Action Items and Recommendations
2013 Retreat Committee (Kocher, Lips, Popper, Singer, Wilkinson)
Key Issues: Research
1) Facilitating greater interaction between faculty and students to stimulate collaboration
Action Item 1: Establish a departmental seminar series.
Responsibility: Jerry Wilkinson (Spring 2013)
The current plan is to organize a faculty seminar once per month.
Action Item 2: Organize a Friday afternoon departmental poster session/reception at least once
per month.
Responsibility: Postdocs and graduate students (Fall 2013)
Posters by graduate students or postdocs from 3-4 different labs, with refreshments, beginning at 3pm.
(Possible scheduling conflicts with Neuroscience Work in Progress meetings need to be addressed).
Invite people from other departments to themed sessions to help promote discussion and interaction.
Action Item 3: Peer review of grant proposals.
Responsibility: Bring to faculty meeting for discussion
We need to establish a culture of peer review of grant proposals before submission. Ideally they would
be shared at least a month before the deadline, so there is time for revisions. Although it would seem
this could be implemented informally, we should discuss how to encourage peer review.
2) Support for graduate students and lab technicians
Action Item 4: WWW page listing fellowship and grant opportunities.
Responsibility: Jerry Wilkinson and Janie Brown
We need to establish Biology-specific www site listing fellowship opportunities, deadlines, AND a
listing of fellowships that have been awarded to Biology students (Names, dates held) together with
copies of successful proposals.
3) Support for faculty
Action Item 5: Proliferation of compliance issues (IRBNet etc.)
Responsibility: Dan Lathrop
Faculty are spending more and more time with compliance and reporting. We need to identify ways to
minimize this time. Invite Dan Lathrop to faculty meeting to identify ways to reduce faculty workload.
4) Identify focal groups to seek out new funding sources.
Action Item 6: Identification of collaborative funding opportunities.
Responsibility: Biology Chair, Dan Lathrop, Ken Gertz, Anne Geronimo
Organize focal groups to think creatively about collaborative research opportunities and new funding
sources. Develop ‘themes’ in advance, so that we have a foundation established before the RFPs are
released. Invite Dan, Ken, Anne to talk about the development of collaborative grants.
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Key Issues: Curriculum and Teaching
1) Improve support for courses
One of the biggest issues raised at the retreat is the impact that increasing enrollments and decreasing budgets
have had on the number of TAs available to help teach our classes. We discussed several ideas for dealing with
this issue.
Action Item 7: Invite Bob Infantino to faculty meeting to learn about current funding model.
Responsibility: Jerry Wilkinson
Few faculty understand the mechanisms by which funds are allocated for teaching. This seems an
important starting point for subsequent discussions.
Action Item 8: Develop a complete financial model for each course, as we do for Winter Term.
Responsibility: Reid Compton, Jerry Wilkinson
Although decisions should not be based on profitability, we need to understand which classes,
particularly at the introductory levels, are using the most resources.
Action Item 9: Seek support from Dean/Provost for reductions in class size and improvements to
teaching methods.
Responsibility: BSCI chairs, Bob Infantino
Enrollments in BSCI have risen, and further increases can be anticipated because of emphasis on
increasing STEM education. We need support from higher levels to manage these increases.
Action Item 10: Identify the courses in greatest need of TA support
Responsibility: BSCI chairs, Reid Compton, Joelle Presson, Bob Infantino
By what criteria do we make these decisions to invest resources? We need both quantitative, and
qualitative, information in order to optimize allocation of existing TA resources.
Action Item 11: Consider the use of “professional” TAs for some courses
Responsibility: Jerry Wilkinson will bring to faculty meeting for discussion.
A professional TA (i.e. Instructor teaching multiple lab/discussion sections) could help provide
continuity and expertise in some courses, and might prove cost effective.
2) Improve communication about course content
There is a need for better communication among faculty (particularly upper and lower level courses) about
course content. Increased focus on learning outcomes assessment requires a better definition of core
competencies for the students finishing each course.
Action Item 12: Make course syllabi and learning objectives available on the www
Responsibility: Jerry Wilkinson, Reid Compton, Cecilia Jordan
Faculty cooperation is essential. Submission of syllabi to Cecilia should be made a mandatory part of
annual faculty reports.
Action Item 13: Organize meetings of faculty in each discipline to discuss curricula.
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Responsibility: Biology Department UPCC (Undergrad Policy, Courses, Curricula)
This is a basic function of the faculty, but responsibility for organizing these discussions is not clear.
3) Reconsider introductory course configurations
Increasing enrollments by non-majors in our introductory classes are taking resources that we might rather
devote to classes our majors take.
Action Item 14: Consider eliminating labs in BSCI 105, 106 to free up TAs for other classes.
Responsibility: BSCI chairs, Bob Infantino
Many of the students in BSCI 105 and 106 are not our majors. Do we want to invest our TA resources
in teaching these students?
Action Item 15: Discuss the content and effectiveness of BSCI 207
Responsibility: Joelle Presson; BSCI 207 faculty should report back to department
There is continuing concern and confusion over the content, intent and effectiveness of BSCI 207.
Joelle Presson is conducting meetings with faculty to discuss.
Action Item 16: Investigate how blended learning strategies might be used in the department
Responsibility: Biology Department UPCC
Technological solutions are being promoted to reduce costs and improve learning outcomes. This may
be a trend, and appears to be a priority with administrators.
4) Communication with the BSCI teaching and administrative staff
Biology faculty have little communication with the BSCI faculty and staff located in Symons Hall. They also
are not involved in advising students. As a result, many faculty members do not feel they have ownership in the
BSCI program. One idea we discussed was moving BSCI staff into our building. There may be other
mechanisms for increasing communication between our faculty and the BSCI program.
Action Item 17: Identify mechanisms to improve communication with BSCI faculty and staff.
Responsibility: Jerry Wilkinson
Invite Asst Dean Lisa Bradley to give a presentation at a faculty meeting. She oversees advising.
Action Item 18: Update curriculum sheets to reflect courses currently offered (esp. ECEV).
Responsibility: Reid Compton and Dean’s office staff
As many as half of courses currently listed on the ECEV curriculum sheet have not been taught in the
last 5 years.
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Key Issues: Purpose of the Department
1) Identify a department name that better reflects our “Why”
Our current name is a relict of past reorganizations, and does not distinguish our mission relative to other
CMNS departments. A positive statement of identity would help define the purpose of our department.
Action Item 19: Change our name to “Department of Integrative Biology”
Responsibility: Jerry Wilkinson will bring to Faculty Meeting
2) Department Structure
Several problems with the current structure were discussed, including lack of alignment with the undergraduate
or graduate program options. We have not reached a collective vision of the departmental mission and goals.
At the same time, the Dean has invited discussion on possible changes to organizational structure. Ideas being
discussed include formation of a department of Biochemistry and Biophysics and a grand unification of the
BSCI departments into a ”School of Life Sciences”. Realignment of some Entomology faculty might
strengthen our programs in ecology and evolutionary biology. We need to discuss these ideas, carefully
considering the long-term impacts of any changes. The discussion should be based on factual cost-benefit
analyses, rather than emotion.
Action Item 20: Provide input to the Dean regarding departmental reorganization
Responsibility: Jerry Wilkinson will bring to Faculty Meeting
3) Executive management
The Chair currently spends a lot of time managing issues with facilities and operations. An executive manager
could provide valuable assistance to the Chair with staff management, budget management and data
management.
Action Item 21: Consider appointment of an Executive Manager
Responsibility: Bill Fagan
This issue is best handled by the incoming Chair, but there may be some issues that should be discussed
with faculty.
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