“Draft”
UNIVERSITY RESEARCH COUNCIL MINUTES
May 6, 2013
Members Present:
Louis Kyriakoudes (Arts & Letters), Cheri Becker (Business), Joyce Shaw, Jorge Brown
(Library) Syd Conner (SPA),
By Teleconference:
Carol L. Connell, Lachel Story (Health),
Absent:
Sharon Topping (Business)
Trent Gould (Health)
Mohamed Elasri (Science and Technology)
Dana Fennell (Arts & Letters)
Christopher Barry (Education & Psychology)
Bonnie Lee Harbaugh (Nursing)
Ras B. Pandey (Science and Technology)
Douglas Masterson (Faculty Senate representative)
Denis Wiesenburg (VPR)
Gordon Cannon (VPR)
Sam Bruton (Research Integrity)
Others Present:
Marcia Landen (SPA)
Shelia Johnson (SPA)
Eric Powell (GCRL)
Pre-meeting welcome (Eric Powell, Director, GCRL)
The meeting was held @ the Gulf Coast Research Lab (GCRL), Caylor Room 104. Dr. Eric
Powell, the new director of GCRL introduced himself and welcomed the URC to the GCRL. He
spoke briefly about GCRL. There are two sites. The meeting was held at the smaller of the two
sites. There are 15 tenure/tenure track faculty and 200 total faculty and staff. There are four (4)
boats. A boat tour was planned but could not be done because of high winds and small craft
warnings. They do mostly fisheries, aquaculture, and marine biology research. The institution is
predominantly a research institution at the graduate level with masters and PhD candidates and a
few post docs. There is a very active marine education program which caters predominantly to
middle school through undergraduates (K-12): targeting the older of the K-12 and
undergraduates. They will set a record for the summer undergraduate program this year (2013).
They will max out on the available lodging with people coming in from 15–20 states and from
35-40 academic institutions, mostly in the heartland of the country down to GCRL. They run a
Sea Camp for younger kids and Shark fest which targets teenagers where they go out catch and
tag sharks. This attracts a lot of people wanting to participate with a resulting long waiting line.
They typically see about four to five thousand in a year in the Marine Education Program.
Recovery from Katrina continues. The new building directly across from today’s meeting room
replaces a building washed away by the storm and is scheduled for completion today with classes
scheduled for the following week. That program has been operating out of trailers for a number
of years. There are eight (8) more buildings to be built which will be built on the other campus:
a toxicology building and seven (7) other buildings to support the Marine Education program. He
is looking for a way to afford another building for lodging. They are out of beds. Most people
who come down to take courses cannot afford to stay in even the cheapest hotels in town for a
week or a month. They need to maintain short term lodging for students who stay from a day up
to a month. Headline items to report on the research end of things are that a lot of work is being
done with the Department of Marine Resources (DMR) on supporting their resource management
program; particularly with fisheries. They have a MOU with DMR that generates a joint task
force to access the status of marine fish docks and provide management advice. This includes
surveys on boats to catch fish to pretty heavy duty modeling. There is a pretty large aquaculture
program partly involved with stock enhancement. They put in >100,000 speckled trout every
year. Red snapper were released for the first time this year (2013). They are the only facility in
the country that has ever been able to grow and release red snapper. They are relatively unique in
that aspect. They have a blue crab aquaculture program that is aimed at growing crabs for the
soft shell market. They have a partnership with USDA and Alcorn State. They expect to have
farmers growing blue crab sometime in the near future. They grow shrimp and have the
foremost sturgeon (ancient looking fish on the endangered species list). Sturgeon tends to react
very badly with boats. There is tracking program to follow sturgeon around and hopefully help
boats avoid them because sturgeon can’t be taught how to avoid boats. On the modeling end of
things they have a very unique modeling capability. They interact with many academic
institutions around the country with population dynamics modeling. There are some major
projects funded on marine diseases and modeling of marine diseases. There are several ongoing
projects on how to better manage marine fisheries through fairly sophisticated models which
incorporate both the fish and the management agencies and the behavior of fishermen. The buzz
word for that is a Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE); when you hear about an MSE. They
are involved in adaptive management. One of the calculations just completed was with
Northwestern on walruses, which eat a calculated untold number of clams in the Barren and
Chesapeake Islands. The problem is that no one catches these clams in any bottom surveys. The
puzzle is how can all these walruses be alive and eat so many clams when there aren’t any clams.
