Minutes of the Faculty Meeting -- March 22, 2002

Present were: Drs. Capinera (JLC), Adams, Barfield, Boucias, Buss, Butler, Cuda, D. Hall, Hoy, Koehler, Lawrence, Liburd, Lloyd, Maruniak, McAuslane, McSorley, Nation, Oi, Slansky, Smart, Stimac, Walker, Webb, Yu, Bill Kern, Erin Finn, Cindy Tucker and P. Howell.

The meeting was called to order at 1:05 PM.

Dr. Capinera announced that the next faculty meeting, which was scheduled for April 18, has been changed to April 19. He stated that this is due to the fact that he is serving on a committee to improve the infrastructure of IFAS.

JLC next announced that Debbie Hall and Jerry Wenzel were both nominated for and have received Superior Accomplishments Awards. They will received their awards at a banquet on April 29. JLC asked that everyone congratulate Debbie and Jerry on their achievements and thank them for the work they've done this year.

JLC next announced that Dr. Bruce Stevens of the Physiology Department is seeking to become an affiliate faculty member of our department. He is a co-advisor on Scotty Long's committee. JLC said that Dr. Stevens has been reviewed by the Graduate Committee and they have approved him to seek affiliate status in our department. Those in attendance voted and all were in favor.

JLC next announced that there would be discussion of the required core courses. He said that Cindy Tucker had taken it upon herself to poll the graduate students and he invited her up to present her findings.

Cindy handed out a copy of the form she had composed and spoke briefly about it and about the results she obtained. She stated that of the four categories, physiology was the course that students thought should be required. She also stated that the students indicated that they like to have a choice, and that statistics and plant physiology classes should be required.

Erin Finn stated that she feels statistics classes are very important because students need to be able to do statistics, plus they need to be able to read scientific papers, and statistics classes helps teach them how to do that. She also said that she would like for all classes to be held either in the morning or the afternoon, so that it makes it easier for students to do fieldwork. She said it's difficult to try to drive to the field and do work when classes are scattered throughout the day. She also said that team taught classes are problematic because each faculty teaches in a different way. Also, it's difficult to take specialty classes when there are not enough students to make the classes run.

Dr. Smart handed out a memo from the Graduate Committee which outlines the recommendations from their meeting on March 15. A lot of discussion ensued, some of which follows.

Dr. Adams said that we should get a feel for what students know or don't know, then decided if they need ENY 5810. Less than half his students are entomology students.

STATISTICS: Erin stated that she is learning more in her current statistics class than she learned in her undergrad class. Dr. Stimac said that students don't learn statistics by the coursework in statistics but by applying it to their work.

Dr. Hoy said let it remain flexible; if not needed for the student's program, let the undergrad course be enough and only take more if needed for the student's program. Dr. Boucias said he feels we should not recommend an undergrad course to a grad student. Dr. Cuda said that in order to set up their experiments properly from the beginning, students need at least a working knowledge of statistics.

After discussion and voting, it was decided that a beginning statistics course would be required for M.S. students, as is done currently.

Dr. Hoy questioned the availability of adequate statistics courses for Ph.D. students. Dr. Koehler said that STA 6166 would benefit all grad students. He feels that it should be left up the student's committee to decide for the student which course would be best for him/her. Dr. Oi said that 4000 level statistics courses are much more rigorous courses because they are designed for statistics majors. Dr. Walker asked that if a certain course is required, but the student desires to take a more rigorous course, can that student petition to take the more rigorous course instead of the required course? Dr. Smart said that the recommendations leave leeway for the committee to recommend 4000-6000 level courses. Dr. Butler said that he recommends that his students take the statistics courses designed for medical sciences students STA 6200 and 6201.

Regarding statistics for Ph.D. students, after discussion and voting, it was decided that 3 credits in a 4000 or higher level course would be required. It was also decided that there would be a footnote stating "suggested courses include ..." with a listing of all the courses that can be taken.

BIOCHEMISTRY: Regarding biochemistry, the Graduate Committee recommends that it be changed to "biochemistry OR molecular biology", with the student's committee deciding on the course. After a vote, the change was carried. Dr. Boucias stated that this then is not truly a change, but a remediation.

There was a lot of discussion regarding insect ecology. It was noted that there are a lot of ways to fill the requirement if you use a grad ecology course instead of an entomology/nematology ecology course. Dr. Nation said that we should be teaching courses to our students that are relevant, not farming the students out to other departments. Erin said the courses need to have students signed up in order to have the classes run, but the students need flexibility. She said we need to have ecology courses within our department.

ECOLOGY: Regarding insect ecology, it was decided by vote that there will be a requirement for a grad level ecology course. It was also decided by vote that a grad level course from anywhere would be accepted.

PEST MANAGEMENT: Next up, there was discussion regarding pest management. After some discussion, there was a vote and it was decided by a narrow margin that M.S. and Ph.D. students should graduate with at least one course in pest management.

Regarding Entomology vs. Nematology, Dr. Koehler said he feels that all students should have some background in both disciplines before graduating. Dr. Maruniak said he feels that since they are separate disciplines, this is not necessary. Dr. Smart said that students in both disciplines get essentially the same basic education. Dr. McSorley said that the nematology discipline already requires more credit hours for nematology students than for entomology students. JLC asked if there should be the same requirements for both disciplines and whether there should be a unified set of requirements for all students. It was agreed that the requirements should be substantially the same.

SEMINAR: Next up for discussion was seminars for students. Nematology requires one seminar for M.S. students and two seminars for Ph.D. students. Dr. Hoy said the students should be required to read material, analyze the material and present a participatory seminar on the material. Dr. Adams said that the students need to do this to tune up for presenting their research and that it is developmentally good for them. Dr. Hoy said that it is good to teach the students how to present their M.S./Ph.D. thesis work and how to write grant proposals. They should be doing it as a professional presentation.

JLC said he will go to faculty and recruit teachers if he doesn't get volunteers to teach the seminar. He then asked for a vote to adopt the nematology model for seminar requirements. The motion carried to require seminars for M.S. (1) and Ph.D. (2) students.

Dr. Cuda said that he has been teaching in ENY 5242 Biological Control of Insects, but that he has been teaching Biological Control of Weeds. Dr. Cuda thinks the course title should be changed. JLC said that he should submit paperwork and course content for approval, in conjunction with the primary instructor.

Dr. Boucias asked if there would be a committee to arrange the seminars. JLC asked for volunteers and Drs. Adams, Boucias and Lawrence volunteered to be on the committee. Dr. Hoy said she may be able to volunteer in the fall once she has her schedule firmed up.

The following is a table showing the decisions made during this faculty meeting relative to core course requirements for both entomology and nematology graduate students:

The meeting was adjourned at 3:00 PM.