University Archives of Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech
Governance Minutes Archive

October 12, 1988

                                    Minutes

                            COMMISSION ON RESEARCH

                               October 12, 1988

                            President's Board Room

                                   3:30 p.m.

 

 

  MEMBERS PRESENT:  L. J. Arnold, F. M. Asche, P. K. Edwards, D. F.

                    McTaggart, J. Randolph, M. G. Squires, F. W. Stephenson,

                    E. R. Stout, W. L. Stutzman

 

  MEMBERS ABSENT:   G. E. Bunce, R. A. Comparin, P. P. Feret, M. R. Geasler,

                    G. R. Hooper, W. G. Huber, J. C. Lee, M. Potts, H. H.

                    Stoevener

 

  INVITED GUEST:    M. D. Shelton

 

 

  1.  ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

      Representatives from the State Office of Purchase and Supply will be

      here Wednesday, November 2nd.  The Commission and CARS are scheduled to

      meet with them from 9 a.m. until 11 a.m. in the President's Board Room.

      As a consequence, the regularly scheduled meeting of the Commission for

      October 26th will not be held.

 

  2.  COMMITTEE REPORTS

 

      As a member of the Supplemental Grants Committee, Dr. Arnold stated

      that a complaint was raised at a recent Faculty Senate meeting that

      this program was not open to nontenure track faculty.  Because of the

      small pool of limited resources the Committee has to award, it has set

      its priorities on tenure track faculty.  She asked for the Commission's

      feeling on this matter to aid her in serving as their representative on

      this Committee.  She stated, also, that at least 90-95% of the awards

      made are for travel to international conferences.

 

      The consensus was to remain with limiting grant awards to tenure track,

      nonadministrative faculty.

 

  3.  FINANCIAL RECORDS SYSTEM (FRS) - Dwight Shelton

 

      Dwight Shelton, University Controller, outlined the inadequacies of the

      former accounting system and the advantages of FRS.

 

      He reviewed the steps that are in progress to address the problems with

      FRS that have surfaced since its introduction.  A Payroll Expenditure

      Report, which gives salary detail, is now being prepared and distrib-

      uted to departments as a separate report.  It is uncertain that these

      are finding their way to the Principal Investigators in all cases.

 

      Dean Stephenson relayed the common complaint that faculty can't find

      their balances on the FRS printout.  Mr. Shelton displayed a new sum-

      mary page which he hopes to have incorporated into the system with the

      October reports, which is similar to the Condensed Summary on the pre-

      vious system.  He will send this to Dean Stephenson and the Chairman.

 

      Dr. Arnold suggested that when a Summary Report is available the P.I.s

      be informed.  Mr. Shelton will attempt to do this.

 

      The Chairman expressed concern about the extraordinary amount of time

      and effort required in getting new projects on the system.  The time

      required to set up a new project has increased from about 2 minutes to

      30 minutes.  Mr. Shelton will work with Sponsored Programs to help

      solve this problem.

 

      Mr. Shelton will return to visit with the Commission again on November

      9 to seek ways to lessen the negative impact of the FRS system on Prin-

      cipal Investigators and Sponsored Programs.

 

  4.  DRAFT PROCEDURES FOR REVIEW OF RESEARCH AND SERVICE CENTERS

 

      The Chairman asked approval of the Procedures as sent out to the mem-

      bers.  He stated that he had received input from Deans Bates and

      Stephenson, he had sent copies to the Directors of the two Centers to

      be reviewed this year, copies had also been sent to Kathye Johnston who

      has a major role to play in the review and also to the Provost.  All of

      the above have indicated they believe the procedures are appropriate.

      He emphasized the need to get started on the procedure and again asked

      for the Commission's approval.

 

         MOTION was made and seconded that approval be given to the gen-

         eral process as described in PROCEDURES FOR SCHEV-MANDATED RE-

         VIEWS OF RESEARCH AND PUBLIC SERVICE CENTERS.  Motion passed.

 

  5.  SELF STUDY RECOMMENDATIONS

 

      Dr. Arnold suggested that this Commission delay discussion of this item

      until the next Commission meeting (November 9th).  As a member of the

      Self-Study Monitoring Committee, she feels this item can best be ad-

      dressed once she is aware of the Committee's view.  The first meeting

      of that group will be next week.

 

  6.  APPENDICES E AND G

 

      These two appendices of the Manual of Procedures are not in agreement

      and a revision will be needed to achieve harmony.  This should be ready

      for the next meeting.

 

  The meeting adjourned at 5 p.m.  The next meeting will be on November 9,

  1988 at 3:30 p.m. in the President's Board Room.

 

 

 

  ERS:mar

 

 

 

Current Virginia Tech Governance Minutes Archive

Return to Virginia Tech Governance Minutes Archive

VT History | Digital Library and Archives | Special Collections | University Archives

Send questions or comments to:

Tamara Kennelly, University Archivist
University Libraries
Virginia Tech
P.O. Box 90001
Blacksburg, VA, 24062-9001

URL: http://spec.lib.vt.edu/minutes/cor/1988/October+12++1988.html
Last modified on: Tuesday, 25-Sep-2001 13:57:24 EDT