Students as Members of University-based Academic Research Ethics Boards: A Natural Evolution

University based academic Research Ethics Boards (REB) face the particularly difficult challenge of trying to achieve representation from a variety of disciplines, methodologies and research interests. Additionally, many are currently facing another decision – whether to have students as REB members or not. At Ryerson University, we are uniquely situated. Without a medical school in which an awareness of the research ethics review process might be grounded, our mainly social science and humanities REB must also educate and foster awareness of the ethics review process throughout the academic community. Our Board has had and continues to have students as active members. While there are challenges to having students as Board members, these are clearly outweighed by the advantages, for both the academic community and the future of ethically sound research in the social sciences and humanities. Moreover, the challenges are often based on misconceptions and can be easily overcome through increased education and understanding of the research ethics review process by the academic community at large. The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss the experiences, advantages and challenges of having students as REB members. The advantages of having students as REB members include the following: (1) Students are the proposed participants in many of our reviewed protocols and student members may illuminate unique issues of participation. (2) Students are active and highly engaged members of the REB. (3) Having students on the REB enhances awareness of research ethics within the University. (4) Student REB members have an opportunity to mentor other students and provide leadership for both undergraduate and graduate students. (5) Students are more vigorously recruited than faculty members and often apply for student positions with enthusiasm and preparation. (6) In creating an atmosphere of excellence in research, engaging students at the beginning of their research career will help in creating tomorrow’s leaders in research and research ethics. The challenges of having students as REB members include the following: (1) Faculty members may be uneasy regarding the prospect of students reviewing protocols. (2) Faculty members may be concerned about confidentiality and respect with students reviewing faculty research protocols. (3) There may be an increased burden for students who serve as members on an REB. (4) There is concern that students will offer less continuous service to the REB. (5) There is a common misconception that students do not have the experience to carry out ethical reviews. While there are challenges from faculty members and others regarding having students as REB members, these challenges are often based on misconceptions about the nature of the REB work and the ethics review process in general. These challenges are also often based on the misconception of the ethics review process as one of peer review and evaluation, instead of a community-based and inclusive process. Having student members is a long-term strategy for both overcoming the misconceptions of the REB as a “necessary evil” and for fostering an awareness of the imperative for ethically sound research in the social sciences and humanities.     

The theory of multiple stupidities: education,technology and organisation in Arabia

Traditional perspectives have envisaged intelligence as one entity dominated by a single set of abilities (i.e. cognitive abilities), whereas modern perspectives have defined intelligence in various shapes (e.g. linguistic, musical and interpersonal intelligences). By the same token, traditional perspectives have examined stupidity as one set of inabilities (i.e. cognitive inabilities). However, it is not clear whether modern perspectives have discussed whether stupidity exists in various forms—in the same way as they have envisaged intelligence. To address this limitation, 257 university members were asked to share what they perceived as being stupid educational and technological practices in their institutions. Analysis of the data suggested three concepts were important to the members: moral, spatial and administrative stupidities. That is, stupidity is perceived to come in the form of failing to meet certain moral, spatial and administrative values. This implies that modern perspectives may conceptualise stupidity differently from traditional perspectives, seeing it as going beyond cognitive inabilities and viewing it as existing in various forms (e.g. moral, spatial and administrative stupidities). Thus, there are multiple stupidities as there are multiple forms of intelligence. A strength of this research is that it views stupidity through an organisational and qualitative lens, although some may traditionally expect such a topic to be examined quantitatively through psychometric and biological approaches.     

Nocturne

A king must be willing to first lower himself and live the life of a common man, before rising once more to his full stature. Boromir fails this test (he who should have realized that he was a steward, not a king), but finally redeems himself in death. Strider/Aragorn fully passes his test and, unlike Boromir, does not die but instead triumphs over death, actually raising the Army of the Dead to help him in a great battle. After the Quest is completed—the ring is destroyed—Strider fully becomes Aragorn, reunites Gondor and Arnor, and is crowned king. His is the classic path of the hero, one that can teach all of us many lessons about our own individuation.     

Sunday School Student and Theological Fatalism

I will briefly argue that theological fatalism is not a genuine ‘theological’ problem, for it can be reduced to another alleged incompatibility that arises independently of the existence or non-existence of God. I will conclude that the way of arguing against the existence of God or His omniscience by appealing to theological fatalism is blocked for libertarian atheists.     

Asian Families “Back Home”: An Unexplored Resource

Communities from which Asian migrants to the West originate are often seen by western professionals as a drain upon these new migrants’ resources, and are not included in formulations about problems or their solutions. In this article, a number of case examples are used to illustrate how the authors made use of the relationships of Bangladeshi migrants living in the east end of London to their families back home as a crucial resource in overcoming difficulties encountered in their new country. It is further argued that seeing such families as having transnational loyalties is a more helpful “frame” than seeing them as caught up in cultural conflict.     

Max Ernst,Sedona

Walking through the guarded gate of CERN. a center for peaceful atomic research near Geneva, Switzerland, one finds oneself in what seems to be a typical industrial park Upon coming to thefirst corner, one has a sense of the surreal tofind pleasant signs marking it as the intersection of Einstein and W. Pauli streets. Ambling along a bit further, one comes to a quiet, treeshaded building housing the office of theoretical physicist, John Stewart Bell, whose work on “nonlocality” is regarded by some as fermenting yet another conceptual revolution in our world view. With an almost shy Irish brogue from his native Dublin, however, Bell modestly disavows any such significance to what is called “Bell's Inequality” in the literature of quantum physics.

In this interview, our editor queried Bell on the relevance of his work for Jung's view of synchronicity as a non- causal factor in human affairs. Bell cautions that everything he says here is only his “opinion of the mystery and muddle of it all.”