Appendix C: Self-Study Questionnaire Responses

Forensic Science Partnership

1. List the active faculty participating in the Partnership. How has this changed over time?

SC= Steering committee member or alternate, RP = research projects, Sem.= attends (most) FSP Seminars
FSP ACTIVE FACULTY	DEPARTMENT	ACTIVITY
1. Bide, Martin	Textiles (TMD)	SC
2. Boatright-Horowitz, Sue	Psychology	SC, RP
3. Boothroyd, Jon	Geology	Sem.
4. Brown, Barbara	Dental Hygiene	SC, Coordinating Certificate Prog., Sem.
5. Brown, Christopher	Chemistry	RP, Sem.
6. Brown, Phyllis	Chemistry	RP
7. Chesky, Andrea	CCRI	New Member
8. Chichester, Clint	Bio-Medical	RP
9. Cho, Bongsup	Bio-Medical	RP
10. Crisman, Everett	Chemical Engineering	Co-Director
11. Euler, William	Chemistry	RP
12. Francklyn, Chris	U. of Vt., Bioengineering	Offered summer internship, project advice
13. Goldsmith, Marian R.	Biological Sciences	New Member
14. Gregory, Otto	Chemical Engineering	SC, RP, Sem. PI for SEM proposal
15. Hermes, Don	Geology	SC, RP, Sem.
16. Hilliard, Dennis	R. I. State Crime Lab.	SC, RP, Semi., $ contributor.
17. Kirschenbaum, Louis	Chemistry	RP
18. Kovacs, William	Civil Engineering	On leave first 18 months
19. Martin, Lenore	Bio-Medical	RP
20. Ordonez, Margaret	Textiles (TMD)	Research Projects, Seminar
21. Oxley, Jimmie	Chemistry	Co Director
22. Platek, Mike	Electrical Engineering	SC, RP, paper presenter, Sem.
23. Richman, Marc	Material Sci. (Brown U.)	Volunteered as seminar speaker
24. Smith, James	Chemistry	SC, RP, Sem.
25. Smith, Nelson	Psychology	SC, RP, Sem.
26. Turnbaugh, William	Anthropology	Sem.
27. Weisbord, Robert	History	New member
28. Welters, Linda	Textiles (TMD)	SC, RP, Sem.
29. Yan, Bingfan	Bio-Medical	RP

During the 18 months of this Partnerships existence three faculty members have either left or formally asked to be removed from the list and approximately 10 faculty have ask to participate. From the original 28 faculty members, seven have not found a way to participate in the FSP and they are note listed above. 'New member' in the list indicate those have come on board since the summer of the 2000.

2. List the annual number of research papers and presentations made associated with Partnership activities. Do Not list each citation, but just the number of papers or presentations.

O. J. Gregory, M. Platek, D. Platek (FDA) and 4 undergraduate students (3 presentations)

Su Boatwright with 1 graduate and one undergraduate (2 in preparation)

J. Smith, J. Oxley (4 presentations - one international; 1 paper pub, 2 in preparation)

D. Hilliard, O. J. Gregory and M. Platek (5 conference presentations)

O. Don Hermes and one graduate student (1 published study)

O. J. Gregory, W. Euler, C. Brown and E. E. Crisman (2 in preparation)

3. What external funding has resulted from Partnership activities? Give examples of any funding that was directly linked to the Partnership.

The FSP successfully collaborated with the SST partnership and the RI State Crime Lab. To obtain a state-of-the-art Scanning Electron Microscope with gun shot residue analysis package. This SEM is a university cost center facility available to all and is located in the Engineering Microscopy Facility located in the Kirk Engineering Building.

The results of both FSP supported studies in the Psychology Department (Prof. Suzan Boatwright-Horrowitz) are being prepared for submittal to psychology and forensic science journals. Outside funding will then be sought to pursue them further.

Two Chemistry professors (Euler, C. Brown) and two Chemical Engineering Professors (Gregory, Crisman) are concluding FSP projects in blood drying time analysis. Those results will be submitted to appropriate FS publications and then serve as a basis for an NIJ proposal. Agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in Washington, D.C support them in their efforts.

FSP project on Explosive database is being considered for funding by a major U.S. company.

FSP supported pipe bomb project has generated a request for at proposal submission to U.S. consortium of Federal agencies.

FSP project on explosives detected in human hair has attracted collaboration from U.K. government lab and request for white paper from U.S. FAA.

4. Give examples of how the Partnership activities are or will be self-sustaining? For those Partnerships that no longer receive funding from URI, has this objective been met? How? For those Partnerships still receiving URI funding, what is the plan to become self-supporting? For both groups, what is the management plan for self-support?

We are attempting to incorporate the classes in appropriate departments and the seminar series in the Chemistry department so that Forensic minor may continue to operate on a more restricted budget. We are working with our Advisory Board Corporate member to develop research directions that will be of interest to them. The FSP Steering Committee are discussing the avenues open in forensic science for submit a Center of Excellence proposal to NSF.

5. How have Partnership activities affected faculty workload? Give examples.

In general, any complaints from the faculty have centered on the fact that neither they nor their departments get any recognition from the University for their participation in the FSP. Some faculty and one of the co-directors mentor as many as three undergraduate students, often from other departments, in FSP research projects; that is very time consuming.

6. What new courses have been created from the result of the Partnership? List the enrollment in these courses.

The Forensic Science Seminar Course; approx. enrollment 30 per semester.

