Nov 03, 2010 Minutes

Members present: Senators Brown, Feakes, C. Hazlewood, Morey, Huling, Stone, Melzer, Payne, Furney, Martin, Conroy

Meeting called to order at 3:30 pm.

The Faculty Senate heard the following Faculty Development Leave presentations:

Chang Ji
Associate Professor
Chemistry and Biochemistry
To design and develop multi-purpose electrochemical sensors has become a new focus of my research. Our preliminary studies showed that alkanethiol modified metal salen catalysts can immobilize on gold electrode surface to form a self-assembled monolayer. During the faculty development leave, I will collaborate with Professor Baohong Liu at Fudan University to further examine and characterize the surface-modified gold electrodes, which will be tested to detect various compounds including pesticides and drugs. The catalysts will also be used in couple with macroporous materials for more efficient electrochemical reactions. Research proposals and manuscripts will be prepared on the basis of obtained data.

Randall T. Reid
Professor
Art and Design
My work is influenced by many materials such as: rusted signs, old tape measures, scrap metal and aged wood that I find in flea markets, trade days and antique shows. First, I will begin to collect diverse media which reflects and imbues a since of the past. Then I will create a series of small, mid-size and large-scale works based on the material I find. Lastly, I will make the necessary contacts across the United States and abroad to secure major exhibition opportunities.

Sven Fuhrmann
Associate Professor
Geography
Artists use existing cartographic rules for their graphic expressions. As a result, they have produced many map-based artistic expressions. Cartographers usually obey to cartographic rules while artists are “free” to disobey the standardized visual language. Artists can explore new visual expressions, and often create astonishing and inspiring results. During his professional development leave Dr. Sven Fuhrmann will review and extend the framework of cartographic design principles for two- and three-dimensional mappings by studying cartographic, indigenous and artistic spatial expressions in Europe, North-America, and Australia. The results of his research will directly impact the art, science, technology, and usefulness of cartographic products.

James F. Petersen
Professor
Geography
Vernal pools are microenvironments existing in shallow bedrock depressions, often under harsh climatic conditions, e.g., on Enchanted Rock’s barren granite summit. Nationwide, they are environmentally protected because they often support threatened flora and fauna. This study will analyze soil cores from vernal pools at Enchanted Rock to understand how the soils form, their development rates, and evidence of environmental change over time. Soil is critical to life in vernal pools, yet there has never been a detailed study of these soils. This can contribute to our understanding of these ecologically at-risk vernal pools, and support conservation efforts.
*Note: I also intend to pursue research on sustainable development education in Turkey

Rachell E. Booth
Associate Professor
Chemistry and Biochemistry
Elucidating the structure-function relationships of proteins has been the focus of multiple reseach projects in my lab. Our studies over the last few years have examined the structure-function characteristics of the epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) and we have been successful in securing external funding and making progress in characterizing ENaC. Although research in my laboratory has emphasized the investigation of ENaC, one of my goals during developmental leave is to expand my research interest to include studies in comparative biochemistry (i.e. examining changes in protein regulation and function at various developmental stages within an organism) and functional genomics (i.e. uncovering the function of unknown genes). During the developmental leave, I intend to continue to work on current projects; perform additional analysis of our ENaC findings in the Stockand lab at UT-Health Science Center at San Antonio; submit a publication on the current ENaC studies; explore the evolution of protein function in collaboration with faculty at UT-Austin and UTHSCSA while gathering preliminary data for publication and a second NIH proposal.

Sally Hill Jones
Associate Professor
Social Work
The goals of the developmental leave period are to travel through several U.S. states, collecting data on self-care of hospice workers using a mixed methods design. In each state visited, I will provide an in-service that guides workers through development of individual self-care plans. The research will examine the effects of self-care planning on burnout, compassion fatigue, and job satisfaction using pre- and post-tests. In addition, at the request of a large hospice foundation in Spain, I will possibly conduct training and set up comparison studies. Future research will build on this baseline data to refine effective self-care practices.

