Board Policy - Human Subject Research Guidelines

All provisions in this policy are applicable to Tompkins Cortland Community College, and associated entities (e.g. FSA, TC3 Foundation, etc.). 

The primary responsibility for protecting the rights and welfare of human subjects rests with each individual who initiates, directs, or engages in research. Research shall be defined to include any surveying, questioning, testing, or other involvement of another person to obtain information for use by a student, faculty or other staff member, or any external person. 

All projects proposing to recruit student participants must make clear the voluntary nature of their participation. Under the SUNY Board of Trustees policy, students may not be required, as a course requirement, to participate as subjects in any research project or in the pilot-testing of any research instruments. 

All student researchers must have a Tompkins Cortland faculty or staff supervisor who has accepted responsibility for monitoring the project. Supervisors are responsible to provide information to students regarding ethical principles involved in using human subjects for research, including, but not limited to, privacy and confidentiality of response data. 

A request made to any member of the Tompkins Cortland community by an external researcher for the use of Tompkins Cortland records or student or staff subjects shall be forwarded to Tompkins Cortland's Associate Dean of Institutional Research and Organizational Learning. 

If subjects are to be drawn from an external population, notice of the project shall be given to the Associate Dean of Institutional Research and Organizational Learning prior to collection of any data. 

If subjects are minors or are drawn from an institution or organization which has responsibility for the subjects, appropriate consents must be secured in addition to approval from the Associate Dean of Institutional Research and Organizational Learning. 

Written notice of any project that will involve intervention with or manipulation of a human subject's physical or mental state must be provided to the Associate Dean of Institutional Research and Organizational Learning at an early stage in planning (i.e., prior to the collection of any data) to allow determination of need for compliance with federal or state statutes or regulations related to non- exempt "human subject research." 

Approved by College Forum December 13, 1999 

Revised December 3, 2020 

3/23/2000 – Resolution #1999-2000-44 – Human Subject Research Guidelines 5/10/2007 

11/10/2016