Our faculty senate has no involvement at all with our IRB.  We are a PUI with grad programs in Psychology and Education, and 90% of the reviews we conduct are in those areas.  Most are for undergraduate projects, which we review because many of the students go on to present their projects at national conferences.  I was placed on the IRB this year and it has worked well.  (I'm an economist.)  None of the projects we've reviewed has been a sponsored research project.  Almost every project we've examined has been either exempt or expedited.

There have been no complaints here about having IRB review for social science projects.  All of the IRB members are appointed by the Provost.  None are elected through the faculty senate.

Landy

__________________________
Landy C. Johnson, MPA, Ph.D.
Director of Grant Development
Assumption College, Alumni Hall 024
500 Salisbury St.
Worcester, MA  01609-1296
(508)767-7666
xxxxxx@assumption.edu
http://www.assumption.edu/research

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