Minutes of the Faculty Meeting -- December 6, 2001

Present were: Drs. Capinera, Adams, Boucias, Buss, Butler, Choate, Crow, Fasulo, Foltz, Frank, D. Hall, G. Hall, Hoy, Koehler, Lawrence, Leppla, Liburd, Lloyd, Maruniak, McAuslane, McSorley, Oi, Slansky, Smart, Stimac, Yu, K. Barbara, P. Howell.

The meeting called to order at 3:05 PM.

Dr. Capinera mentioned that Dr. Nation had received the Blue Key Distinguished Faculty Award. He also mentioned that Dr. Su had received the National Urban Entomology Achievement Award and that Dr. Schuster had received the Southern Region Achievement Award for IPM.

The faculty was asked to vote on whether to recommend Dr. Liburd for Graduate Faculty status. He mentioned that Dr. Liburd had been reviewed by the Graduate Committee and approved. The faculty present voted and there was a unanimous decision to recommend him for the Graduate Faculty.

Dr. Capinera mentioned that the Deans want salaries to start being written on grants to reduce state costs. If this happens, part of the money will go back to supplement the programs Tentatively, 50% of the money for salaries written on grants could be given back to the program, so if $3,000 in salary is on the grant, about $1,500 is given back in supplements. It was noted that some agencies, such as NSF and NIH, are used to funding salaries. Also, the Deans want to discourage cost-sharing and urge the faculty not give away their time.

Dr. Capinera noted that the computer lab in Fifield Hall is being closed down due to budget cuts. He stated that since our computer lab is remaining open, we may see more usage of our lab by students who aren't in our department. If this becomes a problem or is abused, it needs to be brought to his attention so something can be done.

It was noted that T-STAR has twice as much money this year as last year. It was also noted that the deadline for submission of proposals has been extended to January 5. It was also noted that the USDA Entomology deadline has been extended to January 14.

Dr. Capinera mentioned that one of the items brought up at the retreat was the need to provide graduate student teaching evaluations. Discussion then ensued about who devises the policy for the evaluations and whether the evaluations should be similar to the peer evaluations of faculty. Dr. Capinera said he thought that the evaluations should indeed be similar to the faculty evaluations. Dr. Boucias said he has a copy of the form used by Liberal Arts that could be used to devise one for us to use. It was decided that a 2-3 person committee should oversee the evaluations. Dr. Stimac was concerned that this would overuse faculty time. Dr. Boucias was concerned that his inexperience in this area may hinder the evaluation process. It was determined that a committee consisting of the major advisor of the student to be graded, the graduate coordinator and the person instructing the course should do the evaluations of the student doing the teaching. Dr. Leppla said that the evaluation definition should be that the evaluations are to improve teaching quality and the ability to teach. Dr. Hoy said that it would be valuable to be able to write in recommendation letters for these student teachers that the faculty has directly observed this student teaching and has evaluated their performance. Dr. Smart said that the students have asked for these evaluations. He also said that the number of students teaching varies per semester, and some of the ones teaching are doing so voluntarily.

Dr. Capinera suggested that we go with the 3 person approach and at the next faculty meeting review the Liberal Arts form that Dr. Boucias has available. Then we will try this for one semester and see how it goes. Dr. D. Hall suggested that student teachers be encouraged to take advantage of the OIR teaching workshops.

Next up was discussion about seminars. It was suggested that there be a structured seminar each semester and that students be urged to take and give seminars as this would give them experience, where at the present time some students only get experience when it comes time to deliver their exit seminar. It was suggested that we do this in the spring and see what the result is, then make a final decision. It was discussed that the focus should not be just on core requirements but that the students get broader experience. Dr. Stimac said that students need to learn how to put together a seminar even at the MS level, and before they graduate. Dr. Hoy stated that she sees no problem with requiring students to handle one seminar during the course of their coursework. Dr. Koehler said he "throws his students in" and makes them do seminars. He then explained that in his area, with the students making presentations to many diverse and knowledgeable groups, they get a lot of in-depth knowledge and experience before graduation. Dr. Capinera said that he thinks we need to get the seminar program going and have faculty lead the presentations, then get feedback and make a decision whether to require this or make it voluntary. He said that a number of schools throughout the country have a requirement that students present one seminar during their MS program and two during their PhD program.

