Department Faculty Meeting - October 16, 2006


Included Files (PDF): Agenda | Candidate Schedule | Graduate Program Committee | Position Announcement | Minutes

I. Call to order

John Hayes called to order the regular meeting of the Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at 2:00 PM on October 16, 2006 in room 376 Newins-Ziegler Hall.

II. Roll call

Elaine Culpepper registered the following persons were present: Josh McCoy (The Foundation), Claire Williams, Bill Giuliano, Franklin Percival, Wiley Kitchens, Mel Sunquist, George Tanner, Perran Ross, Susan Jacobson, Jim Austin, Emilio Bruna, Lyn Branch, Mike Moulton, Ray Carthy, Perran Ross , Jennifer Dark.

III. Approval of minutes from last meeting

John Hayes presented the minutes from the last meeting. The new form for the minutes were reviewed and approved as read. Josh McCoy with the UF Foundation was introduced as a guest. There was a request for any additional items to add to today’s agenda, but none indicated.

IV. Action Items

  1. New Class - Claire Williams work with Lyn Branch and Franklin Percival to get the information out to our students regarding the class that Mary Christman is offering in the spring (see V-a). By next meeting.
  2. Strategic Planning - Dr. Hayes will put together a proposal and ideas for the meetings, which he will pass around by an email; and have some plans ready for the December dates (7th and 8th).
  3. Landscape Ecology classes, ALL FACULTY needs input from faculty as to someone who would be appropriate for this. Needs asap.
  4. Vending machines - Dr. Hayes notify Forestry we did not want vending machines in Newins-Ziegler Hall. By next meeting
  5. Courtesy Faculty – Dr. Hayes, Departmental Policy on Non-tenure Accruing Faculty Appointments revisions, by next meeting.
  6. New Faculty Position - Dr. Hayes will email straw vote email and needs feedback quickly and will move forward quickly.

V. Activities in Progress

  1. Newsletter (VI-D) – Information from faculty will be requested by Jenifer Dark and an announcement from Dr. Hayes on the new name will be sent.
  2. Shared Governance - visit in the future from Bill Lindberg
  3. Extension connections – Dr. Hayes to meet with District Directors to work towards further interactions between them and WEC.

