Spring 2001

The joint meeting of the Faculty Enhancement Committee and Faculty Research Committee was called to order at 10:10 a.m.  The only agenda idea was discussion of the “Key findings from faculty survey on research-- Spring 2000" summary report prepared by the Research committee.  The committees met together to work on developing a set of recommendations to send forward to the Faculty Association with the ultimate goal of strengthening the ability of the faculty to do significant research in a supportive environment. 

Cindy Scott furnished committee members with copies of some suggestions that members of the FEC had developed after studying the “Key findings” report.  Jim Collom distributed a document with ideas that he wanted to share regarding the research environment at UNF. 

The group identified variability between how department chairs implement efforts designed to foster research as a major stumbling block to consistent professional development for the faculty.  It was agreed that tackling issues related to assuring more consistency between departments would be a good first step to improving the research climate on campus.  The committees discussed the role of “block” class times, being allowed to “bank” classes, limiting the number of new course preparations, mandating a limit to the amount of time new untenured faculty can spend on service the first two years of employment, limiting the number of department committees as well as other aspects of the topic.

The committees also discussed the perception by many faculty that there is now a mixed message being given the faculty.  While UNF is still refers to itself primarily as an undergraduate teaching university, there is increasing emphasis being placed on producing meaningful research and securing significant grant monies.  This change in focus may signal that administrators particularly department will have to take a more active role in mentoring the careers of their faculty.  The role of colleague mentoring was also discussed along with the difficulty of identifying mentors and securing their cooperation.   Cooperative grant writing, improving summer grant dollars, establishing a system of exit interviewing for retreating faculty, faculty not having to pay of interlibrary loan material, increased awareness of what CIRT can do for the faculty especially in helping researchers analyze their data (particularly statistical information), smoothing administrative hassles with the purchasing department to make acquisition of materials related to research projects easier and modification of the University’s policy for distribution of indirect cost from grant money to insure that more gets to the faculty member for their use were mentioned during the discussion.

Committee Chairs Dr. Van Deusen and Dr. Scott will draft a memo based on the committees’ discussion for the committee members to review with the end goal of forwarding it to the Faculty Association Executive Council for discussion before presentation to the Faculty Association.

The next Faculty Enhancement meeting will be  March 14^th in the Office of Faculty Enhancement meeting room at 10:00 a.m. Future joint meetings of the FEC and FRC may be scheduled.