Dr. Capinera then asked for volunteers to lead seminars to start this program in the spring semester. Drs. Boucias and Adams agreed to lead a seminar on the subject of transgenic technologies (molecular entomology) and Drs. Buss and Crow agreed to lead a seminar on the subject of Landscape Pest Management. This will be under either 6932 (S/U grade) or 6934 (letter grade).

The next item for discussion was the notice from Dean Cheek regarding student residency and tuition waivers. Dean Cheek has urged students to obtain Florida residency, so Dr. Smart has drafted a letter (copy circulated to all in attendance) to be given to students. Dr. Smart said that the letter is self-explanatory, and that there are different letters of offer to Florida residents, non-Florida U.S. residents, non-U.S. students for whom we pay tuition, and non-U.S. students whose tuition will be paid by others. He noted that non-U.S. students can never obtain Florida residency. If a student is not a Florida resident, there is an additional cost of approximately $9,000 (at this time) in tuition fees for which the faculty or the student must be responsible. This must be decided on and agreed to before the student is accepted and enrolled. Dr. Koehler said that in reading the letters, there may be some confusion as to whom is responsible for the extra fees as it appears that there are too many "outs". He said that more needs to be put into the letter so that the student knows he/she must obtain Florida residency. Dr. Hoy said that the letter also should state that continuing to receive a fee waiver depends on a semester-by-semester evaluation and satisfactory work. Dr. Crow said that we need a standard letter to cover problems if a student is not a Florida resident. Several faculty mentioned that sometimes a student feels it is better not to become a Florida resident because of financial reasons to stay a resident of their home state. It was mentioned that the Dean pays for the first year of tuition surcharge since the student cannot seek residency until they've been here a year, but after that, the Dean will not be responsible for the surcharge. The Dean is also responsible for all tuition surcharges for international students since they cannot obtain Florida residency. Dr. Smart says he welcomes any and all input and edits on the letter of offer.

Dr. Smart also mentioned that there have been no students nominated for the thesis and dissertation award and that he would like for names to be submitted for nomination ASAP.

Next up for discussion was the budget, and Dr. Capinera handed out a rough draft of the budget process by the legislature (copy circulated to all in attendance). The draft shows that UF's budget is decreased by $20M, but Dr. Capinera said that they took some away and added some back in. He said it may translate to $1.55M short from IFAS teaching. He said that IFAS research /extension is down $8M, but that $4M was added back in, meaning that IFAS is $3.8M down this year and $4M down next year. He said we should plan on 4-5% reduction this year and 12.7% starting July 1. The VP suggests planning for a 15-30% reduction overall. This will come from salaries and operating. In the past, the reductions came from operating thereby allowing us to not have any layoffs. Now, however, we are at a minimal operating budget and now we will have to do layoffs.

Estimates of amounts: 5%, approximately $71,000 plus teaching; 12.7%, approximately $171,000 plus teaching; teaching is estimated at 7.5%, approximately $13,000.

When this same thing happened 10 years ago, we weren't prepared. We are prepared now, though. The Deans won't pull all our money back because we have a rainy day fund which was put into place after the last reduction. What we have in the way of funds is:

$53,000 = grant money left over from 2 short courses this year
$146,000 = combined grant money left over from past short courses
$79,000 = overhead left over from short courses
$25,000 = overhead left over from research grants
$13,500 = royalties
$230,000 = Share money, which generates interest

Dr. Capinera also mentioned money of $101,900 from vacant lines (copy circulated to all in attendance). This money could be applied to the 5% and it would handle this call back, but it would penalize Drs. Lawrence, Dickson and Butler. He asked if this is what we really want to do.

