FACULTY MEETING -- SEPTEMBER 16, 2003

ATTENDEES: Drs. Buss, Capinera, Choate, Crow, Cuda, Fasulo, Foltz, Hall, Hall, Koehler, Lawrence, Leppla, Liburd, Maruniak, McAuslane, McSorley, Oi, Stimac, Yu, and M. Litchfield.

Meeting convened at 1:20

Capinera passed out a brochure on Southern Plant Diagnostic Network. This was created because of potential bioterrorist threats. It has a lead role in the southeast. A non-tenure, grant-funded faculty line has been created and the position has been offered to Amanda Hodges per the recommendation of a search committee chaired by Eileen Buss.

Faculty voted on Dr. Greg Hodges to be appointed as Courtesy Assistant Professor and to the Graduate Faculty. Capinera asked for a show of hands and it was unanimous.

Capinera said that he had complaints that some of the teaching faculty did not clean the green board after their class was over. He requested that when you teach please clean the board so that it will be ready for the next instructor to use.

It was announced that Jim Nation's lab was being cleaned out and that there were some salts, dyes, and other chemicals left. If anyone is interested, come by and check them out and let Capinera know. If no one wants them they will be disposed of. The construction on the teaching lab will start in October and should be ready for use in January for the Spring 2004 semester. Capinera stated that there was a lot of old equipment left that would be disposed of. The good equipment will be stored for the new faculty. Someone asked what the remodeling of the lab would require. It will involve new walls, benches, wiring, etc. Maruniak expressed concern about the dust from the remodeling getting into his filters in his area. These filters are quite expensive. Capinera said he did not think that this would be a problem since the ventilation system in the building worked pretty well, and the contractors would be asked to try to keep the dust contained.

Capinera stated that the Department had a tentative allocation from the Provost to fill an insect physiologist position; the Dean expects to release it in October. We needed a position description in two weeks and Marjorie Hoy was asked to develop a committee and draft a position description. Marjorie will be the chair of the search and screen committee when the position is released. The question was raised as to what courses Nation taught. He taught insect physiology, insect biochemistry, and an Honors course in environmental science. The teaching responsibilities of the new physiologist remain to be determined, but the appointment is 50% instruction.

Heather was asked to give an update on the toxicology position. She passed out the position description to the faculty. There are 13 applications so far but only three are complete. She has communicated with the other applicants and requested that they send a complete application. There are four in this group that look real good and Heather said that she was expecting at least three more that were very well qualified. This position will be funded for only three years with the possibility of becoming permanent and will be housed in Butler's area. If this position does become permanent then it will probably replace Yu's position, as he will be retiring in three years. If this position does become permanent we will have to re-advertise.

Capinera asked the faculty what the Department's priority should be in replacing faculty that have retired and resigned. He suggested that the med/vet entomology position should be a high priority. Faculty agreed. Discussion followed: There is a need to push for a permanent position in veterinary entomology, as this is not the domain of Vero Beach. Koehler suggested that we could attract a lot of undergraduate students if we offered a course in forensic entomology.

Capinera asked what the faculty felt was the priorities for the Department in hiring faculty. It was felt that a nematologist should be hired. It was brought up that there was a need for someone to handle the 4-H outreach and the beekeeping industry. Don Hall suggested hiring a lepidopterist combined with the 4-H outreach. It was suggested that the department needed a behavioral ecologist but some felt that Marc Branham would fulfill this need. Jim Cuda suggested that it would be beneficial to hire a hymenopterist. After much discussion, Capinera called for a vote from the faculty to prioritize the positions most needed. Results were:

1. Med/vet entomologist
2. Nematologist
3. Lepidopterist with 4-H outreach

Capinera passed out the 2002-03 faculty allocations. He reminded faculty that they must have CRIS projects to get base. This is not the case with matching equipment funds, which are derived from returned overhead supplemented with salary savings from vacant staff positions. There likely will be a few such dollars this year. We had to purchase two LCD projectors. One has arrived which has a soft case and the other will be delivered shortly and has a hard case. The hard case projector should be the one that travels if there is such a need.

Question was raised about the computer lab. Since Information Techniques is no longer being taught, will the department be able to keep the computer lab running. Capinera said that according to Steve the computer lab was okay for another two years. There are other courses that require students to use the computer lab. Undergraduate students are required to purchase a computer but graduate students are not. The computer lab has been, and remains, a priority, but this can be discussed as the equipment ages.

Other expenses the department will encumber are the replacement of some chairs in the teaching labs. The mechanism to raise these chairs up and down no longer works. This is not good, as many have to stand up to view specimens under the microscope.

Jim Cuda asked if the department could create some guidelines as to the role of the co-chair on a student's committee, especially when the chair is off-campus. Discussion followed with most of the faculty feeling that the student was responsible for communicating with the chair and co-chair. Some felt that the chair and co-chair should also be communicating. Capinera stated that it is important to have a committee meeting every semester. Don Hall said that he would check with the Graduate Committee and they would work on putting together a paragraph to go into the Graduate Handbook explaining the role of the co-chair.

Don Hall recommended a new rule for Master students to have their final defense two weeks before the deadline for submission of their thesis to the Graduate School. This would give the student time to make any changes on their thesis that are recommended by their committee. As it stands right now, a student can defend in the morning and submit their thesis in the afternoon with no guarantee that the recommended changes had been incorporated into their thesis. It was also stated that the committee should not sign the signature page until all the corrections have been made. Discussion followed with the pros and cons of having such a rule. Some felt that the student should not have this added pressure of having to defend two weeks in advance. Others felt that this would give the student a chance to make the recommended corrections since once the thesis is handed in no corrections can be made except those recommended by the editorial office of the Graduate School. It was also brought out that if the student defended and turned the thesis in before the beginning of the next semester, the student could graduate the next semester without having to register for classes. The faculty voted and approved the ruling that Master students must defend two weeks before the deadline set by the Graduate School to hand in their thesis. This would become effective in the spring semester of 2004.

Norm Leppla announced that two candidates had been interviewed for the IPM position in Lake Alfred with two more to be interviewed. He has a sheet for ranking so faculty need to let him know how they rank the candidates.

Leppla brought up the fact that there seemed to be some problem with turning off the projector, then having to wait for it to warm up for the next class or seminar. He suggested that a sign be put on the wall about turning off the projector.

Next item was concerning the chalkboard. Should there be a green board in the new lab or would the faculty prefer a white board. Discussion followed with the consensus being that it would be better to have a green board since the white board can be easily messed up by using the wrong markers and the markers are always drying out.

There was a discussion for moving the white board in 1031 to the front of the room. On which side of the green board should it be? It was finally decided to purchase another white board and put one on each side of the green board to balance out the room.

The need for more corkboards was brought up. Capinera said due to the fact that faculty were reluctant to share the corkboards he is working on purchasing more.

Meeting adjourned at 2:35.