“Draft”
UNIVERSITY RESEARCH COUNCIL MINUTES
October 1, 2012
Members Present:
Lachel Story, Trenton Gould (Health), Bonnie Lee Harbaugh (Nursing)
Sharon Topping (Business), Dana Fennell & Louis Kyriakoudes (Arts & Letters), Christopher
Barry (Education & Psychology), Ras B. Pandey, Mohamed Elasri (Science and Technology),
Jorge Brown, Joyce Shaw (Library) Syd Conner (SPA)
Members Absent:
Denis Wiesenburg (VPR)
Marcia Landen (SPA)
Others Present:
Gordon Cannon (VPR)
The meeting was held in McCain Library Room 200. The meeting was called to order at 3:30
p.m. by Dr. Sharon Topping. The agenda was distributed.
1. Approval of Minutes
Minutes were reviewed and Dr. Topping will make the recommended changes to minutes.
MOTION: Dr. Lachel Story made a motion to approve the 8/27/2012 minutes with
discussed changes with a second by Dr. Trent Gould.
2. Membership
A new member from the College of Nursing, Dr. Bonnie Harbaugh, was introduced and
welcomed to the URC Council.
Dr. Richard Mohn, Education & Psychology, will no longer be an active member due to a
Monday meeting conflict. A replacement will be sought. His dean chose to put him on
Academic Council. Dr. Mike Wittmann from the College of Business stepped down and will
assume the role of Associate Dean in CoB. Election of a new member from CoB should be
completed by the next meeting. Dr. Topping spoke with Dr. Mike Forster about appointment of a
new member from College of Health. Dr. Topping was glad to see the Library members
physically in attendance at the meeting. Dr. Gordon Cannon stated that the Faculty Senate
contacted him and suggested that the Research & Scholarship Committee representative also
represent Faculty Senate on the URC. Dr. Ras Pandey is a member of the Research &
Scholarship Committee and they will meet for the first time this Friday. Dr. Lachel Story said it
was her understanding that she thought their intention was to appoint a voting working member
that was Faculty Senate only, not also representing a college, who would take on responsibilities
as well. Dr. Topping stated the Bylaws state that the two members from each college should be
voting members. She posed if the Faculty Senate member should be a voting member which was
discussed at length. A motion was made and unanimously approved.
MOTION: To amend the Bylaws to make a member from the Research and Scholarship
Committee a voting Faculty Senate representative on the University Research Council by Dr.
Trenton Gould and a second by Dr. Gordon Cannon
ACTION ITEM: Dr. Topping will contact the Dean of Education & Psychology about a
replacement for Dr. Richard Mohn.
ACTION ITEM: Dr. Trenton Gould will contact the Dean of Health about a new member
3. Update – Office of Vice President of Research – Dr. Gordon Cannon
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A research opportunity notice was sent out by Mr. Syd Conner a few weeks ago. USM
can submit ten (10) very broad topic pre-proposals by mid-October on sustainability to
the Ray Anderson Foundation which Dr. Martha Saunders personally worked with very
hard. The proposal can develop a curriculum for sustainability or work on some process
that is an industrial process. There is a maximum of $60,000 the first year with potential
continuing support. There is a very high percentage for success if good proposals are
submitted. Only two proposals have been received to-date and eight more are needed.
Dr. Topping would like URC members relaying this information to their respective
colleges and be active communication between URC and faculty. Using these
opportunities as a chance for communication would be very desirable.
The Foundation Index has been sent to each department chair on campus to use with their
faculty for access. Dr. Dan Camper compiled a very impressive CD at a cost of $10.00
per CD complete with instructions that can be accessed in several ways and formats.
Every chair should have it by now. Several members of URC asked Dr. Cannon for a
copy of the CD. Mr. Syd Conner requested a copy for SPA and he was asked if a copy
could be accessed with restricted access through the SPA website. The SPA website is
currently a work in progress with restricted access capabilities now in doubt. Dr.
Topping suggested the URC members communicate to their respective college the
availability of this Foundation Index disc.
The consistent research policy on Policies has not yet been approved by cabinet.
USM “White papers” for NSF EPSCor: Four White papers were received with a new
deadline of October 10, 2012 being granted for those four papers only.
Dr. Francis Collins and Senator Thad Cochran’s visit has been changed from a 3 day
meeting at USM to a six hour meeting in Jackson, MS with only a few people from each
university allowed to be there. INBRE will be a part of that agenda as it is the primary
reason for the visit.
