Sathyan Sundaram, a research analyst with the office of Institutional Assessment and Research, will spend part of July attending a seminar near Washington, D.C.

Sundaram has been selected for the annual National Summer Data Policy Institute, where he will learn about research methodologies using large national data sources.

“The purpose of the institute is to develop survey analysis skills and learn about national surveys and data on higher education collected by federal agencies including the National Science Foundation and the Department of Education,” he said.

“These studies include surveys of college graduates reflecting back on their collegiate careers and studies tracking college students over time.”

Sundaram hopes to use these national studies as a benchmark for comparison and to provide context for studies undertaken at CSUMB.

“These studies will help to address common questions, such as ‘How are we doing versus our peers,’ and ‘what do these results mean,’” he said.

He’ll also learn best practices for survey construction, administration and analysis, which can be applied to CSUMB’s studies.

The seminar is sponsored by the Association for Institutional Research (AIR), a professional organization for people in his field. It will be held July 17-23 in Bethesda, Maryland. All costs will be covered by AIR.

Sundaram earned a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University and a master of arts from Ohio State University, both in political science.

Before joining the staff at CSUMB in 2007, he taught political science at Lake Michigan College.

“CSUMB is the first time I’ve worked on the administrative side,” he said. “I wanted to get into educational research at a relatively new institution that still faced some challenges.

“I have enjoyed the variety of projects with which I’ve been involved: accreditation, surveys, assessments, building operational reports, modeling retention and graduation rates and comparative analysis,” he said.