Institutional Review Board

“United Tribes Technical College encourages scholarly endeavors of students, employees and community foundations/organizations. A pursuit of scholarly work and research will often involve the use of human subjects, either students or employees, for data collection and analysis. The President shall ensure the rights, privacy, dignity, and welfare of students and employees of United Tribes Technical College used as human subjects in research studies are protected; that risks have been considered and minimized; that the research is supervised by qualified persons, especially in mental or physical health care related studies; that all human subjects participate in research only after the subject has agreed and been provided with legally effective informed consent; that any research is conducted in an ethical manner and in compliance with established standards and that all private information will be handled in accordance with the appropriate standards for maintaining confidential material.”

The IRB reviews and approves of research performed at UTTC. IRB approval must be obtained before the data collection begins and specific IRB paperwork must be submitted to the UTTC IRB before research can be approved. UTTC’s IRB Committee, comprised of campus and off-campus members, meets monthly and requests applications for review be to the Committee Chair two weeks prior to the scheduled meeting for distribution and placement on the agenda.

There are four main reasons that UTTC has created an IRB.

1. The IRB process ensures that any and all UTTC-associated research does not harm participants in any way. This goes in hand with the Native view of taking care of relatives and community.
2. Adherence to IRB guidelines helps to ensure the highest quality research at UTTC.
3. Federal laws mandate that institutions of higher education that are participating in
   any type of government-sponsored research has to have an IRB in place.
4. All universities and nearly all colleges have IRBs. The UTTC IRB is registered with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP). The registration number for the United Tribes Technical College’s federal number is “#IRB00005063”.

UTTC IRB Committee meets once each month during the academic year.

Applicants and/or approved research project PIs requiring action during the summer months may prompt calling a special meeting for the committee.