Faculty Research and Development Committee

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Rollins College Rollins Scholarship Online Faculty Research and Development Committee Minutes College of Liberal Arts Minutes and Reports 4-26-2024 Annual Report, Faculty Research and Development Committee, 2023-2024 Faculty Research and Development Committee Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.rollins.edu/as_rd   Faculty Research and Development Committee (FRDC)   End of the Year Report, 2023-2024      Submitted by Bobby Fokidis   April 26, 2024          I. Committee Membership  II. Summary of Business  III. Recommendations    2023-2024 FRDC Annual Report-1 I. Committee Membership  During the academic year of 2023-2024 the Faculty Research and Development Committee (FRDC) met in-person twice per semester with additional group correspondence via Microsoft TEAMS or email. Bobby Fokidis was voted by the full fall committee to serve as chair for 2023-2024 academic year.  Fall 2023 FRDC membership:   Bobby Fokidis (Committee Chair and Science Division Rep)  Rachel Walton (Secretary and Social Science Applied Division Rep) Marianne DiQuattro (Expressive Arts Rep) Bill Boles (Humanities Division Rep) David Caban (Business Division Rep) Devon Massot (Non-Voting Member) Jannette Smith (Non-Voting Member) Ashley Kistler (Non-Voting Member) Nancy Chick (Non-Voting Member)    Spring 2024, FRDC membership:   Bobby Fokidis (Committee Chair and Science Division Rep)  Rachel Walton (Secretary) Marianne DiQuattro (Expressive Arts Rep) Bill Boles (Humanities Division Rep) Jie Yu (Social Science Applied Division Rep) Ruonan Zhang (Member at-large) Devon Massot (Non-Voting Member) Jannette Smith (Non-Voting Member) Ashley Kistler (Non-Voting Member) Nancy Chick (Non-Voting Member)    II. Summary of Business  In Fall 2023, the FRDC reviewed FYRST, IDG, Critchfield, Cornell and Ashforth proposals (for those going on sabbatical the following year), with a budget allocation of $54,000 for research grants and $82,000 for FYRST grants. Specific grants were awarded full funding, while feedback was provided for others, with suggestions for resubmission in the Spring. The funds come from an endowment that is at the mercy of the market and in the past have been often overspent, but with the Dean's office and Provost having been able to locate additional sources of funding to support individual proposals on a case-by-case basis. This year, the budget line is set, and no additional funds will be made available to applicants. The FRDC also discussed other key topics including consideration was given to offering a "Revise and Resubmit" option for applicants; guidelines for funding proposals were reviewed, with emphasis on maintaining high funding rates and utilizing  2023-2024 FRDC Annual Report-2 a revised Qualtrics form for evaluation; confidentiality concerns were raised regarding reviewing individual submitter histories; deadlines for grant recommendations were established by the Dean's office. The FRDC proposed changes to the CLA Faculty bylaws (Article VII, Section 3) regarding the relinquishing of review duties for FITI and OER grants, and assuming the duty of reviewing the Arthur Vining Davis (AVD) and Cornell Distinguished Faculty Awards (CDFA), which after additional review by the Executive Committee (they first reviewed proposal in Spring 2023). These changes to the FRDC purview were, after an annoyingly long and circular discussion, eventually passed in Spring 2024 by the CLA faculty body.   Also in Spring 2024, FRDC made a second round of decisions on research grants (for those not going on sabbatical in the coming year) but with only a handful being completely funded with a total request of $92,360 against only $62,679 in available funds. Additionally, a special request for funding a sabbatical project through a Critchfield Grant was discussed and ultimately denied due to misalignment with the grant parameters. The FRDC also made recommendations for the student-Faculty Collaborative Summer (SCFS) research grants. Despite the significant time constraints and limited personnel available to review the FRDC recommended that all but one SCFS grant were funded.   Limited funds dedicated to faculty research via grant funds managed via this committee, raised concerns about the adequacy of grant funding for faculty research in general at the College. After examining a longitudinal dataset made previously available by former FRDC committees, the 2023-2024 FRDC made plans to gather and analyze further data about past funding trends and recipient demographics in a spearheaded initiative led by the Dean's office over the summer of 2024. The Dean’s office will report back to the committee in the Fall on specific measures. Consideration was also given to exploring the impact of partial funding on faculty grant applicants, with suggestions for future open forums or campus-wide surveys to gather more information on the issue.  The FRDC also asynchronously evaluated applications and made a recommendation for a winner of the CDFA award. Finally, we concluded with the recommendation that Rachel Walton as our upcoming FRDC chair for the 2024-2025 year.   III. Recommendations  1. In terms of deadlines for Student-Faculty Collaborative Summer Research grants, we recommended a change here from early March, so that the review process does not occur over spring break, and this was communicated with the SFCS directors (Drs. Fuse and Patrone). Furthermore, we recommended an mediated submission process for these applications, with file management by Janette Smith and Nancy Chick. 2. We recommend the development of a standardized rubric for AVD and CDFA decisions to increase committee efficiency and transparency as these are new additions to the committee’s workload. 3. In terms of budget decisions, recognizing the difficulties presented by relying on endowment funds, we recommend conducting a detailed analysis of funding availability and the faculty's ability to utilize only partial grant funding if awarded by the FRDC. The FDRC also strongly recommends continued discussion amongst the faculty at large about  2023-2024 FRDC Annual Report-3 this issue, as the FRDC believes that the funds devoted now to faculty research projects do not reflect any improved commitment to faculty research and development from the College. Frankly current funding levels completely ignore the effects of inflation and the increasing pool of eligible faculty members competing for this limited funding, which no doubt puts off many from applying for research funds entirely and thus counteracts the intended impacts of this program.  

Annual Report, Faculty Research and Development Committee, 2023-2024

https://scholarship.rollins.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1040&context=as_rd

Annual Report, Faculty Research and Development Committee, 2023-2024

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