FACULTY MEETING, MARCH 18, 2003

ATTENDEES: Drs. Boucias, Buss, Capinera, Choate, Foltz, Frank, Hall, Hoy, Lawrence, Leppla, Liburd, Maruniak, McAuslane, McSorley, Webb, and Yu; M. Litchfield.

Meeting called to order at 3:05 PM.

Award plaques were given to Dr. Smart in recognition of his years of service as the Graduate Coordinator and Dr. Hall in recognition of his years of service as the Undergraduate Coordinator. Dr. Capinera commended them on their excellent service to the students, the department, and the university. A Distinguished Young Alumnus Award was given to Dr. Liburd from Florida A&M University for contributions during his early years as a professor.

Capinera reminded the faculty about the proposal from the College of Arts and Sciences on their program for a biology degree. A committee was formed to work on a biology program for the department. Drs. Boucias, Hoy, Lawrence, and Maruniak worked on the program. Dr. Capinera passed out a copy of the program that the committee came up with. The committee presented two programs, "Disease Biology" and "Biotech". Both were well received by the deans but the biotech curriculum does overlap with the molecular biology curriculum, so some reconciliation is under way. Dr. Capinera commended the committee for coming up with these programs in a short time. Capinera commented that if there is going to be a preprofessional biology program, IFAS needs to be a part of it. The biology program that was organized by the College of Arts and Sciences has been put on hold until there is more input from other colleges and departments.

Dr. Hoy brought up the fact that effective Fall 2003 there will be a minimum of 30 credits required for a Master's degree instead of 32. Dr. Smart questioned if the department would be held responsible if we still required 32 for a Masters non-thesis and also would the current students be grandfathered in for these 30 credits. Dr. Hoy said that the department could require more credits if they wished to do so. Capinera suggested that Dr. Smart check with other graduate coordinators and administration to see what the college is recommending.

Dr. McAuslane presented a report from the Distance Learning Committee. She passed out a list of specific certificates with required courses for each. These certificates are: Certificate in Urban Pest Management (15 hours of class work); Certificate in Landscape Pest Management (15 hours of class work); and Certification in Pest Control Technology (24 hours of class work selected from the above 2 certificates, or certificates in both Urban Pest Management and Landscape Pest Management). The Distance Learning Masters of Science degree in Urban Pest Management will require 32 hours of class work. The Urban Pest Management and Landscape Pest Management are both about ready to go. The Med/Vet needs a lot of work.

The question was raised as to why get a certificate and what was it used for. It was stated that a certificate showed training in a defined area and to get a certificate from the UF you have to complete certain courses which were taken for credit in order to receive the specific certificate. These are undergraduate courses. Could teachers for General Ed use these certificates? Rebecca Baldwin will look at Environmental Ed Certificate to see what their guidelines are for General Ed teachers. Eventually there may be a Master of Science non-thesis degree using many of the courses listed.

Dr. Smart reported that the department had received a Presidential and an Alumni Fellowship from the dean.

Dr. Hall reported that he would have the last Undergraduate Advising meeting under him in May. He recognized Dr. McAuslane for her contribution to the undergraduate-advising program. He reported that the Search Committee has received 29 applications for the taxonomy position and it looks like we have some very good candidates. There was some concern expressed as to whether or not we would really be able to fill this position due to the budget crunch and with the impending war issue. Capinera said that as far as he knew we could still go ahead and hire. He also stated that he had received 1/2 teaching support from Dean Cheek. With the faculty on the DROP program retiring we should have some support staff money for the coming year. We will not know about the budget until after the legislature is done.

It was brought up that the graduate students need to be reminded of the new requirement for seminar credits. Masters is required to take 1 credit and Ph.D. 2 credits. It was suggested that an email be sent to students reminding them of these requirements. Capinera asked faculty to think about offering a seminar course. Dr. McAuslane said that she would be offering one in the fall semester.

Meeting adjourned at 3:35 PM.