RESEARCH COORDINATING COUNCIL

Memorandum 147

February 20, 2003

 

 

Members Present:          Sean Anderson, Curtis Anderson, Alok Bhushan, Phil Blick, Skip Lohse for Linda Deck, Marcia Francis/Kay Flowers, Larry Ford, Greg Green, Dianne Horrocks, Edwin House (presiding), Pamela Park, Barbara Cunningham for Neill Piland, Malcolm Shields, Al Strickland, Thomas Windholz for Keith Weber

 

Members Absent/Excused:       John Bennion, Steve Byers, Clark Draney, Deb Easterly, Frank Harmon, Richard Inouye, Subbaram Naidu, Kris Robinson, Rod Seeley, Brian Williams, Dan Wolfley, Paul Zelus

 

Guest:                                       Bill Loving, Chair, Mass Communications

 

Dr. House declared a quorum was present.  

 

I.       It was MSC (8y,0n) to approve Memorandum #146. 

 

II.       Dr. House reported that Faculty Senate had approved the revised RCC Bylaws and the revised UgRC Guidelines for the Preparation of Proposals.

 

A.     Faculty Research Committee – No report.

 

B.           Graduate Student Research and Scholarship Committee – No report.

 

C.           Undergraduate Research Committee – Greg Green reported that the planning for the Undergraduate Research Symposium that will be held on April 3 is well underway.  The call for abstracts is out with a deadline of Friday, March 14, 2003 and two abstracts have already been received.  The call for research and travel proposals is out with a deadline of Monday, March 31, 2003. 

 

D.           Humanities/Social Sciences Research Committee – Dr. House reported that the changes in the Guidelines for Proposals had been approved by Faculty Senate.

 

E.      University Research Committee – Dr. House reported that the call for proposals is out with a deadline of March 31, 2003.  

 

F.            Federal Initiatives – Dr. Ford reported that the Omnibus package passed and is now contingent on President Bush’s signature. There are eleven appropriation bills in this package and ISU has $1.5 million in the Energy and Water bill for the Idaho Accelerator Center, $1.5 million in the Health and Human Services bill for Telehealth, $400,000 for equipment for Pharmacy, and $324,000 for the Performing Arts Center.  Dr. Ford said he did not believe the GIS Center initiative was funded this year.  There is also $4 million for INRA in the subsurface science area.

President Bowen, Dr. House and Dr. Ford will be presenting ISU’s FY04 federal initiative requests to the Congressional delegation next week.  ISU gives good value for the dollars received.  Dr. House has received requests from Congressional staffers to look into other areas.  ISU’s relationship with the Idaho Congressmen continues to grow and prosper.

 

G.           Release Time to Seek External Funding – Dr. House reported that the call is out with a deadline of March 31, 2003. 

 

H.           Distinguished Researcher Competition – There are seven nominations for this competition.

 

I.              Other – There were no other reports.

 

III.       Council Business

 

            A.     Dr. House asked the Council for their views on the current copyright policy.  Kay Flowers said the traditional view is that material used for teaching classes is owned by the faculty member who created it.  However, there is a question as to whether or not this view applies to the same type of material if it is put on the web.  Also, if the faculty member who created the material retires, does the University want to retain use of the material?   This also gets into “work for hire” issues. Dianne Horrocks informed the Council that a grant is usually between an agency and an institution on behalf of a faculty member but this interpretation varies between agencies.  Sometimes an agency grants transportability of a research project if a faculty member moves to another institution, but the transportability ends when the grant ends. 

 

                     Council members received copies of two documents—1) “Guidance for Faculty on Copyright, Publication and General Research Dissemination” from Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis that Dr. House located on the web and 2) the Battelle intellectual property PowerPoint presentation shown to the State Board of Education at the March 7-8, 2002 meeting.  Dr. House said ISU may or may not want to follow the Indiana University guidelines.  He provided this document to Council members as an example of the guidelines one university has developed in this area.  Dr. House said changes to the state intellectual property policy are currently on hold.

 

                     Bill Loving said there is already a court ruling regarding courseware.  It might be helpful to review the federal statute on “work for hire”.  Issues that should be considered when someone is hired to develop a web course are:  1) the degree of control the individual has, 2) the amount of supervision required, and 3) the dollars required for assistance.

 

                     There was considerable discussion regarding ownership of copyright material.  An additional item to be considered is that some grants specify ownership of intellectual property.  Also, will faculty want to come to an institution where they will lose the copyright?  It was the consensus of the Council that an agreement needs to be in place with the faculty member before work is started.  In addition, a written statement reflecting the negotiated agreement should be in place prior to beginning work on an externally-funded project.  There should be some type of catch-all phrase at end of the policy that states “In the absence of such an agreement, then …..”

                     Ms. Horrocks posed the following question:  “If a faculty member is told to create a course and then moves to another institution, can the previous institution still use the material and can a new faculty member teaching the course alter the work, etc.?”  She stated that as an institution, we can always license a creation. 

 

Dr. House stated that it would be helpful for Council members to read ISU’s current copyright policy.  This will be sent out to Council members for review.  Dr. House then asked if anyone would be willing to create a draft for improving the policy to take into account courseware and other issues that need to be clarified.  Dr. Strickland volunteered.

 

B.           A handout summarizing the findings of the subcommittee chaired by Dr. Park regarding “Barriers to Research” was distributed.  She said there were three main points:

 

1.               Budget reductions have resulted in faculty reductions.  There are fewer faculty and this means each faculty member must bear more responsibilities.

 

2.               We need more teaching assistants in order to release faculty to do research.  It is preferable for graduate students to receive an assistantship, which includes a nonresident tuition waiver, in-state fees, and health insurance.  ISU is not competitive with other institutions for recruitment of quality graduate students without these benefits.  Graduate students paid on an hourly basis (without an assistantship) should be eliminated.

 

3.               There should be a system where faculty who have been at the institution for six or more years are eligible for a sabbatical if they have a legitimate project.  These should not be competitive.  Faculty who teach only undergraduate courses have less time for research because they must carry the academic program.

 

There was no other Council business.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 4:30 p.m.