A Partial and Working Glossary of Terms and Acronyms for Psychology Department Faculty

Annual Reports :  see FIMS below.

B&B (Brains & Behavior) : One of two interdisciplinary “areas of focus” funded by the Provost in which psychology faculty are heavily involved.  For more information and to join B&B, see http://brainsbehavior.gsu.edu/

 CampusID : Your campus ID (frequently first initial + last name, such as wwundt) is used for logging in to a variety of systems, including FIMS, EasyView, IRBWise, and uLearn. You can find your CampusID at http://campusdirectory.gsu.edu

CBN (Center for Behavioral Neuroscience) :http://www.cbn-atl.org/

CITI (Collaborative IRB Training Initiative) : CITI training is required of all personnel associated with research with human participants. All researchers, staff, students, and others who interact with human subjects in the performance of research and assisting in research must complete a required educational program on the protection of human subjects before the Institutional Review Board (IRB) may approve a proposal. This certification process must be completed and documented with the IRB every three years. For more information on CITI training and refresher training, see  http://www.gsu.edu/research/irb_education_and_training.html

Conflict of Interest / Outside Financial Activity Disclosure : Faculty must disclose conflicts of interest and outside financial activities that may compete with performance of university duties. Disclosure statements must be submitted by each faculty member annually. For more information, see the Office of Research Integrity website and http://www.gsu.edu/research/conflicts_of_interest.html.

CRADL (Center for Research on Atypical Development and Learning) : http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwaty/

CV : see FIMS below.

DROP (think “doesn’t record or penalize”): It is important to remember the distinction between dropping a course and withdrawing from a course. Through the first week of class, a student can drop a course without penalty (i.e., it doesn’t show on the transcript, it doesn’t count against financial aid, a refund can generally be obtained). Through the second week of class, and instructor can administratively drop a student from the roll, again without recording on the student’s transcript or penalizing the student financially. Beyond these deadlines, students must withdraw from the course (see Withdraw, below). See Grade Adjustment / Registration Adjustment

DS-2 (Disclosure Statement 2): DS-2 was a required disclosure statement filed with the federal government by GSU regarding its accounting procedures for sponsored projects. DS-2 distinguished between allowable direct and indirect costs. DS-2 also restricted the conditions and delays under which costs can be transferred from project-to-project, and introduced the PERS requirement (discussed below).

EasyView :  EasyView is Georgia State's Electronic Payment Advice system, the electronic equivalent of a paycheck stub. Logon at http://easyview.gsu.edu using your campusID and password (the same password as you use for FIMS). Use EasyView to see or print payroll stubs, travel reimbursements, and any other electronic payments.

EC (Executive Committee) : The EC advises and consults with the department chairperson in departmental governance. It is comprised of an elected representative from each graduate program area, two faculty members elected at-large, a graduate student representative, and the Associate Chair (non-voting ex-officio). It is chaired by the chair of the department. This committee is joined in the department by four standing committees: the Diversity Committee, the GPC (Graduate Program Committee), the UPC (Undergraduate Program Committee), and the P&T (Promotion and Tenure) Committee.

ERS : The new electronic reporting system for PERS (discussed below), scheduled for implementation in Fall 2007.

eSirius : Scheduled for implementation this fall, eSirius is GSU’s new automated online IACUC protocol management system (like IRBWise, except for researchers who study nonhuman animals). See LATA for more information.

Expenditure Review : Faculty members with sponsored-project accounts (grants, contracts, fellowships, etc.) must review expenditures on a monthly basis. Expenditure reports are generated by the department’s Grants and Contracts Officer (Jacquelyn Buie-Brown) for investigators to review and to keep. Quarterly certifications of these reviews must be signed and returned to the G&C Officer.

That is, every three months each faculty investigator must sign a statement indicating that he/she has reviewed the expenditures in her/his project accounts. NOTE that signing the review form doesn’t mean that the numbers are necessarily correct; it simply indicates that the figures have been reviewed and that questions or discrepancies have been brought to the attention of the appropriate party (usually our G&C Officer, Jacquelyn Buie-Brown). 

