Minutes

Research and Creative Activities Grants Committee

Thursday, September 6, 2007

 

Attending: Seodial Deena, Chair, English; Joe Ciechalski, Education; Tarek Abdel-Salam, Technology and Computer Science; Carol Jenkins, Social Work;  John Bishop, Economics; Daniel Wong, Allied Health; Jeff Bair, Music; Carmine Scavo, Political Science; John Tucker, Secretary, History.

 

Attending ex officio members included Mark Taggart, Chair of the Faculty; Margie Gallagher, Representative of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs; Thomas Ross, Representative of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies; Carl Billingsly, Representative of the Chancellor, School of Art; Alan Schreier, Representative of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies.

 

The meeting began at 4:00 in Rawl 106. Faculty Senate Chair Mark Taggart presided over the opening of the meeting. A quorum was present.

 

The first order of business was the election of officers for the 2007-08 year. Former chair, Seodial Deena informed the committee that he has decided not to run for another term as chair. After brief discussion, Paul Gares was nominated and elected, without opposition, the new chair. The committee then elected John Tucker vice chair. With Gares absent, Tucker presided over the remainder of the meeting

 

After it was determined that only full members of the committee could serve as secretary, and that ex officio members could not, the committee decided to defer electing a secretary until the following meeting.

 

The committee decided that it would set Friday, January 18, 2008, as the deadline for submission of applications.

 

The committee next discussed the question of whether those faculty who have received start-up funds should be considered eligible for RCAG funding. Last year the view of the committee was that start-up funds counted as “comparable funding” and so disqualified the recipient of such funds from applying for RCAG funding while the start-up funds were still current. Much controversy resulted from this decision. The consensus of the committee was that while we need to settle this matter soon, we need to do so in a way that reflects careful deliberation and informed decision making. Al Schreier offered to provide the committee with data relevant to the issues. In light of the need for more information and perspectives, the committee decided to continue the discussion at its next meeting.

 

The meeting adjourned at approx. 5:10 pm.