Field Observation

Field Observation
Marie Jarra
EDLE 7431
July 8, 2016

College of Arts & Science collaboration meeting with OSPA (Office of Sponsored Proposals and
Awards)
College of Arts & Sciences Mandatory Emergency Meeting

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Field Observation

Introduction
With the ever-changing structures to higher education hardly a day goes by without an

attack on academic institutions for inefficiency, irresponsibility, and un-governability

(Kretovics, 2011) therefore upholding best practices is quite important and necessary in higher

education. For the Field observation, I chose to attend a monthly meeting between the Georgia

State University central research office OSPA (Office of Sponsored Proposals and Awards) and

the College of Arts and Sciences Administrative services Grants and Contracts Officers. The

meeting took place in Langdale Hall in the collaboration office on Tuesday June 7th 2016. The

meeting focused on processes and procedures between the two teams. After the first meeting the

grants and contracts officers in Arts and Science were asked to stay behind for mandatory

emergency meeting in which they were joined by the other G & Cs. Through observation and

participation of the two meetings the structures of organization and administration in higher

education took form before my eyes.

Observation

The purpose of the first meeting between the OSPA team led by associate director Jill

Borland, and Arts and Science team A post award group lead by Grants & Contracts officer III,

Stacey Harrell, was scheduled so that we could discuss some of the issues that we are having

pertaining to procedures and processes between the two teams. All that were in attendance were

staff of the university. There wasnt an agenda for the meeting and being that we meet once a

month we typically just discuss issues we are having during the time period. The College of Arts

and Sciences is currently the only college who holds collaboration meetings with OSPA because

we are the trial subjects to sync our colleges research office structure with that of the central

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research office as part of the strategic plan to align all functional subunits in different colleges to

that of the central research office. With Georgia State growing as a doctorate granting research

university, it is important that this is achieved.

Jill began the meeting by addressing the issue of how the two teams should communicate

from now on when processing grant requests. The G&C officers Stacey, Wanda and I are to put

all request through the Georgia State Research Portal. A system that was designed by GSUs

technology department, it allows for the different colleges to request grant related documents

through a standard system with uniformed process throughout the university. This can sometimes

be challenging for the G&C officers on the post award team because we believe that certain

smaller request should be handled through email or phone call to cut on the time of

processing. Jill informed us that as part of Dr. Waynmeyers vision, the vice president of

research for the university, we must begin to have transparent communications. As part of a

strategic plan, explained by Schloss, good communication is indispensable throughout the

planning process and key to its success (Schloss & Cragg, 2013).

The other topic that was discussed at the meeting was the issues that the G&Cs are having with

the research portal functioning correctly. My colleagues and I expressed our concerns that if we

have to use the research portal for all our request, then the research portal should be programmed

so that it functions properly and free of glitches. This topic has been discussed many times

before and Jill explained to us that OSPA has a solution to fix the issues with the research portal,

this I will explain in a later division of this paper.

The second meeting was more structured even though it was an emergency meeting. The

Assistant dean of Finance Fred Mote hosted the meeting for the College of Arts & Science

Grants & Contracts officers. Under the organizational chart Fred reports to the dean of the

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College of Arts and Sciences, Dr. William Long. Also attending the meeting was the Senior HR

Officer, and the Chief Financial Officer. Fred began the meeting by letting us know that there

would be changes to the structure of the Arts and Sciences Research office in the new fiscal year

July 1st, 2016. From past emergency meetings such as this one that involved the Senior HR

officer whose responsibilities, is intended to provide guidance on how to create and maintain

highly effective organizations composed of highly effective employees(Schloss & Cragg, 2013).