Dr. Capinera said that we need to collapse down staff support to free up money and take into consideration faculty attrition. The Deans want the units to deal with vacant lines and layoffs, so we need to figure out a plan. He said that nearly every unit will be forced to do layoffs, and in the past, usually the way this was handled is the "last in, first out". When layoffs begin, bumping may start. He handed out a list of all the USPS employees in the department (copy circulated to all in attendance). He said that we need to talk about incentives to get senior staff to retire, but he also said that there are not enough senior people who are willing to retire at this time. He said that they will not identify layoffs at this time, but that we will have to face it and begin identifying those that will be laid off. We need to discuss how to deal with this fact and determine how to go about identifying those affected. He mentioned that the secretarial staff took a hard hit during the last layoff, and he stated that there used to be 6 secretaries in the front office before, but now there are only 4. One faculty member stated that secretarial staff are not needed as much now since faculty do a lot of their own work now.

Dr. Capinera said we need to look at the scientific staff and talk about scientific staff management (copy circulated to all in attendance) listing different approaches to determining how layoffs will be determined. For each of the approaches: (1) lottery - he said this is not a good idea; (2) favor senior faculty - not good because junior faculty need help; (3) favor junior faculty - not good because senior faculty bring experience and money; (4) sharing - a better idea; (5) subsidy - a better idea; (6) total staff management - will pigeonhole grad students by telling them they may have to work in an area not of their interest.

Some faculty concerns follow. Dr. Stimac said staff provide continuity in research programs and replacing staff with students will interrupt continuity. He suggested incentives for those who have been successful in generating support. Dr. Boucias asked if this would be implemented immediately. Dr. Capinera said there is some wiggle room. Dr. Hoy suggested that assistant professors continue to be helped for the next couple of years with the rainy day fund because they don't have the funding to carry on at this point. Dr. Capinera said that we can use some of the vacant line funding for the present time. Dr. Leppla said that he understands that the target is approximately $200,000. If so, what with the vacant lines funds, all we have to do is lose 2 more high level staff positions and we should zero out.

Dr. Capinera said one way we can get around the layoff issue is that for the people who face layoff, we could take them off USPS and put them on USPS time-limited, which would give the state money back to the Deans. Then, if times get better, we could put them back on the state money. Someone wanted to know if some faculty are near retirement, could that be considered towards the shortfall.

Someone asked about bumping, and Dr. Capinera responded that anyone can bump someone else who has less time in that position. The only requirement is that they either be able to do the job, or that they can learn it in 6 months time. They don't have to be as proficient as the person they bumped in 6 months, only that they can do the job in 6 months. He mentioned that he hopes to minimize layoffs; however, we cannot handle 12.7% plus teaching reduction without laying off. He said that the units should have the ability to make the decisions about layoffs. Dr. Stimac said whatever happens, don't let it fall to the Personnel Office.

Dr. Hoy wanted to know if we would know ahead of time what monies will have to be turned back. Dr. Capinera said cost-sharing (approach #6 of scientific staff management) will start July and we should know ahead what that amount will be. If necessary, each faculty will lose service of their staff for one day per week (20% ) if they can't afford that amount of cost-sharing. Their staff would then work that one day per week for another faculty member. Everyone except assistant professors will be required to pay 20% for their staff. Those with higher priced staff will pay more. We will do a trial of this method and see how things work.

Dr. Boucias wanted to know if faculty could go on 10 months salary and give the remaining 2 months to staff. Dr. Capinera said that anything was possible but the computer programs haven't been put in place yet to accomplish creative financing. We should eventually be able to do this, however.

Dr. Hoy asked if anything can be cut or done different to keep from having to do layoffs. Dr. Capinera said there are several things that can be done. He said up to the present, we have not been charging back for phone calls, photocopying, etc. We haven't wanted to do this because it costs money and time to do this. He also said that the calendars the department purchased for everyone this year cost $850, which is a cost that also could be eliminated. He mentioned that the air handler system is also being fine tuned at this time to try to cut costs there. He also mentioned that the Florida Mixer has been canceled. Dr. Hoy said we need to let everyone know this and why. Dr. Stimac said that most of the money is in salaries, and that's where the cuts need to come from.

The final word from Dr. Capinera was that we're not going to lay off anyone until we have to do so, and that if we are able we will hire staff back as time-limited USPS..

The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 PM.