Spring 2001 Introduction to Explosives-13 students; including 1 from Navy War College, 1 from Naval Station Groton, 1 from Warwick police & 1 from RISCL are attending.

Engineering Microscopy Course with forensic science focus for FS undergraduate minor students, will be offered in Fall of 2000

Forensic Science undergraduate minor, approx. 10 students thus far, to be publicized in the next catalogue.

Seven courses and workshops, annually presented by the RISCL are being evaluated to determine if they will qualify for credit in a Forensic Science Post Graduate Certificate program.

7. How many undergraduate students and how many graduate students have participated in the Partnership? How many of the publications and presentations listed in question 2 have had student co-authors?

First year through summer of 2000 seventeen students participated in FSP research projects of which three were graduate students. About half of the students have or will receive credit as the various research projects are presented or published. All were given credit for their contributions at the January 2001 Advisory Board meeting poster session and 8 were cited as co-authors in subsequent publications or presentations. One of the studies sponsored by FSP was presented in poster format at the Psychology Department's Annual Undergraduate Award Ceremony last May. The two students co-authors received 'Outstanding Senior Contribution' awards for their work on this project and subsequently graduated to take positions as research assistants at other institutions.

A similar number of students is being supported in the current fiscal year - the exact number is unknown at this time since some of them will be signed on during the summer of 2001.

8. What have student participants done after they have left URI? Give examples, especially highlighting how the Partnership benefited the student.

After completing an internship with the RI DOH one URI graduate subsequently joined the NY State Police Crime Laboratory in Albany, NY. Stacey Edmunds (Textiles, Class of 2001) has spent two semesters as an intern with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in, RI and will be attending George Washington University (DC) in the fall as a graduate student in the Forensic Science program there. Elmo Resende completed his Ph.D. program in the Chemistry and has returned to his duties as a captain in the Brazilian State Police. Evan Pearce, undergraduate, has been accepted to graduate school at Standard-possibly because of 2 publications he co-authored. The RISCL has thus far sponsored three students as interns.

9. What service contributions have arisen from Partnership activities, to the professional community, URI, or to the State of Rhode Island?

An agreement was signed with the RI-DoH Forensic Laboratory to work together toward developing the forensics capabilities for the State and the RI-DoH will provide opportunities for the internships there thru the FSP. Various members of the faculty have contributed to analysis of evidence in approximately 20 law enforcement cases each year. The RI State Crime Laboratory has expanded its base of researchers who are available to analyze evidence and one FSP co-directors represented the FSP at the "States Coalition" meeting in Washington, DC last year. This is a consortium of states that have banded together to petition their various Congressional delegate to appropriate more money for education and facilities for state forensic facilities. Under a separate program, the RISCL has been designated to receive approximately $450K to modernize facilities. Some of this money will be designated for instructional purposes at the University and toward supporting faculty members in the development of FS courses for the various programs we are planning. Students, law enforcement personnel and the public have attended the highly visible seminar series begun in the fall of 1999 and the University has received a great deal of media coverage from that series. This year the attendance has hovered around the 100 mark due in part to the excellent publicity surrounding the seminar given by Dr. Henry Lee, well known forensic scientist and former director of the CT State Crime Laboratory. (a list of articles and news media mentions is available) The "juiced base ball" study, with FSP participation from RISCL and the Depts. of Chemistry and Chemical & Electrical Engineering, has received extensive media local, regional and national coverage. (a list of articles and news media mentions is available) The presence of the FSP, among other factors has encouraged the RI-State Crime Laboratory to contribute to the effort to expand its facilities at URI by promoting (and contributing $$) toward the construction of a new campus building that can house University Security/Police the RISCL and facilities for FSP instruction. One FSP partner has been asked to teach Explosive Analysis at the FBI school at Quantico and to participate and evaluate the HAZMAT officer training there. The North East electrical power consortium has approached one faculty member to present lectures around New England on his findings in a recent case of electrical power theft. One FSP faculty has attended a NCIS weeklong course on crime scene investigation (Newport, RI) and as a result has presented the NCIS instructors with several suggestions to improve evidence collection. That faculty has been offered the opportunity to an advanced FS analysis course at NCIS in Atlanta, GA (summer of 2001).

10. What does the Partnership need to become more effective?

We require some kind of central office and administrative assistance (perhaps supporting all of the partnerships) through which finances, student roster, mailings, advisory board meetings, etc. can be coordinated. Because our individual departments receive no recognition for the partnership, there is actually disincentive for them to allow us to use the department administrative facilities, in some cases even if we agree to pay some administrative support. We need regular meetings with the accounting department personnel the budgets get so convoluted, especially at the end of the fiscal year that we spend too much time trying to sort out reimbursements, student payrolls and trip expenses. The connection to the research grant office must be strengthened so that we are informed sooner about opportunities, too often we hear about solicitations when there is insufficient time to respond.

11. What changes to the Partnership program could be made to make it better?

A single, half time director would have been better than trying to operate with three, one-day-per-week co-directors. It seemed to be an ideal solution to have three directors to share the responsibilities but too often plans are being delayed until the co-directors are able to find a common day that all could be present to make final decisions. A paid half time director would give some one person the authority, responsibility and focus to push the various components of the Partnership along. Some form of compensation for the steering committee should have been worked out so that they can justify pursuing the various assignments that the directors request them to do.

12. For those Partnerships no longer receiving URI funding: Did the Partnership receive additional funds from the Provost after the initial grant expired to support student activities? How were those funds used?

N.A.