Each quarter the department chair or center director must indicate to the college that expenditure reviews and certifications have been conducted, and that documentation of these reviews and certifications are available for inspection. Faculty who fail to complete expenditure reviews and certifications in a timely manner may be blocked in the attempt to spend project funds. Contact Jacquelyn Buie-Brown for more information on expenditure reviews and certifications.

FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) :  Federal law provides students (or anyone they grant consent) the right to inspect their educational records and simultaneously prohibits their disclosure to unauthorized third parties.  Details can be viewed at http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwola/student/privacy.html but one important principle is that you cannot release educational records (e.g., grades) regarding any student without the student’s consent. Among other implications of this law, you may not email grades to a student (because electronic mail is not secure), post exam scores on your office door, or use any other unsecured medium for transmitting educational information, except as authorized. (See the Grade Adjustment/Registration Adjustment policy for one current authorized exception.)

FIMS (Faculty Information Management System) : FIMS is the system faculty use to submit annual reports, which are statements of their activities and accomplishments in the areas of instruction, scholarly work (professional development), and service.  Information can be entered in FIMS throughout the year by visiting http://fims.gsu.edu and updating information on publications, committee memberships, service roles, and so forth. Annual reports in FIMS are due in January of each year, at dates to be announced.  For more information, see the attached document “Instructions for submitting Annual Reports, Teaching Portfolios, and CVs” (from 2006).

At present, teaching portfolios are not submitted as part of FIMS but are submitted as a separate hardcopy (paper) document due annually. Teaching portfolios contain materials on all courses taught, mentoring activities, and efforts to cultivate students’ curiosity, critical acumen, and creativity.  See the attached document, “Instructional Activities Review: What to include your annual teaching portfolio” (from 2006) for more information about teaching portfolios.

An updated copy of your CV in PDF form is also due annually, in January. Specific due dates are announced each year.

Additional information on annual reviews can be found in section 311.01 of the Faculty Handbook, located online at http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwfhb/fhb.html

GoSOLAR (Georgia State Online Access to Records) :  GoSOLAR is a comprehensive online system that allows students a variety of options (e.g., to find and register for classes, to leave feedback for instructors, to view grades) and allows faculty to view and verify class rolls, to monitor course schedules, to submit grades, to email students in their courses, and many other options.  Login to GoSOLAR at https://www.gosolar.gsu.edu/webforfaculty.htm using your UserID (not CampusID) and your PIN. Follow the menu options to find information for the specific term and course number (CRN) that interests you.

Grade Adjustments : see the attached memo “Registration Adjustments and Grade Adjustments” for instructions on changing grades and for adding/dropping students from courses.

GSURC (Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference) : see PURC and http://www.gsu.edu/gsurc/

GSURF (GSU Research Foundation) : When faculty members talk about GSURF (“gee-surf”) they are referring to our foundation account in which a percentage of indirect funds generated by grants and contracts are saved for expenditures that support research infrastructure and productivity. A few years ago, we moved a large portion of the GSURF balance to an endowed account. We can no longer spend the endowed portion, but it generates interest income each year that may be invested into increasing our research productivity. Additionally, we continue to add to the original GSURF account each year with the indirect from our sponsored support.

IACUC (Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee) : A panel of faculty members, staff members, and community representatives appointed by the Vice President for Research and charged with overseeing compliance with federal regulations governing research with nonhuman animals.  See LATA and USRA for more information.

Note that psychology faculty members are often and appropriately asked to undertake this important university service role by accepting appointment to the IACUC.

Remember: the IACUC conducts random post-approval monitoring (audits) as well as scheduled semi-annual inspections, so keep your laboratories and documentation in order.

IRB (Institutional Review Board) :  A panel of faculty members, staff members, and community representatives appointed by the Vice President for Research and charged with overseeing compliance with federal regulations governing research with human participants.  See IRBWise and CITI for more information.

