The Advisory Committee to the Vice President for Research (AC/VPR)

Summary of the

General AC/VPR

Meeting

May 10, 2010 from 3-5 pm

University of Oklahoma, Norman Campus

Members Present: Patricia Hardre, Musharraf Zaman, Mary Margaret Holt, David Stensrud, Heather Basara, Joe Rodgers, Fred Beard, Bob Houser, Bob Palmer, Carol Silva, May Yuan, John Antonio, Eddie Baron

Incoming Members Present: Ed Sankowski, George Richter-Addo, David Craig, James Grimsley, Michael Ashby, Hazem Refai, Eve Bannet

VPR Office Present: Kelvin Droegemeier, Morris Foster, Andrea Deaton, Deborah Marsh, Jennifer Carmichael, Shawn Snidow

Distributed Documents:

  1. Membership 2010-2011
  2. OVPR Overview Report
  3. OU-SES Plan for Analysis Presentation
  4. TF on Internal Funding Recommendations Presentation
  5. TF on Internal Funding Terms of Reference
  6. TF Internal Funding Report May 5

VPR Open and Introduction of New Members: Dr. Droegemeier thanked everyone for attending the last meeting of the semester. He noted that this would be the last meeting for many inaugural members of the AC and that new members will be joining the committee for the 2010-2011 academic year. He announced and introduced the following new members:

  • Ed Sankowski from the College of Arts and Sciences
  • George Richter-Addo from Chemistry/Biochemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences
  • Fred Carr from Meteorology in the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences
  • David Craig from the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication
  • James Grimsley of Design Intelligence representing private industry on campus
  • Michael Ashby from Chemistry/Biochemistry serving as the Faculty Senate representative
  • Hazem Refai of Electrical and Computer Engineering from OU Norman Programs at Tulsa
  • Eve Bannet from English as a VPR at Large representative
  • Jos Raadshelders from Political Science as a VPR at Large representative
  • Noel Brady of Mathematics as the incoming Research Council chair

VPR Overview: Dr. Droegemeier began his VPR Office overview by noting that the economic climate remains tough for academic institutions, but pointed out that the Research Office is an area of the University with great potential for growth despite state educational budget cuts. The coming months will provide opportunity for growing research, scholarship, and creative activities at OU.

  • With externally funded research, IDC allows for the VPR Office to grow and to continue supporting research, scholarship, and creative activities.
  • A handout shows a graph of monthly expenditures from FY 2005 to FY 2010, noting the peaks and valleys over the academic year, along with a table of awards and expenditures from FY 2009 to FY2010 through March. OU Norman Campus and Norman Campus Programs at Tulsa are showing nearly 40 percent greater award totals and over 11 percent greater expenditures through the month of March, as compared to FY 2009.
  • Dr. Alicia Knoedler has accepted the directorship of the proposal development center, officially titled The Center for Research Program Development and Enrichment. She will be joining OU on June 30, and will spend the remainder of the summer communicating with the OU community about important aspects of the center.
  • In an effort to strengthen VPR Office relations with OU faculty, Dr. Droegemeier has committed to attending monthly Faculty Senate Meetings.

Publication Subvention Fees: Dr. Droegemeier discussed his work with other units on campus to develop a policy on cost sharing publication subvention fees.

  • In the past couple of years, particularly in the last couple of months, the Research Council has received requests to help support publication subvention fees.
  • Dr. Dave Hambright, who is serving on the Research Council, has begun reviewing publication subvention cost sharing policies among other Big XII and Big Ten universities to help inform policy development regarding this issue at OU.
  • Dr. Droegemeier hopes that a permanent policy regarding cost sharing subvention fees will be developed soon.
  • Until a permanent solution is developed, Dr. Droegemeier is working with other offices across campus, such as the Provost’s Office and individual colleges, to temporarily support publication subvention fees.

OU-SES Analysis Preview: Ms. Snidow presented the plan to analyze the University of Oklahoma – Scholarly Environment Survey (OU-SES). She noted that Professor Lori Snyder from Psychology and Jennifer Carmichael, a GRA in the VPR Office and Psychology Ph.D. student are also working on the project with her. During the presentation, Ms. Snidow:

  • reviewed the solicitation procedures for the survey.
  • reminded members that no administrators had access to the data as per IRB approval of the study.
  • provided aggregate response data by college, sex, ethnicity, STEM, and academic rank.
  • presented a model for analysis, as developed from the literature, highlighting observed and conceptual variables, and relationships to be tested.

