School of Forest Resources
Faculty Meeting Minutes
February 8, 2011, 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Anderson Hall Room 22
CALL TO ORDER
10:30
The meeting was called to order by Bruce Bare, Emeritus Dean (Tom Hinckley, Interim Director, is at the
Tulalip Tribal Conference) at 10:33 a.m. Peter Schiess moved and John Perez-Garcia seconded the motion that
the faculty approve the Minutes of the January 25, 2011 Faculty Meeting. The faculty voted to approve the
minutes with a vote of 30 Approve, 0 Oppose, 9 Abstain
ANNOUNCEMENTS
10:35
• Search for Joint appointment position 2/3 Atmospheric Sciences 1/3 another unit. Doug Sprugel is SFR’s
representative on the Search Committee. The joint appointment details have not been worked out yet. The
job description details atmosphere or biosphere interactions. Doug believes that all but one of the candidates
that have been selected to visit campus would be comfortable with an appointment in SFR. The Search
Committee did their best to select candidates who would be comfortable in SFR. It is anticipated that this will
be an assistant professor appointment. The Dean and Provost really want this to be joint appointment. The
candidates will hold their seminars in Atmospheric Sciences, but they will come to SFR to meet with faculty
and the Director. If a joint appointment is made with SFR the person would be expected to teach one course
per year in Forest Resources. Doug considers this an interesting opportunity. Faculty wonder if this person is
hired and has a joint appointment in SFR would this count against future positions? Is this taking the place of
someone we would pick in the future? Tom has tried to garner that promise, he believes it shouldn’t impact
our ability to hire. 1/3 of salary the person’s salary would come to our budget from central sources. Doug
will send out link to credentials website when it is live and will send out the seminar schedules as they are
determined. Monday February 14, 2011 at 2:30 p.m. the first candidate will visit.
• The first meeting of the Director’s Search Committee took place last week. The advertisement is almost
crafted and once it is approved by Academic Human Resources, it will be posted. The faculty are worried that
it is going too slowly. Dr. West, who is serving on the Search Committee, encouraged the faculty to send
names to him or other Committee members of potential candidates for this position. The schedule that the
Search Committee has put forward has the search completed by the second week of May. The vision is to
have someone here by the start of Autumn 2011. Hopefully, the Committee can move this quickly.
• The All-School Meeting, originally scheduled for November 23rd (but cancelled due to the UW closure), has
been rescheduled to 2:00 p.m. Wednesday February 16, 2011 in the Forest Club Room. The agenda will be
distributed early next week.
• Sustaining our Northwest World lecture will take place on February 24, 2011 in Architecture Hall Room 147
from 7-8:00 p.m. RSVP is required for this event.
• The SFR Graduate Student Symposium will take place on February 25, 2011 in the Forest Club Room.
• Associate Dean presentations have been scheduled:
Wednesday, February 9th, 12:30PM-1:30PM
Anderson 207
Candidate: LuAnne Thompson
Friday, February 11th, 12:30PM-1:30PM
Anderson 207
Candidate: Julia Parrish
Wednesday, February 16th, 12:30PM-1:30PM
Fishery Sciences 203
Candidate: Clare Ryan
FACULTY ACTIONS
11:00
• Affiliate Associate Professor Faculty Appointment
Eric Turnblom moved and Doug Sprugel seconded the motion that the faculty consider the appointment of
Robert Deal as Affiliate Associate Professor. This appointment is sponsored by Sandor Toth. Dr. Deal is
an alumnus of the School of Forest Resources, graduating in 1987 with a masters degree in silviculture. He
obtained his PhD at the Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR in 1999 in Forest Resources. Currently,
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School of Forest Resources Faculty Meeting
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Dr. Deal is Research Silviculturist and Science Team Leader in the US Forest Service Pacific Northwest
Research Station in Portland, OR. Dr. Deal provides ongoing support for SFR programs on forest
ecosystem services, and serves on the Precision Forestry Cooperative’s Executive Board. This appointment
should encourage further collaboration between the PNW Research Station and faculty investigators at SFR.
The faculty voted to approve this appointment. The results of the vote are on file in the Director’s Office.
DISCUSSION
10:40
Environmental Literacy. (led by Steve West) The College of the Environment Curriculum Committee has
been discussing environmental literacy. The Committee has discussed the definition below and finds it
acceptable. The Committee is now interested in finding out if this definition meets expectations of the faculty
in the College so they are taking the discussion to all the units. The College of the Environment Curriculum
Committee decided to take the lead to determine a definition that would work at the University of Washington.
The first step is to come with a definition and the Committee found one on a Carnegie Mellon website for a
web-based course that is on environmental literacy. Wants faculty to look at the statement and see if it meets
they approve.
Environmental Literacy
“The need to have a working knowledge of environmental issues is not confined to environmental
scientists, engineers, and policy makers. The interconnected nature of environmental problems, the
interactions between social and individual decision making, and their effect on the development of
solutions for environmental problems require that a comprehensive environmental literacy course
include scientific, social, economic, organizational, and ethical dimensions.
Although “environmental literacy” is a difficult concept to define, we use the term to mean the
capability for a contextual and detailed understanding of an environmental problem in order to enable
analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and ultimately sound and informed decision making at a citizen's level.
We do this in hopes that the environmentally literate student will have the knowledge, tools, and
sensitivity required to properly address environmental problems in his or her future professional
capacity, and routinely include the environment as one of the considerations in their work and daily
living.”1
1. Carnegie Mellon online resource on “Environmental Decision Making, Science, and Technology”
(http://telstar.ote.cmu.edu/environ/m1/s1/index.shtml) based on an established course on environmental literacy and intended as a
resource for faculty and students.
If you have concerns or revisions let Steve know. If the definition is OK he will take it forward and the
Curriculum Committee will craft classes that would meet an environmental literacy standard. The first
paragraph sets the stage for the second paragraph which is the actual definition. The definition deals with
interaction between society and environment. At UW we should be educating responsible citizens in regards to
the environment. There’s a possibility that we might have a short menu of courses that deal with the issues.
The courses would have these components that are listed. There will probably be new courses but courses may
already exist that already meet this definition. An environmental literacy course won’t be a UW-wide
requirement at this time. The CoEnv Curriculum Committee is looking at several ideas such as an on-line
course, or a CoEnv requirement at the 100 or 200 level. Steve suggested that the faculty look at the Carnegie
Mellon course online. The faculty wondered if this is not going to be a college requirement why mess with it.
Steve’s answer was to offer it to the campus so that citizens can be educated as an environmentally literate
person.
UPCOMING EVENTS
The next School of Forest Resources Faculty Meeting will be on Tuesday, March 8, 2011 from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
in Anderson Hall Room 22.
ADJOURNMENT
11:30
The meeting was adjourned at 11:07 a.m.
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Attachments:
• Minutes of the January 25, 2011 Faculty Meeting
• Environmental literacy document
• Robert Deal Appointment Package
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