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New Mexico State University URC Minutes - March 4, 2005

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Present: Ida Baca (Everett Egginton), Don Birx, Shaun Cooper (Michael Hites), James Cowie, Wynn Egginton, Sam Fernald, James Herndon, Stephen Horan, Ken Martin, Bernard McNamara, Cathy Ortega Klett (Karl Wood), Enrico Pontelli, Marc Pruyn, Rudi Schoenmackers, Pam Schultz, Rhonda Skaggs, Elizabeth Titus

Absent: Dana Christman, Barbara Coppola, Lisa Dalton, Mike Fisher, Inigo Garcia-Bryce, Nirmala Khandan, Jennifer Kreie, Linda Lacey, Martha Mitchell

1. Minutes - Minutes for February 4, 2005 were approved.

2. Presentation – Assessing Academic Research Climate

Laura Haas, Program Evaluator for the SCORE Program, presented URC with a description of the current Research Environment Study, which seeks to characterize the academic research environment in areas of biomedical and behavioral sciences. Phase One of the survey is qualitative and involves working with focus groups to identify critical components of excellent academic research environments. Phase Two is quantitative and will help to determine the extent to which the components are present at NMSU. The focus groups met in February 2005 while the survey will be administered in the fall of 2005. URC members were encouraged to work with their administrators to champion the survey, help convince other researchers to take the survey, and to commit to taking some action based on the survey results. Ms. Haas may be reached at (505)646-3110 or lhaas@nmsu.edu.

3. LANL / NMSU MOU

Don Birx updated council members with regard to the LANL / NMSU MOU. Out of 31 proposals, 7 were selected for funding. A kick-off meeting will be held in March for the PIs and Co-PIs of the funded proposals, which addressed such topics as modeling of social behavior, water and bio-security, and data mining. Dr. Birx said the proposals that weren’t selected have good potential for future competition.

4. Committee Reports

Award Committee – Rudi Schoenmackers spoke for Nirmala Khandan, Chair of the Award Subcommittee, and asked URC members to encourage their Deans and Department Heads to distribute the award criteria for the “University Research Council Award for Exceptional Achievements in Creative Scholarly Activity” to everyone in their college to ensure a good pool of submission packets.

Nomination Committee – Shaun Cooper, Sam Fernald, James Herndon, and Enrico Pontelli volunteered to be on the Nomination Committee for the election of officers. Nominations for the Executive Committee and the Chair Elect for Academic Year 05-06 will be announced at the next URC meeting being held on April 1, 2005, and the URC will vote on these positions.

5. Conflict of Interest Policy

Steve Horan updated council members on the Conflict of Interest Policy stating that feedback from Legal Counsel, Bruce Kite, would be forthcoming. The policy had passed Faculty Senate and would be on the Board of Regent’s consent agenda.

Minutes by Frances Schumacher