Present:
Abbey, Abubaker, Andrews, Bigbee, Bowlin, Briceland, Brilliant, Cash, Coffman, Costanzo, Crouch, Davey, Diegelmann, Dolan, Fauri, Garcia, Harvie, Heldberg, Jackson, Klinker, Koerin, Lamb, Lewis, Lloyd, McKelvey, Mikkelsen (for Seither), Moon, Nadder, Pitts, Poynor, Ream, Rife, Roberson, Schmitt, Selinger, Simons, Tepper, Turner, Vallarino, Ward, Weaver, Wergin, Whitehead, Wood, Wu-Pong.

Absent: Alder, Bilyeu, Burton, Byles, Donnell, Kester, Kirkpatrick, Leone, Little, Malloy, Moxley, Nixon, Peel, Peng, Philipsen, Poindexter, Seibel (excused), Spottswood, Van Tuyle, Walsh. 

The seventh Faculty Senate meeting of the year was called to order at 4:05 p.m.by Senate President Dr. Wes Poynor.

Minutes for March 6, 2001 were approved as e-mailed to the senators, with the Secretary and President reserving the rights to make any necessary spelling or grammatical corrections.

The President announced that there had been no University Council Meeting held since the Senate last met. Dr. Poynor did inform senators of Dr. Trani's continued interest in changing the name of the Academic Campus. Faculty and students will have the opportunity to submit their suggestions next fall. Current suggestions include the Fan Campus and the Shafer Court Campus.

Dr. Poynor reminded senators that the Senate Executive Committee officers’ e-mail addresses were printed on back of the agenda, and that they could always be found on the Senate Web page.

The last full Faculty Senate meeting for academic year 2000-2001 will be held on Tuesday May 1, 2001 in the Forum Room of the Student Commons at 4:00 p.m. At that time President Poynor will make a report from the April University Council meeting.

Dr. Poynor announced that the Faculty Senate Executive Committee would meet on April 24, 2001 due to the scheduling conflict with University Faculty Meeting scheduled for Tuesday, April 17, 2000. The April 17^th meeting is the only full faculty meeting of the year. President Trani will address the faculty at 4:00 p.m. in the Medical Sciences Building on the MCV Campus. Senators were encouraged to promote the event with their school faculty and to encourage as many faculty as possible to attend. Questioning will be handled in the National Press Club style, where questions are written on index cards and then read. A member of the Senate will read them aloud to Dr. Trani. Questions will also be allowed from the floor. A broadcast e-mail will be sent to all faculty notifying them of the event.

Election of Faculty Senate Officers for Academic Year 2001-2002

The slate of officers, presented by the Nominating Committee, were presented for election. These were: for President - Bob Andrews (School of Business), for Vice-President - Christina Turner (School of Humanities and Sciences, anthropology), for Secretary - Dianne Simons (School of Allied Health, Occupational Therapy), for Academic Campus Rep - Dan Ream (VCU Libraries), and for MCV Campus Rep - Judy Lewis (School of Nursing). The floor was opened for other nominations. Hearing none Senator Michael Pitts moved that the nominations be closed. Senator Alan Briceland moved to accept the slate by acclamation rather than having to vote by ballot. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.

Presentation by Dr. Marsha Torr, VCU Vice President for Research

Dr. Marsha Torr, Vice President for Research spoke on the status on Research at VCU

During her presentation, Dr. Torr, who joined VCU 7 months ago, stated that we can see the "early signs of change," but that VCU had lost a lot of ground in the last decade in terms of national funding of research. She stated that "much of what we need for research is dollars." Although the largest contributor, state funding has declined over the years and now only 31% of our resources come from state appropriations. Dr. Torr stated that VCU, like its sister schools, used to be "state funded." We are now "state supported." The tongue in cheek comment was that we were moving in the direction of simply being "state located." The second largest contributor of resources to the University are grants & contracts, which current contribute about 18%. Tuition and fees account for only 17% and student loan funds contribute another 17%.

Dr. Torr stated that one of her responsibilities is "to find the way to help faculty do what they do." One out of five dollars comes in from sponsored programs and 60% of the grants and contracts are from the federal government. Federal funds are considered preferable funding sources because the monies come to the University as "unbiased, relatively unrestrained funding."