A model was put together to calculate the probability of an oceanographic vessel dropping a
sampling device over the side in an area where there was one (1) clam per square meter which is
a lot of clams. What was the probability that that vessel would ever catch a clam? The result is
there is essentially no probability that they will ever catch a clam. There are a lot of clams out
there but the oceanographers haven’t figured out how to catch them yet. However, the walruses
have figured it out really well. GCRL is involved in a lot of long term projects as well as rapid
response projects as a part of their mission.
The meeting was then called to order at 3:35 p.m. by Ms. Joyce Shaw. Ms. Shaw had one proxy
vote (Dr. Dana Fennell) authority. She acknowledged applauded the great job that Dr. Sharon
Topping has done as URC Chair. Dr. Topping was unable to attend the meeting today. Dr.
Topping will be retiring from the university at the end of this academic year. She has turned it
over at this point to Ms. Shaw. Ms. Shaw suggested some form of appreciation for all the hard
work and excellent leadership Dr. Topping has contributed. It was discussed and determined that
there were sufficient members to reach quorum. The agenda was unanimously accepted.
1. Approval of Minutes
Copies of the minutes from the last minute were distributed to members. Approval of all the
unapproved “draft” minutes now loaded on the web site was suspended by acclamation. Roberts
Rules of order were discussed and suspended temporarily in regard to approval of the minutes by
e-mail.
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MOTION: Dr. Kyriakoudes moved to suspend Roberts Rules of Order on the issue of the
approval of the minutes by e-mail with a second by Dr. Cheri Becker.
Action Item: Ms. Joyce Shaw will initiate finalizing the approval of the minutes. Members will
offer corrections, yeas and nays online, and follow up to hopefully have it all put together before
the beginning of the summer semester.
Reports and Announcements
Office of VP for Research (Gordon Cannon) – No Report. He called Ms. Shaw to say he had no
report for the meeting, but was working on some things that he hope to have finalized by the next
meeting of the URC and would report at that time.
Office of Research Integrity (Sam Bruton) – Dr. Bruton was unable to attend but e-mailed a
written report which will be included in the minutes.
Office of Research Administration (Marcia Landen) – Ms. Landen reported that she is working
on some new guidelines on handling fixed priced awards regarding leftover funds: how much
researchers can retain, and how the project close out is handled. There has been an unfortunate
practice of keeping those grant accounts open forever until the money is gone. It is not good
practice to keep unrestricted funds in restricted fund accounts. As long as those restricted fund
accounts are open, they are open to audits and mistakes. A mistake was recently made a few
weeks ago. Expenses were charged to an account that should not have been which is
problematic: hence, the need for a policy and guidelines quickly. This is not necessarily the
biggest issue, but it is a good place to work on. She did not want to give the impression that there
is a great big problem. There is not. This is a policy and procedure hole they are just plugging.
As various holes in policies and procedures are discovered, they are being plugged one at a time.
The effects at USM of funding on sequestration have really not yet been felt. Some budgets have
been cut or certain pieces not funded, but that is not much different than in prior years. Funding
has been so tight at the agencies.
Ms. Landen wanted the URC to know that with the combining of SPA and OCGA, she is in
search of a new name for both offices. She knows that SPA at least has had several names, but in
bringing those two areas together she needs one cohesive name. She is open to suggestions and
recommendations. Ms. Shaw asked if there was a prize. She received a coffee mug prize for
naming the “Tree House” at the Space Center. Ms. Landen said sure, she is a great baker. If the
suggested name was chosen, she would provide a prize for “name that office”. Ms. Shaw said
that kicks it up a notch. It becomes a competition. Mr. Jorge Brown asked when the logistics of
that merger would be complete. Ms. Landen said logistically both groups report to her now. She
is working to get better communication between the two groups. They have been slowly looking
at processes. She is on the verge of a restructure for some of the areas to hopefully make the pre
and post award functions a little less confusing to some of the researchers using the SPA services.