4. Office of Research Integrity - Dr. Samuel Bruton
Dr. Sam Bruton was not in attendance due to a scheduled Ethics Seminar today. He sent an
update to Dr. Topping. Ms. Joyce Shaw said she attended his Gulf Park Plagiarism Workshop
and there was a good turnout and it was quite informative. It only lasts about an hour and fifteen
minutes. She would love to see it presented at the Research Lab. Dr. Cannon said the October
22, 2012 Community Based Research Workshop will be at the USM Hattiesburg Campus but was
not sure if he will do another one on the coast or if Dr. Bruton is trying to set up an electronic
meeting as well. Dr. Topping suggested the members remind their colleges that are involved in
this kind of work that it does require pre-registration. Her husband is having surgery and she will
have to miss it, but she would love to attend and really wished they would tape it.
Dr. Christopher Barry talked about the RCR Ad hoc committee effort to get a coherent organized
policy on what is going to be expected for both faculty and graduate student RCR training. They
had one meeting two weeks ago which focused on what will be expected for graduate students to
get appropriate levels of RCR training. The discussion has continued by e-mail on options the
departments can adopt. They will meet within the next few weeks and get those options to grad
council so they can take it back to their various departments and determine if it is going to be
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suitable. As an example, a lot of departments have stand-alone research ethics courses that grad
students take which might be a suitable option. The favored model is CITI training plus whatever
options the various departments adopt. Faculty training has not yet been discussed. Any input
from URC can be submitted to Dr. Barry as the URC representative.
In an e-mail from Dr. Bruton he talks about Academic Misconduct which has now been reviewed
by the USM attorney. At some point, it will be presented to URC for review, possibly at the next
meeting, and a pretty quick turn-around. Dr. Cannon will get it to URC as soon as possible.
Financial Conflict of Interest is still pending legal review and they will not be able to look at that
for a while.
5. Office of Research Administration - Ms. Marcia Landen
Ms. Marcia Landen was out of town and not in attendance but also sent an update. Dr. Topping
said Ms. Landen has been meeting with faculty members and chairs to get their input on all parts
of the proposal process. Comments/suggestions from URC are welcomed. Feel free to call her
and make an appointment to find out what is going on. Training is planned on submission of
proposals to Grants.gov. If you have recommendations on that kind of training or if either you or
your faculty members are interested, be thinking about that and bring it to the next meeting.
6. URAD – Friday, November 9, 2012 – Dr. Louis Kyriakoudes
Dr. Kyriakoudes received the materials from Dr. Topping a couple of days ago and said he has to
get going on it, but has been busy. He will use last year’s material as a guide and will be working
on making contacts immediately following the meeting. The times also will be finalized. Dr.
Dana Fennell said there was one grad student’s e-mail that bounced back, but most of them did
not respond on doing a poster. Dr. Topping suggested sending a quick e-mail advising them of
the date and that a letter will follow. The charge codes for reserving the room and specifics, i.e.,
invitations and luncheon are outlined in an eight page document which Dr. Topping compiled to
make it easier for someone new to follow. The word needs to get out and URC members should
communicate it and encourage attendance if they have award winners in their respective colleges
in order to recognize their colleagues. Last year deans and chairs were e-mailed and invited to
attend the luncheon and ask their faculty to attend at least the presentation to “their” people.
There were approximately 110 people at the luncheon last time. Dr. Cannon commented that
viewing the posters with the dessert course worked well last year. Dr. Topping said last year the
2011 awardees introduced the 2012 awardees and were again recognized should you decide to do
it again this year. Also, keep in mind people like Ms Connie Wyldmon and the graduate student
who will come to the luncheon and get an award but will not do a presentation. Those people
need to get it on their calendar as well.
7. URAD Poster Session - Dr. Dana Fennell
Dr. Fennell reported that the URAD Poster Session is going alright but she is disappointed by
some things. A few weeks ago she sent e-mails to the all deans in hopes they will send it to the
chairs, etc. The McNair Scholars were e-mailed and are unable to attend because they are going
out of town and wanted it made known that they were deeply disappointed. There are ten
commitments so far and last year there were twenty plus the McNair Scholars and she would like
to increase the numbers. Call for Posters were sent out to URC members today and they were
encouraged to start contacting people. Dr. Cannon has committed to pay for some (15 or 20) of
the posters. It is probable that the Dean of Arts & Letters and the College of Business will again
pay for their posters as in the past. Dr. Topping encouraged Science and Technology to be more
visible this year and plans to contact Dr. Joe Whitehead because there were very few posters from
his college last year.