Note that psychology faculty members are often and appropriately asked to undertake this important university service role by accepting appointment to the IRB.

Remember: the IRB conducts random post-approval monitoring (audits), so keep your documentation in order and secured.

IRBWise : IRBWise is a web-based IRB management and tracking tool.  All IRB protocols, revisions, renewals, reports of aversive events, are submitted electronically through IRBwise.

http://www.gsu.edu/research/human_subjects.html has a link to the IRBWise login page—plus instructions, a handbook and FAQ page for human-subjects reviewers, a list of IRB deadlines, training materials, model consent forms, procedures for reporting protocol violations or questions anonymously, and a link for registering for the Research Compliance listserv.  All researchers should subscribe to the Research Compliance listserv, as it serves as the fast-response medium for distributing news to the research community (see URSA, below).

LATA (Laboratory Animal Training Association) : All investigators, staff and students involved in research with nonhuman animals must complete online LATA training (for more information on training requirements, IACUC protocol submission and deadlines, anonymous compliance issues reporting, and related information, see http://www.gsu.edu/research/iacuc.html) and must be listed on a research protocol approved by the IACUC (IACUC).

It is expected that LATA will be replaced in the fall with a new training and certification system based on the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) Learning Library.  All researchers who study nonhuman animals should subscribe to the Research Compliance listserv for updates on this new training system and the new eSerius protocol management system implementation (see URSA, below).

LRC (Language Research Center) : http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwlrc/ 

MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) : see RTK below

Outside Activity Approval : see Request to Engage in Outside Activity

PAF (Personnel Action Form) : This form is used to process changes in employment (e.g., hiring, termination, retirement, leave of absence) for faculty, staff and students. The form also indicates the sources of compensation (e.g., for summer salary). The distribution of payment across accounts on these forms should match the distribution of effort reported using PERS (e.g., if a student is supported equally by a grant and by departmental support, the PAF and PERS should agree that payment = effort).

PCARD (Procurement card) : P-cards are VISA cards issued by Bank of America and linked to specific accounts (like grant accounts). They are issued to individual employees, typically the Principal Investigator of the project although certain staff members (e.g., Business Manager Jakki Gaither) controls P-cards for various departmental budget categories. P-cards allow qualified purchases without a requisition or purchase order.  Each P-card has a single-purchase spending limit and a monthly spending limit. Receipts or other documentation (e.g., packing slips, copy of catalog page showing item purchased) must be submitted for all P-card purchases. This documentation is included in a monthly activity log that must be submitted for each P-card account and that must be reconciled with the P-card statement. These forms must be submitted quarterly to Jacquelyn Buie-Brown (for sponsored accounts) for her review and for approval by the chair.

See http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwpch/pcardtraining/PCardtraining.ppt for additional information and a list of allowable and prohibited P-card purchases.

PERS (Personnel Effort Reporting System) : PERS reports must be completed each semester for all employees who (a) have any portion of their salary charged to a sponsored program, or (b) have a portion of their salary charged to a major university function. Principal Investigators are responsible for completing PERS forms for themselves and for employees paid from their grants or contracts.

Currently, Jakki Gaither submits a PER (Personnel Effort Report) for each required member of the faculty. With the new online PERS system being implemented this fall, Principal Investigators will be required personally to complete a PER. See http://131.96.123.134/dev/manuals/resource/pers.htm for a description of the current PER policy and procedure, but recognize that this will change when the new system is introduced.

PSYC ENRICHMENT : The PsycEnrichment account is one of the foundation accounts maintained by and for the department. This account can be used to pay for food at faculty events, to pay for retirement receptions, and to reimburse faculty members or graduate students for meals with recruitment candidates. State moneys cannot be used for these purposes or for a variety of others expenses relevant to our morale and the richness of our social interactions.

The PsycEnrichment foundation is built by charitable contributions from the faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community. It is one of several funds available for your gifts—during the annual spring campaign or at any other time during the year. Other foundation accounts that receive tax-deductible donations include those that support student awards and fellowships. For more information or to make a donation, contact Natal Waddell at psynbw@langate.gsu.edu.