VI. Open Issues:

  1. PROGRAM FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STATISTICS - Franklin Percival The Program for Environmental Statistics convinced IFAS to give space in McCarty Hall to try to get quantitative people in one place. Good opportunity to interact with people that work with statistics. In program developmental stage right now and things are moving, there’s a seminar every Tuesday. Want people come in with any type of interest and the statisticians will discuss their problems and interact and try and give input to the problems.
    • Lyn Branch advised Mary Christman is offering course on animal movement and habitat use next semester. If student are interested let them know. Bill Pine, Michael Allen and Christie Stockhammer are teaching a course this semester is Statistic for Biology Students, which is well received. Professors teaching 6166, 6167 are beginning to rethink how they are going to teach these courses, because of how she is teaching this course. The one hole that is missing is the wildlife person.
  2. ORDWAY UPDATE (CELEBRATION, LAND TRANSFER , NEON) – The November. 4th celebration is moving forward in a positive way. People are being invited by invitation. They will be thanked for their contributions and/or will be encouraged to help build further contributions. The Nature Conservancy in process of transferring Swisher property to UF, which is about a ten million gift. This has gained the attention of the VIP’s in the UF and President Machen will be at the presentation.
    The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) program is going to happen soon and there will be a short time to get proposals in. We will be core/gradient site, and will receive a good chunk of funding from NEON. Each site has compatible infrastructures. It is exciting that this will be a core site and provide a great opportunity to expand the sites infrastructure. In the next three to four months this should go from theory to reality.
    The Annual Report for Ordway was passed around and we are in the final process of putting together a brochure to use at the celebration. A sample brochure was shown. There will be hats and other items with the new logo provide at the celebration. Student helpers will probably be needed to assist, so if you have student to assist let them know.
  3. IFAS Development Office - Josh McCoy was a visitor to the meeting and gave a brief overview as to how we can interact with the Foundation. He relayed the foundation is restructuring and they wanted the departments to have someone they could go to that would be responsible to make sure action was taken. The foundation is still in the process of trying to meet with faculty and department chairs, and all parties. A question and answer session was held and he provided cards to the faculty with instructions to call if they have any questions or situations he could address for them.
  4. Newsletter - Dr. Hayes introduced Jennifer Dark and wanted to publicly empower her to be his representative for gathering information on the newsletter. Jennifer gave a general overview of what they had in mind for the newsletter and a sample was provided to pass around. Eight page black and white letter that goes out twice a year. The Newsletter name is still not decided, they have not decided what form they will be using at this time to pick the name; an email may be forthcoming from Dr. Hayes.
  5. SHARED GOVERNANCE – There is an IFAS level activity going forward to identify a shared governance within IFAS. This is generating a lot of controversy in the upper division due to the terminology used. Bill Lindberg is on the board and will be coming to talk to us about what is transpiring.
  6. STRATEGIC PLANNING - Dr. Hayes perspective was that he needs some sort of a formal direction that the department has agreed upon. He could then move rapidly on things when they are presented and at this point does not feel fully grounded on what our department goals are. He felt we need a retreat or a series of mini-retreats to handle these things and it was opened up for discussion.
  7. CONNECTING WITH EXTENSION AND THE COUNTIES – Dr. Hayes felt we were not taking advantage of our off campus professorial faculty relationships and extensions agents adequately. We put them in a difficult situation when working in their back yards and they have no clue as to what is going on. He feels we need better communications to bring them into the loop. Wee need to figure a method of doing this. These people connect with local land owners, outreach programs and can provide us with better ways to connect with the public. Dean Larry Arrington is behind this effort and suggests we start with district directors and at some point have some sort of regional retreat to keep our department informed and build support. If we move forward and we feel we need a Wildlife Summit, he would be willing to support this. Discussions held as to ways to start generating these connections.
  8. ANNOUNCEMENTS –
    • Landscape Ecology classes, We have funding to support an instructor for next semester. Dr. Hayes needs input from faculty as to someone who would be appropriate for this.
    • Extension Meeting - May 8-10th is the next symposium.
    • Tenure and Promotion – Emilio Bruna, Bill Giuliano and Peter Frederick’s packets were sent forward with unanimous support.
    • Vehicle Updates - There is a taxi service available for use (one vehicle) due to the parking changes. If this is a plausible service they will expand the number of service vehicles. Dr. Hayes suggested we attempt to use the service to see if the system might work.
    • Status of Quincy position - The draft of the agenda is for the dates of November 17th and December 4th and Dr. Hayes hopes to have an informal reception at his home . Bill Giuliano and George Tanner are on the search committee. These candidates will be a part of our department, so he wants faculty to be heavily involved and participation where there is an opportunity. He had received some feedback that some of the off campus candidates felt they had lack of interaction with personnel in our department which did not eave a good impression of our interest in them and he does not want that to happen.
    • UF Article on Wildlife – Dr. Hayes was contacted by Stacy Todd, who is a journalist at UF and wants to do an article on Wildlife on the UF Campus. Dr. Hayes asked for suggestions of who he should interview. They suggested Dan Dawson, Mark Hostetler and Perran Ross. They also mentioned that every semester WEC was normally contacted by a journalist student to do similar stories.
    • Vending Machines - Forestry had approached Dr. Hayes about putting vending machines in Newins-Ziegler Hall. A general discussion was held and decided we did not prefer to have the machines in our building.
  9. GRADUATE STUDENT ISSUES AND COURTESY FACULTY - Wiley Kitchens – The Graduate School is looking to the department to be more accountable for students within the program. WEC is implementing a new tracking system which will be discussed at a later date. Wiley Kitchens provided a handout from the Graduate Program Committee. They have recommended replacing item 2., page 5, in the “Participation in WEC Affairs” section of the August 21, 2000 version of the Departmental Policy on Non-tenure Accruing Faculty Appointments with the attached statement:

    "2. All faculty members with graduate faculty status may serve as members of graduate supervisory committees. Tenure Accruing (T), Coop Unit (CU), Non-tenure Accruing (NT), or Affiliate (A) faculty may chair committees. Courtesy faculty (C) may only chair committees with a T, CU, or NT faculty member serving as co-chair to ensure students have an advisor who is well-versed in UF (and WEC) policies, course availability, campus resources available to students, and other issues critical to their successful progress. A, C, or Visiting (V) faculty with graduate faculty status will be limited to chairing 3 graduate committees at any one time."

    A general discussion was held on the corrections. MOTION was made by George Tanner that we accept the change and it was second by Lyn Branch. The vote was unanimous to accept the revision.
  10. NEW FACULTY POSITION - we might have an opportunity for a new faculty member and Dr. Hayes has to send in a proposal to Dr. Cheek before the next meeting. Three different ideas were put forth; someone dealing with Ecology/management of Large Animals in the Tropics, some aspect of global warming, or Human Dimensions programs. General discussion held, some suggested we link ourselves to another program to have more power. Dr. Hayes will email straw vote email and needs feedback quickly and will move forward quickly.

VII. Adjournment

John Hayes adjourned the meeting at 3:56 PM.

Minutes submitted by: Elaine Culpepper
Minutes approved by: John Hayes