Debarun Majumdar
Associate Professor
Sociology
The Latino population in the US is at the center of a heated immigration debate. This population encounters discrimination and has recently been subjected to increased levels of immigration scrutiny. These experiences are predicted to impact this population’s well-being and outlook into the future. In the proposed project, I will examine these issues using representative data from the Pew Hispanic Center. It is important to study the well-being and future outlook of the Latino population because it is the fastest increasing segment in the US with a young age structure.

Catherine A. Hawkins
Professor
School of Social Work
In this qualitative research study, I will explore human rights toward women and girls throughout the world. I will specifically identify social service programs in at least twelve countries (including the U.S. and Canada), targeting at least six developing countries. I will describe the types of problems experienced as well as real or potential solutions. I propose to visit multiple programs within some countries, with the goal of interviewing at least 40 participants (20 service providers and 20 service recipients). The intended outcome will be an edited book directed at a university audience.

Anadelia Romo
Associate Professor
History
My research project examines the history of anthropology in Brazil in the twentieth century. Some of the world’s leading anthropologists spent time in Brazil, attracted by its indigenous population in the Amazon and its rich African heritage in areas of the Northeast. I propose to examine not only how these visiting scholars changed the field in Brazil, but also how their study of Brazil changed their own approach to their discipline. By the end of my leave I will have sketched an outline of a book on this topic and have a completed article ready to publish.

Robert Gorman
Professor
Political Science
The research project I am proposing will require a full year of research and writing in collaboration with another scholar, Dr. Paul Foster, a political scientist with a specialty in political philosophy and several year of teaching experience in private high school settings. The anticipated book will require immersion in classical sources, synthesis of historical literature, historical texts and primary sources, and secondary scholarly work. The aim of the book is to elucidate the key principles, philosophical systems, and institutional mechanisms at work in ancient history during what Karl Jaspars refers to as the Axial Age, and then follow how two particular cultural systems, those of the Classical-Greco Roman and Judeo-Christian traditions served as the foundation of emergent Western Civilization down through the High Middle Ages. There is no current text that focuses on this crucial two-millennium period as the basis for the modern world, and as a period marked by surprising continuity in the development of political and moral philosophy and institutional development.

Mary Ann Stutts
Professor
Marketing
Personal interviews with faculty advisors and former students from universities who consistently perform well in the American Advertising Federation National Student Advertising Competition (AAF/NSAC) and advertising agencies that hire NSAC students will be conducted to determine: (1) the key components of successful campaigns, (2) what do students who compete in the NSAC learn that may be different from other classes, and (3) how do potential employers view students who have participated in the NSAC? A DVD will be produced to help faculty advisors and students `produce award winning AAF campaigns.

The remaining Developmental Leave Proposals were not presented verbally. Abstracts are below:

Lori Czop Assaf
Associate Professor
Curriculum and Instruction
I intend to design, implement, and research a professional development writing institute for teachers from two, rural primary schools located in an isiXhosa community in the Republic of South Africa (RSA). I will conduct a mini-ethnography of the community to better understand cultural and linguistic preferences, the community, schools, teachers, and instructional needs. Next, I will collaboratively design and implement a writing institute focused on the cultural and linguistic needs of students in the community. Third, I will gather research data, and systematically study teacher learning and student writing.

Nathan Bond
Associate Professor
Curriculum and Instruction
During the last eleven years I have sponsored the local chapter of Kappa Delta Pi, International Honor Society in Education. As the sponsor I strive to help the student officers to develop their leadership skills, with the hope that they will utilize these skills after graduation and become teacher leaders in their future schools (Danielson, 2005)
I would like to conduct an empirical study that examines the ways that faculty sponsors of the twenty “best” KDP chapters at other universities help their officers to develop their leadership skills. Data sources include interviews and artifact analyses. The results will inform my work as the faculty sponsor at Texas State.

Jesus de la Teja
Professor
History
In this project I seek to complete the research and begin writing a biographical study of one of the most important, although largely marginalized Tejano (Texan of Mexican heritage) leaders of the formative period of modern Texas history (1810-1845). Erasmo Seguín is representative of a population that had to deal with conflicted loyalties as a result of the revolutionary character of the time. He was directly involved in the Mexican War of Independence, the drafting of the Mexican Constitution of 1824, support of Anglo American immigration, the Texas Revolution, and the establishment of republic government in the San Antonio area. This work builds upon my previous work on the impact of Mexican and U.S. events on the Tejano community during this pivotal area and will support my teaching and professional service in Texas history studies.

