RESEARCH COORDINATING COUNCIL

Memorandum 137

October 18, 2001

 

Members Present:           Curtis Anderson, John Bennion, Alok Bhushan, Phil Blick, Deb Easterly,

                                       Nancy Griffin for Kay Flowers, Larry Ford, Dianne Horrocks, Edwin House

                                       (presiding), Pamela Park, Rosemary Smith, Barbara Cunningham for Beth

                                       Stamm, Dennis Stowe, Jane Strickland,  Russell Mayer for Dan Wolfley

 

Members Absent/Excused:       Sean Anderson, Jonathan Blotter Steve Byers, Graduate Student

                                                representative, Frank Harmon, Health Professions representative,

                                                Richard Inouye, Skip Lohse, Subbaram Naidu, Keith Weber, Doug Wells,

                                                Paul Zelus

 

Dr. Edwin House declared a quorum was present.  

 

I.                    It was MSC (8y,0n) to approve Memorandum #136 with the following corrections:  add Larry

           Ford to members present, change Jane Streubel to Jane Strickland on  the last page and change

           turns to terms on the last page.

 

II.      REPORTS

 

A.    Faculty Research Committee – John Bennion distributed a list of the current members.  The first

meeting will take place November 30.

 

B.     Graduate Student Research and Scholarship Committee – Dr. House reported that this

committee has not yet selected the representative to attend RCC.  The call is out and the committee

is working on the ASISU scholarship recommendations.

 

C.     Undergraduate Research Committee – Curtis Anderson reported that the committee met on

      October 9.  Greg Green was elected vice chair and will serve as chair next year.  The committee

      modified the bylaws and also the guidelines regarding travel.

 

D.     Humanities/Social Sciences Research Committee – Dr. House reported that the call is out but

      the Committee has not met this year.  There will be a meeting later this semester.

 

E.      University Research Committee – Dr. House reported that this committee only meets in the spring

      so there is nothing to report currently.

 

F.      There were no other reports.

 

III.     COUNCIL BUSINESS

 

A.     The Council voted last time to change the maximum amount allowed on a Faculty Research

Committee grant from $4,000 to $5,000, subject to approval by Faculty Senate.   The FRC

Guidelines for Proposals will need to be changed to reflect this.  Old copies will need to be

destroyed at that point.

 

B.     WISER – Western Institute for the Study of Environmental health in Rural communities.   This

        is a new institute studying environmental health and sustainable economic activities in rural

        communities.  A proposal to recognize WISER as a research center will not be ready until

        the November meeting.

 

C.     Dr. House discussed Federal Initiatives.  All funds spent by Congress are spent in thirteen

        appropriation bills.  This is a new way of getting money for ISU although many other universities

        have been doing this for a long time.  This is done through a lobbying group.  ISU chose

        Cassidy and Associates, which is a very large and effective lobbying group.  UI’s lobby group

        is Van Scoyak and Associates and BSU’s is a group headed by former Senator McClure.  A

        call goes out annually to the campus community looking for projects that are one million dollars

        or more that will fit the mission of the university or one of the areas of expertise.  This also has

        to match up with the interests of the senators and also members of the House of Representatives. 

        The lobbyists work almost daily with Congressional staff to help get appropriations into the

        bill.  Currently Senator Craig is the most powerful person Idaho has in Congress because

        he is on the appropriations committee.  Our lobbyists help match our interests to Senator

        Craig’s interests as well as the other Idaho legislators to make a case, which can take several

        months.     The lobbyists spend about two days on campus reviewing the proposals.  The lobbyists

        then go back to Washington D.C. and talk to the Congressional delegation or their staff to

        see where the proposals will fit or if any are unworkable.   A second list is constructed of those

        proposals that have good potential of success.  That list is given to Dr. Kent Tingey, Vice

        President for University Advancement, Dr. Jonathan Lawson, Academic Vice President, and Dr.

        Edwin House, Chief Research Officer.  The list is reviewed to determine if any proposals should be

        deleted and to prioritize the list.  What they are looking for is a good idea that is focused, well

        thought out, can be stated in two pages and shows a budget that starts at one million dollars

        or higher.  Dr. House said the one item that Congress seems unlikely to fund is a new building. The

        probability of success is about 25%.  ISU asked for $14 million the first time and received $3.7

        million dollars.  ISU is asking for about $22 million this time and it looks like we will receive about

        $6 million.

 

D.     Larry Ford distributed a revised draft of the Evaluation Guidelines and Procedures for Research

        Faculty.  It was recommended that advising advanced undergraduate students and/or

        graduate students be changed to mentoring advanced undergraduate students and/or graduate

        students.  There was substantial discussion concerning the term Teaching Faculty in the first

        sentence.  Some suggestions were “regular faculty’ and “tenure-track or non- tenure-track

        faculty”.  The draft was remanded to the subcommittee. 

                       

The meeting was adjourned at 4:15 p.m.