Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Southern Region Agronomy Department Heads (SAC-1)

Annual Meeting

16-17 May 2016

Gainesville, FL

Monday, May 16

The 2016 meeting of the Southern Region Agronomy Department Heads (SAC-1) convened in Gainesville, FL and was hosted by the University of Florida and Drs. Rob Gilbert and Ramesh Reddy. Agenda attached.

 Dr. Gilbert and R. Reddy each gave a welcome to the University of Florida campus and an overview of the agenda for the two-day meeting.  

 Dr. Clarence Watson, administrative advisor for SAC-1, began the meeting with an overview of our group’s responsibilities and an explanation of SAC-1, which is Southern Administrative Coordinating committee, and is comprised of department heads and chairs of academic departments in agronomy, crop or plant, soil and/or water science at land grant institutions across the southern region of the U.S. We are members of this committee by virtue of our positions. This group is set through 2020. The following are bullet points of topics covered by Dr. Watson.

• SAC-1 is involved in review of collaborative projects/proposals (full or pre-proposals) for multi-state funding
• NIMSS (National Information Management System) – was hacked at the University of Maryland – Clemson proposed to host the new system – this is where our business is housed and stored – annual reports are posted in NIMS
• Southern Plant Introduction Center – Gary Peterson will retire soon – position will be posted soon – it is an ARS position
• National Initiatives (AES/CES)
•        Water Security – limited traction, limited funds
•        Antibiotic Resistance – gaining traction with NIFA
•        Healthy Food Systems, Healthy People – address chronic disease problems through nutrition, plant & animal breeding and agronomics
• FY 17 Budget mark-up
•       Level funding for AES, CES, Stennis, Hatch
•       $ 25 million to AFRI
•       Senate expected to mark up this week (May 15, 2016) with no additional action until after elections in November 2016
• Southern Region Directors report
• Initiating multi-state projects
•        Contact Southern Region Directors
•        Technical reviews - 9-12 months for review and starts October 1, 2016

 Dr. Elaine Turner – Dean, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, University of Florida provided a welcome and an overview of the instruction program at the University of Florida in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The following bullet points are a summary of her comments.

•  Teaching and students
•  5,400 students (3,800 undergrad), 4th in size at UF
•  22 different majors among 14 academic departments
• About 50% go into the work force, 25% into grad school, 25% into professional schools (law, medicine, dentistry)
• Majority of student body in college is female (63% female in undergrad and 54% female in grad school)
• Tuition is increasing slowly – rate is about $8,000 per year, in-state
• About 35% of CALS students come in as transfers
• Ceiling on undergraduate enrollment
• 6,600 incoming freshmen total at UF
• 4,000 transfers
• 700 quota on transfers into CALS
• New President at UF is from Cornell University
• CALS Mission, Values, Vision, Goals
• Handout was given
• Engaging more with science fairs around the state and offering scholarships
• A summer camp is offered
• Relevant curricula – (handout given)
• Instructional design for face-to-face classroom instruction in addition to on-line instruction
• Getting more students involved in internships earlier in academic career
• Plant Science major – collaboration of Agronomy, Plant Pathology and Environmental Horticulture departments
• No effort to combine departments into mega-department
• UF On-line – complete on-line baccalaureate degree in Environmental Management in Agriculture and Natural Resources
• Graduate level distance education degree in Soil & Water Science (agro-ecology)
• Future – pulling soil science into plant science major
• Teaching appointment
• 12 hour rule – 12 contact hours per semester
• 100% = 4 classes X 3 hours each (state statute)
• 120 credit hours for a degree (semester)
• Tracking salaries of graduates is very difficult
• Sharing on-line courses through AG*IDEA – UF does not participate because course cost is an issue
• UF enrolment is just under 50,000 (about 36,000 undergraduates)

Dr. Nick Place – Dean of Extension and Director of Florida Cooperative Extension Service provided a welcome and an overview of IFAS Extension.

• Provided handout of calendar that includes annual report
• Florida is 3rd largest state in population behind Texas and California
• Florida is 2nd largest state in agricultural output
• There are 67 counties in Florida and UF has 13 Research and Education centers, 200 Extension specialist, 350 county / regional agents
• UF Extension has a $90 million budget
• Of the $90 million – 6% is federal, 34% is state, 28% is county and 32% is grants and contracts
• Vision – Food, Water, Climate, Obesity, Health, Youth
• Extension roadmap – pdec.ifas.ufl.edu
• Positions in UF Extension
•         Extension Specialists
•         State Specialized Agents (SSA)
•         Regional Specialized Agents (RSA)
•         Multi-County and County Agents
• Starting salaries w/ B.S. -$38K, w/M.S. - $44K
• Fixed-term positions
• Professional Development
• Hope to move to CEU model (county level)
• Needs assessment to guide efforts
• Alternative delivery strategies
• Sharing resources at regional and national levels
• Revenue Enhancement
• Ensuring access and public good
• Program enhancement and growth
• Diversity of ways to generate extramural funding
• UF Capital Campaign
•        $3 billion goal – UF
•        $250 million – IFAS
• Utilizing Sponsorships
• Intentional work with foundations, companies, individuals, etc. who want to invest and underwrite programs
• Utilizing program fees
• Urban programs – 96% of FL population lives in urban areas
• University-based Extension
• Utilizing and benefitting from vast research expertise in IFAS

Dr. Jackie Burns – Dean of Research and Director of the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station provided a welcome and an overview of IFAS Research

