MINUTES OF THE FACULTY MEETING -- MARCH 16, 2005

ATTENDEES: C. Barfield, M. Branham, E. Buss, P. Choate, T, Fasulo, D. Hahn, D. Hall, A. Hodges, M. Hoy, P. Koehler, P. Lawrence, N. Leppla, J. Maruniak, S. Webb, G. White, S. Yu, Debbie Hall and Sharon Hoopaugh.

Meeting convened at 1:15pm

Dr. Capinera began the meeting with a few videos from Dr. Barfield's "Bugs and People" course. Students in this course may earn extra credit by presenting a song based on class material (Bugs). There must be at least two students and accompaniment for each presentation. The course had 278 students in the Fall 2004 semester. Entomology CAN be fun!

Sharon distributed example reports of expenditures from 7/1/2004 to 2/28/2005. There were two example reports to show the report could be sorted by project or monthly. These reports do not include travel not on purchase card, and payroll information. Each faculty member would receive a report of charges that have been associated with their UF ID number. Sharon said the accuracy of these reports is questionable. Faculty requested reports be in project order. Sharon will have a report for each faculty member by 3/31/05 with breakdown showing their project number. Dr. Capinera said Sharon is getting software to develop more accurate reports that is slated to happen by 7/01/05.

Sharon will schedule faculty training in the computer lab for instruction on how to navigate People Soft to find their single PI account balance.

Thomas Fasulo gave a talk to show how adding value to online publications increases Web visitors to that site, which data can then be used in annual reports and promotion and tenure packages. Increased numbers of visitors then provides the rationale they continue to add value to the publications as the information is reaching more users.

Fasulo then gave a number of examples where this process generated increased referrals to our Web sites from other universities to their clients, as well as providing WWW search engines the data necessary to list our Web sites higher in their search results.

Don Hall and the Graduate Committee proposed a new policy statement for the Graduate Student Handbook regarding graduate student responsibilities to report to and receive permission from their major professor for absences (vacations) from the lab. The policy and recommended wording were discussed. Dr. Hoy suggested, based on comments from the faculty, that the Graduate Committee rewrite the policy and have Dr. Hall send it via email to all faulty for recommendation on what should be written in the graduate handbook. The Graduate Committee will meet again and then submit a recommendation at a future faculty meeting.

Dr. Capinera announced that the 2008 Southeast Branch meeting is to be held in Florida. Suggestions as to what city were discussed. Anyone wanting to be involved should contact Amanda Hodges or Dr. Capinera soon.

Meeting adjourned at 2:45pm