Administrative Council Meeting Minutes
September 16, 2013
Attendees: Dr. Sukant Misra, Dr. Cindy Akers, Dr. Mike Orth, Dr. Steve Fraze, Dr. Rick
Zartman, Dr. Phil Johnson, Dr. Charles Klein, Dr. Mark Wallace, Jane Piercy, Norman Martin
and Reagan Ribordy
Guests: Dr. Darryl James, Dr. Scott Burris
1. Dr. Scott Burris, CASNR’s Representative to the QEP (Quality Enhancement Plan)
Committee for SACS Accreditation, gave a report from the committee asking for
feedback from the department chairs. The QEP Committee is charged to find an area of
importance the university as a whole would like to advance. Over the last five years, the
campus has been working on advancing the “Campus Conversation on Ethics.” This is
an opportunity for us to identify/denote a new area of growth for the university to
improve on over the next five years. The QEP Committee has thus far come up with
three topics: 1) Globalization; 2) Writing skills and abilities of our graduate students; and
3) Diversity. Dr. Burris will send an e-mail to the chairs (through Dr. Akers) to
disseminate to the faculty, to ask for additional topics or areas of needs/interests they
would like to see the university develop. The chairs are requested to forward faculty
responses to Dr. Akers by September 27th in order for Dr. Burris to take those to the next
QEP Committee meeting.
2. Dr. Darryl James, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, has been asked to act as liaison
between the colleges and the Provost Office/Graduate School, in order to determine ways
to grow and improve our graduate programs. He would like to hold town hall meetings
with the chairs and graduate advisors from each department to help identify growth
opportunities, brainstorm solutions for growth and identify roadblocks. The Office of the
Provost would like for the ideas to be driven from the departments upward, instead of
from the top down. Dr. Misra indicated the department chairs should submit a one page
briefing of their discussions with Dr. James to Dr. Galyean, to keep him informed about
their ideas/plans for graduate student growth.
3. Minutes from the August 19, 2013 Administrative Council meeting were approved as
distributed.
4. Dr. Misra announced the Lead 21 Leadership Program has a call for nominations for the
next class (Class X). He noted this program has been very beneficial, and many of our
past participants are now serving in leadership roles. The program is very costly,
however Dr. Misra asked the chairs to let him know if there are faculty members in their
department that would be a good candidate for this program, and if they could support a
portion of the cost and how much. We would then look into additional funding
opportunities and see if we would be able to find the funds to send someone through.
The nominations are due November 15th, so please let Dr. Misra know by early next
week.
5. Dr. Misra handed out a draft of the agenda for the CASNR Forum with President Nellis,
which will be held on October 21st from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. During the first hour,
Dr. Galyean, Dr. Misra, Dr. Akers and Jane Piercy will give an overview of the College,
and each chair will give a short five minute presentation which will focus on the strengths
of their department. The next hour will be a walking tour of the CASNR facilities. The
third hour will be an open forum for the President to have a question and answer session
with the faculty. This will be from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in the basement (Room 001)
of the Education Building. If you have any comments or suggestions regarding this
proposed agenda, please e-mail Dr. Galyean and/or Dr. Misra.
6. Texas Tech University has again been asked to nominate one full-time faculty member
for consideration by the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation for “Piper Professor of 2013.”
The last two years CASNR has submitted the nomination of Dr. Cynthia McKinney, and
both times Dr. McKinney has been the nominee from Texas Tech. The Administrative
Council voted to again send Dr. McKinney’s nomination packet forward to the Office of
the Provost. The nomination packet is due by Monday, November 11th.
7. Dr. Akers addressed some trends that have been noticed in regards to student evaluations
of faculty members and courses. Handouts were given to each department chair showing
results, and highlighting those that received a mean of less than a “4” in questions 1 and
11 over the last four semesters. We are not sure if this is just coincidental or if there is
something we need to do at the college level to help prepare the faculty better for the
classroom (teaching workshops, leadership development training, etc.). This is an
informational item only, and if there is anything the college can do to help, please let us
know.
8. Other
Jane Piercy announced who the Outstanding Agriculturalists will be this year, and
reminded the chairs that the Pig Roast will be held on November 14th. She also reported
that the review/audit of our college endowments and scholarships is almost complete, and
the auditors have been very complimentary and had many positive responses about our
college and the way they have been handled. Jane also indicated that our college
fund raising for the year has been terrific. When the campaign numbers come out later
today, she will have a final total (well over $1 billion), and also a breakdown of what
percentage our college contributed towards the campaign. She also noted that
Homecoming Breakfast is coming up on October 12th.
Dr. Akers handed out the list of Student Success Center activities for the month of
August as well as unofficial enrollment comparison figures for the college/departments,
comparing Fall 2013 enrollment with Fall 2012. The college as a whole is up 80 students
(undergraduate and graduate).
Dr. Zartman reported that Plant and Soil Science held their annual Field Day last week
and had 95 in attendance. This week they will have 150 cotton breeders here for a
“breeders tour.” This tour takes place only every other year and in different areas each
time, so this is a great opportunity to showcase our research and facilities.
Dr. Klein announced that Landscape Architecture will be the featured “major” in a mail
out that Dr. Juan Munoz’s office is doing that will go out to 3,000 preferred high schools
around the country. This will be great exposure for this program.
Dr. Fraze reported that Dr. Courtney Meyers has been chosen to receive the NARRU
Distinguished Young Educator Award. This is the first time a CASNR faculty member
has received this award in many years. NARRU (formerly known as AASCARR) is an
organization for non-land grant universities, and this is a national award. Dr. Meyers’
name will now go forward as a nominee for the USDA New Teacher Award.
Dr. Wallace indicated that Natural Resources Management is currently in the process of
setting up interviews for the Bricker Chair position. Also, the Professional Science
Master degree is currently up for approval by the National Association. He also noted
that everything in NRM is going well, they are just waiting on some renovation projects
to get started.
Dr. Phil Johnson, with regret, announced that Dr. Jeff Johnson will be leaving the
department in November, as he has accepted the position of Director of the Stoneville
Experiment Station in Mississippi. They will be working to find someone to fill his
position.
Dr. Misra reminded everyone of the ongoing search for the Vice President for Research.
The third candidate is on campus the first of this week and he asked the chairs to please
encourage their faculty to attend the open forum. If they are unable to do so, they can
watch it online. The fourth candidate will be on campus at the end of the week.