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Easels were discussed and Dr. Kyriakoudes will check with Event Services on the number of
easels they have available when he sends the charge code for the room and will try to make up the
difference from other sources. Dr. Topping related that Dr. Kyna Shelley helped with easels last
year and they did have quite a few available. Also, the tables around the side of the room were
used for displays. Dr. Dana Fennell asked about the poster voting process and certificates. Dr.
Topping planned to leave those decisions to Dr. Kyriakoudes, Ms. Joyce Shaw who saved the day
with some beautiful certificates last year, and Dr. Dana Fennell giving them the benefit of what
did and did not work well last year which she included in her instructions. She did strongly
recommend two sets of judges.
8. URAD Displays – Ms. Joyce Shaw
Ms. Joyce Shaw gave an update on the URAD displays which is problematic. There were eight
abstracts last year with six showing up mostly from centers and institutes. She suggested a target
of ten this year with hopes that everybody shows up. The question had been posed to her
“What’s the benefit of me doing it?” She suggested might be beneficial if more undergraduates
came through as part of their class assignment. It was agreed that the Warren Society display
would be a great addition and they will be invited and encouraged to display. Also some
performance type displays were suggested. Ms. Shaw will send this out as part of the call and set
up according to response. A list of last year’s abstracts and contacts were sent to Dr. Fennell
before today’s meeting. Dr. Topping added that time restraints prohibit a great number of breaks
for people to visit the tables which is unfortunate. Ms. Shaw would like for faculty who are
teaching an undergraduate class to find a way to encourage their students to see what the research
enterprise is at the university, i.e., Honors Society which has students in research activity. Dr.
Pandey agreed that Honors students would be great because they have to do a research thesis and
defend it every year. In 2013 MAS is going to be here on campus. Ways to get increased
participation was brainstormed with several members agreeing to make contacts.
9. URC Website– Dr. Lachel Story
Dr. Story reported progress being made on the website. She met with Dr. Jorge Brown and Dr.
Sam Bruton. Dr. Bruton is going to get Dr. Brown access since he is far more knowledgeable
about DRUPLE. He will be lending his expertise to uploading the Innovation Award winners and
their respective colleges of the last two years. He will also be working on an on-line submission
process which is now possible. We are also adding the capability of clicking on an award winner
(picture included) and it taking you to their individually controlled faculty page and possibly a
link to their manuscripts enabling viewing of the work or research they are conducting. It is now
time to send out the call for next year’s Innovation Awards. She was unsure if she agreed to
Chair the Innovation Awards again this year or if someone else did. She had no problem with
doing it again, especially if the on-line submission is utilized which makes it more manageable.
It would be similar to signing up for a workshop with an event manager. The URC website has
moved over to the new format but just needs to be cleaned up when the updated Bylaws are added
along with adding all the right connections. Currently, there are several clicks to get to it. You
go to the Office of Research>Research Support>URC. Once access is achieved it should move
pretty quickly.
Uploading pictures of the Innovations Award winners is already planned. Ms. Joyce Shaw
offered and was encouraged to send some candid shots from last year’s poster session. The main
objective was to make it look more appealing and highlight the big thing being done which is the
Innovation Awards.
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Dr. Topping noted that the 2012 Lifetime Achievement winner gets a very nice personal type gift
chosen by someone who knows them well. Dr. Topping knows Dr. Dean’s wife and will contact
her for suggestions.
10. URC Bylaws:
A vote was taken on section x. to allow changes (amend, appeal, and suspend) to Bylaws.
MOTION: To allow changes the Bylaws (amend, appeal, and suspend) by Dr. Trenton Gould
and a second by Dr. Dana Fennell.
11. Other Business: Spring meeting at Marine Lab
Dr. Topping would like for the research committee to be thinking about a spring meeting and tour
of the Marine Lab in order to be aware of what is going on. A Friday including lunch would be
favorable. At the beginning of the year, she will work with Ms. Shaw on some dates. A van will
be utilized. Everyone agreed.
12. Next meeting: Monday, November 5, 2012, 3:30 p.m.
13. Adjournment
Meeting adjourned at 4:50 pm
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