Metropolitan Affairs Committee

Meeting Minutes

Thursday, February 2, 2006

Bioethics Center Conference Room

Present: Lorraine Blackman, Charles R. Feldhaus, Lisa McGuire, Sandra Petronio, José R. Rosario, Amy Conrad Warner

Minutes from previous meeting accepted by consensus.

Lorraine Blackman called meeting to order and Amy Warner introduced Professor Sandra Petronio, Department of Communications Studies. Professor Petronio was invited to meeting to brief members on TRIP (Translating Research into Practice). TRIP is a new IUPUI campus initiative whose mission is to illustrate, celebrate, and promote “how research makes a difference in people’s lives.”

According to Professor Petronio, TRIP is part of a broader national movement interested in showing how research connects to people’s everyday lives. In launching the initiative, IUPUI can be connected to this movement and become the first “translational” campus in the nation. TRIP intends to showcase IUPUI research in the community by promoting the work of IUPUI faculty in the community, create translational research opportunities, and bring translational research scholars to the campus to share their work and offer models to emulate.

Professor Petronio also shared the first two programs the initiative has undertaken. The “Inside Out” program will invite the community to take advantage of IUPUI faculty presentations and lectures on how research is addressing real community issues and problems. The “Research in the Everyday World program” will bring to campus scholars with national and international reputations in translational research to share their work with faculty, students, and the community. A third program, still in preparation, will focus on providing translational research opportunities to faculty.

The discussion following Professor Petronio’s presentation turned mostly on defining the committee’s role in the initiative. There was general agreement that the initiative was very much in keeping with the committee’s mission, and that it connected as well with the campus’ ongoing efforts related to civic engagement. It was also agreed that the committee could play a very useful role in focusing the project on local issues and needs. As Charles Feldhaus put it, we need to “keep it local” and focus on “the issues in Indiana.” After considerable discussion about the potential role the committee could play, members settled on the idea of functioning as an advisory group to the project.

In terms of next steps, the committee will be kept abreast of TRIP activities and will participate in an advisory role as requested. Through Lorraine, President Bart Ng will be asked to invite professor Petronio to discuss TRIP with the IUPUI Faculty Council The committee also agreed to dedicate the next meeting to a discussion of the campus barriers to community engagement. Lisa McGuire will lead the discussion.

Next meeting: Tuesday, March 2, 12:00 PM – 1:30PM in ES4112.

Submitted:

José R. Rosario