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New Mexico State University URC Minutes - October 4, 2002

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Present: Stephen Horan, Marc Pruyn, Jim Strickland, Kurt Anderson, Ken Hacker, Shaun Cooper (Dave Rocks), William Ogden, William Quintana, Chuck Kozel, Rudi Schoenmackers, William Gould, Eve Adams, Ida Baca, Becky Keele-Smith, Daniel Dwyer

Absent: Rasler Smith, Linda Lacey, Nirmala Khandan, Rhonda Skaggs, Mary Wolf, Karl Wood, Elizabeth Titus

1. Approval of Minutes – September 6, 2002

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

2. Update Roster of Names and Contact Information

Dr. Horan asked those present to review the URC membership list and make necessary corrections to the information.

3. Research and Creative Activities Fair – B. Keele-Smith

A Fair survey was conducted; however few responses were received. Responders rated the Fair quality as excellent or good and wanted it to be held annually on a Friday in Fall. The quality of research and wide variety of subjects and disciplines represented were listed as favorable. Space confinement was the least desirable trait of the Fair. Forty-one posters were presented. Dr. Schoenmackers reported on the AMP Fair held in conjunction with the URC Fair. Registrations were received from a widely diverse group of 280; twenty-three of those were URC faculty. The AMP Fair generated lots of traffic and interaction. It was noted that attendance at the faculty presentations needs to be improved as well as the coordination of poster set-up. Dr. Horan commended AMP on their support and coordination. Dr. Keele-Smith relayed Dr. Dwyer’s comment that this was one of the most favorable events he has attended since arriving at NMSU. The Provost’s faculty list serve would provide a larger base for distributing information about the Fair.

4. URC Orientation

Dr. Horan provided handouts that reviewed the history of URC and CORC as written by Dr. Gary Cunningham, former Vice President for Research, and extracted from the on-line NMSU Policy Manual. URC, in existence since the mid-1970s, was established to foster research at the university. It is an advisory body to assist with policy-making recommendations through the vice provost for research. The URC chair serves on CORC and on the University Equipment Committee. The chair alternates between faculty and position appointment representatives. Dr. Horan suggested that position appointment nominees be elected during odd years and faculty appointments during even years.

5. Faculty Survey

The Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) will conduct a survey in the Spring related to the faculty’s administrative burden of activities involved with the grants process. All FDP schools will participate in the campus-wide survey.

6. Committee Work Session

Committees are encouraged to meet after the URC meeting to designate a chair/coordinator and begin planning for the academic year.

7. Updates

a. CORC --Dr. Keele-Smith attended for Dr. Horan and reported that the proposal process was being reorganized to include more pre-award reviews that are currently being done at the post-award stage. An electronic submission system is being investigated with a tracking system for proposals. CORC was asked to ensure that commitments to funding agencies do not go beyond the time limit of the grant. Full IDC should be charged when possible. A Graduate Assistant Handbook is being developed. Dr. Dwyer mentioned again that the poster session at the URC Fair was a great success and complimented URC for their work.

 

b. FDP – The Federal Government is looking at a uniform electronic grant submissions process that uses a shared application form. The software package will include a common data base with a log-in identifier for each university that stores all the programmatic information necessary for the grant. NMSU is investigating an InfoEd eRA package; site visits are planned in November. Proposal routing forms and electronic signatures are also being investigated.

8. Other Business or Announcements

a. The January meeting will be scheduled for January 10, 2003.
b. Dr. Dwyer will be the speaker at the November 1, 2002 meeting and Dean Lacey will speak during Spring Semester.
c. Dr. Rudi Schoenmackers volunteered to be on the Research and Creative Activities Fair Committee

The meeting adjourned at 4:20 p.m.

Minutes by Betty Lindsey