08/07/2025

Dear Dr. Lupia and colleagues at the Office of the Vice President for Research,

We, students and postdoctoral fellows at the University of Michigan, are writing to express our concern over the recent news that OVPR is considering disbanding Consulting for Statistics, Computing & Analytics Research (CSCAR).

CSCAR is a valuable resource for our research projects for many reasons, especially as not all degrees require formal statistics courses. Even for those of us who have taken a statistics course, most courses cover basic concepts, and we frequently encounter research challenges that are outside their scope. 

We would like to highlight just a few of the ways CSCAR supports our work: 

1. CSCAR is instrumental in experiment planning. In human subjects research, for example, this means conducting power analyses to determine how many participants are needed to answer a particular research question.
2. CSCAR is invaluable for our success in obtaining fellowships and training grants. The analyses conducted during experiment planning strengthen our research statements and contribute to more competitive applications. For fellowships such as the NIH F31, CSCAR statisticians have served as key personnel and even provided letters of support for our projects. The ability to list CSCAR as an institutional resource on these types of grants distinguishes U-M from other universities in the application pool. Moreover, for those of us funded by fellowships, CSCAR provides critical access to statistical expertise that would otherwise be unavailable, as statisticians’ time cannot be charged to these types of grants.
3. Meeting with CSCAR statisticians is often essential for data analysis and disseminating knowledge to the scientific community. Whether it’s a linear mixed effects model or an ANOVA, compiling a large dataset for publishing or making sure the way results are presented is both reflective of the true result and communicated well, CSCAR statisticians help U-M researchers produce rigorous, high-quality work that stands up to peer review and reaches broader audiences.

We hope you consider these perspectives as you evaluate the future of CSCAR. Its role in supporting innovative research at the University of Michigan cannot be overstated. We ask that you maintain or increase CSCAR funding for the vital role that it plays in research and education across the U-M research community. 

Thank you for your time and consideration,