December 4, 2001

Present: Susan Perry, Roseanne Ford, Paul Kingston, Maurice Lipper, Ruth Hill, Reginald Garrett, Scott Vandenberg, Robert Grainger

Susan Perry, Chair of the Research and Scholarship Committee, called the meeting to order.

Update on the Harrison Award Symposium

The Symposium was held on November 6, 2001, at the Colonnade Club. Eight of the 2000 Harrison Award Winners and six faculty advisors presented their research. There were over 100 in attendance at the event. Harrison Awards The deadline for Harrison Award applications was November 13, 2001.

There were 90 applications - 47 from women and 43 from men. Thirty-five schools/departments were represented. Each application was read and evaluated by two readers. Eighteen applications have been selected for Awards, and 18 have been eliminated. The remaining applications go into a second-round review.

Ruth Hill, Patricia Werhane, Roseanne Ford, and Paul Kingston will conduct second-round reviews. Prior Award winners will not be eligible to receive an award, and a letter of support from the faculty advisor must accompany every proposal in order for the proposal to be considered for an Award. There will be at least 40 Harrison Award recipients for 2001. Ms. Perry said some of the proposals had budget issues that need to be addressed. Ms. Perry will contact students' that have proposals with budget issues to clarify the problem.

The Committee discussed moving the Harrison Awards "Call for Proposals" to the spring semester, in an effort to allow more students to apply and to open the program to third-year students that will become forth-years in the fall. The Symposium would be held in February, and proposals would be submitted in February or March.

Rob Grainger, Chair of the Faculty Senate, discussed the Arts and Sciences Research Group, which promotes research for undergraduates. The group met with Mr. Grainger and Gene Block to discuss their ideas. The primary goal of the group is to establish a centralized way to help students through the research process. Mr. Grainger said this information should be incorporated into the development of a Faculty Senate Undergraduate Research Brochure. Francis Collins' talk, which stresses the importance of undergraduate research, should also be incorporated into the brochure. Robert Sweeney, Vice President for Development, has offered the help of the Development Office in producing the brochure.

Undergraduate Research Brochure

Paul Kingston reported on the progress being made regarding the creation of a brochure to advertise the Harrison Undergraduate Research Awards. Mr. Kingston has been working with Bill Sublette, from the Development Office, on this initiative. Mr. Kingston reported that a "White Paper," rather than a brochure would be developed to promote the Undergraduate Research Awards. A draft of this White Paper should be ready for review by the Research and Scholarship Committee and the Executive Council, sometime before Christmas.

Gene Patenting Symposium

The Research and Scholarship Committee will sponsor a Symposium on Patenting Genes sometime during the spring of 2002. Planning meetings for the Symposium will begin this month.

Senate Interaction with Legislators

Rob Grainger said the Senate is looking at ways the faculty can work with legislators and enhance the way the University is viewed in Richmond. Two ideas suggested were to sponsor a symposium for new legislators, and to identify faculty resources and work with legislators on specific issues/topics and fundraising initiatives. Mr. Grainger will invite Senators that are interested in interacting with legislators on the University's behalf to contact him. It was also suggested that faculty involved with the Faculty Senate Faculty Speakers Bureau would be a good resource pool for this endeavor.

The meeting adjourned at 4:00 p.m.