School of Environmental and Forest Sciences
Faculty Meeting Minutes
January 8, 2013, 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Anderson Hall Room 22
CALL TO ORDER
Call to order by Director Tom DeLuca. Bruce Bare moved and Sergey Rabotyagov seconded the motion that
the faculty approve the minutes of the November 27, 2012 Faculty Meeting. The faculty voted to approve the
minutes by a vote of 32 Approve, 0 Oppose, 8 Abstain.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
• The Winter Quarter Seminar to be led by Dr. DeLuca will be Wednesday afternoons from 4:00-5:00 p.m. in
Anderson 223. He hopes it will be a catalyst to get us talking. The first seminar is 4pm tomorrow
afternoon, and will be presented in standard 45 min seminar and 15 min questions format. A reception will
follow in Anderson 207. 31 graduate students are currently enrolled.
• Promotion packages for two assistant professors have been forwarded to the Provost’s office by the Dean.
• For the assistant Director appointment to ultimately replace Steve West, Greg Ettl has been chosen. Dr.
DeLuca sought input from EFAC. Several good candidates were nominated. The faculty provided a hearty
round of applause for Dr. Ettl. Dr. DeLuca mentioned that Dr. Ettl is oversubscribed and it will be
determined what duties will be moved off his plate. Thanks to all who had willingness to serve the School.
FACULTY ACTIONS
• Graduate Opportunity Program Fellowship
Bruce Bare moved and Rob Harrison seconded the motion that the faculty approve the School of
Environmental and Forest Diversity Plan. The faculty voted to approve the Diversity Plan by a vote of 35
Approve, 0 Oppose, 5 Abstain.
• Graduate Faculty Appointment
Rob Harrison moved and Jerry Franklin seconded the motion that Professor Tom DeLuca be appointed as a
member of the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences Graduate Faculty with endorsement to chair
Ph.D. committees. The faculty voted to approve this appointment and endorsement. The results of the vote
are on file in the Director’s office.
PRESENTATION
• No presentations are scheduled.
DISCUSSION
Open discussion will take place.
• ONRC plans. Proposal will be available for discussion. The Integrated Innovation at the Olympic
Peninsula Natural Resource Center fits with Mission and Vision of SEFS. We plan to roll out the proposal
to Senator Hargrove, and other legislators. This proposal will hopefully lead to funding a permanent
director for ONRC. We are looking to ONRC being sustainability center on the peninsula. We are working
with Built Environments on this. Dr. DeLuca will also be in conversation with Greg Miller of Civil and
Environmental Engineering to discuss in more detail. Please provide your thoughts and input to Dr.
DeLuca. The proposal should be brought forward at a later date for faculty approval.
• The Dean approached Dr. DeLuca a while ago about Natural Capital. SAFS & SEFS were identified as
potential places where they move their office. What would they bring to SEFS? Dr. DeLuca met with
Natural Capital and then with Dean’s office. The group in Seattle is primarily a marine focused group. But
overall Natural Capital is a terrestrial focused group. Mary Ruckelshaus is managing director of Natural
Capital. Dr. DeLuca met with her and they discussed how her group would integrate with our program.
Josh Lawler was asked to provide background about Natural Capital. He said the project is soft money
between Nature Conservancy, Stanford, and World Wildlife Fund. The University of Minnesota has
recently been added. They build tools to evaluate ecosystem services around the world. Natural Capital
staff have been working on class that Lawler is teaching. All funding goes through Stanford right now with
some at University of Minnesota. Any collaboration we might have with them won’t necessarily lead to
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School of Environmental and Forest Sciences
Faculty Meeting Minutes
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UW being one of the partners. The group has been housed at NOAA since they have been in Seattle. Mary
Ruckelshaus was employed at NOAA, and then went to work full time at Natural Capital. The group had
the use of one office space conference room facilities at NOAA, but they have been asked to leave. Part of
the agreement that has been talked about could bring 4 RAs to the College, but now it appears that 3 of the 4
would be held in SEFS if Natural Capital relocates here. All details in the agreement would be spelled out
in a Memorandum of Understanding between the College of the Environment and Natural Capital. Dr.
DeLuca would be involved in MOU. Faculty are encouraged to look at Natural Capital website. The spaces
that are being considered at this time are the old Advancement office in the Director’s suite, Edmonds’
office in Bloedel Hall, and Winkenwerder Room 017. The faculty ask that someone from Natural Capital
come to a faculty meeting and make a pitch to us. They will likely seek affiliate status in SEFS. Details
regarding post doctoral fellow appointments will need to be worked out. A faculty member asked what does
Dr. DeLuca need from us? He responded by asking if the faculty generally support this notion.? They did.
The MOU will be presented to the faculty for consideration. One faculty member brought up a concern to
make sure this does not impact us in ABB through indirect costs.
• First draft of Forest Protection position description was rejected by the Dean so the committee is working on
the next iteration.
UPCOMING MEETING
The next School of Environmental and Forest Sciences Faculty Meeting will be on Tuesday, January22, 2013
from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. in Anderson Hall Room 22.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 11:30 a.m.
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