Department Faculty Meeting - January 14, 2008


Included Files (PDF): Agenda | Curriculum Handout

  1. CALL TO ORDER -- Dr. John Hayes, chair, called to order the regular meeting of the Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Department at 02:00 pm n room 376 NZ.

  2. ROSTER -- Elaine Culpepper registered those attending as: John Hayes, chair, Tom Barnash, Ron Labisky, Bill Giuliano, Peter Frederick, Claire Williams, Ray Carthy, Lyn Branch, Mel Sunquist, Wiley Kitchens, Mike Moulton, Jim Austin, Emilio Bruna, Rob Fletcher, Madan Oli. Franklin Percival.

  3. ACTION ITEMS FOR FACULTY –
    1. Review materials of Chuck Knapp and Jaime Caballo for Courtesy Faculty appointments.
    2. In Spring it would be helpful if you can identify students that you feel you might wish to admit; share this information with Claire so she can prioritize the material for your review.
    3. The Graduate Program Committee should meet prior to the next faculty meeting to discuss several items.

  4. Dr. Hayes introduced Dean Kirby Barrick, as the guest speaker – Dr. Barrick reviewed his plan for Curricular Enhancement. (handout attached) The background was the NASULGC deans had met to give leadership in our programs of agriculture and related sciences. In early 2004 it was decided to renew and continue the efforts in the program. A handout was provided. Each department will establish a Committee to Envision Curriculum Enhancement (CECE) that includes faculty, students and industry input. Charge of committee is listed on page 3 of the handout. Question and answer session ensued.

  5. TOM BARNASH – Risk management and IT issues -- We had a risk assessments done and there two items for IT that needed to be addressed. First was how the department does desktop backups; most of the time they were not backed up at all. This problem will be addresses soon with an automated backup solution; we are waiting on more storage space on the server before we can proceed. Second highlighted item was the completion of desk manuals which will give a guide to everyday things that people need to know. FAQs have been developed for IT and are available on the IT Resources page.
    PHONES - new phones should be sitting on your desk. The programming of the phones will occur within two to four weeks. Training will be provided and the cut over of the same phone numbers will happen in a few weeks. Training documents can be found on the CNS VoIP Page.
    Homepage structure and grad students - Everyone has a different way of doing their personal webpage. We are in the process of adding new faculty pages to give students the information they need, and they will all have the same uniform look. We are also looking into ways of making the prospective student information easier to use.
    WEC forum – has been set up due to the grad student list serv. the address is http://www.wec.ufl.edu/forum/. All material that goes to the grad list server, Tom will be mirroring and putting in the forum for students/people to reference back to. Faculty can set up their own account on the forum. Dr. Hayes formally thanked Tom for taking care of all the problems with our system.

  6. STUDENT SERVICES UPDATE – Claire Williams – We have two grad students expressing interest in the student assistantship. Dr. Hayes stated they tried to create a solution for personnel changes in the Student Service Office. We are exploring ways to resolve problems by creating new grad assistantship to help fill in the gap. Until we can fill the position with a grad student, we will have an undergrad starting at the end of this week to help out. We are looking at this as an opportunity for developing some professional activity for the student. Wiley suggested putting a mechanism on the webpage that would encourage more focused applications on the queries and responses that have to go back to the applicants. Things like discouraging people who don’t have the proper qualifications. We want to encourage those who are interested and help them know the proper process to follow to get into the department. Tom advised this is why we wanted to add the second layer, which might weed out numerous questions from students. General discussion ensued.

  7. COURTESY APPOINTMENTS – UPDATE AND NEW CANDIDATES – notice was sent out to our courtesy faculty members and responses returned. There will be about a half a dozen faculty that will come off the list. We are moving forward in a positive manner. There are two other appointments we need to discuss at the next faculty meeting: Jaime A Collazo and Chuck Knapp.

  8. BITS AND PIECES
    COOP STEERING COMMITTEE OPPORTUNITIES - Franklin and John have had discussions as to how to group together ways . One way is for our faculty and students to participate in Coop Coordinators Meeting (CCM). There are different levels of high profile people that attend and deals are often made, typically at the BQ. This is an opportunity to meet with these client-class people. We encourage your attendance at the April 22nd CCM meeting. If you or your students want to participate and stand by your poster, they are glad to entertain that idea as well.
    NEW COURSE DEVELOPMENT – Dr. Hayes indicated there were four items to follow up on from our WEC retreat. The most heavily weighing on his mind, we agreed to offer a new course in the fall. We will move forward on this, and is expecting half a dozen or eight of faculty to step forward and help out with this to move the course forward. Issues concerning Grad Student Assistantships and graduate student admissions will be addressed by the Graduate Program Committee prior to the next faculty meeting.
    BUDGET ISSUES HAPPENING AT UF – Dr. Hayes stated no one has been told about what action will be taken. There are no decisions being made by anyone that he knows of.

Meeting adjourned at 3:45 pm.