Minutes

Research and Creative Activities Grants Committee

Thursday, August 27, 2009

 

Attending: Carmine Scavo, Political Science; Jason Brinkley ,Allied Health Sciences; Gregory Lapicki, Physics; Jennifer Arrigo, Geography; Tom McCaslin, Music; Jay Newhard, Philosophy; Guili Zhang, English; Kathy Davis, Health and Human Perf.; Gail Ratcliff, Mathematics;

 

Attending ex officio members: Marianne Walker, Chair of the Faculty; Thomas Ross, Representative of the Vice Chancellor of Health Sciences; Alan Schreier, Representative of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies.

 

Others attending: Deidre Mageean, Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies

 

The meeting began at 4:00 in Rawl 142. Faculty Senate Chair Marianne Walker presided over the opening of the meeting. A quorum was present.

 

After new and returning committee members introduced themselves, the first order of business was the election of officers for the 2008-09 year. The previous chair, Paul Gares, has rotated out of the committee After brief discussion previous vice-chair Carmine Scavo was nominated and elected, without opposition, the new chair. The committee then elected Gail Ratcliff vice chair, and Jennifer Arrigo secretary. Scavo presided over the remainder of the meeting.

 

Dr. Deirdre Mageean then gave the committee an update on the budget for the R/CAG funds. She reported that although her division had taken a significant cut, there was now money available in the fund for this fiscal year, and asked the committee how they wished to proceed. Given the “award” letters that Dr. Mageean had prepared for the proposals forwarded to her for funding by last year’s committee, it was agreed that the next action would be to use the past year’s ranking and for the Chair to contact the PIs to work with them to determine what research is still feasible, given the monies now available for this fiscal year. It was also discussed that the money available for next fiscal year would be at a similarly reduced level. The committee discussed questions of whether to table the call for proposals, to alter the timetable for submission and/or other measures related to find the most equitable and efficient way to distribute the reduced funds. It was agreed to continue this discussion at the next meeting.

 

The committee agreed to schedule a subsequent meeting in approximately two weeks to discuss the progress of the discussion with the PIs from last year’s competition and also to further the discussion on procedures for the call for the next fiscal year.

 

The meeting adjourned at approx. 5:15 pm.