Nationally grants and sponsored programs contribute $80-90 billion to research and development each year. $18 billion flows to Universities for basic research. Sixty-two percent ($8.65 billion) is distributed through the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Another $2.23 billion is granted through the National Science Foundation (NSF). Other granting agencies include the Department of Defense (DOD), NASA, the Department of Energy, the Department of Education and the Social Security Administration.

VCU currently receives 88% of its federal funding from NIH, 4% from the Department of Education, 4% from the Social Security Administration, 1% from NSF, 2% from the DOD, 1% from NASA, and <1% from the Department of Energy.

Sixty-three percent of the federal awards come into the School of Medicine, 8% to the College of Humanities and Sciences, 7 % to the School of Education, 5% to the School of Pharmacy, 4% to the School of Social Work, 3% to the School of Engineering and 1% to the School of Allied Health Professions.

Dr. Torr indicated that a measure of VCU competitiveness was its incredible rate of growth over 20 years in Federal funding. VCU rose "from nowhere to the rank of 71st." However in 1988-89 the growth flattened. VCU "lost ground" in relation to other schools in regard to Federal funding and it is reflected in our slip from 71st to 99^th.

Unlike other universities, including several of VCU's benchmark institutions, such as the University of Alabama at Birmingham, whose Federal support has increased more than 120%, and the University of Cinncinati whose funding increased more than 106% in the years from 1989 to 1998, VCU has only seen a 5.5% increase in Federal funding during these years.

Some of this lack of growth  can be associated with VCU's ranking in regard to the awarding of doctoral degrees. Dr. Torr stated that VCU has a paucity of PhD students. We are ranked 135^th in PhD’s awarded and Dr. Torr believes that we should be 80^th .  Dr.Torr indicated that to accomplish the task of improving our status in Federal funding we need "good people - faculty, students, and support staff, good tools, good research space, and a good grants management system."

She asserted that "We are going to rebuild this research university to get us back in the top 75 research universities. We have to catch up. We have to add $40-50 million per year to build our sponsored research base through external funding over the next 5 years." In addition we need to be amongst the top 100 research universities in doctorates awarded.

To accomplish this goal, Dr. Torr reported that there needs to be an increase in the number of proposals submitted. Faculty proposal activity has been around 1200 proposals per year in comparison with twice that per year from schools like Indiana University, the University of Iowa, and the University of Florida. Several of the areas where VCU is expected to be competitive in regard to new proposals include prevention of school violence, nanotechnology and in the new technologies for forensic sciences.

There has been some indication during the last 6 weeks, the 4^th quarter of fiscal 2001, that things have begun to move in a better direction. There was a 10% increase in dollar awards marked during that period. The number of proposals being made to the Federal Government is up 38%. Individual schools like the School of Dentistry and the School of Nursing are up 300%, the School of Education is up 52% and the School of Allied Health is up 48% in the number of proposals that have been submitted.

Dr. Torr announced that her office would be bringing in experts from NIH, NSF, DOE, and NASA to help faculty learn how to write a winning proposal. They will work with 15 to20 faculty at a time and these presenters will review the proposals once they have been completed.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) can serve as a model for VCU. Dr. Torr said that "We can look at what they did." They had a governor who invested state funds in hospital system and they had a single-minded pursuit of federally funded research. They made research fundamental to their mission. Dr. Torr shared that she had plans to visit UAB and Wayne State in Detroit in the near future.

Plans are to reinvest the indirect cost recovery to help researchers be successful. The state takes 30%, but the Deans will get back 20% of the indirect cost recovery. She feels that it will take us a year or two but it can be done. An infusion of $10-15 million of indirect costs are needed, some of which can go toward funding graduate students.

President Poynor asked Dr. Torr to consider reinstating the Faculty Grants in Aid program. Dr. Torr replied that these $5-10,000 seed grants came out of overhead and now 23% of the indirect costs will be going back to Deans.

 Presentation by Dr. Tom Huff- Interim Vice Provost for Life Sciences

A presentation by Interim Vice Provost for Life Sciences Dr. Tom Huff on the VCU Life Sciences Initiative informed senators of this new University program that will support and integrate teaching and scholarship across academic disciplines and campuses. Dr. Huff stated that "The unifying vision and concrete plan for VCU Life Sciences centers around the theoretical, empirical, and applied study of biological complexity."

