RESEARCH COUNCIL MINUTES
February 25, 2002
Attendees: Gayle Baker (Co-Vice Chair), Doug Birdwell (Chair),
Bill Blass (Co-Vice Chair), David Buehler, Billie Collier, Chris Cox, Bill Dockery, Denny Dukes,
Pat Fisher, Arlene Garrison, Marion Hansen, Jon Levin, Carol Malkemis, Lillian Mashburn, Tamara Miller,
Bill Moles, Faye Muly, Bonnie Ownley
- Introductory Remarks:
- Chair Doug Birdwell opened the meeting. An error in printing caused the approval of the minutes to be
postponed until the next meeting. Birdwell brought two items to the attention of the Council:
- SAP/IRIS- The Chair reported on his meeting (1/25/02) with Sylvia Davis and Neal Wormsley. He spoke to
them about the Strategic Planning Group on Computing and Networking. They then
discussed SAP/IRIS problem areas: contract & grant reporting requirements, security, effort certification
and encumbrances. A committee was to have been set up to deal with SAP/IRIS problems by Neal Wormsley.
Research Council was to have representation; however, there has been no announcement of the membership
of the committee. A summary of the meeting is available.
- Network Security (URL)- The Chair provided members of Council with a
summary of IBM's security assessment of the University and a
suggested response
to the study. Birdwell stated that it is important for Research Council to ensure that the problems
noted in the report are addressed. He voiced concerns that the current security officer would be blamed
for any shortcomings and that problems would not be addressed. Faye Muly stated that the report was contracted
last fall at Dwayne McCay's request. She felt that it was premature to react to the individual findings and that
McCay wanted to review the findings with President Fly. Arlene Garrison suggested that Council members review
Birdwell's summary and resume the discussion at the March meeting.
- Dr. Billie Collier, the new Interim Vice President for Research stated that she is looking forward
to working with Research Council. She covered the some top priorities of the Office of Research:
- Compliance monitoring
- Readvertisment of the position for a Director of Compliance, a 1/2-time faculty position
- Negotiation for the Radiation Safety Officer position
- Communications to the research community
- Work-flow audit
- Research Communications (Bill Dockery, Coordinator of Research Information Services, Office of
Research: The new Coordinator of Research Information Services, Bill Dockery, spoke of the communication
plans for the Office of Research and the importance of identifying the "publics" for the different kinds
of communications that the Office needs to do. He identified internal communications (Research Good News, Office
of Research web site, other research web sites, Community of Science web site) and external communications
(Explorations, media placements by UT Public Relations, alumni magazines/other magazines). Dockery
reviewed the mission of Research Good News and then described ideas for new communications, a science magazine
for middle/high school students and a weekly column on Tennessee science. He spoke of the need to determine how
to obtain information about research from faculty members. Doug Birdwell suggested linking to all research-related
web sites on campus, but recognized that the uneven quality of the sites is a problem. When asked about the annual
report on research, Dockery replied that it should be completed by the end of March.
- Procedures Audit of Office of Research (Bill Moles, Campus Audit Services): Campus Audit Services will
conduct a study of the workload/workflow, procedures and staffing of the Office of Research. It should take
2 months. Students from Pat Fisher's SIS course on information systems will be assisting. They will survey
PI's, contact assistant deans/directors of research, and review related procedures in the Finance and Treasurer's areas.
The final report should be ready in the fall. The last major audit of the Office of Research was was performed in
1986.
- OIT Strategic Plan(Faye Muly, Assistant Vice President, Office of Information Technology): The purpose
of the strategic plan is to develop a vision for the Office of Information Technology. A
workable draft should be available in a week. Six more faculty will be
added to the Academic Advisory Group, with representatives from Research Council and Teaching Council. There was a
positive response from Council members to this action.
- Updates:
- Federal Relations (Lillian Mashburn): A copy of the President's Budget Chapter on R & D was distributed
to Council members. NSF is to receive a small increase. There are plans to lengthen the time of grants and
increase the amounts; however, this would reduce the number of awards by 1/3 to 1/2. There are also plans to
increase graduate stipends and put more dollars into the physical sciences. The CIPRIS system, used to track international
students, may not be in full operation next year, as planned.
- Old Business
- Faculty Titles (Bill Blass): Bill Blass stated that the latest draft of the document on faculty
titles has improved, but continues to ignore the fact that some non-tenure track faculty are involved in 2
or more of the following: instruction, research and service. Council suggested changing the wording of the
sentence "Non-tenure track faculty are hired for instruction or for research" to "Non-tenure track faculty are
hired principally for instruction or for research." During the discussion, Bonnie Ownley pointed out that
the Institute of Agriculture has its own faculty handbook.
- New Business
- Call for Nominations for Chair (Doug Birdwell):
Council members were asked to submit nominations for Chair of Research Council. The election
will be at the April meeting. Bill Blass nominated Doug Birdwell. Pat Fisher seconded the nomination.
Other nominations should be sent to Gayle Baker. She will send an e-mail message to remind members about
the nominations.
Meeting adjourned at 5:12 p.m.