SAES-422 Multistate Research Activity Accomplishments Report

Sections

Basic Information
Additional Info

Status: Approved

Basic Information

Project No. and Title: NCAC4 : Horticultural Crops
Period Covered: 10/01/2010 to 09/01/2011
Date of Report: 06/03/2011
Annual Meeting Dates: 05/22/2011 to 05/24/2011

Attendance: Emily Hoover, University of Minnesota Roger Harris, Virginia Tech. University Robert Joly, Purdue University David Graper, South Dakota State University W. Vance Baird, Michigan State Univesity Rich Marini, Penn State University Marvin Pritts, Cornell University Bill Randle, Ohio State University Gary Lemme, Administrative Advisor

Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The NCAC-4 met at Penn State University on May 22- 23 with Rich Marini as host. The committee engaged in the following activities/discussions related to the committee itself. 1) Reviewed procedures that we will use for evaluating NC reports. We agreed that the chairman will assign reviewers in January, reviews will be posted for comment to the entire committee, and then forwarded prior to our May meeting. 2) Reviewed the procedure for reviewing regional projects; proposal stage, mid-year, and renewal. 3) Reviewed goals of the NCAC-4: a) foster interstate research, 2) foster collaboration within the discipline and c) fostering better management of academic departments 4) Committed to reach out to other department chairs, both at land-grant universities and other 4-year degree-granting institutions (e.g. 1890 schools, Canadian schools), and encourage them to participate in NCAC-4. One theme for next year: How can non-land grant horticulture faculty interact and collaborate with land grant faculty on scholarly activities? 5) Request time at ASHS Administrator's breakfast to promote NCAC-4 The NCAC-4 engaged in the following discussion topics: 1) How do we evaluate those with both an academic and administrative appointment within our departments? How do we evaluate those with extension appointments? Do we evaluate 9 and 12 month appointments differently? 2) How do we manage those with joint appointments, especially non-tenured faculty? 3) How do we support graduate students? 4) How do we maintain breeding programs? 5) How can courses be taught across state lines? 6) How to best communicate with students? The role of Facebook, Tweets, Text messaging 7) Best practices for department mergers 8) How to deal with underperforming faculty? 9) Policies on early promotion 10) How to manage faculty hires? 11) Strategies for development 12) Funding computer labs and farms Marvin Pritts was elected the secretary and next chairman/host. Meeting will be held in Ithaca, NY on May 20 - 21, 2012. The committee visited the Air Quality Learning and Demonstration Center over lunch. Meeting adjourned at 4:30 pm on May 23rd.