1:30pm – 201 Gilmore Hall

Council Members present:

Manar Al-Ghabeish, Jordan Cohen, Carolyn Colvin, John Doershuk, Edward Gillan, Jane Gilotti, Carin Green, Robert Kirby, Kevin Kopelson, Cheryl Reardon, John Rosazza, and Paul Soderdahl

Gu​ests:

David Johnsen, Kevin Leicht and Ann Ricketts

Agenda Item 1: Approval of minutes from November 10th meeting

Bob Kirby noted a correction for the minutes, i.e. “approximately one fourth of the faculty…” was corrected to “approximately a sixth of the faculty…,” under Agenda Item 2 in the November minutes. Bob then moved that the corrected minutes be approved, seconded by Jane Gilotti. The corrected minutes were approved.

Agenda Item 2: Subcommittee updates

• Authorship Policy subcommittee update: President Mason has approved the new Authorship Policy and it has been incorporate into the University’s Operations Manual under Part II Community Policies, Chapter 27 (Research), Section 10.
• Publication Waiver subcommittee update: There were no new publication waiver requests to report.
• Centers and Institutes subcommittee update: This topic is currently on the consent agenda of the December Board of Regents meeting. VP Cohen and Provost Butler will be discussing a potential BOR policy on centers and institutes with some of the Regents in the near future. It’s good for UI leadership to be involved in these discussions in formation of a policy. 

The Research Council would like to have the results of the CLAS investigation into centers and institutes, headed by Vicki Grassian.

• Undergraduate Research subcommittee update: The 3rd Annual ICUR Fall Undergraduate Festival was December 7th, and was well attended.   

Bob Kirby is working to improve faculty awareness of Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs) available through NSF. REUs is a great opportunity for those submitting NSF applications to secure funding for undergraduate research. John Massa, in the Division of Sponsored Programs, is helping gather numbers for Bob. Our current IFI application questions are somewhat the same as the NSF application questions, but Bob would like to change our IFI questions to match the NSF questions.  

Bob also met with Admissions and selected registration numbers for three undergrad research courses; one course will be for a grade, one course will be pass/fail and one a zero hour course. These course numbers will be identifiers to track undergraduate students involved in research and as a way to recognize faculty who are involved in and/or provide undergraduate research. Credit will go to the Department. This will also enable students to be involved in an ongoing project or projects throughout their undergraduate years, and faculty would not lose students after only one year with a large investment in training. 

Agenda Item 3: Update on VP for Research search

Cheryl Reardon reported that the VP for Research Search Committee has added two members from outside of the University; one from ACT and one from the community. Larry Weber and Pat Winokur are on the committee, and are the ones to contact with questions or suggestions for the Committee’s consideration. 

Agenda Item 4: Discussi​on on CLAS Dean search

Kevin Leicht and David Johnsen, from the CLAS Dean Search Committee, were guests at the Research Council meeting. Dean Johnsen recapped that the CLAS Dean Search Committee members are outstanding; they meet once a week, they are a search committee not a selection committee, and they haven’t hired and won’t be using a search firm.

The Committee is asking different groups, councils and committees on campus for input on what makes the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences an exciting and desirable place to work and lead.*

Input from Research Council members:

Stre​ngths

• The departments, programs, and centers that comprise the College offer a rich array of courses and degrees in the core disciplines of the Liberal Arts and Sciences, but UI’s strength in humanities is extremely important to highlight.
• Highlight the University of Iowa Libraries, which ranks 14th in materials expenditures among U.S. public research libraries.
• The University of Iowa is better positioned financially than many universities.
• The University of Iowa is very collegial.
• Highlight cluster hires, e.g. the Digital Humanities Cluster Hire

Challenges

• Career Development Awards have become restricted and seem to be disappearing.
• Pockets of infrastructure in CLAS are well funded but others aren’t, such as data storage and the swelling demand for geospatial data and storage, etc.
• CLAS hasn’t fully recovered from faculty cuts of the ‘90s.
• New facilities and renovation of some facilities are needed.
• Faculty have been asked to do a great deal and they have been successful. They are becoming overwhelmed with the workload demands of their successes, specifically successful grant awards, and would like more resources and flexibility to meet the demands.

Agenda​ Item 5: Other business

It was determined that there is no need for a December 22nd meeting. Alberto and Sue will poll Research Council members for their availability for next semester’s meetings.

The meeting adjourned at 2:40 p.m.