UW Gazette, January 22, 1997
     
     Reprinted from At Guelph, newspaper of the University
of Guelph:
     
     Universities need to improve public understanding of
their research and communicate more effectively with
students and other researchers about the research process.
That was the predominant message at an open research forum
Jan. 10 at the Arboretum.
     The forum offered panelists, community members and
University researchers an opportunity to discuss the role of
university research in Canadian society and society's re
sponsibility for university research infrastructure. The
session was sponsored by Sigma Xi, the Office of Research, U
of G's faculty and staff associations and the Graduate Stu
dents' Association.
     Physicist Ursula Franklin, a professor emerita at the
University of Toronto who received an honorary degree from U
of G in 1988, defined research as a promise, explaining that
there is a reciprocal relationship between the certainty and
profundity of research results. Research is a process of
cultivation - not solely a product - that follows an
elaborate and rigorous protocol, including a requirement for
reproducibility of outcome, she said.
     Franklin described researchers as fact makers with
diverse motivations, who have only in recent years
experienced interest in the outcome of their efforts on the
part of the broader community. She said Canadian society
will benefit if it fosters a university research community
that includes students who learn to identify important
questions that can be advanced by research and a responsible
group of researchers in a broad array of fields who remain
available as a public resource.
     Prof. Larry Milligan, vice-president (research), noted
that although the university doesn't determine the problems
and questions pursued by university researchers, the institu
tional environment is important. He stressed the need for
vigilance to ensure that research remains a priority for
postsecondary institutions.
     "We need to be certain we are not moving in a direction
where we don't have time to do research," said Milligan. He
noted that Guelph's faculty numbers have declined by almost
100 in the past four years, but the responsibilities of the
faculty who remain have increased, not decreased.
     Milligan noted some of the factors other than money and
time that influence research activity:
     ù a climate where creativity and the dogged hard work
integral to all research efforts are valued;
     ù modern library collections;
     ù information-retrieval systems;
     ù appropriate building space and equipment;
     ù university policies on the ethical use of humans and
animals in research; and
     ù policies ensuring public access to knowledge arising
from university research.
     He emphasized that university students should
participate in the inquiry process while gaining technical
competence and a knowledge of the latest "facts." They must
be engaged in identifying and solving important problems and
communicating research results, he said.
     Prof. Victor Ujimoto, Sociology and Anthropology,
outlined the origins of his research on the experience of
aging Asian Canadians and on the relationship between
information technology and human factors in aviation and
digital air-traffic-control systems.
     He said that postwar restrictions on educational
opportunities for Asian Canadians contributed to his
decision to complete his B.Sc. in physics at the Royal
Military College. His later transition to graduate degrees
in sociology allowed him to integrate his knowledge of
aviation with concerns for the social impact of aviation
technologies and to fulfil his social responsibility to the
Asian community, he said.
     Ujimoto emphasized the need to integrate a human
perspective in the pursuit and application of all research.
     Guelph-Wellington MP Brenda Chamberlain summarized
current federal initiatives in support of university
research and noted that recent reductions to the funding of
federal granting councils have fallen short of cuts to other
government programs. It's not always easy for politicians to
defend research funding, she said, but she believes research
is important to technological innovation and the overall
future of our community. She encouraged researchers to
actively inform the public of their research activities and
the benefits of those activities.
     Questions and discussion at the forum focused on the
need to support all university research - including the
arts, humanities, social and natural sciences - as well as
the need to communicate the value of research to the broader
community. Researchers were urged to publicize Franklin's
definition of a university researcher as a citizen with a
toolbox and of university research as a promise to apply
that toolbox for the public good.