PSYSUPPORT : The email address for submitting requests for help from the psychology department’s tech support staff is psysupport@langate.gsu.edu.  In the email, identify the nature of the problem, the location of the computer, and the urgency or priority of the problem. 

It is anticipated that this support address will be replaced soon by the TRACK-IT online automated service request system. More information on TRACK-IT will be distributed when it is online.

PUHR (Partnership for Urban Health Research) : One of two interdisciplinary “areas of focus” funded by the Provost in which psychology faculty are heavily involved.  For more information and to join PUHR, see http://urbanhealth.gsu.edu/

PURC (Psychology Undergraduate Research Conference) : An annual departmental “research day” highlighting research by undergraduate students, PURC began in 2002 and has gotten better every year!  Beginning in 2007-2008, PURC will be held during the fall term to accommodate the new university-wide research conference (GSURC) that is scheduled for the spring. For more information, including a history of the conference, see http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwpur/

QEP/CTW (Quality Enhancement Plan / Critical Thinking through Writing) : As part of the SACS accreditation review, GSU provided a QEP that included the following requirement: “Effective for students entering Fall 09 and thereafter, all students who seek a baccalaureate degree are required to pass two critical thinking through writing (CTW) courses in their major.” The psychology department faculty approved an implementation of this requirement that would include a 3000-level research methods course and a new 4000-level senior (research) seminar course, each of which would be writing intensive, designed to improve discipline-appropriate critical thinking, capped at 25 students, and taught by a regular faculty member. This QEP/CTW plan should be implemented over the next few years, supported in large measure by recruitment of new faculty.

RCLD (Regents Center for Learning Disorders) : http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwrld/

RED (Research, Education and Development) : See URSA.

Registration Adjustments : see the attached memo “Registration Adjustments and Grade Adjustments” for instructions on adding/dropping/withdrawing students from courses.

Request to Engage in Outside Activity : Faculty responsibilities to the institution and to the State of Georgia with regard to outside activities are specified in section 312.04 of the Faculty Handbook. In summary, full-time employees of the University System are expected to give full professional effort to their assignments of teaching, research and service; however, faculty are encouraged to participate in professional activity that does not interfere with the regular and punctual discharge of official workload duties. All outside activities (except single-occasion activities)—including consulting, teaching, speaking, and participating in business or service enterprises—should be described in writing and should be approved  in advance. A “Request for Approval to Engage in Outside Activity” form is attached. Single occasion activities needn’t have prior approval (except as required for Travel Authorization); however, faculty members can to report even single-occasion activities that are compensated at levels in excess of threshold (see Faculty Handbook).

ROA (Report of Absence) : Exempt employees such as faculty should use the form located at http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwhre/forms/roaB07.xls to report all absences (sick leaves, jury duty, military leaves, FMLA, or--for qualified12-month employees-- vacations). ROA forms are due by the 10^th of each month.

Roll Verification : Each semester, the University Registrar (Cherise Peters) contacts all instructors by email and informs them of the deadline by which Roll Verification must be completed. Roll Verification involves indicating on GoSOLAR which students in each course have attended at least one class session, and which students have not attended any class sessions. The deadline is usually a few weeks into the semester.

Roll Verification is required by Title IV of the Higher Education Act. Failure to comply with this mandate puts university financial aid at risk.

Roll Verification on GoSOLAR is easy: there’s a “verify roll” option in the faculty menu, and one needs only to indicate which students have never attended class. However, this means that every instructor must have some way of assessing attendance (e.g., calling roll, quizzes, class activities, exams, etc.) within the first few weeks of each course.

Note that rolls must be verified for every course (CRN) that is assigned to you. This includes directed readings and research and other non-classroom instructional hours. When instructors have failed to verify rolls, it has almost always been because they forgot about these kinds of “classes.”

