Faculty Meeting Minutes
College of Forest Resources
Anderson Hall Room 22
Monday April 6, 2009, 10:30 a.m.
CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 10:32 a.m. by Gordon Bradley, College of Forest Resources Faculty
Chair. Tom Hinckley moved and Kevin Hodgson seconded the motion that the faculty approve the
minutes from the February 9, 2009 Faculty Meeting. The Minutes were approved by a vote of 31
Approve, 0 Oppose, 6 Abstain.
ATTENDANCE
PRESENT
Bakker, Jonathan
Bare, Bruce
Bradley, Gordon
Doty, Sharon
Eastin, Ivan
Edmonds, Robert
Ettl, Gregory
Franklin, Jerry
Gustafson, Richard
Halpern, Charles
Hinckley, Thomas
Hodgson, Kevin
Johnson, Jay
Lawler, Joshua
Marzluff, John
Paun, Dorothy
Perez-Garcia, John
Rabotyagov, Sergey
Torgersen, Christian
Toth, Sandor
Vogt, Daniel
Vogt, Kristiina
West, Stephen
Wirsing, Aaron
ABSENT
Agee, James
Allan, G. Graham
Bolton, Susan
Briggs, David
Bura, Renata
Ewing, Kern
Ford, E. David
Fridley, James
Gara, Robert
Glawe, Dean
Greulich, Frank
Hanley, Donald
Harrison, Robert
Kim, Soo-Hyung
Lippke, Bruce
Manuwal, David
McKean, William
Moskal, L. Monika
Peterson, David
Reichard, Sarah
Ryan, Clare
Schiess, Peter
Sprugel, Douglas
Strand, Stuart
Turnblom, Eric
Zabowski, Darlene
ALSO IN ATTENDANCE
Fink, Lois
Smith, Nevada
Morgan, Sally
The names that are grayed out are not eligible to vote. 47 eligible faculty.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
• The next Research Forum will be Monday April 13, 2009. Renata Bura whose talk is entitled
“Bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass to fuels and chemicals.” Jon Bakker was scheduled to
talk, but has broken his hand and asked to be rescheduled.
• The Provost and Interim Dean Dennis Hartmann along with Stephanie Harrington have asked to
meet with the faculty to discuss the RCEP process. This meeting will take place Friday April 10,
2009 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the Forest Club Room.
• Committee membership nominations are being sought along with nominations for Chair and Vice
Chair.
1. Three members of the Promotion, Merit, and Tenure Committee (PMT) have terms that expire in
June 2009. If you would like to service on this committee, please contact Nevada Smith.
2. Two members of the Elected Faculty Council (EFC) have terms that expire in June 2009. If you
would like to serve on the Council, please contact Eric Turnblom, Chair of the EFC, or Darlene
Zabowski, Vice Chair.
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3. Two members of the Curriculum Committee have terms that expire in June 2009. If you would
like to serve on this committee, please contact John Perez-Garcia.
4. Nominations for both Chair and Vice Chair are being solicited by the Elected Faculty Council
(EFC). Eric Turnblom chairs the EFC this year.
• Two Faculty Senators terms will expire in June 2009, Monika Moskal and Doug Sprugel. The
Faculty Senate will solicit a vote for election of new members. The number of replacements needed
will be either be one or two and is determined by the number of eligible to vote faculty members
during Spring Quarter 2009 (50-60 eligible faculty have 4 senators). Though the Faculty Senate
ballot will list all eligible to vote faculty members, it might be helpful for the faculty to know who is
willing to make the commitment to serve on the Senate. If you are interested in serving on the
Faculty Senate for a two year term, please let Nevada Smith know and then let the faculty know who
has expressed interest in serving on the Faculty Senate.
• An Important Reminder from Your CFR Health and Safety Committee
General Asbestos Awareness training is now an annual requirement by the Washington Department
of Labor and Industries (L&I) for ALL UW employees. An email was distributed to all UW
Employees which includes faculty. The training is mandatory and annual. Failure to meet the
training requirements could result in penalties and fines. If you need further information, please
contact David Zuckerman, dzman@u.washington.edu.
