Council on Research Meeting Minutes
March 19, 2014
Life Sciences Research Building, Conference Room 1143
9:30am-11:30am
Members present: Aiguo Dai, James Dias, Samantha Friedman, Hemalata Iyer, Kajal Lahiri, John
Monfasani, Jen Montimurro
Members absent: Tina DeMarco, Lisa Donohue, Erzsebet Fazekas, Kevin Knuth, Igor Kuznetsov, Janet
Marler, Loretta Pyles, Yangzi Isabel Tian
Also attending: Antigone McKenna, Asher Pauli, Thecla Philip, Lina Rincon*, Arnaldo Robles*
*graduate students attending to complete class requirements for Certificate of College Teaching
Call to Order
The meeting was called to order by Council on Research Chair, John Monfasani, at 2:03pm.
Approval of Meeting Minutes from February 21, 2014
No changes were proposed to the minutes. As there was no quorum, it was agreed that the minutes would
be voted on by email (action).
Report of the Vice President for Research:
1. Advanced Data Analytics Consortium
The next meeting of the Consortium is to be held in April. The President’s Inaugural Big
Data Forum has been rescheduled for May 5th, to be held in D’Ambra Auditorium, and the
letters of invitation were planned to go out to the speakers and panelists March 19th.
2. Undergraduate Research activities
The Office of the Vice President for Research has several projects completed or in the final
stages to highlight undergraduate research activities at the University. A report was
compiled for the Department by a Doctoral candidate in Educational Theory and Practice
on the types of research being done across the university at the undergraduate level, which
is currently being edited in the office. Work has been done with AdvisingPLUS to create
new pages in their section of the Albany.edu website detailing the opportunities and types
of undergraduate research available in each department. Additionally, a new brochure has
been created publicizing undergraduate research at UAlbany; copies are available if COR
members are interested. Members of the Office of the Vice President for Research recently
participated in Scholars’ Day, an open house for prospective undergraduates who have
been offered scholarships to UAlbany, and also will be representing the Division for
Research at the upcoming Academic Open House for prospective undergraduates on April
5th and 6th.
3. StartUP NY zone
Sixteen companies have indicated an interest in being part of UAlbany’s StartUP NY zone,
and Mike Shimazu, Associate Vice President of Business Partnerships and Economic
Development, has been working with them. There is a vetting process and involvement
depends on how they fit in with UAlbany’s goals, the space available, etc. The Council
Council on Research minutes March 19, 2014
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indicated an interest in having Mike Shimazu come to the next meeting to talk about
StartUP NY activities (action).
Vice President Dias also noted that the Excellence in Research and Creative Activities awards will
be given out at the President’s Excellence Awards ceremony March 25th at 2pm in the Campus
Center Ballroom.
Committee Reports
1. Conference Awards review committee
a. Funding recommendations: Two applications were received for this round of funding: one
from the Music Department for a symposium to be held in February 2015 which has
attractive programming, and one from the History Department for the “Researching NY”
annual conference, which has significant outside support. The committee recommended
funding both applications. As a quorum was not in attendance, the recommendations will
be put to a vote by email (action).
b. Changes to guidelines: There was only one suggestion to change the revised text for the
guidelines as discussed at the February meeting, which was to remove the word “certain”
from the proposed new text. It was generally agreed that the following revised text would
be put to a vote by email (action):
Conferences eligible for this award must be held at UAlbany and/or in the
immediate Capital District in order to maximize the visibility of the University to
national and international conference participants and to allow as many UAlbany
students to attend the conference as possible. To attract participants from business
and other private sectors, conferences held at the SUNY Global Center in New
York City may also be considered eligible for this award.
New business
1. FRAP guidelines revision:
New proposal: rule that new faculty who have start-up funds are not eligible for FRAP
The concern was raised that it seems unfair for people who have large start-up funds to also be
eligible for FRAP awards; however, if new faculty have a small start-up fund amount, it would
be counterproductive to make them ineligible for the award program. The general discussion
was that the applicant needs to justify why startup funds cannot be used for the purpose they
intend the FRAP money to be used for, and why these funds were not part of their startup budget.
The point was also raised that guidance exists for the applicant but not for the committee. It was
acknowledged that it would be a judgment call on the part of the committee; the expectation
would be that if startup funds were high, the application would be viewed less favorably. In the
case of first year faculty preference would be given to those without substantial start-up funding.
It was agreed that John Monfasani would draft text in consultation with Igor Kuznetsov, chair
of the FRAP review committee, to the effect that applicants who are first-year faculty must
justify why startup funds cannot be used for the purpose of this research (action).
2. FRAP guidelines revision: “Tenure track” requirement
Discussion of the tenure track issue was tabled until the April meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:30am
Submitted by Elizabeth Rooks
Council on Research minutes March 19, 2014
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