See the distributed PowerPoint presentation for the hypothetical model and presentation details. Analysis of the data will be conducted over the summer and results should be available for discussion and review by the first General AC Meeting of the Fall 2010 semester.

Task Force on Internal Funding Recommendations and Discussion: The Task Force on Internal Funding, which consists of the current and immediate past two Research Council Chairs, provided a full draft report and presentation to the AC for discussion.

  • Dr. Rodgers began the presentation by noting that the Research Council is an interdisciplinary group and has a generally positive working climate, since the primary goal of the Research Council is to promote OU’s interests.
  • The report reviews the data examined, including other Big XIIinstitutions internal funding opportunities and the Research Council end of year reports for the past five years.
  • The task force developed nine recommendations outlined in the report and the presentation. It should be noted that the recommendations are NOT listed in order of priority. Please consult those documents for the specific recommendations.
  • Recommendations should be reviewed once OU-SES data related to internal funding have been analyzed.
  • Discussion of the task force recommendations consisted of the following:
  • International research and collaborative research are possible new funding categories that could be developed under recommendation #3.
  • It was noted that recommendation #4,“funding to support research time should be expanded” can conflict with teaching goals, and that such policies should be developed in concert with the Provost and Colleges.
  • Analysis of the outcomes of teaching release time and Research Council funding should be undertaken to develop further policy and potentially support arguments for increasing release time. The Research Council keeps reports of internal funding awardees, but that data has not yet been analyzed.
  • It was asked if recommendation #8 regarding a research funding endowment was an issue on President Boren’s radar. Dr. Droegemeier indicated that it may have been at one time, and that he is interested in bringing this potential opportunity to President Boren’s attention in the future.
  • A proposal vetting system by individual Colleges was suggested for better coordinating VPR/Research Council and College level funding opportunities as per recommendation #1.
  • The Task Force report has been posted to the Aspire 2020 website for comment and consideration by faculty.

Aspire 2020 Action Team Updates

The Action Team #1: Rewards and Incentives update was provided by Dr. Antonio, who noted that after three meetings, the team had collected many ideas and have begun categorizing those ideas by those that require funding and those that do not. Generally, interest has revolved around resources rather than rewards. However, faculty are concerned with where the University will find those resources, whether the recommendations would require redistribution of current resources, and who, then, will be on the losing end of the redistribution.

The Action Team #2: Cross-Cutting Themes update was provide by Drs. Basara and Yuan. They, too, had met three times and found that many of those attending were in the physical sciences and engineering disciplines. They asked that AC members in the social sciences, humanities, and arts encourage their colleagues to become involved in this Action Team. Action Team #2 has had research/scholarship presentations, through which faculty across disciplines are learning that they have similar interests and are sparking new collaborations. Faculty have expressed concern aboutwhether or not the recommendations by this action team will be implemented, about the development of selection criteria for such themes, and about where resources for establishing these themes will originate. Drs. Basara and Yuan intend to develop a concept map of disciplines and resources to help guide their recommendations.

The Action Team #3: Arts and Humanities update was provided by Professor Holt. As with the other two action teams, she noted that faculty are concerned with the available resources for implementing the team’s recommendations. The action team began with seven questions and have had good conversation about different ideas related to their task. One idea that has developed, so far, is the creation of a center for arts and humanities. Future discussions will concern the potential recommendation of opportunities, physicality, and duration of such a center.

Dr. Droegemeier noted that the resource question brought up by all of the Action Teams is an important one to consider, and that great ideas – those that are too good to pass up the opportunity to implement – are the ideas that will be able to find support. He hopes that this will incentivize faculty participating in these Action Teams to develop the best possible recommendations.

Presentation of Awards: Dr. Droegemeier thanked the following AC members rotating off of the AC this year, for their contributions to committee. He recognized the work and support they have contributed the VPR Office through the Advisory Committee. Additionally, glass awards of recognition were given to Eddie Baron, May Yuan, Vic Rose, Chan Hellman, Carol Silva, Bob Palmer, Amy Cerato, John Antonio, Fred Beard, Bob Houser, and Jeff Stout. Awards will be delivered to those members not present at the meeting.

Future General AC/VPR Meetings: Ms. Snidow will email AC members with potential fall meeting dates. Please respond to her with your availability. Ms. Snidow will confirm all final meeting dates, times and locations once they have been set.