MINUTES OF THE FACULTY MEETING -- FEBRUARY 16, 2005

ATTENDEES: C. Barfield, E. Buss, S. Choate, J. Cuda, D. Dickson, T. Fasulo, J. Foltz, D. Hahn, Debbie Hall, Don Hall, A. Hodges, M. Hoy, J. Kocher, P. Koehler, N. Leppla, P. Lawrence, J. Maruniak, R. McSorley.

Meeting convened at 1:15.

1. Distance Education - James Kocher presented some of the technology used to present Distance Ed courses. Students are able to conduct interactive exercises and determine if they know the correct answers. Students can take quizzes and receive their scores. In some of the multiple-choice quizzes the student is shown the correct answer if the answer chosen was incorrect. In other multiple-choice quizzes the student has to keep selecting the answer until the system lets them know they have the correct one. A field lab exercise was demonstrated that simulated actual field/laboratory exercises so the student could experience these issues without actually going out in the field to make collections.

Dr. Phil Koehler gave a demonstration of his Med/Vet class that is presented on CDROM. He had several students, two in Ft. Pierce, one in Germany, and one in New Orleans. He stated that these students had to use Internet Explorer with Windows. One student complaint was that if they missed a sentence or two they could not rewind and listen to just that part of the lecture, but had to listen to the whole lecture over again. In order to help the students, the interface has been changed so that the students may go back and listen to the portion of the lecture they missed. Phil also stated that he uses regular email to communicate with the students. He sends them their (open-book) exams by email and a few days later they are returned by email.

Dr. Capinera passed out a table showing the courses that had been offered over the past year. Some courses are showing up more than once - on campus, off campus and in Distance Ed. Several degrees are offered through Distance Ed - in Entomology and in Pest Management. Also there are several certificates offered where the students can take a certain number of credits in order to earn these certificates, but do not have to enroll in the graduate program. Several students from CIAT in Colombia were guests in some of our courses and Soils courses. They were very pleased with the courses, especially those on CDROM. AID is very interested in this and we may be doing business with several countries overseas. Distance Ed can be national as well as international. Distance Ed courses are quite popular on campus. The dean has proposed that he will pay faculty $100 for each student that will enroll in Distance Ed courses in Florida. Out-of-state or international students will have to pay $300/credit hour; half will come back to the department and half to the Dean. He also agreed to fund a student assistant to help with Distance Ed courses. There are new opportunities opening up every day due to the technical expertise and faculty experience. The feedback from the Distance Ed courses has been pretty good.

2. Dr. Barfield handed out some information on the undergraduate research proposal to show what is being done for the undergraduates. If a faculty member wishes to have an undergraduate in their lab for the fall semester to experience research, you need to have your proposal to Carl Barfield no later than April 1. He will try to match the student to the professor. The idea is to provide mentoring in research for these students. The number of faculty that will participate may vary from semester to semester. A program like this comes and goes on campus and students may never know about them. The department needs to get the information out to students that this program is available. Dr. Barfield asked for suggestions on how to do this. Dr. Maruniak suggested that it be announced in the large classes.

3. Tenure - The faculty senate has proposed that the faculty vote on whether or not they wish the request for tenure process be extended for a longer period of time, 7 years as opposed to six. Discussion followed concerning the time involved for new faculty to become established with their research and produce quality publications. When faculty request tenure at six or seven years and are denied, they can be hired for an additional year and reapply at the end of that year. Dr. Buss raised the question as to how the 3-year review factors into this. In the 3-year review faculty are counseled on how to improve their program and encouraged to continue or are counseled to discontinue. Mostly it is due to research and publications. The extra year to apply for tenure is to give faculty the opportunity to produce quality publications. The University Tenure and Promotion Committee usually looks at the packet to see if it is worthy of an Associate Professor position and tenure. The committee looks at the quality of publications as well as quantity and the recognition of peers. Tenured faculty were asked to vote on period of time recommended for requesting tenure (shorter period - 6 years or longer period - 7 years). Faculty unanimously voted for longer period.

4. UNIFAS System - Capinera counseled faculty to please submit 2004 accomplishments and 2005 plans to him in some form by the end of February. He said that faculty should also input information into the UNIFAS system, but to delay until later in February as the UNIFAS system is still having developmental problems. Faculty is encouraged to attend the UNIFAS School if possible. Also Pam and Nancy can help but please do not just dump your report on them.

5. Leave for non-tenured faculty on grants. Capinera announced that if you are responsible for a non-tenured faculty member funded by a grant you need to encourage them to take vacation time. The department (or grant) is responsible for paying the "cash out" of vacation time for faculty on grant funds if that grant is not renewed. This could be quite a substantial amount as faculty can cash out as much as 352 hours of vacation time. Capinera will notify each affected person of his/her responsibility to use vacation time in a timely manner.

6. Carpeting - The administrative wing is scheduled to be carpeted next week. If you plan to use the copy machine you need to plan ahead and not come in at the last minute as the copy machine may be sitting out in the hallway. We are expecting as little disruption as possible. The seminar room and computer lab will be carpeted during spring break, February 28 - March 4.

7. Departmental Review - The department will have a 10-year external review in February of 2006. Drs. Leppla and Tabachnick will co-chair the review process. Volunteers are needed to lead development of review material for each program area (IPM, Nematology, etc.) and department function (research, extension, teaching). The department will have a retreat to discuss our programs and plans for the future. Faculty from around the state will be asked to volunteer to help with different aspects of the review and participate in the review process. The key elements for development of each section are accomplishments, goals, and strategies/constraints. Capinera asked for nominations for the external review team members and suggestions for a protocol to include state faculty in this process. Agronomy was reviewed recently and it was suggested that the department use their report as a template. Capinera suggested that alumni be invited to come back and talk to the review team about their experiences here. He also suggested that we invite some groups that are providing services (pesticide companies, DPI, etc.) to talk to the review team about their experiences with us.

8. Endowments - The stock market is improving and we now have about 2.75 million in endowments for students. Capinera has been discussing how best to invest the revenue with the undergraduate and graduate coordinators. We plan to advertise two undergraduate tuition awards across campus and at the community college to see if that helps to attract students. We also would like to recognize achievement of graduate students with a small award ($500/yr) in our main program areas. We need to come up with criteria for eligibility for students to apply. The Graduate Committee will be responsible for developing the criteria. Capinera asked for input from faculty and to give their ideas to Don Hall for the Graduate Committee to review. Dr. Hoy suggested that we use endowment funds to bring a Ph.D. student in and give them a one year assistantship, giving them time to look around at each lab to decide who they want to have as their advisor and which lab they wish to work in. DPM students get one year of support and then they are on their own. Dr. Hoy was asked to submit a protocol to the Graduate Committee on bringing in a Ph.D. student under these circumstances.

9. H-1B Visas - We just received word about some changes in the application of H-1B visas. The petitioner is required to pay an Anti-Fraud Fee of $500 for initial H-1B visas. Capinera said that the department would not pay this. This does not apply to extensions or amendment petitions.

10. Dr. Foltz announced that Bob Wilkinson (who retired from the Department in 1986) passed away in March of 2003.

Meeting adjourned at 2:50