National Council of University Research Administrators - The Formation of NCURA (1958-1960)

The Formation of NCURA (1958-1960)

The National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) was initiated in 1958 to aid in the evolution of the profession of Research Administration from that of a part-time job performed by persons with other primary duties into that of a full-time profession with specific requirements. NCURA has been the premier professional association for university research administrators since that time.

At a conference on research administration held in Estes Park, Colorado in June 1958, a plan was developed for a clearinghouse for the exchange of information about research administration. In a subsequent meeting in November held at the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory in Buffalo, a group of eight administrators “agreed that there was a need for some kind of group or organization that would look beyond business and fiscal matters into the broader aspects of research administration,” as reported by Donald S. Murray of the University of Pennsylvania.

In December 1958, Raymond Ewell of the State University of New York at Buffalo wrote Murray that he and William C. Wheadon of Syracuse University had been discussing the possibility of organizing a group of research administrators from eastern universities to discuss mutual problems, again as the result of the Estes Park meeting. An opportunity for advancing these ideas arose in September 1959 when an informal meeting was held by about 25 participants at the 13th National Conference on the Administration of Research (NCAR) at Manchester, Vermont. This meeting determined that a national organization of university research administrators would serve a useful purpose. Thus, the concept of NCURA was born.

To bring the concept to fruition, the group appointed a five member organizing committee, which consisted of Raymond Ewell, William Wheadon, Donald Murray, Sidney Roth of New York University, and John Hastie of Cornell University. These five met in New York City on October 28, 1959 and adopted a set of recommendations for presentation to a formal organizing group, scheduled to meet on January 26, 1960 in Chicago. The recommendations included: • Membership to be on an individual, rather than institutional, basis. • Membership initially to be limited “to persons employed by universities or university-integrated research institutes having sponsored research programs in excess of $1,000,000 per year.” (In 1959, there were only about 70-75, such institutions.This principle applied only “initially”; no such limits have been considered since.) • Regional councils to be established within the national organization. (Although it took ten years to establish regions, it is important to note that regional organizations were planned at the outset.) The group also decided to invite to the January organization meeting “an Ad Hoc Organizing Committee of about 25 members... to work out the organization further, elect officers for 1960, discuss possible affiliation, and discuss objectives and modi operandi.” The name, “National Council of University Research Administrators,” appeared for the first time in the report of the October 28 meeting.