RESEARCH COORDINATING COUNCIL

Memorandum 130

October 19, 2000

Members Present: Barbara Adamcik, Sean Anderson, John Beck, Steve Byers, Chris Daniels, Deb Easterly,

Nancy Griffin for Kay Flowers, Dianne Horrocks, Edwin House (presiding), Subbaram

Naidu, Pamela Park, Barbara Cunningham for Beth Stamm, Doug Wells, Dan Wolfley

Members Absent/Excused: Phil Blick, Jonathan Blotter, Karl DeJesus, Will Hamlin, Frank Harmon, Richar

Inouye, Sue Jenkins, Dave Kleist, Skip Lohse, Keith Weber, Paul Zelus

Dr. House declared a quorum was present.

I. It was MSC (8y,0n) to approve Memorandum #129.

II. REPORTS

A. There was no report from the Faculty Research Committee.

B. John Beck reported that the Graduate Student Research and Scholarship Committee has a meeting

scheduled next week to award scholarships.

C. There was no report from the Undergraduate Research Committee.

D. Dr. House reported that the Call for Proposals for the Humanities/Social Sciences Research Committee

is out with a deadline of November 13.

E. The University Research Committee does not meet during the Fall Semester. No report was given.

F. Dr. House reviewed the five federal initiatives submitted to Congress by Idaho State University. At

the present time Congress has appropriated $1.4 million for the Center for Information Assurance and

$500,000 for the GIS Center. The request for $2-3 million for telehealth is pending.

The call was sent out for suggested requests in the federal initiatives for next year. Nine requests have

been received. Dr. Lawson, Dr. Tingey, and Dr. House will go over the list and refine it. The list

needs to target certain agencies for funding. Nothing will be deleted on the list until the team looks

it over. The process takes a substantial amount of time. The resulting funding represents new money to

Idaho State University. The University of Idaho is expected to receive $15 million this year compared to

$11 million last year. Boise State University received about $1.5 million last year.

G. The Calls for Proposals have gone out from all the research committees except the University Research

Committee, which sends out its Call during the Spring Semester.

The Distinguished Researcher Call has gone out. Dr. House wanted to encourage people to nominate

a candidate for the award. There were ten good candidates nominated last year. Five finalists are

selected and honored at an awards banquet in March. The due date for receiving nominations is in

mid-November. This early due date makes it possible to obtain peer reviews so that a selection of

finalists can be made by mid-March when the banquet is held.

III. COUNCIL BUSINESS

A. The Humanities/Social Sciences Research Committee requested that RCC approve a change in the

bylaws and guidelines regarding eligibility for submitting proposals. Many of the faculty that

want to submit proposals are on the committee. This change would enable committee members to

submit proposals. It was MSC (7y,1n) to approve the change. It will go to Faculty Senate for their

consideration.

B. The committee considered several options in the allocation of indirect cost funds to support the

library. The library has proposed three ways to use overhead money. Proposal #1 would use overhead

money as a reserve fund. This would free up the reserve fund money to be distributed into

regular allocations including acquiring journals. Proposal #2 suggests that a committee to be formed

to accept requests for allocation of the overhead money. Proposal #3 would use the additional

money for library research. Two percent of overhead at the current rate of funding equals

approximately $16,000 - $20,000. Social Sciences supported using overhead money to fund the

acquisition of more journals. Proposal #1 most closely fit that criteria. The Council discussed

where the money would come from and how it would be spent. It was MSC (6y,2n) to recommend that

two percent of the indirect cost fund collected by the University go to the library prior to the distribution

of 45% to administration and 55% to the appropriate academic units. The library committee will

decide how to allocate the money to support research. A subcommittee consisting of Chris Daniels,

Doug Wells, and Deb Easterly will provide recommended guidelines for the allocation of the money.

C. The committee discussed ownership of web-based courses. The Council for Teaching and Learning

has a Call for Proposals out for development of instructional materials and approaches using

the web. The Technology Oversight Council has been discussing this matter both from the research

aspect and also from the instructional angle in terms of the copyright issue. Our copyright policy

states that materials developed as a result of a grant or contract are interpreted as work for hire

and, therefore, University owned. However, some faculty and staff have not interpreted it this way.

The Council needs to provide clarification of the ownership of copyright when the work is funded by

an external grant of contract. The Council will look at the copyright policy at the next meeting,

identify areas of difficulty, and recommend ways to improve the policy. A possible improvement

would be to have model agreements between faculty and the University.

D. Dr. House asked the committee to decide individually what they would like on the agenda for future

RCC meetings. He encouraged them to send their ideas to him via e-mail or to call him.

The meeting adjourned at 4:30 p.m.