversation About the Future featuring futurist Glenn Hiemstra and a panel discussion with staff forum members. The event was broadcast live to several off-campus locations to enable employees at those sites to participate.