Oct 29, 2008 Minutes

Minutes for 10/29/08

Members present: Senators Feakes, Bond, Brown, Caldwell, Conroy, Furney, C. Hazlewood, D. Hazlewood, Martin, Minifie, Shah, Stone, Wilson

Meeting called to order at 4:00

Faculty Development Leaves: The Senate considered faculty development leave applications from the following candidates:

Richard Dixon, Associate Professor, Geography: I intend to pursue three projects on which I am currently working or beginning to initiate work. The first is a geographical and historical analysis of the concept of “energy balance” in early American climatology textbooks. The second will develop a state-wide vulnerability analysis for tornadoes. County-level data on property values and historical tornado occurrence will be combined with population projections to produce the vulnerability analysis using a methodology developed for hurricane vulnerability. The third project will be to investigate the interest in marketing a Texas Weather Calendar for mass-market sale by our Lovell Center.
Kathleen Fite, Professor, Curriculum and Instruction: During my leave, I will research childhood development and learning and the increasingly diverse world that surrounds children. I will collaborate with the Gesell Institute to analyze Arnold Gesell’s work (Yale Child Center founder) and that of other experts, and prepare for the release of significant findings relevant to child study and education.I will explore cultural influences, current events, and changing demographics affecting our children to find out what can be done to make their future more secure. And, I will visit schools to learn more about special programs, especially those for non-English speaking children.
James R. Ott, Associate Professor, Biology: During my developmental leave I will pursue two objectives. The first focuses on publishing the results of research projects that I have directed that have been completed by graduate students working in my laboratory. The second objective is to extend new research that I have recently initiated. The goal of this research is to construct both a theoretical and analytical framework for combining the study of the evolution of sex and the evolution of complex life cycles for organisms that require multiple generations to close the life cycle and that exhibit alternation of sexual and asexual modes of reproduction.
Charles Ney, Professor, Theatre & Dance: This leave will be used to finish writing a book, Directing Shakespeare in America, a research project on which I have worked for over four years. I have traveled extensively and conducted over 50 interviews with artistic directors and directors of Shakespeare located throughout North America. The book will be a comprehensive “nuts and bolts” examination of process and craft by America’s leading directors. The directors discuss interpretations of the text, the various stages of production, and how they conduct rehearsals. They also offer their views on current trends in Shakespearean production.
Kate Peirce, Professor, Mass Communication: During my semester of developmental leave, I will work on a book and website about women and media. I will find, commission or write scholarly chapters on women’s roles and media representations of women’s roles, and use the website for both primary and supplementary materials. The book and website also will be used in undergraduate and graduate courses in women and media.
Ha-Chin Yi, Associate Professor, Finance and Economics: Credit rating agencies have been criticized for their incompetence during the recent financial turmoil. I will examine bank loan ratings, compared with bond ratings, to evaluate the rating agencies’ claim that prospects of loan recovery is accurately reflected in loan ratings. Using syndicated bank loan and public bond data, I will test the econometric model to evaluate validity of loan ratings. My research has significant implications for government policy and financial research. My doctoral thesis examined bank loan rating and was published in the Journal of Financial Research. This project will enhance my understanding of credit ratings, and therefore directly benefit my students and build on my research and professional development.
Daniel Lochman, Professor, English: During the requested leave, I plan to edit, collaborate with a translator, and prepare for publication an important but neglected work by John Colet (1467-1519), Dean of St. Paul's in London. I plan to complete the first edition since the nineteenth century of Colet's commentary on the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, a work that reveals humanist rhetorical strategies designed to move as well as inform readers, a critique of the ecclesiology in Rome and England, a program to return to practices of the early church, and the wish to curb Tudor state interference in matters of religion.
Chinna Natesan, Associate Professor, Marketing: The purpose of this study is to determine techniques from Indian philosophical traditions that apply to business in the area of marketing and management, and how they can be used to enhance competitive advantage when doing business with India. By analyzing and synthesizing the two streams of thought (philosophy and business), I propose to determine interdisciplinary techniques that address marketplace competitiveness. The goal of this research project is to generate 2 or 3 quality research papers for possible journal publication.
James F. Garber, Professor, Anthropology: In the Spring of 2003 I was on Faculty Development Leave to prepare two publications detailing previous years of excavation field work on the prehistoric Maya of Belize. The leave was more successful than I had anticipated and resulted in several peer-reviewed publications. For the past 50 years, researchers have placed the beginnings of Maya culture at approximately 800 BC. Our excavations have documented Maya occupations dating to approximately 1200 BC. This significantly alters our view of the rise of Maya social complexity. The rise of Maya civilization has traditionally been viewed as a response to diffusion and outside influence. Our data support an in situ development and that Maya social complexity may be some of the earliest or perhaps the earliest in the New World. This is important to the understanding of New World prehistory.
Eric Kirby, Associate Professor, McCoy College of Business: I propose to use my faculty development leave to extend my prior empirical research. My plan is to conduct personal interviews with hospice administrators across Texas. I am interested in their perceptions of issues affecting industry competition. I will combine the results of this analysis with quantitative measures of hospice operations. My plan is to apply a triangulated methodology to conduct a strategic group analysis, using clustering techniques to see if hospices following similar strategies enjoy greater competitive advantages over hospices following other strategies. I hope this research leads to publications and integration in the curriculum.
Nico Schuler, Assistant Professor, School of Music: “German Composer Hanning Schröder (1896-1987) and the Unification of the Two Main Streams of Modern Musical Developments” -- This project examines composer Hanning Schröder (1896-1987) and his unification of the two major streams of modern musical development that are assumed to be “contradictory.” The research project will provide the basis of re-thinking modern musical developments, philosophically, historically, and music-analytically. The end product will be a book project, for which a contract with a publisher has already been secured. The analytical approach (methodology) is based on my research on intra- and inter-disciplinary music analysis as it relates to music-theoretical, social, political, historical, and other developments.

Applications from the following candidates will be considered at the next meeting:

Dr. Alberto Giordano, Geography
Dr. David Caverly, Curriculum & Instruction
Dr. Julie Westerlund, Biology
Dr. Susan Kirby, Management
Dr. Joseph Yick, History
Dr. Raul Rodriguez, Music
Dr. Jim Kimmel, Geography
Dr. Daniela Ferrero, Mathematics
Dr. Lijun Yuan, Philosophy
Dr. Valentina Glajar, Modern Languages
Dr. Phillip Salem, Communication Studies
Dr. Maureen Keeley, Communication Studies

Piper Committee Nominations: The Senate considered the recommendation of the Piper Committee. The Senate Rules were suspended to allow a vote approve the recommendation of the committee, which passed by a majority vote. The committee’s recommendation:

Piper Professor Award Nomination: Mr. Steven M. Wilson, Professor in the Department of English
Swinney Teaching Award Nominations:
- Mr. Steven M. Wilson, Professor in the Department of English
- Dr. Max L. Warshauer, Professor in the Department of Mathematics
- Dr. Mary Ann Stutts, Professor in the Department of Marketing

Minutes: Minutes for 10/22/08 were approved as amended.