Administrative Council Meeting Minutes
January 22, 2013
Attendees: Dr. Michael Galyean, Dr. Cindy Akers, Dr. Sukant Misra, Jane Piercy, Dr. Leslie
Thompson, Dr. Richard Zartman, Dr. Steve Fraze, Dr. Mark Wallace, Dr. Eduardo Segarra, Dr.
Alon Kvashny, Norman Martin, and Reagan Ribordy
1. Minutes from the December 17, 2012 Administrative Council meeting were approved as
distributed.
2. Dr. Galyean reminded the chairs that we need to be diligent in getting CASNR staff
nominated for University Awards. There were no CASNR staff award winners this year.
Please watch for the call for nominations in the early fall.
3. Dr. Alon Kvashny will be stepping down from the Chair position in the Department of
Landscape Architecture in May. His appointment will change to 60% teaching. The
position will be filled internally, at least in the short term. Dr. Charles Klein was
recommended by many faculty members in the department and has agreed to become
interim chair on June 1, 2013.
4. Dr. Misra gave an update on the CASNR and President’s Graduate Student Incentive
programs. CASNR had a total of 37 assistantships approved; out of these 37, CASNR
awarded 29, and the President’s Office awarded eight. As of today, 36 students were
registered. We only had one doctoral student who was unable to enroll. The intention of
the Graduate Student Incentive program is to add students, so please continue to recruit
students with the funds that you have. Optimizing the use of these incentive funds in
combination with research funds to increase the number of our graduate students is the
main priority of this program.
5. The 2013 Federal Notebook is a gathering of information regarding Texas Tech
University’s major projects, which have, or will be, submitted for possible funding. This
information is being gathered to prepare the Chancellor and President for their visit to
Washington, DC in March. Jodey Arrington’s office contacted CASNR with a request to
submit two or three of our priority research projects to their office. The college
submitted five projects in a prioritized listing.
6. Dr. Akers announced that Irving ISD has partnered with Texas Tech University and the
College of Engineering, which will allow a historically underserved population of
students to have access to Texas Tech from as early as 9th grade, along with dual credit
opportunities. Irving ISD will be in town on February 21 - 23 and would like to visit
with some CASNR reps about a possible partnership with the college in a similar
capacity.
Dr. Akers handed out the current CASNR enrollment numbers for Spring 2013 and noted
that we are down 21 graduate students from last year, but up 27 undergraduates in
comparison to this time last year. Dr. Akers also handed out the Application and Admits
numbers. There has been a big push to get students to apply earlier to be admitted to
Texas Tech by December, and the numbers are up compared to this time last year. A list
of activities the Student Success Center completed in December and those they have
lined up for January was also handed out.
7. Other
Dr. Zartman announced that former PSS professor, Dr. Robert Reed, passed away last
week. In addition, Dr. Ellen Peffley, retired Professor Emerita, fell and broke both her
ankles. Dr. Joe Young has arrived on campus, and will begin teaching the turfgrass
classes in PSS this semester.
Dr. Leslie Thompson announced that the Meats Judging Team recently won the 2013
National Western contest in Denver. Dr. Sara Trojan will be taking some graduate
students from Beef Industry Issues class to the National Cattleman’s Beef Association
convention in Tampa, Florida, on February 5 - 8. The department will be represented by
several AFS faculty and some other graduate students as well. Dr. Thompson also
reported that Jerrad Legako’s (AFS research associate) father-in-law passed away this
weekend.
Dr. Akers announced again that they are excited to have Dr. Lyda Garcia on board with
the college. Her initial goals will be to increase diversity across the college by recruiting
first-generation students and minorities in pursuit of higher education. She will focus on
a 100-mile radius of the Lubbock area, as well as El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley
area.
Dr. Segarra suggested that the college look into the possibility of awarding scholarships
based on performance and not necessarily having to meet the requirement of being a fulltime student. This can be detrimental to some of the minority students who have to work
a full time job and cannot be full time students, but are still deserving of scholarships.
Jane Piercy noted that contributions to the college have been terrific, and our end-of-year
numbers were outstanding.
Dr. Fraze reported Dr. Courtney Meyer’s father passed away recently. He also noted the
search committee for the Associate Dean for Research will be meeting next week to
review the current applicants. As of today, there are six applicants.
Dr. Wallace announced NRM is proceeding with the hiring process of their current open
positions. Dr. Samantha Kahl, a new faculty member as of this month, and will be
teaching their Natural Resources Planning curriculum.