Faculty who have been in the department for years will recall that we had a policy at one time of requiring attendance to be taken on the first day of class so that non-attenders could be dropped from the roll; this policy is no longer in effect and is unrelated to mandatory roll verification. The department no longer automatically drops students who fail to attend class on the first day, and instructors are no longer required to take attendance on the first day.

Contact Tenagne Mulugeta if you have questions about roll verification.

RTK (Right to know) : The Georgia Right-To-Know Law requires each employee (faculty, staff, student workers, full time employees, part time employees and/or temporary employees) to be provided with information and training on hazardous chemicals that they may be exposed to as part of their job.  (For more information, see http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwsaf/rtk/o_rtkfunctions.html )

Normally, this should be done as part of new-employee orientation; however, departments and centers are required to retain RTK training records (such as the certificates of completion that can be printed after training has been completed).

The Georgia Department of Labor will be auditing state facilities on RTK compliance. In anticipation, please do one of these three things as soon as possible:

1.  Send a copy of your RTK training certificates (basic, chemical, blood-borne pathogens), if you have them on file, to Natal Waddell (1150UL) to be added to your personnel file; or
2. Send an email to Natal (psynbw@langate.gsu.edu) indicating the date on which you completed the training, but stating that you lost the certificates; or
3. Go to http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwsaf/rtk/o_rtktraining.html and complete the online training modules, and then do #1 or #2 above.

NOTE: The basic RTK training is required of all employees, not just those who work around blood or chemicals. All employees are encouraged also to complete the blood-borne pathogens module and the chemical module; however, those who may reasonably expect to handle blood or chemicals (including cleaning chemicals) are required to complete these units annually. Reminders to complete re-training will be sent around May of each year.  Similarly, employees who may be reasonably expected to handle hazardous waste must complete this module upon hiring and re-train annually.

Additionally, please deliver a copy of all Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) to Natal. You may continue to keep a file of these in your laboratories, but we must also maintain a departmental file that is available to everyone.  Whenever new supplies are delivered, please remember to give the MSDS or a copy to Natal.

SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools) : GSU has been under review for reaffirmation of our accreditation by SACS, which led (among other things) to the QEP/CTW proposal discussed above.

SEI (Student evaluations of instruction) : SEI are student evaluations that are submitted online, through GOSolar, for each course. Quantitative and qualitative SEI are included in the teaching portfolio that each instructor submits annually, and are evaluated as one indicator of instructional effectiveness as part of the annual review by the chair and college and the promotion and/or tenure review. Instructors should remind and encourage students each term to submit their comments.

It is important to remember that SEI is an important datum in the evaluation of instructional effectiveness, but it is only one measure. Many instructors complain about the validity of SEI, but fail to provide any other documentation that learning outcomes have been achieved. Such documentation could serve as additional indicators of instructional effectiveness. All instructors are encouraged to consider how they know that the objectives listed on the syllabus are being / have been achieved and to include this documentation in teaching portfolios and P&T dossiers. Recognizing that SEI can be volatile, consider what other measures (e.g., pre-test/post-test comparisons, evidence of improved writing or critical-thinking skills) indicate your effectiveness in instruction.

Student’s comments in SEI are confidential. Avoid any situation in which you would appear to be biasing SEI through coercion, incentive, or other means. Instructors cannot require students to submit feedback, either as part of the formal SEI mechanism or in addition to these data. Instructors can, of course, solicit other kinds of feedback from students regarding course structure and instructional effectiveness, so long as such feedback is optional, confidential, and informational in nature.