The same person who submits the proposal would most likely be managing the account on the
post award side and then have a relationship with an individual who will do the invoicing and
cash management. This has not been released to all the staff yet, but I don’t think that any of
them will be surprised. So, she is right on the verge of a restructure. Ms. Shaw asked about a
dedicated person like Ms. Roz Beach who was at one time their dedicated knowledgeable person.
Ms. Landen said that right now there is still a person assigned to particular areas and that is great
except when that person leaves and then it has caused chaos. There is not much knowledge
transfer. She would like to have a group of individuals assigned to various units/colleges so that
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you will know who you are working with within a group. Ms. Shaw said yes, allowing people to
take vacation, etc. Ms. Landen said yes, especially, Ms. Michelle Shows who has taken a lot of
the burden of the transition. Dr. Kyriakoudes spoke on behalf of his colleagues who have trouble
with grants in the College of Arts and Letters. They now go to Ms. Darlene Ramsey who is great
and is our handler. Now, you are anticipating that there will be a couple of people who will rotate
or handle responsibilities for the college? Ms. Landen answered yes, but she is not sure exactly
how that is going to work, but she felt having all the knowledge concentrated in one person is
dangerous. Dr. Kyriakoudes said that he had worked with Mr. Howard Fromkin who was great
and then retired. Darlene is terrific too. I had a great relationship with Howard and then a little
transition, but Darlene is very good and great to work with. Ms. Landen said that is what she is
trying to avoid in those kinds of transitions. Turnovers are to be anticipated. She agreed that
Darlene is great and easy to work with. She has a great staff and she does not want to lose
existing relationships, but she wants to protect that cutoff when somebody leaves.
Faculty Senate (Doug Masterson) – No Report. Dr. Masterson was unable to attend and did not
send a report.
Other Announcements
Dr. Bonnie Harbaugh notified Ms. Shaw that she would not be attending the meeting because of a
family health concern. Dr. Lachel Story reported that Dr. Bonnie Harbaugh’s husband who was
on an organ donor waiting list and could not be more than two hours away, did receive a call and
have his surgery. It was a little bit touch and go after surgery, but he is doing as expected. Ms.
Shaw thanked her for sharing this good news.
Old Business
URA Day (Louis Kyriakoudes)
Dr. Kyriakoudes announced that they have settled firmly on the date 11/8/13 for URA Day. This
date is agreeable to both Dr. Cannon and Dr. Wiesenburg. He has also contacted Ms. Polly
Odom to put the event on President Bennett’s calendar. He does not have confirmation because it
is a little early, but he has been assured that Dr. Bennett will attend if he can make it. He has
reserved the room and those kind of procedural organizational details are arranged. He wanted to
raise one issue about University Research Awards Days. His job is to arrange the luncheon and
actual awards and all those procedural issues.
Last year, Ms. Joyce Shaw and Dr. Dana Fennell organized the poster session. Somebody needs
to step into that role and organize the poster session for this fall. That has been a growing and
very important component of the URAD. He desires to see that continue in its pattern of growth.
We have a number of prizes for the poster people. He requested that at least two people be tasked
with this job since Dr. Fennell will not be on URC this fall. Ms. Shaw said Dr. Trent Gould
helped Dr. Fennell last year. She agreed to e-mail Dr. Trent Gould to do it and ask someone to
help him. She has chaired that one year minus a helper in the past and it is not that bad, mainly
getting the word out. Dr. Kyriakoudes agreed and said he will be there to help as well, but Dr.
Fennell was effective in getting the word out and recruiting poster presenters.
Action Item: Ms. Joyce Shaw will contact Dr. Trent Gould and ask him to replace Dr. Dana
Fennell and solicit a volunteer helper in organizing the poster session for the fall URAD.
