School of Environmental and Forest Sciences
Faculty Meeting Minutes
November 26, 2013, 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Anderson Hall Room 22
CALL TO ORDER
10:30
• The meeting was called to order at 10:34 a.m. by Director Tom DeLuca.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
10:35
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• REMINDER: Upcoming SEFS Seminar Series speakers: November 26 , a team lead by Clare Ryan; and
December 3rd, Sharon Doty (a reception will follow the talk on the 3rd). Autumn Quarter 2013 Tuesdays
3:30-4:20 p.m. Come out and support your colleagues!
• SEFS Holiday Party is on December 4, 2013 from 4:00-6:00 p.m.
• There will be an All School Meeting before the Holiday Party from 3:30-4:00 p.m.
• Dr. DeLuca introduced the new SEFS Administrator, Wendy Star and encouraged faculty to go by her office
and meet her. She most recently worked in the Department of Sociology.
• An offer has been made for the IT staff position. More on this when things have been confirmed.
• Update on Disturbance Ecology faculty search. Dr. Greulich reported that we have a multitude of
applicants. After only having 17 to report at the last faculty meeting we now have 40 applicants. The next
search committee meeting is the Friday before finals week and the committee hopes to have a short list for
the Director to review then. Dr. Greulich believes we have some very good candidates.
• The College of the Environment has hired a person to be the Director of the Doris Duke Conservation
Scholars Program. See attached flyer about the program or visit this webpage:
http://coenv.washington.edu/conservationscholars/#top to find out about the program. The program is for 3
years with the possibility to extend to 10 years.
• Work Planning meetings are being scheduled. Dr. DeLuca would like to keep them brief this year. They
will be scheduled for ½ hour and it is hoped that you will come prepared for a short meeting
FACULTY ACTIONS
• No actions have been brought forward.
PRESENTATION
• No presentations are planned.
DISCUSSION
10:45
• The DRAFT ONRC Director position description was discussed. Dr. DeLuca hopes to fast track this and to
list the position as quickly as possible so he is providing a draft description so there is something to discuss.
The search committee will include several SEFS faculty, a board member from ONRC, a grad student, and
one private sector person. Ken Jacobson is the ONRC board member that has volunteered. Several people
went down to Olympia to talk to Senator Hargrove about establishing a $450K/biennium state line for
ONRC director position. Senator Hargrove strongly supports program. UW will support the position for 2
years then it will be in limbo. It was decided to list the position as tenure track when the discussion at the
last faculty meeting it was mentioned to be WOT. Could still be WOT.
A faculty member thinks the description is too narrow. Right now it is for a forest management faculty
only. The description needs to include a longer list. Dr. DeLuca responded that if the state is going to get
behind funding the director position it has to be a forest management position. Faculty stated that the
mandate for ONRC was that it was to have a marine side and a forest side. ONRC is supposed to be
devoted to forest management, and originally College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences (COFS) and College
of Forest Resources were to manage ONRC jointly. COFS backed out of the marine part of it and now
Miranda Wecker is working the marine side for us. Faculty suggested that it may be time to revise the
language in the statute to put the authority in the College of the Environment or in the School of Forest
Resources. Faculty wondered why we are not interacting more with Olympic National Park and the
Olympic Park Institute stating that we have not really developed much of a relationship with them. Faculty
then mentioned other federal agencies and also called out the Department of Natural Resources. There is
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potential for lots of partners to also include conservation groups, NGOs, industry and tribes. This could be
the time to encompass all the groups. Faculty also wondered if we might address the recreation aspect and
asked would it fly?
Perhaps the wording can be broadened. The proposal that was put in to the legislature was to basically
revitalize ONRC in sustainable forest management, green building design, and management for other than
forest products. This person has to be looking forward 80 years. Maximizing biodiversity and landscapes
while meeting wood demands. Landowners with all their versions of sustainable forestry will likely bring
forth many issues.
We are faced with either encouraging one of our current faculty lines into the ONRC director role or to hire
from the outside. Some faculty are thinking the director position could be broader hire and a separate
Director of III could be more narrowly focused. Politics says ONRC must exist, but it’s hard to make it a
neutral forum. Faculty are of the opinion that the political environment on the Peninsula is opposite what it
is here. It was also noted that the National Park and fishing could be driving the economy.
Faculty posed a question: Are we trying to help people out there or are we trying to have a forestry program
out there? The proposal spells out clearly what we are trying to do which is sustainable forest management
from a holistic perspective and looking broadly at all the services provided by the forest landscape. Dr.
DeLuca state that 60% growth is predicted for the Puget Sound region and that we can either build with
concrete or sustainably with wood. 60% of the state’s wood products are exported right now, but we could
locally source this sustainable building product. The new Lander Hall was designed for 70 year life with
concrete and steel AND it was LEED silver certified. Faculty brought the discussion back to education.
We should be trying to teach people in these rural areas. Will this person be teaching here? Could we give
credit and give degrees over there? Right now it is planned to offer intensive 2 week field course
opportunities. There are online facilities there, but that is not clear in the description. A faculty pointed out
that the description sounds like an entrepreneurial position. Maybe we should hire somebody from the
business school.
Dr. DeLuca provided the description to give the faculty a concept of what he was thinking about and asks
them to PLEASE GIVE THEIR FEEDBACK. The reworked draft would then be presented to committee
and then the committee would come back to the faculty with a draft.
Faculty said that if one of the responsibilities is to run the Institute then it should be mentioned in the
description. We will need an ONRC director who is savvy to politics on the peninsula, and that we cannot
superimpose what we think is ideal. One of the new jobs of ONRC director is to hire institute director who
can work with architects. This is a leverage point.
•
Research Associates and Lecturers, part-time currently require a faculty vote to approve their appointments.
The unit faculty, by a majority vote, may delegate authority to the Chair/Director to make short term
appointments without a full faculty vote. Is this something the faculty would like to do? The faculty should
retain the rights to at least review and approve. Who would deny it? Why would a faculty say another
faculty not be able to hire? Delegating authority would need to be reapproved annually. After further
checking it was found that this would require a unanimous vote of the faculty and so the delegation of
authority will not be pursued.
UPCOMING MEETING
11:25
The next School of Environmental and Forest Sciences Faculty Meeting will be on Tuesday, December 10,
2013 from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. in Anderson Hall Room 22.
ADJOURNMENT
11:30
The meeting was adjourned at 11:30 a.m.
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