Additional information on SEI can be found in section 311.02 of the Faculty Handbook, located online at http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwfhb/fhb.html

SONA : The Sona Experiment Management System is used to manage the departmental undergraduate participant pool. Each term, investigators are allocated a certain number of participants, based on IRB approval and anticipated availability of volunteers in the pool.  Contact the participant-pool administrator Dr. Marsha Clarkson for more information

Syllabus requirements : The syllabus is the contract between instructor and student regarding the course—what its objectives are, what is required, how performance will be evaluated, and how it will be managed. Every syllabus is required to have (a) the course number, complete course title, course computer number (CRN), the name of the instructor, the semester, and the year; (b) a statement of the instructor’s accessability to students outside of class (i.e., office hours and location, phone, email); (c) a list of prerequisites if any; (d) course objectives; (e) course assignments (e.g., required readings) and due dates; (f) specific course requirements; (g) grading policy, including an explicit statement on whether plus/minus grading will be used (see attached Psychology Plus/Minus Grading Policy and associated FAQ document); (h) attendance policy; (i) make-up examination policy; (j) departmental policy on cheating; (k) any other class policies such as policy on disruptive behavior; (l) date of semester midpoint; and (m) the statement “The course syllabus provides a general plan for the course; deviations may be necessary.”

Every instructor must email a copy of each syllabus to Tenagne Mulugeta by the end of the first week of each semester.  Faculty course coordinators should request, receive, and approve syllabi from GTAs, VLs, and PTIs who are teaching the courses they supervise, and should ensure that those syllabi are also sent to Tenagne (psytxm@langate.gsu.edu) each semester.

Teaching portfolios : see FIMS, above.

Travel Authorization form : Employees who are traveling during regular business hours should complete and submit a travel authorization form in advance of the trip. This provides Workman’s Compensation coverage for the employees while they travel on university business, as well as a way of providing budgetary approval prior to expenditures.  Travel authorization is required for business travel during regular business hours, or for all university- or project-related travel whether or not it occurs during regular business hours. A travel authorization form should be submitted whether or not the employee will receive funds from GSU for the trip.

For example, one should obtain travel authorization before attending a professional conference over a weekend, or before traveling to give a colloquium lecture at another university on a weekday.  A standing travel authorization can be issued for recurring travel (e.g., making six trips by car to Georgia Southern for consultation).

Travel authorization forms (http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwspc/Forms/Travel.doc) should be submitted and approved prior to employee travel.

Additional information on travel can be found in section 602 of the Faculty Handbook, located online at http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwfhb/fhb.html

UETS (University Educational Technology Services) : The division of IS&T responsible for classroom tech support, including uLearn, troubleshooting problems with classroom computers or projectors, digital media services such as preparing video or animations for the web or CD, and training.

uLearn : uLearn is the new name for the web-based course management software formerly called WebCT Vista. When WebCT and Blackboard merged, a new name was needed for the same product—and with Microsoft using “Vista” for its new operating system, “uLearn” was selected. For a time, Vista, WebCT, and uLearn will probably appear interchangeably on the web and in documentation.

For more information about uLearn, including links for online support and training opportunities (like the “First Fridays Clinics”) visit the UETS webpage: http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwets/

UserID : The meaning of this term depends on its context. For GoSOLAR, the UserID may be your social security number or other unique and secret identifier. For GroupWise, the UserID is the part of your email address (not the alias, but the langate address) before the @ sign, usually psyxxx (where xxx are your initials, such as psydaw).

USRA (University Research Services Administration) : USRA is the new name for the Office of Research. Its webpage (http://www.gsu.edu/office_of_research.html) includes links for finding internal or external funding opportunities, proposal development, compliance and safety, post-award management, and research integrity (including conflicts of interest and misconduct).

USRA also manages the RED (Research, Education and Development) Program. The RED program provides training on a large number of research-relevant topics, including safety, PERS, responsible conduct of research, grants management, compliance, grants.gov, and grantsmanship. To see more information, including the schedule of training sessions and links for registering for training, visit http://www.ovpr.gsu.edu/red/

W (Withdraw) : It is important to remember the distinction between dropping a course and withdrawing from a course. Students cannot drop after the first week of class. Students cannot be administratively dropped (e.g., removed from the roll by the instructor) after the second week of class. Beyond these deadlines, students must withdraw from the course. When a student withdraws from the course, the course appears on the student’s transcript (with a “grade” of W or WF) and the student must pay for the course. See Grade Adjustment / Registration Adjustment above for more information.