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December 16, 2005

Faculty Senate Meeting with Drs. Barbato and Lee

Present: Drs. Anthony Barbato, Jack Lee, Dana Bradziunas, Bill Cannon, Kim Dell’Angela, Kim Kenton, Donna Halinski, Phong Le, Nancy Muma, John McNulty, Alan Wolfe

Excused: Drs. John Godwin, Ken Micetich, Sean Cahill

 

Minutes of the last meeting were approved.

Faculty Information System and BSI Changes

Following an inquiring concerning the status of the modifications, Dr. Lee stated that a  letter will be sent out to all faculty concerning the changes in the BSI plan and the FIS reporting system. Dr. McNulty said that the reduction in credit hours given for teaching has been lowered and could reduce the incentive for faculty to teach. Dr. Barbato reminded us that the credit given for teaching was very generous with respect to preparation time and still is generous. Dr. Lee suggested that we wait to get feedback from the faculty after the letter is sent out. Dr. Barbato suggested that the System should be re-evaluated and changed at some point rather than standing as set out initially in perpetuity. The purpose of the FIS was to make it clear to faculty what the expectations are, to set bench marks, and to make the rewards less arbitrary. There was a discussion of the fact that all committees are not given credit under BSI. Dr. Barbato suggested that the decision as to which committees are included is less important than the fact that a decision is made and is clear to junior faculty (when they are making their decisions on how they spend their time). Dr. Barbato said that the BSI system is a great topic for discussion with many aspects of it on the table. Dr. Lee suggested that we need to go through the FIS system and re-examine it.

Research Issues

Research Funding Committee

A large number of bridge funding requests (5) were made in the last cycle and many were found worthy of funding. Many of these would have been funded by NIH under better funding times. The concern is that we may run out of money since NIH funding levels are low. Dr. Lee said that he met with Rich Kennedy to discuss the grants that were not re-funded by NIH. Dr. Kennedy suggested that we have enough money to give bridging funds to cover all of those that are likely to request bridge funding.

Tenure Requirements for funding

The faculty stated that the requirements for tenure include national funding. Since NIH funding levels are currently very low compared to more normal times we should revisit this requirement. Drs. Barbato and Lee both agreed that this issue should be reviewed and a committee assembled to perform the review. Dr. Barbato further suggested that there are long-term ramifications if NIH funding continues to be low.  If so there will be faculty who have never been funded and keeping research labs for them is an issue.

Strategic Planning Committee

This will be examined in the new year.

 Topics for Faculty wide meetings

1. Evaluation of faculty effort

2. Dr. Barbato suggested that we think about how we begin to build a relationship with nursing school faculty. The reporting lines have now changed and Dr. Barbato now has oversight for the nursing faculty. Support for nursing school is split.

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Minutes submitted by Nancy Muma