FACULTY MEETING SEPTEMBER 12, 2002

Attendees: Byron Adams, Carl Barfield, Drion Boucias, Jerry Butler, John Capinera, Skip Choate, Tom Fasulo, John Foltz, Howard Frank, Don Hall, Glenn Hall, Marjorie Hoy, Phil Koehler, Pauline Lawrence, Norm Leppla, Oscar Liburd, Jim Lloyd, James Maruniak, Heather McAuslane, Bob McSorley, Jim Nation, Faith Oi, Grover Smart, Jerry Stimac, Cynthia Tucker, Simon Yu, Debbie Hall, and Myrna Litchfield

Meeting was convened at 10:35.

JLC opened by introducing Bob McGovern from Plant Pathology.

Bob introduced himself and gave a brief synopsis of his background to acquaint faculty with his qualifications for director of DPM program. He passed out a list of students that are enrolled in the program (about 40 at the present time). Students have a wide variety of backgrounds and are highly motivated. Thanked faculty for receiving students into the department. Most of these students are funded for only one year and are looking for additional support. Smart asked what could be done to spread support to two years instead of one. Perhaps the student could be put on a 1/4-time assistantship instead of 1/3-time. Stimac stated he has employed DPM students and a 1/4-time assistantship is about all they can handle since they are taking so many courses. Hoy agreed that students could work only about 8-10 hours a week because of the heavy course load. Discussion followed and the consensus was that a 1/4-time assistantship would be good in order to help students financially and with fee waivers.

McGovern passed out a sheet showing the DPM curriculum. Hoy stated that she felt training in field plot design and applied research was missing in the curriculum and it needs to be a requirement. McGovern agreed but stated that if they added this to the curriculum something else would have to be displaced. He asked for ideas. Hoy stated that many of these students would be required to write reports and publish bulletins. In order to do this they need to have some computer skills and this is missing from the curriculum. McGovern agreed but stated that it was one of the electives that the students could take. He said that Billy Crow had sent out an email stating he had publication opportunities for students and McGovern encouraged this. He thought that perhaps an assistantship could be created to cover publications and creating a web site. Stimac stated the need to be careful about adding on courses since most students were already stressed because of the course load. He also stated that in one course it was a requirement that students present a presentation in power point and all of them did. McGovern stated that we need to get students through the program in a timely fashion.

Information was passed out on Appointment and Duties of Student Supervisory committees. There are some slight differences between these and the ones handed down from the Graduate School. Leppla stated that there may be some difficulty with seating or the availability of microscopes in some of the classrooms and we needed to work together on this. McGovern stated that he didn't want a high ratio of student to teacher. McGovern stated that he wanted to encourage the center faculty to serve on students' committees. He will visit the centers and talk with the faculty. D. Hall asked how many members did the students need. McGovern said three and he was encouraging that one be a special member and he would also encourage them to have faculty members off campus. He requested that the faculty please consider serving on a committee. Debbie asked who was going to put the committee on line for the students, her or Gail. McGovern said he would have to find someone to do this for him, with some help.

Passed out Guidelines for Elective Internships. Stated that some students went out on internships this summer and it was confusing. Needed guidelines so they came up with this. Students must make a request and submit it to their committee first. If the committee approves then the student fills out the required forms and submits them. Smart asked if the Internships would be a letter grade or an S/U grade. McGovern said it could be either one. Smart stated that there should be a consultation between the faculty involved and the student as to whether the student would receive a letter grade or an S/U grade and this should be stated on the form. Leppla asked if the internships for next summer had been posted. McGovern said that he planned to create a web page to put the internships on and to tell about the experiences of the students who went on internships. He said that students are happy and ask good questions and also ask for references to help fill in the gaps in the curriculum. He stated that if we consider adding new courses something is going to have to go. He asked for help with the Capstone Courses. He said that this is a way to fill in the gaps. He closed by appealing to the faculty for help.

Hoy announced that she had a visiting scientist, Dr. Yang, who would be here for the next two weeks. She said that if the faculty were interested they might wish to meet with her.

