Attending: Ms. Sarah Linder, Drs. David Crossman, Tom Metzger, Catherine Bender, Estry Ang, Tony Silvestre, Deborah Aaron, Evelyn Talbott, Elizabeth Baranger

SUMMARY OF MEETING:

1. The minutes of the February meeting were approved after a change in #3 from "seems to me" to "maybe."

2. Dr. Talbott will summarize the questionnaire's results, but the original 'deadline' of April has become improbable. May is the more likely date for the presentation of the committee's findings to the University Senate.

3. There was further discussion of Pitt's Environmental Law Clinic's situation and the positions of the various groups involved.

4. Dr. Baranger reported on her findings regarding the VA HERL policy of a special sign off for students working on research projects that are related to their graduate work

a. The policy is for one specific lab, and the reason it was created was to prevent errors by students.

b. After discussion, the consensus was that a phrase similar to "when performing research required by my academic program" to the Certification of Student Investigator Responsibilities.

c. Dr. Baranger stated that she would write a formal letter requesting such a change.

d. The question about whether there should also be an insertion of the phrase "advisor decides" was raised. It was tabled until Dr. Baranger inquired concerning the policy involving such cases.

5. The Part-time Faculty Questionnaire related to satisfaction issues was further discussed as Dr. Talbott distributed two more tables (per request from last meeting) and decisions were made as to best describe the data by school, department, etc.

a. It was decided that individual recommendations would be sent to departments with a certain number of respondents. Both the good and bad points would be discussed in the letters.

b. The report presented to the Faculty Assembly would be more general and would not single out departments.

The next meeting will be April 9, 2002 at 12pm in 650 WPU.