Fill out the survey — Academic Bureaucracy Survey

Before you start

This survey seeks to gather accurate quantitative information, and memories are imperfect. Please look up the actual information in your email or your institution's system rather than estimating.
Answer for your most recent experience within the last 24 months. There is a response option if you've not had a relevant interaction in the last 24 months.
All durations are calendar days, not business days. One way to easily calculate this is to use Google Sheets: =DATEDIF(A1,B1,"D") gives the days between two dates, where A1 is the earlier one.

About you

What is the name of your institution?

What is your email address?

I use this to verify that you work at the institution you named, and to reduce spam responses. The address is replaced with a one-way hash after verification and is never published or shared.

Which division is your work in?

What is your position?

Getting money you have already been given

Consider the most recent grant you received for which you have both an award email and an email notifying you the funds were available internally.

How many days passed between the award notification email and the moment you first had access to an active account or index number you could spend from?

calendar days

Not in the last 24 months I have never received a grant at this institution

Consider the most recent reimbursement you submitted for which you have both the submission date and the payout date.

How many days passed from when you submitted your receipts to when the money reached you?

calendar days

Not in the last 24 months I have never submitted an expense for reimbursement at this institution

Buying things

Consider your most recent work purchase that was not a reimbursement, and for which you have evidence of the submission and approval dates.

How many days passed from when you submitted the purchase order request to when you were notified the PO had been approved?

calendar days

Not in the last 24 months I have never submitted a purchase request at this institution

How many distinct forms, documents, or certifications must a new vendor provide to be added to your institution's purchasing system?

Answer for a typical US-based small business selling standard goods or services. Do not answer for a foreign entity, an individual contractor, or a sole-source purchase, which normally require extra paperwork. Count only what the vendor themselves must supply. This might be things like a W-9, certificate of insurance, banking or ACH form, supplier registration, financial statements, compliance attestations.

documents

Don't know — handled entirely by administrative staff I have never been involved in adding a vendor at this institution

And how many must you personally complete or help complete for that same vendor to be added?

For example, sole-source justifications, requisition forms, or internal approval memos.

documents

Don't know Not applicable

Hiring people

Consider the most recent US-based person you hired or helped hire into a research or staff role.

Excluding anyone who needed visa sponsorship, how many days passed from when the candidate accepted the offer to when they were approved to begin working? (This might be their start date, but if the employee had an intentionally delayed start, focus on the paperwork timing).

calendar days

Not in the last 24 months I have never hired or helped hire anyone at this institution

Anything else

Notes, comments, or questions you'd like to see in the next version

Received. Thank you.

I can't publish data until we have enough responses from your institution, so I'd greatly appreciate if you sent this to additional colleagues.

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