RESEARCH COUNCIL MINUTES

                             January 29, 1996


Attendees:  Bill Blass, Chair, Jim Adcock, Gayle Baker,
David Bemis, Bobby Bledsoe, Ham Bozdogan, Chris Cox,
Mike Devine, David Dobbs, Burt English, Pat Fisher,
Michael Gant, Kim Jensen, Dennie Kelley, Lori Kincaid,
Andrew Kramer, Ben Oliver, Steve Pulik, Phyllis Turner,
Ken Walker, Carolyn Webb, Jodie Wehr, and Earl Wehry.

Guest:  Faye Muly, Assistant to the Vice Chancellor for
Information Infrastructure

NOTE:  The next Research Council meeting will be on
Monday, February 26, at 3:30 p.m. in the 8th Floor
Board Room, Andy Holt Tower.


Comments from Ken Walker:  Walker provided Council
members with a spreadsheet on the National Research
Council rating of research programs.  The spreadsheet
is a comparison of research programs of peer
institutions.   The list of "official" peer
institutions was provided to the Office of Research by
Dr. Marian Moffett, Associate to the Vice Chancellor
for Academic Affairs.

Walker announced that an agreement has been made with
the Controller's Office, the Office of the Vice
Chancellor for Business and Finance, and the Office of
Research concerning costsharing of salaries on
contracts and grants.  Historically, when contracts and
grants involved departmental costsharing of faculty
release time the fringe benefits were charged to the
departmental E-account rather than staying with the
central pool of fringe benefits.  These fringe benefits
costs will now continue to be charged to the central
pool rather than the department.  The only requirement
is that the person be clearly identified on the
"yellow" sheet at the beginning of the project.

Comments from Mike Devine:   Devine commented on the
federal budget situation.  He stated that the recent
federal shutdowns and snow day closings will result in
delays in processing of proposals at federal agencies. 
The long-term effects of 30% cuts in R&D dollars over
the next several years will have an impact on research
at universities.  UTK has a good relationship with
Congressional representatives through Lillian Mashburn
and Walter Lambert; we are constantly letting them know
our interests and will continue to work for federal
support of university research.

Comments from Faye Muly:  Faye Muly, Assistant to the
Vice Chancellor for Information and Infrastructure,
outlined plans for an Academic Technology Center.  The
purpose of this center is to provide resources to
faculty and academic units in the areas of
instructional technology and research computing. 
Searches for five full-time positions have begun or
will soon begin:  Director of Academic Technology,
Manager of Instructional Technology, Information
Technology Specialist, Courseware Designer, and Multi-
Media Specialist.  Several graduate students will also
be hired.  Sources for support of these positions have
been identified and temporary space has been allocated. 
A committee has been formed to look at permanent space. 
Dr. Ralph Gonzalez has identified the area of data
visualization as a component of this center and a
proposal for funding data visualization has been
submitted.  Muly also announced that UTK has been
selected as one of three institutions in the world who
has been selected by SUN to participate in the "Java"
project.  Java-based "applets" use the WWW to run
applications on local hard disks.  The Academic
Technology Center will also provide support to the UTK
community in development of home pages.  Development
grants will also be provided to faculty who want to get
involved in instructional technology.

Burt English asked the status of students receiving e-
mail accounts.  Muly replied that CAFE accounts are
being set-up for students who request them but that
eventually the process will be automatic when students
register for classes.  Muly commented that student
dorms have cabling in each room but not electronic
equipment needed for ethernet connections.  This is
part of the larger part of the infrastructure plan for
the campus.  Gayle Baker asked if anything was being
done to increase the number of student labs.  She has
found that labs are not accessible for training
classes.  Muly stated the need has been recognized and
space and new equipment will be given high priority.

Ham Bozdogan, Chair, Research Network and Computation
Needs, has sent out a survey on behalf of the Council
and expects to have a report by the next meeting.  He
questioned how will DII integrate his findings.  Muly
stated that these would be taken very seriously. 

Funding options for support of the center are being
considered.  Currently, funding is being supplied
through reallocations.

Policies and Procedures Report:  Jim Adcock, Chair,
Policy and Procedures Committee, presented a committee
report.  The committee is composed of 15-20 members and
all meetings took place via e-mail.  The committee is
composed of Council members and staff from the Office
of Research, Purchasing Department, Controller's
Office, and Space and Facilities Management.   About
one-half of the committee did not respond to any of the
recommendations and, therefore, they had no input.  The
items on the list came from various sources (PIs,
business managers, etc.) and were prioritized in the
order of most important to least important. 
Recommendations 1-7 concerned communication between the
Office of Research, Controller's Office and other
financial departments.  Recommendations 8-10  concerned
the Office of Research and communications with other
departments.  Recommendations 11-12 are concerned with
UT policy and procedure that would require action by
the University.  Recommendation 13 is concerned with
the Sunshine Law.  Recommendations 14-15 were
re-occurring complaints.  Recommendation 16 concerns
processes that take too long.  Recommendation 17
requests input from others on campus.

Adcock stated that this document was sent to committee
members and to the Office of Research.  Prior to the
day of the Research Council meeting, Adcock received no
response from the Office of Research and stated he was
disappointed with the lack of communication between OR
and the P&P committee.

Devine commented that Adcock and the committee did a
good job on stating the problem areas.  Many of the
problems identified involve other departments and other
systems and do not have quick fixes.  Adock stated that
the Office of Research was not being singled out and
criticized but that most of the responses he received
via e-mail were directed at the Office of Research. 
Devine stated that we should view this initial report
of the P&P committee as only a first step; the next
steps will be to take each problem area identified and
get staff from the offices involved to try to develop
solutions.  He noted some problems can be addressed
easily but others may take a long time because they
involve complex financial/accounting systems that
cannot be changed easily.  The Committee will now
confront research impediments involving other
University functions such as Purchasing.

Walker noted that the Office of Research's response to
the P&P agenda presented at the last Council meeting
was late because it involved interactions with other
offices (Controller's Office and Business and Finance
Office).  He acknowledged that some of the problems
detailed in the original committee report do exist and
the response from OR distributed at this meeting was a
careful attempt to address the problems.

Blass noted that Adcock was attempting to do something
quite new and demanding, that is, to conduct business
of the P&P Committee by e-mail.  He encouraged all
involved in the process to attempt to be understanding
of all involved since it is a new and demanding process
even apart from the complexity of the committee's
business.

Following the meeting, Adcock and Walker agreed to
attempt to combine the recommendations from the
committee with the responses from the Office of
Research to produce an action document to be reported
on at the next Council meeting.  

Other business:  Pat Fisher distributed a status report
on center reviews.  Bill Blass stated that the
announcement concerning the SARIF Summer Graduate
Research Assistant competition will be distributed this
week.  Kim Jensen reported that the two positions
within the Office of Research, Information Specialist
and Coordinator of Information Services are currently
in progress.  Mike Devine stated he was aware of the
problems with the Faculty Information Service and that
the Office of Academic and Research Services (part of
the UT system) will be providing technical support.  He
would like to bring up the issue of making the FIS
accessible off-campus at the next Council meeting.  The
Community of Science maintains a database of faculty
expertise and feels that perhaps UT should be
participants.  The Science Alliance has made a decision
to become part of this database.  Gayle Baker
distributed an outline of the Research Council Home
Page.  Information will soon be available on the Web.

Adjournment:  5:05 p.m.

NOTE:  Future meetings are scheduled for February 26
and March 25.  These meetings all take place in the 8th
Floor Board Room, AHT at 3:30 p.m.  The final luncheon
meeting is planned for April 29, 1996 at 11:30 a.m. at
the Faculty Club.