FACULTY MEETING MINUTES -- JUNE 6, 2003

ATTENDEES: Drs. Adams, Barfield, Boucias, Buss, Butler, Choate, Crow, Fasulo, D. Hall, G. Hall, Hoy, Koehler, Lawrence, Leppla, Liburd, Maruniak, McAuslane, Nation, Oi, Webb, Yu, and Debbie Hall, Cynthia Tucker, and Myrna Litchfield.

Meeting convened at 10:05.

Capinera announced that Marc Branham had accepted the offer to fill the taxonomy faculty position. He will be here in December.

Capinera mentioned Dr. Mike Martin's memo on the budget and that IFAS had been cut by 2.5 million dollars. Position searches that have been initiated will continue, but new fills are in jeopardy.

Capinera brought up the fact that the tuition charge has increased from $90 to $270 per pay period. The dean has some $$ to offset the cost of this increase, but means to fold in the Dean's money has not been resolved. The provost's plan calls for grant-based assistantships to be charged a surcharge, though state-funded assistantships will not be. Discussion followed with some concerns that this would effect the recruiting of graduate students. In planning your grant funds you are required to put in funding for a graduate assistantship. The policy is strictly enforced unless the grant agency prohibits it.

Capinera passed out the designs for the proposed new teaching lab. These designs reconfigured Dr. Nation's labs, rooms 3117, 3118, 3119, and 3120; Dr. Lawrence's lab, rooms 2218 and 2219; and the storage area, room 3302. The cost of renovating these rooms was attached to the handout. It was found that to renovate Dr. Nation's lab would be the least expensive. Faculty decided to go with renovating rooms 3117-3120. Discussion followed with a concern of whether or not to have an enclosed prep area that could be locked or to have an open one. An enclosed, locked prep room would mean that some equipment would have to be moved back and forth for the students' use and this would not be good for the equipment. The equipment should be stationary and the students could gather around and use it. Should the wall between the prep area and the lab be permanent or should it be a folding or roll-down wall? The question was raised about whether or not this would be a wet lab and if gas would be available. This is something that needs to be checked into. It was also decided that there should be a larger area for demo's but that it did not need to be permanent, could be a fold-out or fold-up table. Question was also raised as to whether or not it would be possible to have storage bins built in at the end of each table for students to put their backpacks and other personal items. It was decided that the design for rooms 3117-3120 would be reconfigured to incorporate some of the suggested changes.

Capinera brought up the Proctor and Gamble cash contribution to the department for a non-tenured faculty position to perform toxicology research. Dr. Capinera and Phil Koehler met with Dr. Richard Jones about this position and the Dean's office will contribute $50,000 annually. Proctor and Gamble would like to commit this month. A search and screen committee was formed consisting of Heather McAuslane as Chair, Marjorie Hoy, Phil Koehler, and Simon Yu. They will write a position description for a non-tenure accruing faculty member with the possibility of it becoming permanent. This will be grant funded with some state dollars; 30% of salary will come from the $50,000 with the remainder to be used for operations. The department wants to hire someone who can contribute to the departmental programs.

Capinera brought up the issue of agricultural bioterrorism. Dr. Hoy served on the committee to look into this problem. It was recommended that we have increased security at the state borders. Funds are available to hire a non-tenure track faculty to educate county agents and the public to detect invading insects. We are planning to hire someone in this line who will be responsible for creating an educational program for early detection of invading pests.

Tom Fasulo suggested that faculty contribute more information for the departmental newsletter that is published by the students and on the web. He also reported on the numerous hits the Featured Creatures website is getting. It has increased tremendously over the past year.

A ballot was passed out for faculty to vote on Emeritus status for the retiring faculty.

Meeting adjourned at 10:50.