JLC passed out class enrollment for the fall and a list of grants for the past year. He commended the faculty for their achievements and indicated that the department has a fine record of achievements. He mentioned that the University is talking about zero-based budgeting, and that he felt that the department would withstand any scrutiny. He pointed out that Barfield and D. Hall were teaching courses with enrollment over 300. Other courses in the department were also doing well and we are serving constituents from all around campus. Over $2 million in grants were received last year, with a broad base of involvement from the faculty.

JLC stated that despite our record of achievements, we would not get all faculty replaced quickly but we probably will get some replaced. The budget shortfall seriously hampers our ability to replace faculty. We may be able to recruit a taxonomist soon. The deans and VP are sympathetic to our needs to replace certain faculty positions. Boucias asked, when Jerry Butler and Jim Nation leave, will we be able to replace them? JLC said not soon. The physiology and medical entomology courses will be covered temporarily. Lawrence has agreed to teach physiology and Koehler will teach medical entomology. Skip will continue to teach Insect Classification. Boucias suggested that these other areas are more important to replace than a systematist, and that Skip Choate was available to teach the course. JLC explained that Classification is offered each semester, creating a very heavy teaching burden, and that the immature insect course is not being taught because we lack an instructor. Stimac asked if there was anyway that Skip could be promoted to a faculty position. JLC explained that the deans were enamored with lecturer appointments. Because Skip's position is lecturer he can concentrate on teaching without having to be concerned with research. JLC said that the Deans would like to see more and more lecturers hired to teach, as that is the way other universities are going.

Hoy asked if we were going to start our search from scratch or were we going to use the applicants that had already applied. JLC said we would start from scratch.

JLC said that medical entomology is an area of expertise in the department and we have the ability to have the best medical entomology program in the nation, perhaps the world. We need to raise our visibility and activity by emphasizing medical entomology. If we could hire someone with medical entomology expertise plus taxonomy, and perhaps medical entomology and physiology, this could meet our specific instructional needs and also cold provide important links between here and Vero Beach. This would help spread graduate students across the board, help increase the Vero Beach graduate student mentoring, and emphasize this area of the department.

Discussion ensued as to whether or not to state specific qualifications and expertise on the position description or to be general in the qualifications and expertise. Boucias stated that we should just hire a "biologist." The general consensus was that if the position descriptions were general we would not get good applicants with enough expertise to fill the position. It was also felt that the medical entomology, taxonomy, and physiology positions should be filled.

Hoy asked whether or not it would be practical to have faculty from the branch stations spend a sabbatical here to teach a course. JLC said this makes perfect sense to have someone come up and teach but they only want to lecture in their area of expertise.

Dr. Butler announced that he had a visiting scientist in his lab that is on sabbatical from Israel.

JLC announced that the Reading Room had lost the copy machine from the UF library but that it has been replaced. If you need to use it, email Sharon and let her know the amount you want to use and she will let Nick know. Nick will provide account numbers that activate the copy machine.

Howard Frank talked about the University Library Cards and that if you have one you need to turn it in. They only accept them on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Someone stated that they would give you a new card but you would need to request it.

Frank passed out a list of subscription donations to the department library with a list of needed journals. Requested donations for needed subscriptions. It was suggested that most of the journals are now on line. It was also suggested that it was hard to find the exact article you were looking for unless you knew the author's name or the correct title. It would be good to have a hard copy to look at.

JLC said Heather had asked about how to vote on Board of Trustees. A discussion ensued with no decision made except some thought that the Board of Trustees should be a buffer between the Legislature and the UF.

JLC discussed safety issues in the building. Windows are being blocked by pictures and safety lights were not being left on, which leads to good environment for theft, and possibly assaults. The police department recommends that windows be unobstructed so rooms can be visible at all times. Please make sure that your new students aren't covering the windows.

McAuslane asked if she moved her ecology class to the fall would there be any conflicts especially with physiology. There were no objections.

Smart announced that there were 10 new students for fall, 1 continuing student, and 2 new students in summer making a total of 13 new students since spring semester.

D. Hall announced that we have about 40 undergraduate majors and that the enrollment seems to have stabilized.

Meeting adjourned at 12:00 Noon.