It was widely agreed that it has gotten better every year. In the years that Dr. Kyriakoudes has
attended, he has personally found that going through the poster sessions, seeing the depth and
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breadth of research that is going on at this university; both from the graduate students who are
heavily represented and also the faculty, has been very satisfying and also a cheerleading event
for the research at the university. He thinks it is one of the stronger rituals that have been
developed at USM. Dr. Fennell agreed to send Dr. Kyriakoudes the forms and the letters she
used last year. Ms. Shaw said Dr. Fennell has already forwarded those documents to her and she
complimented her on doing a very “stand up” job. She had judges and certificates which gives
them something to hold on to indicating they did participate and did have one of the better
posters. Ms. Shaw will follow up and hopes to get more undergraduate participation at least in
attending and hopefully strategies to promote members of the council to work with the faculty in
their areas to encourage their students, i.e., Honors College of some other area that has a research
component for undergraduates. Ms. Shaw mentioned a Science Café she attended in Hattiesburg
this year. The honors college students sign in and get points for attending a Science Café. It is an
opportunity for the faculty to impress upon students that this is a research institution and posters
is one thing that they do to present their science. Dr. Kyriakoudes added that now is the time to
begin informing faculty about this so that they are aware of it over the summer for when they
come back in the fall and even for the summer session. Dr. Sherry Becker added that it could be
that a student is working on an independent study with faculty over the summer which would be a
good practice.
Dr. Topping told Ms. Shaw that Dr. Phyllis Jestice who has been spearheading Undergraduate
Research Day is leaving to take another position. Dr. Kyriakoudes said she is actually his Chair
in history and will indeed be leaving. Ms. Shaw suggested the URC needs to connect with her
replacement, not to take on Undergraduate Research Day because this is their thing, but to
connect with those students who would be the logical tie-ins to coming to the URAD. She felt
they might be under represented. She suggested perhaps a table for them. Dr. Kyriakoudes said
there has not been undergraduate representation in the past, but an award category could be
created for best undergraduate award poster presentation and make it clear that it is really there
for the advanced undergraduates that are mentored. The university has done very well in the
Polymer Science and Chemistry area in having our mentored advanced undergraduates going on
to win some of these national prizes. He thinks that would be more of the thing that would be
open for URAD. Undergraduate Research Day is a good event but it is more for papers and
students who are taking an upper division course and have created something interesting and
unique. It gives them the experience of sharing that in front of an audience. The standard for
URAD is a little higher and directed more toward truly original work, but we do have
undergraduates that are doing that. He did not think there would be a large number of
undergraduates that would attend the poster sessions. He felt comfortable delegating that to Dr.
Gould.
Undergraduate Research Day, April 20 (Louis Kyriakoudes)
Ms. Shaw said that Dr. Sharon Topping had asked for URC participation by as many as could in
support of Undergraduate Research Day, i.e. reviewing some of the papers, lending a hand, etc.
Ms. Shaw was unable to attend. As one of the people who did attend; she asked Dr. Kyriakoudes
to make a brief report.
Dr. Kyriakoudes reported that he was a judge for the Undergraduate Research Day on April 20,
2013 as a URC representative. He said it was a very successful event and had very wide
participation from all aspects of the university. He did the best paper in health care which he was
surprised to get. He was really impressed with the work the undergraduates are doing. It was a
pick me up.
