What is the mission of CLASP? Colleges of Liberal Arts Sponsored Programs (CLASP) was designed to provide a resource for sponsored research administrators at liberal arts colleges and those with a liberal arts focus to promote and strengthen members’ abilities to respond to research support and policy issues as these arise; this is hugely important in contexts where there may only be a single person covering all the functions of research administration and research development. In recent years, CLASP has evolved to become a community of practice and, through an NSF GRANTED conference award, is considering ways to extend its reach to women- and minority-serving institutions and its organizational framing.
What are some of the unique challenges that liberal arts institutions confront with respect to grant administration? The challenge many liberal arts and/or predominantly undergraduate institutions face is that staff engaging in RD need to act in a “generalist” role. They must inform the institution of risk, stay abreast of federal funding trends and priorities, and perform research development, research administration, and compliance functions. Often practitioners must lead from the middle to educate those to whom they report, explain what the university is certifying, and position the institution should it be audited. This is a stressful role with a variety of needs and little support from within the institution.
In small institutional settings there is often a single research administration practitioner doing a “soup to nuts” or “cradle to grave” job. That is, they might engage with faculty on the front end, supporting research development and facilitation, in addition to performing the duties of a pre-award sponsored research professional in submitting, accepting, and managing an award. In some very small institutions with a single staff member managing research administration, this person might also manage IRB and IACUC regulations as well as other aspects of compliance. When I worked at Franklin and Marshall College, a 1,200-student institution, we piloted a 5.5 FTE sponsored research, Corporate and Foundation Relations, and grant accounting team that occupied the same office with three reporting lines under a common leadership structure. Now, I am at the College of New Jersey, a comprehensive master’s granting institution with 7,000 students, also classed as a PUI. We have a 3-person pre-award office and are now in the process of bringing a post-award specialist into our office. Folks acting as generalists in a complex regulatory environment where their institutions are likely strained fiscally, may have little to no money for professional memberships or to travel to conferences for professional development. Yet, their institutions are responsible for meeting the same compliance standards as R1 institutions. Moreover, these folks are often the “expert” on campus –a daunting reality.
How has CLASP evolved since its founding? CLASP originated at Middlebury College and was spearheaded by Francie Farnsworth, who created a listserv-enabled conversation group supported by a Wiki repository of shared materials. The targeted listserv now anchors the membership by providing a forum where questions related to sponsored research concerns—which at small institutions may also map onto corporate and foundation relations—can be posed, with answers coming back almost instantaneously. In addition, through the listserv, CLASP members periodically conduct surveys on range of topics. As one example, we have surveyed our membership on the types and nature of indirect cost rates at member institutions. For example, smaller institutions may have salary and wage-based indirect cost rates, salary, wage, and fringe rates, as well as Modified Total Direct Cost (MTDC) rates, which are more commonly seen at larger institutions. CLASP has also surveyed our membership on where our offices are situated within their institution, whether in academic affairs, advancement, the President’s office, and to compare to peer institutions. Having peer or near peer institutional knowledge helps CLASPS members to advocate for policies and practices that better serve our institutions. As a replacement for the original Wiki-based repository, CLASP hosts a “Collaboratory” which is a Google-document based repository of resources that archives materials and resources from past meeting sessions as well as resources and on various topics of interest that members have created. CLASP also hosts annual meetings, post-Covid alternating between virtual and in-person meetings. The upcoming 2024 meeting will be held in person at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, November 13-15. Typically, 60-90 people attend.
You are part of a team that was awarded an NSF GRANTED award. Could you speak to some of your objectives for this grant? CLASP’s NSF GRANTED award (NSF 2324524), via Carleton College, is design to strengthen a community of practice (CoP) and to broaden, increase, and diversify membership in CLASP, in particular with MSIs and women-serving and women-only institutions. We first articulated this CoP vision at the annual CLASP meeting in 2018 at Swarthmore College and at the 2019 meeting at Bowdoin College. CLASP has long showcased funder presentations intermingled with some presentations from members. But we began to recognize more fully that our members represent a significant body of expertise and have placed greater emphasis on expanding that dimension of our organization and our community of practice, and imagining how we can position our organizations for the future.
What are the mutual benefits of NORDP’s relationship with CLASP? I started out as an assistant grant writer at a community-action agency, and later transitioned to a predominantly undergraduate institution (PUI) in the SUNY system where I was institutional grant writer and later grant development specialist. Then, when I came to Franklin and Marshall I was introduced to CLASP. Through CLASP I was introduced to NORDP, and like so many other members felt as though I had finally found “my people.” Of course, many one-person shops do not have the resources to attend NORDP, and that has motivated me to share my expertise with CLASP. For example, I recently presented on RD with Susan Ferrari and Dean Gerstein at the 2023 virtual CLASP annual meeting last November. Conversely, expertise from the CLASP community, together with others in PUI settings, has been extended to NORDP through the founding of the PUI (Predominantly Undergraduate Institution) Affinity Group, in 2019. Many members of the PUI Affinity Group are also members of CLASP. Historically, NORDP was developed by individuals who were in a context in which they could specialize in all of the contextual aspects of RD and in preparing researchers to lead large research grants, whereas the research focus of smaller institutions is most commonly at the PI-level and often within a teacher-scholar framework. The PUI Affinity Group addresses the needs of these NORDP members by developing resources for research-related and grant development activities, including my 2016 research article with Cara Martin-Tetreault and Carol Withers, “The Grants Office and the RA Generalist: Parallel Life-Cycles and Development at Small PUIs,” which addresses benchmarks research administrators can use in assessing development at the office and practitioner levels.
However, the biggest benefit to NORDP in liaising with CLASP is in engaging generalists around a clear articulation of one component of their role – research or grant development. CLASP in some ways also represents a type of diversity – institutional diversity – that NORDP needs to be consciously aware of, so that it can best meet the needs of this sector of membership. Moreover, and relatedly, CLASP members are well positioned to inform NORDP that it runs the risk of losing the generalist audience to larger organizations such as NCURA and SRAI who are beginning to offer RD training modules which NORDP is, in fact, most ideally positioned to offer.
This report was prepared by Elizabeth Festa, Liaison Chair, Strategic Alliances Committee, eaf2@rice.edu
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