• The College of Forest Resources Academic Program Review Report from the Committee has been
released and is overwhelmingly positive. We have 10 days to review and provide comments. If you
have any comments, please send to Steve West.
PRESENTATIONS
No presentations are scheduled.
FACULTY ACTIONS
• Proposed Faculty under Consideration for the Research Assistant/Associate Professor position
in Wildland Fire Science
Tom Hinckley moved and Ivan Eastin seconded the motion that the faculty accept the
recommendations of the Wildland Fire Science Faculty Search Committee regarding the
qualifications and ranking of the two candidates:
1. Ernesto Alvarado, Ph.D., Research Scientist, University of Washington
2. Nicole M. Vaillant, Ph.D., USFS Fire Ecologist, Sparks, NV and Nevada City, CA
The results of the vote are on file in the Faculty Chair’s office.
• Proposed Affiliate Associate Professor Appointment
Bob Edmonds moved and Tom Hinckley seconded the motion that the faculty consider Dale J.
Blahna, Ph.D., Research Social Scientist, U.S. Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station,
for Affiliate Associate Professor in the College of Forest Resources. This appointment is being
sponsored by Clare Ryan. It is anticipated that Dr. Blahna will actively participate in a many
activities in the College, including collaborative research efforts and mentoring graduate students.
The faculty voted electronically to approve this appointment. The results of the vote are filed in the
Faculty Chair’s office.
• Proposed Affiliate Professor Appointment
Ivan Eastin moved and Kevin Hodgson seconded the motion that the faculty consider Zeng
Zongyong, Ph.D., Professor of Ecology, College of Life Science, Sichuan University, for Affiliate
Professor in the College of Forest Resources. This appointment is being sponsored by Tom
Hinckley. Dr. Zeng has supported many undergraduate students in the exchange program UW has
with Sichuan University. Drs. Hinckley and Zeng currently have a sub-contract award from the
Chinese equivalent of NSF to evaluate the apparent low productivity of bamboo in Jiuzhaigou
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National Park. The faculty voted to approve this appointment. The results of the vote are filed in
the Faculty Chair’s office.
• Proposed Affiliate Professor Appointment
Sharon Doty moved and Ivan Eastin seconded the motion that the faculty consider Tang Ya, Ph.D.,
Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, Sichuan University for Affiliate Professor in the
College of Forest Resources. This appointment is being sponsored by Tom Hinckley. Dr. Tang
currently is the PI on a Project Grant from the Chinese equivalent of the NSF that supports
international collaborative research at Jiuzhaigou National Park on which Dr. Hinckley shares a subcontract. The faculty voted to approve this appointment. The results of the vote are filed in the
Faculty Chair’s office.
• Proposed Affiliate Professor Appointment
Ivan Eastin moved and Tom Hinckley seconded the motion that the faculty consider Donald P.
Hanley, Ph.D., for Affiliate Professor. Dr. Hanley retired on February 28, 2009 from service as a
Washington State University Extension Forester housed at the University of Washington. The
College of Forest Resources faculty voted to approve an emeritus appointment for Dr. Hanley at the
February 9, 2009 Faculty Meeting. It subsequently came to light that since he was never employed
by the UW, he could not hold an emeritus appointment. Hence, we are pursuing an Affiliate
Professor appointment instead. Dr. Hanley served the College of Forest Resources for 26 years and
anticipates continued interactions with the College. This appointment will be sponsored by Gordon
Bradley. The faculty voted to approve this appointment. The results of the vote are filed in the
Faculty Chair’s office.
• Proposed Curriculum Change
Kevin Hodgson moved and Tom Hinckley seconded the motion that the faculty accept the
recommendation of the College of Forest Resources Curriculum Committee and the Paper Science
and Engineering faculty to change the course description of PSE 104, Products and Energy from
Renewable Resources. A phrase will be added to more accurately reflect course content:
“Comparison of renewable energy sources: biomass, water, geothermal, wind and solar” will be
added. The faculty voted electronically to approve this change by a vote of 33 Approve, 0 Oppose, 5
Abstain of 47 eligible.
