Jim is right, as usual.  We really don't need a definition of the
field as much as a reasonable name for what we do, since we do what
our organizations need for us to do..  That reasonable descriptive
name has been a stumper for about 50 years.

Spanky

>Date: Mon, 05 Aug 2002 12:20:32 -0700
>From: "James R. Brett" <xxxxxx@CSULB.EDU>
>Subject: Re: [RESADM-L]
>Sender: Research Administration List <xxxxxx@hrinet.org>
>To: xxxxxx@HRINET.ORG
>Reply-to: Research Administration Discussion List <xxxxxx@hrinet.org>
>Organization: California State University,
>  Long Beach -- Office of University Research
>X-Accept-Language: en
>
>?Sometimes someone in an institution will get all distraught about the
>expression Research Administrator. It is obvious to us that Research
>Administrators do not administer research, but the term sometimes seems
>like an oxymoron to people with an axe to grind.
>
>Research administrators provide services, information, interpretation, and
>personal and career counseling over a wide range of activities to other
>concerned people (including students, faculty, other administrators,
>agency program officers, auditors, the press, and politicians) in the
>various interfaces between the institutional researcher and the rest of
>the world. The reason we do not call ourselves Research Service,
>Information, Interpretation, and Counselling Administrators is because the
>term is decidedly awkward and would drastically change the names of our
>two main professional organizations.
>
>The reason we have Research Administrators is because researchers (and the
>people they typically encounter) are often much too involved in their own
>specialties to become adequate in (enough of) these interface areas to be
>successful.  Persons in our profession must be competent or knowledgable
>in accountancy, law, government, politics, and general interpersonal
>relations, not to mention being able to intelligently discuss what
>research is actually about over a range of disciplines, sometimes needing
>to understand thoroughly several cognate disciplines and sometimes to
>understand the research in layman's terms in over a hundred disciplines.
>
>Jim
>
>Mike McCallister wrote:
>
>>  This thing about research administration being about IP?  That
>>  completely misses the point (Sorry Charlie).  IP is a small tail
>>  wagging a big dog right now and is used so much the term has lost
>>  currency.  IP happens within research, sometimes.  It is almost
>>  serendipitous.  It certainly is not as big a deal as some want it to
>>  be, not yet.
>>
>>  So what's RA?  What did you tell your Mom you do at work?  That's
>>  what it is.  It's what needs to be done for our researchers and
>>  faculty  to create new knowledge, solve problems, grow themselves,
>>  even save the world, maybe.  But most of all what we do is help those
>>  who can to do because what they do is, by and large, important to
>>  society.
>>
>>  Spanky
>>
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>
>--
>James R. Brett, Ph.D., Director,
>Office of University Research
>California State University, Long Beach
>562-985-5314  562-985-8665 fax
>http://www.csulb.edu/~research/
>
>
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>  subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
>  via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists")
>======================================================================

--
Mike McCallister, Ph. D.
 Director, Research and Sponsored Programs
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
2801 South University
Little Rock, AR 72204-1099
(v) 501-569-8474
(f) 501-371-7614
(c) 501-590-5609

"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new
discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I've found it!), but 'That's funny...'"
 ~ Isaac Asimov

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 Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
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 via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists")
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