School of Environmental and Forest Sciences
Faculty Meeting Minutes
February 28, 2012, 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Anderson Hall Room 22
CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by Tom Hinckley, Interim Director.
ATTENDANCE
PRESENT: Ernesto Alvarado, Bruce Bare, Susan Bolton, Gordon Bradley, Sharon Doty, Ivan Eastin, Greg Ettl,
Thomas Hinckley, Kevin Hodgson, John Marzluff, Clare Ryan, Douglas Sprugel, Eric Turnblom, Dan Vogt, Steve
West, Aaron Wirsing
ABSENT: James Agee*, Graham Allan, Stanley Asah, Jonathan Bakker, David Briggs*, Sally Brown, Renata Bura,
Robert Edmonds, Kern Ewing, David Ford, Jerry Franklin, James Fridley, Robert Gara, Dean Glawe, Lisa
Graumlich, Frank Greulich, Richard Gustafson, Charlie Halpern, Rob Harrison, Jay Johnson, Soo-Hyung Kim, Josh
Lawler, Bruce Lippke*, David Manuwal*, William McKean, Monika Moskal, Dorothy Paun, John Perez-Garcia,
David Peterson, Sergey Rabotyagov, Sarah Reichard, Fernando Resende, Peter Schiess, Christian Torgersen, Sandor
Toth, Kristiina Vogt, Darlene Zabowski
ALSO ATTENDING: Cecilia Paul
49 eligible to vote faculty during Winter Quarter 2012.
*faculty member not eligible to vote Winter Quarter 2012.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
• Future Forestry Leaders Symposium, Friday, February 24 to Saturday, February 25, 2012, Vancouver, BC,
University of British Columbia, “A Graduate Student Research Symposium Celebrating the International
Year of the Forest.” Ivan Eastin reported on the Symposium stating the even was very successful. The even
included talks, poster sessions, a reception, and a field trip to the Squamish First Nations where participants
heard from the tribal forester and participated in wood-carving. This even may become an annual
collaboration with UBC.
• SEFS Winter 2012 “Sustaining our World” lecture, “All Together Now: Linking Ecosystem Services,
Endangered Species Conservation, and Local Livelihoods,” with Dr. Eric Dinerstein, Chief Scientist, World
Wildlife Fund, Thursday, March 1, 2012, Kane 220, 6 p.m.; rsvp at
http://engage.washington.edu/site/Calendar/735041649?view=RSVP&id=105861. Dr. Dinerstein is a SEFS
wildlife science alum, MS, ’79; PhD, ’83.
• SEFS Graduate Student Symposium, “Bridging Perspectives in Environmental and Forest Science,” Friday,
March 2, 2012, Anderson 207, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Keynote panel speakers include SEFS alums Mack Hogan,
MS, ’76; and Ara Erickson, MS, ’04.
• SEFS Director Search, four finalist names will be announced by email no later than 5 p.m. on March 1,
2012. Candidate visits will be planned for the first two weeks of Spring Quarter.
• Assistant Professors Bakker, Bura, and Kim have been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure
effective September 16, 2012.
• Budget situation update is that there is no news.
FACULTY ACTIONS
• Proposed Affiliate Assistant Professor appointment for Asep Suntana
Asep Suntana is being proposed as an Affiliate Assistant Professor by Daniel Vogt. Dr. Suntana received
his Ph.D. from SEFS in 2011. The title of his dissertation was “Non-Traditional Utilization of Forest
Biomass for Sustainable Energy Development.” It is expected that Dr. Suntana will support graduate
students and collaborate with faculty on projects. This item was tabled.
• Graduate Opportunity Program Fellowship
Doug Sprugel moved and Ernesto Alvarado seconded the motion that the School of Environmental and
Forest Sciences approve the Diversity Plan as presented. The faculty voted to approve the Plan with a vote
of XX Approve, XX Oppose, XX Abstain of 49 eligible to vote faculty.
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School of Environmental and Forest Sciences
Faculty Meeting Minutes
Page 2
DISCUSSION
• Proposed position for a research assistant professor in International Trade, Marketing and
Quantitative Analysis: proposed position will become part of the current faculty portfolio analysis process
(Ivan Eastin). Faculty Portfolio Analysis: Hinckley announced that the faculty portfolio analysis
submissions were due soon and would be reviewed by the ad hoc committee chaired by Bradley. Re:
consideration of faculty positions he asked Eastin to discuss a new proposal for a research assistant
professor position in international trade, marketing, and quantitative analysis to work with CINTRAFOR to
help generate the level of grant proposals needed to support the center (center is moving toward increased
funding from competitive grants, rather than federal/state earmarks). He said CINTRAFOR currently has
funding to support a research faculty member for a few years into the future. Discussion followed on how
this proposal would fit into the ongoing portfolio process, in which portfolio submissions will be ranked by
the faculty. It was agreed that Eastin’s proposal would fit well within a number of the subheadings in the
portfolio analysis; the consensus was that the proposal should be submitted for ranking along with the other
submissions.
• Dean’s Interdisciplinary Initiative: Hinckley introduced the topic of the recent email announcing the
Dean’s proposed interdisciplinary initiative. He said Executive Committee had discussed this: Meeting: the
first meeting a very general discussion; the second meeting a plan announced in which the CoEnv would
create four junior faculty positions, with startup packages of $250,000. The consensus was that joint
appointments would be a better strategy than “cluster hires.” A short list of interdisciplinary subject areas
was proposed. He said more meetings on the subject were scheduled. Faculty discussion centered around
several questions:
(1) What does “interdisciplinary” mean in the context of this proposal – broader inquiries or narrower
research areas?
(2) What is the overarching vision of this proposal? – seems to be lacking.
(3) How should this fit in to SEFS current faculty portfolio analysis project?
Hinckley said he would relay these questions and concerns at the next Executive Committee meeting and
report back to the faculty on any further developments.
UPCOMING MEETING
The next School of Forest Resources Faculty Meeting will be on Tuesday, March 13, 2012 from 10:30 to 11:30
a.m. in Anderson Hall Room 22.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 11:20 a.m.
Attachments: Suntana Appointment Package
Graduate Opportunity Program Fellowship document
Research Assistant Professor Proposal
Dean’s Interdisciplinary Initiative email
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