Fayeza Fatema

Tighter budget could limit future research

Psychology Department Chair Dr. Michael Brannick, courtesy of usf.edu

TAMPA – The Psychology Department at University of South Florida faces the same challenge as all research conducting institutes: a tighter budget.

According to The Center of University Measurement, USF was ranked 27^th among public institution in research in 2010. Although they have managed to keep their rank high, acquiring money for research is becoming more difficult each year.

“Not having enough funding for research is actually hindering our learning because research provides foundation for the future,” said graduate student Joshua Halonen.

“The department receives money from the college it’s in. Faculty has to obtain other [additional] funding through grants,” said Psychology Department Chair Dr. Michael Brannick.

The National Institute of Health provides grants for most research; however, competition has increased drastically.

“A smaller institute has more money for research, whereas you would think a larger, more prestigious school would get more funding, but that is simply not the case,” said Halonen. “Once you start receiving grants, it’s easy to keep them coming if you’re doing your job right, but just getting your foot in the door is the hard part.”

Luckily for USF, the Psychology Department along with the Health Department has steady contracts with the Veterans Hospital.

“We work very closely with the V.A hospital so that helps us out tremendously. We also get a small portion of funding from doing pilot work with drug companies,” says Halonen.

Even though receiving money for research is getting hard for every department, requirements will not change for students who hope to complete research toward a higher education.

“In order to get into graduate school, it’s crucial to have some sort of research completed,” said the Director of the Industrial/Organizational Psychology Paul Spector.

Even with tighter funding, research facilities aren’t going anywhere. Universities suggest that students get involved with research studies during their undergraduate years.

Psychology department blitzes their graduate students

TAMPA – The psychology department at University of South Florida will soon be hosting Data Blitz, an event that has been taking place since 2006 that gives faculty members who are conducting research an opportunity to talk to graduate students about their work.

“It is a really good opportunity to have different faculty members and their research displayed, basically exploiting a little bit of everyone’s interest in their current works. It helps everyone stay up to date,” said Ph.D. student Adriana Uruena.

The showcase gives faculty members just five minutes to discuss their study. They will each be allowed to display only one PowerPoint slide containing their information or the thesis to their study.

The psychology department is divided into three branches: industrial and organizational psychology; clinical psychology; and cognition, neuroscience and social psychology. Clinical and I/O Psychology hosted their Data Blitz last week.

“The turnout was what as expected. The room always gets full,” said Dr. Michael Brannick, the psychology department chair. “The event takes place once each fall semester to help the first-year graduate students become familiar with the substantive areas of expertise of the faculty.”

Clinical psychology research professor Thomas Brandon, who is conducting his research at the Tobacco Research & Intervention Program at Moffitt Cancer Center, is presenting a large study that tests whether a series of educational booklets could reduce the high rate of smoking relapse among women who quit smoking during their pregnancy.

During their presentation, each participant discusses a few major aspects of their study, the faculty and assistants involved, the length of their study and their area of expertise. This helps the graduate students meet the entire faculty and familiarize themselves with all research being conducted in the department.

The department encourages students from all majors to attend their showcase and recruit students who would like to participate in the study.