Faculty Standing Committee

The Faculty Advisory Committee assists the faculty representative in defining, selecting and developing themes to be presented and discussed during each meeting of the FDP. The committee teleconferences on average between three and four times between meetings and prepares written material and PowerPoint presentations to be posted on the web or used during the FDP meetings. The committee members, led by the chair, who is the faculty representative to the executive committee also write white papers or collect information from their campuses to document faculty stands or perspectives on particular issues. Topics are generated for the two faculty lunches the faculty breakfast and the faculty panel presentation for each FDP meeting. The membership is fluid in that the chair often adds faculty members to the ad hoc committee to enrich the committee with particular expertise needed for the discussion of a particular topic . The faculty ad hoc committee usually meets for a faculty working dinner the night before the faculty panel presentation and each member on the panel presents what they will say and receives feedback from the committee are large.

Administrative Support – A significant issue to faculty is the current restrictions on the use of clerical help for faculty as a direct cost to grants. The group will explore alternatives to the current processes which do not increase overall cost of the research enterprise.
Homeland Security – Visas and Select Agents. The faculty group is concerned about the impact and delays in the Visa process; and the process that institutions must take to ensure necessary control of select agents. The group will interact with appropriate federal officials to identify issues and work toward common solutions.
On-Line Peer Review – The committee wants to encourage widespread use of on-line proposal review systems, and the use of this approach to speed and improve the review process.
Principal Investigator (PI) Grant Administration Burden Survey – The Committee will undertake a project to survey PI’s to determine the grant administration issues that cause them burden in the conduct of research.