• Provided handout on IFAS research (about 8,000 handouts produced and distributed)
• Mission
•         Discover new knowledge
•         Encourage innovative study
• Research and Education Centers
• Research and Demonstration Sites
• Citrus REC established in 1917 – oldest
• Over 300 commodity groups served
• 441 on-campus faculty, 153 off-campus faculty
• 452 with research appointments
• Cultivar releases and U.S. plant patents
• $161.1 million in federal FY 2014 funding
• FY 2014/15 - $125.8 million (75% federal) awards
• Focus area (9)
• Plant and animal food systems
• Food safety and security
• Major activities of IFAS research
•    (1) Proposal processing oversight, (2) cultivar release, protection and licensing, (3) FAES capacity fund procurement and reporting, (4) Management, oversight, administration of two major research sites, (5) IFAS research program oversight, faculty retention, hiring, P&T, (6) Allocation and oversight of state and federal operating expenses to units, (7) Faculty awards and recognition, (8) Internal grant programs and undergraduate research fellowships
• Filling 44 positions in IFAS in 2016
• Faculty are innovation engines
• IFAS initiated IDC on commodity grants – 12% (the cost each proposal would bear)

Monday afternoon – travel to Plant Science REC at Citra for group discussion

 Discussion Topics

 1.    Teaching expectations per faculty teaching FTE (handout from Ramesh Reddy

•  12.5% for one 3-hour course
•  Variability from institution to institution on % per FTE
•  How you calculate teaching FTE is complicated but most southern region institutions are very similar in their calculations
•  Texas A&M – more funding credit for professor teaching than associate professor

2.    Undergraduate curriculum modifications (degree hours limitations)

•  Problem getting pre-requisites under 120 hour degree at Texas A&M
•  Creative ways to package current requirements
•  At University of Kentucky, students can individualize a B.S. in agriculture
•  Concern is loss of pre-requisites

3.    Methods for dealing with financial constraints

•  State budgets and federal funding is level or falling
•  We are leaning more on gifts/development/donors
•  Do you include or start charging fees?
•  Cost reimbursement at Texas A&M for Extension
•  Incentives for funding raising
•  At Texas AA&M, department heads have in their position description they must spend 2.5 days (10%) per month on development
•  Donations for scholarships and special causes
•  Corporate donations are difficult
•  Other creative funding – a percentage of IDC returned to the department
•  Need to share budget with faculty – UF
•  Royalties and how they are distributed

4.    IDC and charging commodity group for services

•  Concerns about commodity grants, carryover funds, how to use those funds
•  Make sure all commodity groups are treated the same unless they want to be treated separately
•  Do you develop “processing fees”, “direct costs”, “accounting fees”, “equipment maintenance” etc.?
•  At UF, discussion ongoing with commodity groups about 12.5% IDC
•  Difficult situation when faculty are pressured to test “specialty products” when you know they don’t work and company wants additional testing to justify funding

5.     Accounting packages that work

•  Varies across institutions
•  Texas A&M uses BAM
•  Lots of dollars being spent (manpower, software, etc.) on accounting systems

Tuesday, May 17

 Continuation of discussion topics

6.     Tracking employment for graduates

• University of Kentucky was charged with finding out employment of graduates of past three years
• University of Tennessee is using LinkedIn as a way to track recent graduates
• Virginia Tech has a support person and also uses LinkedIn
• UF starting a database to document milestones of students and graduates
• LinkedIn seems a great way
• Use of newsletters, Facebook and Twitter was also discussed
• Texas A&M published an internal newsletter 11 times a year
• Advisory Boards / Councils – some department have them and some don’t
• Virginia Tech has a strict set of by-laws to guide advisory board or prevent advisory board from controlling department; has good input from board

7.    Mobile communications and Extension

• University of Kentucky – Concerns about how mobile communications (web blogs, YouTube videos, etc.) count in P&T system
• University of Florida – “creative works” section in UF P&T package
• Virginia Tech – uses webinars, per review is a concern; quality of work to be judged is concern
• Texas A&M – peer review of videos; video clips not counted toward peer review but do review number of hits
• Question for the group – Is there a number of Extension publications that count per FTE for P&T?
• Difficult to determine
• North Carolina State – high tech, high touch – use of mobile communications; demographics of participants at field days and meetings has shifted from mostly producers to more consultants
• Start at first of career in developing baseline data for impact instead of waiting until 5 year P&T time to begin assessment – from David Baltensperger
• Measure output versus impact

8.    Sharing Course Online – Ramesh Reddy

• At UF there are several on-line courses
• How to share between institutions; how is compensation dispensed?
• Consortium of number of land grant institutions for sharing on-line courses
• Ramesh will be willing to work with us to determine which courses could be shared
• LSU, University of Arkansas, Oklahoma State University and Mississippi State University have a formal agreement on certain courses, specifically plant physiology
• What course would need to be offered?
• Non-degree seeking students are interested
• Certificate program at UF in agroecology; M.S. program in agroecology had an increase of 30% in students
• Send Ramesh any course list for sharing of on-line courses

9.       Multi-State Porject Development

• Southern Directors web site on how to develop
• What is benefit to faculty for developing multi-state projects
• Greatest advantage is it lead to larger more competitive grants
• No financial incentive
• Hatch – faculty salaries
• Coordinating committees – old SRIEG; meet twice a year to develop plans, develop reports
• Very useful for younger faculty
• For multi-state Hatch, there is 25% that must be used in a formal, approved project and work directly in another state
• NIMSS.org – has list of multi-state projects
• Are there ways or opportunities for our group to determine which research strengths we could collaborate on?
• We do not need to micromanage faculty but encourage new/young faculty to become involved in an existing multi-state project
• SAC-1 survey (handout was given)

 Next Meeting – will be held in May 2017 at Auburn University

 Future Meetings – University of Kentucky will host in 2018 and Mississippi State University will host in 2019