• Proposed Curriculum Change
Kevin Hodgson moved and Tom Hinckley seconded the motion that the faculty accept the
recommendation of the College of Forest Resources Curriculum Committee and the Paper Science
and Engineering faculty that PSE 102, Paper, Society and Environment, be dropped from the
curriculum because PSE 104 will be the primary service course for the PSE curriculum. The faculty
voted to approve this change by a vote of 33 Approve, 0 Oppose, 5 Abstain of 47 eligible.
DISCUSSION
• Final Report of the Ad Hoc School of Forest Resources Organization Committee--Steve West and an
update on the CoEnv Curriculum Committee. The committee has met weekly since January 23,
2009. The timeline to complete was stepped up a bit to accommodate the start of the RCEP process.
The committee reviewed other structures on campus and determined that no other unit could be used
as a “boiler plate.” The duties and commitments in the report are stated as reported by the current
people in the administrative positions. The models presented represent an administrative structure
shared with faculty and staff and organized around function, structure follows function. The name
used throughout the document is “School of Forest Resources” (SFR) knowing that the new of the
unit as it could exist in the College of the Environment could be changed and SFR is used as a
“placeholder.” Notably, the current duties of the chair will reside with the director as will most of
the duties of the dean. Two structures are presented in the document: one with a director and one
associate director and one with a director and two associate directions (approximates current
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structure of CFR). The structure with one associate director will return one more faculty member to
full time teaching. Duties that are currently accomplished by one of the administrative faculty that
will be returned to the faculty are: Graduate Program Coordinator (currently accomplished by
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs), Curriculum Coordinator (currently accomplished by Vice
Chair), responsibilities for ESRM 300 will become responsibility of faculty (currently taught by
Dean), IT Committee would be established that will have 3 faculty members. It is anticipated that
the Director of the SFR will retain the membership on the Board of Natural Resources. Since the
SFR will be one rung lower in the administrative hierarchy, new committee structures and By-Laws
will need to be determined. Dr. West anticipates that the CFR faculty will take action on the SFR
structure toward the end of Spring Quarter 2009.
• Update from Tom Hinckley regarding College of the Environment Institute and RFP. Dr. Hinckley
reported that no RFP has been issued and there is not update.
• Dean Bare will lead a brief discussion regarding two issues pertaining to the College of the
Environment (CoEnv).
1. RCR funds and the CoEnv proposal to retain about one fourth of the funds. Although we have
been reassured since the beginning of the CoEnv process that if CFR becomes SFR we will not
lose support, Interim Dean Hartmann has stated that the CoEnv wants 25% of the RCR that has
usually come to the CFR. The annual amount of RCR is based on the 3 year average, which
currently about $400K. The current model is to use ~$300K to fund staff that support research
first (8-9 people). The Dean has kept 25% of the remainder and 75% goes to the Chair of CFR.
If CoEnv takes $100K then there will only be funds to support the staff who are currently paid
from this budget. No money would accumulate to use for start-up packages for new faculty. It
was suggested to the Dean that the CFR faculty change the types of grants they go apply for to
include more with a greater indirect cost return. This could mean shifting away from current
alignments such as with CESU, Stand Management, and USFS who do not pay any IDC to
granting agencies with higher paying overhead. CFR’s indirect cost recovery as a percent of
total grant expenditures is 11%, as a comparison, Atmospheric Sciences is 39%.
2. The CFR Administration’s response to the Provost’s RCEP proposal. The Class C legislation
has been published establishing the RCEP. The Dean met with the RCEP committee chair. The
clock is running for 30 calendar days from date of publication before report is due.
• Steve West was asked to comment on the meeting of the College of the Environment Curriculum
Committee. The Committee has met once and discussed establishing baseline curricula for the
CoEnv that would include minimum credits for all units. This model would add to CFR’s current
established curriculum requirements and would be difficult to manage in the ABET accredited PSE
curriculum which has little room for electives much less additional required credits. Steve has
recommended that the CoEnv follow the “lowest common denominator” model to start.
• Jay Johnson suggested that a member of the CFR faculty might want to consider serving on the
Faculty Senate Faculty Council on Academic Standards. He has served on this Council and has been
able to speak to the Council from the CFR perspective.
UPCOMING EVENTS
• The next Faculty Meeting will be on Monday, April 20, 2009 from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. in
Anderson Hall Room 22.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 11:33 a.m.
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