We had an idea that it would involve someone within the team leaving or a restructure. The

announcement that Fred made was that our Chief Financial Officer of research and the college

budget accountant, Cynthia Martin, was leaving the university and accepting a position at

Georgia Institution of Technology. With Cynthia leaving and the position being vacant, Fred and

the Dean of the college Dr. Long and the associate dean of research Dr. Romski, decided that its

best to split the position into two. One of the positions would be a Senior Financial Officer for

the state side, who would be handling the state budgets. Even though its typical for the hiring

department to be responsible for posting the position and seeking the best candidate for the

position (Schloss & Cragg, 2013), the colleges Senior Accountant III will be promoted to the

position. As far as the second position from the split, the title will be Grants & Contracts Officer

IV who will manage the G&C officers IIs and IIIs. The G&C IV position will be posted because

it is a new position that the college has never had before and theres currently no one in the

college with that job description. Fred informed us that a search committee will be formed to fill

the position of the G&C IV and the all the other G&Cs will have the opportunity to review the

chosen top candidates. With the search committee being formed the G&C II and III are confident

that the right candidate will be chosen since theyll have somewhat of an input and according to

Conley generally the research found on what makes search committees successful is the clarity

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and upfront discloser throughout the process (Schloss & Cragg, 2013) So everyone will have an

opportunity to disclose their concerns including a few chosen faculty representatives.

Issues and Solution

From the first meeting I believe that the issue with using the research portal for every

action is not feasible especially if the portal malfunctions quite often. In the past the major

request were put into the portal and the smaller request that the OSPA team could handle right

away were communicated through phone call or email. Jill stated that to help us transition to

using the portal often it was being rebuilt to restructure and fix the glitches. The new platform

would go live July 1st and it would fix all the current problems that we are having with it. New

futures will also be added to make request in the portal as easy as possible. I understand the

necessity for transparency with the request and the communication; with more federal research

dollars being poured into Georgia State University I believe that Jill is right in that we should use

it for research communications. Even though it would add more work and time onto my

colleagues and Is desk, for auditing purposes it would be the best practice. As stated by Ron

Mahurin, vice president for strategy and planning at Stamats, a higher education consulting firm,

moments like these are where greater clarity and transparency are absolutely essential he also

stated everyone at all levels need to understands whats at stake, which is the fact that there is

such scrutiny on higher education right now around cost, affordability and sustainability.

Therefore I believe as administrators we must look at the bigger picture at times and understand

the possible consequences that could occur if we were to be investigated. This is one of the

issues administrators face every day, the pressure of being in compliance so that in case of an

audit the university would not be fined. Sometimes something so slight such as lack of

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transparency could possibly cost a university to lose federal recognition. With accrediting

agencies requesting compliance reports within certain time periods, having one place to go to get

the information such as the portal could possibly save the university from falling out of

compliance.

For the second meeting, one of the issues that I was able to observe during this was that

in higher education we face the issue of retaining staff in high pressured roles. The CFO in the

College of Arts & Sciences has always had a multiple duty role, managing the state accounts,

business managers, accountants for the college and the G&Cs officers in the college. Its been

hard to keep that position filled in the past few years. Cynthia was only in the position for two

years, and recently has expressed that she was over worked. A common problem in higher

education is when one person is doing a two or three person job in order to save on cost. With

the position being split in two I think Fred is thinking ahead for the growth of the college. As

described by Atlbach, growing demands for accountability has caused academic institutions

considerable difficulty and as academic budgets expand, there will be inevitable demands to

monitor and control expenditures (Atlbach, 2005). Arts and Sciences is definitely on the path of

refining its structure through reorganization and creating new and less stressful positions that

someone would want to stay in and work for a long time. This will also help the college stay in

compliance with the universities path to reach its strategic plan.

As I sat and observed in these two meeting, I was quickly able to see the difficulties and

challenges that administrators sometimes face in higher education. Being in this field as a public

administrator I encountered a lot of these issues and challenges myself but I hardly take the time

to reflect on it all. Higher education is growing each and every day and sometimes as

administrators we have to face these changes in order for the overall growth of the University

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References

Accreditation: Universities and Higher Education. (2016, January). Retrieved from U.S.
Department of Education: http://www.ed.gov/accreditation
Altbach. P. G. (2005). Patterns in higher education development American higher education in
the twenty-first century: Social, political, and economic challenges (2 ed., pp. 15-37).
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Pg29
Krevotics, M. (2011).Todays Environment. Business practices in higher education: A guide for
todays administrators. (pg.3-11). New York, NY: Routledge.
Schloss, P.J. & Cragg, K.M. (2013). Organization and administration in higher education.
NewYork: Routledge.
Woodhouse, K. (2016, April 28). Money Talks. Retrieved from Inside Higher Education:
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/04/28/communication-issue-college-
administrators-and-faculty-during-era-financial-change