Founders Day—Announcement of Innovation Awards (Lachel Story)
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Dr. Story reported that there was discussion about possibly not announcing the Innovation
Awards at Founders Day. At this point, Founders Day has taken out all faculty awards. The
background was that she notified the Provost, VPR, and Ms. Cynthia Easterling about the
announcements. A week before the event, since she had not heard from Cynthia Easterling who
usually asks her to double-check everything, she contacted her and they did not know what she
was talking about, somebody new was doing it, etc. Dr. Story told her that she would hate for
somebody to show up because they had been sent letters that announcements would be made at
Founders Day. Following Founders Day, Dr. Wiesenburg said they announced the Innovation
Award winners one by one, and not one single one of them was there. So, what they have done is
moved all the faculty awards to a Faculty Awards Day occurring just before Faculty Senate. The
Provost office has taken over Faculty Senate and some other awards. The want to move
Innovation Award announcements to that day, which actually was held this past Friday, even
though we are going to have our own awards day. Whoever is doing the Innovation Awards
needs to be reminded of this change from announcements at Founders Day to Faculty Awards
Day and make those changes to the notification letters. They will probably do it before the May
Faculty Senate meeting. Most of the awards are Faculty Senate awards. They have always
announced the awards in the May Faculty Senate, but it wasn’t a big “hoo haw”. The Provost’s
office decided for simplicity, instead of having this little thing here and this little thing there, to
put them all together and make it a little nicer. So they had fruit, cookies, and punch out before
hand and family and colleagues could be invited if they would like for them to come. The
president was there and gave out his Lucas Awards and it made it a little more special. Founders
Day is just for student awards now. This gives us a little bit more time. If you write grants,
which most of our people do, that is the time that the NIH grant applications are due. It really
puts a lot of pressure on people to have to make choices.
Ms. Shaw said this will be a change for the coming year and thanked Dr. Story for her report.
Ms. Shaw asked if she thought it weird that the names get announced but they don’t get their
awards. Dr. Story said all the people who got awards Friday got a plaque of some kind. What we
may want to do is not do any of that and just do it at our day. Dr. Kyriakoudes said the winners
of our awards have received medallions in the past. Ms. Shaw said Dr. Topping gave her a bag of
medallion which can be used and we don’t have to order them. The Lifetime Achievement
person gets a gift of some personal significance. Dr. Jay Dean got seed money for a scholarship.
That is what we did last year and the previous year it was a piece of art. The length of time from
the announcement in May to the award in November was discussed. The purpose of the event is
for them to speak for 45 minutes on their work. It is not like the academy awards where they call
you out of the audience. Dr. Kyriakoudes had no problem with them knowing in advance with
the condition of them showing up and giving their talk on the 8th of November. It is an
opportunity for them to share with the university the work for which they got the award.
Ms. Shaw said they would aim toward May 2014 for the awards to be announced with the
understanding that they will be back in November to make their presentation. There was
unanimous agreement.
By-laws (handout)
Copies of the bylaws were distributed and discussed. The amendments agreed upon were:
o Add “Clinical” visiting special adjunct to Sect. 2, Membership, part b.
o Add College of Nursing which did not exist in original bylaws
o Lifetime membership to limited to two (2) year maximum. Extended terms to
fill, only says Chair and Chair elect. (Note: Dr. Kyriakoudes stated that he will
not get off until next year, 2014 which Ms. Shaw was pleased to hear.)
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o
o
o
Under membership, (after discussion of where to put it) Mr. Jorge Brown
suggested including under ex Officio Section A, “add the chair of the Faculty
Senate and Scholarship subcommittee will be a voting member”. (Note: Ms.
Shaw made a note to look at having an election committee which would be new
after completing the bylaws).
Section 3, part C. College Research Committee should have an “s” added to
make it plural.
Section 3, part C, change “this” to respective CRC, for clarification. (Note: Dr.
Cheri Becker asked for clarification on the wording, Section 3.c “the College’s
University Research Council representatives will have regular memberships on
this committee”, what does “this” refer to? It was agreed to change the word
“this” to CRC. )
MOTION: Dr. Kyriakoudes moved to accept the By-laws as amended with a second by Mr.
Jorge Brown.
There was unanimous approval of the By-laws as amended with will be cleaned up and posted to
the URC web site.
Election of URC Membership (Dana Fennell, Jorge Brown, Joyce Shaw)
Mr. Jorge Brown and Ms. Joyce Shaw reported that they have not yet met. They have plans to set
up a meeting.
New Business
Dr. Cheri Becker announced that she is leaving for a sabbatical at Virginia Tech and will not be
back until January 2014. She will be unavailable until that time.
Next meeting: (fall semester, 2013) TBA
Action Item: Ms. Joyce Shaw will do an on-line schedule and try to set up a meeting.
12. Adjournment
Meeting adjourned at 5:05 pm
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