He stated that the university "has to become what society needs it to be." Given the rapid advances in our understanding of how biological life works, with the mapping of the human genome, society is now confronted with the impact of these changes. The university, as a unique institution in society, has responsibility through research, education, and service to answer the questions that must be addressed. The impact of these changes will be seen in such positive ways as the eradication of genetic diseases, extending life expectancy, life-saving pharmaceuticals, computer biochips, and genetically–engineered hormones, but it will also lead to difficult moral and ethical questions around DNA screening, and the risk of genetic discrimination.

Dr. Huff expressed enthusiastically that "Life is complex. Reductionism will not get us to that horizon where we need to be." Life Sciences will encompass everything from "molecular mechanisms to values." He said the VCU is ideal site for this program because of "our scientific strengths in the biological sciences, basic biomedical sciences, patient care, biomedical engineering, and biotechnology." Dr. Huff indicated that the VCU Life Sciences is unique among universities recognizing and implementing life sciences initiatives because VCU combines comprehensive involvement at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and has the added advantage of being able to integrate with an academic medical center and biotechnology park.

VCU has made an investment of $389 million dollars to date in developing the infrastructure to support the Life Sciences program. This includes a brand new $28 million, 132, 000 square foot Life Sciences Building on the academic Campus, as well as numerous additions and renovations to other existing facilities on both campuses. The new Life Sciences Building, which is scheduled for occupancy in June 2001, will be "home" to six discreet university units and will house the Bioinformatics Computational Core Laboratories, which will include 2 Beowolf clusters with 64 processors and 1-2 terabytes of storage, significantly expanding the computer capabilities of VCU.

Dr. Huff stated that the Legislative decision package #600, which provided $1.8 million in state funds to strengthen the life sciences curriculum, will be used to carry out the objectives of recruiting new faculty, establishing a core instrumentation laboratory, increasing undergraduate participation, supporting two new biotechnology instructional laboratories and establishing 3 distance learning facilities. Having been at the Senate meeting and heard Dr. Torr’s presentation, Dr. Huff proclaimed that "what is happening in Life Sciences is good for research at VCU."

Dr. Huff informed senators that Life Sciences 101 would be offered in the fall. This course, although targeted to freshman will include lectures by VCU’s top research and clinical faculty. He also stated that several new 5 year curricula, which compress the traditional 4 year bachelor degree and two year masters degree study into a more compact 5 year course of study, are currently under development.

Dr. Huff assured senators that the operational mandates for faculty involvement state that recruited faculty will have their primary appointments and tenure lines in existing departments and that qualified existing university faculty will have ample opportunity to participate in the Life Sciences initiative and in any institutes, centers or programs arising from it.

Life Sciences is also partnering with community agencies and groups such as the Science Museum of Virginia, the Maymont Foundation, The Commonwealth Society, and The Governor’s School in Life Sciences. The Life Sciences initiative is all about integration. It is integrating the two campuses, undergraduate and graduate education, the sciences and the humanities, university scholars and business, and the university and the public sector.

Senator Chris Turner asked Dr. Huff where the development of the new 5 year curriculum programs was taking place. He responded that the Master’s degree in Bioinformatics may be "added to existing programs" such as the current Masters in Interdisciplinary Studies or Masters in Biostatistics, but that the plan is to have free standing programs in the future.

Senator Margo Garcia questioned the trend toward 5 year Masters Degree programs replacing traditional 6-8 years of study and the fear of losing essential learning. Dr. Huff used bioinformatics as an example. He expressed that they felt that they were going to be able to streamline some study that was either not really necessary or redundant, but he did admit that the program would be challenging and might only be 5 years for the "very high end student."

Senator Judy Lewis asked if there were plans to integrate with VCU’s Center for Public Policy or in some other way address public policy. Dr. Huff indicated that VCU would emerge as a place where "those who formulate public policy will want to associate." There are current plans to produce a television show in conjunction with several elite institutions of learning.

Senator Susanne Wu-Pong asked how far $1.8 million could go. Dr. Huff reported that the $1.8 million is only some of the funding going into the Life Sciences initiative. There is another $4 million coming from a Howard Hughes grant. He expects that there will be multiple revenue streams 3 years for now. He added that "We will have the best forensics currently in the country." 

Closing

Dr. Poynor announced that there was no Executive Budget Committee update to report until the state budget issues were resolved.

Hearing no further business. The meeting was adjourned by Dr. Poynor at 6:05 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted
Dianne F. Simons, Ph.D., OTR
Faculty Senate Secretary-Treasurer

Revised May 7, 2001, by  Neil W. Henry
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