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New Mexico State University URC Minutes - January 26, 2001

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Present: Stephen Horan, Nirmala Khandan, Stephen Bernhardt, Karl Wood, Shaun McQuitty, Bill Gould, Tim Pettibone, Tracy Sterling, Naida Zucker, Margaret Jacobs, Betsy Cahill, Becky Keele-Smith, Jim Strickland, Rudi Schoenmakers, Kristine Derer, Vicente Garcia, Bill Ogden, David Rocks, Satya Krishnan, Elizabeth Titus, Gary Cunningham

Absent: Harold Matteson, James Botsford

1. Introductions and Announcements:

Chair Nirmala Khandan introduced himself and thanked Dr. Sterling for serving as Acting Chair during his sabbatical. Members present were asked to introduce themselves.

2. November 17, 2000 Minutes:

A motion was made to approve the minutes as presented. It was seconded and all were in favor.

3. Highlights of CORC: Dr. Khandan

Norma Grijalva, NMSUs chief representative for Internet2, was invited to present information on the features of Internet2 and the Abilene interconnection backbone to support Internet2. Nena Singleton and Karl Hill of University Communications invited faculty to send news items about research, student achievement, etc. to enhance their publication materials. Dr. Cunningham outlined the Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA) Process Improvement Project to implement the 48-hour turnaround in creating accounts. Procedures are still being finalized. It was noted that the process has significantly improved in the last few months.

4. Interdisciplinary Research Fair Subcommittee Report - Dr. Strickland

The purpose of the fair, which will be held at Corbett Center on September 27 and 28, 2001, will be to foster collaborating efforts to showcase research and creative activity among researchers. A reception will be held at 6:30 p.m. preceding preliminary talks by research award winners. During the day, poster sessions or program sessions will be held. The target group will be researchers on campus, with publicity on and off campus. After considering the awards information presented below, the Research Fair committee decided to meet again to reevaluate the details of the Research Fair and report at the next meeting. It was agreed that the Fair should be held for one day only.

5. Research Awards Update - Dr. Sterling:

Dr. Sterling reported on the Research Awards, saying that she received a memo from Dr. Heoksema of the Office of University Development, announcing two new Fort Bliss Federal Credit Union Faculty and Staff Achievement Awards at $1,000 each. These are different than the two junior and two senior faculty awards at $2,000 each which URC has proposed. URC will be part of the review process for the Ft. Bliss awards which are due on April 30. Dr. Cunningham will negotiate with Dr. Hoeksema and Dr. Franco to move the deadline for nominations to March and with V.P. Creed for additional money to equalize the awards. The URC awards have been approved and a call for nominations needs to be written for both awards. The subcommittee to write the request for nominations letter for six awards is: Tracy Sterling, Vicente Garcia, Nirmala Khandan, Staya Krishnan, Betsy Cahill. The letter should be sent by mid-February. URC will be the screening and selection committee to provide the Provost with a slate of 12 possible nominees. The final announcement will come from the office of the Provost. Tracy suggested that the office of the V.P. for Research take over the annual call for nominations. Two junior faculty and four senior faculty awards will be presented. Dr. Garcia offered the use of PSLs award format.

Strategic Themes - Dr. Sterling The subcommittee sent out a query to the faculty to see where they fit into the six strategic themes developed at a Fall CORC retreat. The committee will meet again to review the responses received from each college and determine whether a 7th theme is needed in the area of natural and/or cultural history.

6. Faculty Identified Issues - Dr. Bernhardt:

A Consolidated List of Faculty-identified Research Issues at NMSU was distributed and discussion centered on how to pursue the issues related to URC, VP for Research and College Research Center, President Gogue, and General/Perennial. URC Issues

URC Issue #4, Overhead allocation Dean Titus suggested that this issue be considered under all categories. The philosophy has been that these decisions are best made at the level where the allocation is distributed because all colleges/departments differ in their method of allocation.

URC Issue #4 and VP for Research Issue #1, Create a policy for interdisciplinary grants with co-PIs in different units Dr. Strickland thought that these two issues seem to be tied together. A sub-committee (Bill Gould, Steve Horan) will gather policy information about both overhead allocation practices/policies and inter-disciplinary grants from the research deans in the colleges. URC will examine this information and consider information sharing, and perhaps making it available on the web to indicate how colleges would describe their practice, the overhead allocation breakdown per college, and their interdisciplinary/inter-college approach.

URC Issue #2, Fair evaluation of faculty, recognition of quality as well as quantity of teaching and research Policies vary from college to college and department to department and the AP&P is being rewritten; therefore, recommendations to this item will be tabled until a later date.

URC Issue #3, Graduate student research supervision If NMSU has a policy, it should be working and workable and faculty should know about it. URC issues #2 and #3 should remain with departments. Vice President for Research and College Research Center Issues

VP for Research Issue #2, Non-tenure track staff serving as sole or lead PI on a grant within academic colleges Implications that non-faculty cannot be PIs on grants is a concern. Dr. Cunningham will assist Dr. Derer and Dr. Schoenmackers on this issue to consider (1) how to provide the proper amount of oversight in terms of federal regulations involved in managing grants and contracts to those people who direct grants, whether staff or faculty, and (2) how to protect the individual whose intellectual creativity attracted the money. Their work will be combined with that pertaining to URC Issue #4, so that policies of overhead allocation, co-PIs, and faculty and staff roles in directing grants ensure smooth operation of grants.

Dr. Bernhardt stated that the aim of this project was to identify pertinent issues and give URC members meaningful practice by pursuing certain issues and making policy recommendations. The committee plans to present this to President Gogue and talk to him about certain issues.

7. Nominations for Chair/Committee Members:

Dr. Khandad announced that nominations for Chair elect, Ex officio and Faculty Representative are being sought for next term. Please inform the executive committee of your interest in serving in one of these positions.

8. Other Business:

The next meeting will be held on February 23, 2001 in the Zuhl Library Associates Room, 2nd floor at 3:30 p.m.

The meeting adjourned at 4:45 p.m.

Minutes by Betty Lindsey