IX . Management


CIRTL will be structured to be a highly interactive, collegial system, while maintaining the clear lines of authority and responsibility necessary to ensure quality accountability, direction, and leadership. CIRTL will be operated through a partnership of UW, MSU, PSU, and the NSF. CIRTL will be co-directed by Robert Mathieu, UW Professor of Astronomy, and Andrew Porter, UW Professor of Educational Psychology. This balance in leadership between STEM and social science reflects the character of the center we seek to establish, and is reflected in each development team.

Mathieu will have primary responsibility for the development and implementation activities at UW described in Section III.a. Mathieu will be assisted by a half-time Program Coordinator, whose responsibilities will be management of the implementation of the CIRTL program at UW, including communicating with graduate-through-faculty participants, coordinating the learning community, serving as liaison with campus teaching and learning initiatives, managing the internship program, promotion of CIRTL programs, etc. The UW Graduate School strongly endorses this proposal, and over the duration of CIRTL will provide half of this position as well as project assistants in order to promote successful institutionalization of the CIRTL programs at UW. Mathieu and these staff will be physically located at the CIRTL Learning Community.

Porter will have primary responsibility for the evaluation, research, and transfer activities. Evaluation of UW development and implementation activities will be led by Webb and administered out of WCER. Development, management, and evaluation of the transfer activities will be led by Fairweather and administered out of MSU. Fairweather will coordinate closely with Mathieu and Webb in the transfer of the CIRTL program from UW to the Network institutions. The research programs will also be led by Fairweather.
Mathieu will be the principal contact to NSF, while Porter will take lead responsibility for managing day-to-day activities of the center administration, supported by a project manager. WCER has established capacity to support large and geographically dispersed centers such as CIRTL.

Mathieu, Porter, Fairweather, and the team leaders for the development activities will constitute the Management Team. This management team approach is patterned after the NISE, which was highly effective in maintaining coherence, communication, and quality in that geographically dispersed consortium. The Management Team will convene at least once monthly through conference calls or face-to-face meetings. The Management Team will provide oversight of CIRTL work and dissemination activities; identify and implement strategies for improvements; ensure that individual activities continue to be coordinated as a coherent strategy; and plan future directions. When appropriate, NSF staff will join these meetings via conference call or videoconference.

CIRTL will have a National Advisory Board of representatives from academic campuses, national centers, and industry. A primary purpose of this board is to ensure that CIRTL is aware of and responsive to the teaching needs and concerns of the full array of institutions that hire STEM Ph.D.s. We will include on our board representatives of community colleges, historically black colleges and universities, liberal arts colleges, and masters-level institutions, ensuring their input in the development of CIRTL tools and strategies. We also anticipate local advisory boards of faculty, staff, students, and administrators to guide the implementations throughout the CIRTL Network.