Cynthia I. Gonzales
Associate Professor
School of Music
The tonal songs for voice and piano written by the Viennese-American composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) are my research topic, with my present focus being Opus 6, a collection of eight songs written in 1903-05. This repertoire is ambiguous and exceedingly difficult to analyze, yet my analyses penetrate the dense foreground textures to reveal the underlying harmonic structures, as well as sophisticated text-music relationships. Awarded a Developmental Leave, I will complete and submit for publication three in-progress articles that will be expanded into chapters for the first book-length study of Opus 6, the proposal for which I will also complete and submit to a publisher for review.

Jon Lasser
Associate Professor
CLAS
During my developmental leave, I plan on completing a textbook that I am co-authoring with Dr. Cynthia Plotts. We are under contract to write The School Psychologist as Counselor: A Practitioner’s Handbook for the national Association of School Psychologists.

Merits of the Project
For several years I have been teaching a graduate course in individual and group counseling techniques for students in the School Psychology program. Textbooks currently available fail to address the unique professional role and function of school psychologists (most of the books were written for school counselors). We now have an opportunity to write a book that reflects the professional standard and unique duties of school psychologists.

The National Association of School Psychologists (our publisher) promotes professional competency, respect for diversity, and advocacy. As the largest professional organization representing school psychologists, NASP will be an excellent way of getting our work to those who need it most.

Ju Long
Associate Professor
Computer Information Systems/QM
Medical error is the 3rd leading cause of death in the US, and improving patient safety in hospitals is a national priority. Through close collaboration with the doctors and staff at the research site, I intend to design and implement a Rapid Response Decision Device (R2D2) that provides a simple user interface to guide the nurse from sudden symptoms to actions in two to four minutes, coordinates with team-based resources already deployed in hospitals, and creates an adaptive knowledge base to support evidence-based decision algorithms.

John McGee
Professor
Department of Finance and Economics
There is a problem with enforcing release of liability contracts. A release stands at the crossroads of the law of contracts and the law of torts; this has caused confusion and uncertainty over when and under what circumstances releases will be enforced.
I will use the leave to gather as many examples of releases, from as many different cultures, as I can to help write the comparative law section of my paper. Since the rules for liability are quite different in different cultures I suspect that the rules for releasing a person of that liability would also be entirely different.

Rebecca Montgomery
Associate Professor
History
The project on which I will work during my developmental leave is a book-length biography of southern Progressive reformer and educator Celestia Parrish (1852-1918). Funding from the Virginia Historical Society (Mellon Fellowships, 2004 and 2005) and Texas State University (Research Enhancement Grant, 2006) enabled me to complete most of the necessary research. I made subsequent trips to the Library of Congress in 2007 and regional archives in 2009, and I intend to wrap up the last few remaining pieces of research by the end of summer, 2011. I would use the developmental leave to complete the manuscript in preparation for submission to a press and, as time allows, to make any suggested revisions. Publication of this manuscript would be of significant value to historians of women, education, Progressivism, and the South. Since many public universities in the South were exclusively male until well into the twentieth century, Parrish’s generation of women studied in northeastern and Midwestern universities and became a critical link to national trends in research methodology, pedagogy, and curricula. At a time when the impoverishment of southern states sharply curtailed academic research and extreme racism limited scholarly influence (perceived as too liberal) in government, southern institutions benefited from the expertise and connections of women educated outside the South. For example, after studying at Cornell under Edward Titchener, a pioneer in experimental psychology, Parrish created the first southern psychological laboratory and later published original research in the American Journal of Psychology. Similarly, after completing graduate work under John Dewey at the University of Chicago, she established the third “practice school” in the nation and the first in the South for student teachers. In addition to furthering social science research and promoting new methods and practices, women such as Parrish were leaders in the southern struggle to improve academic standards and equality of opportunity, especially for women. The role of these women is absent from histories of female education, which mostly focus on the “Seven Sisters” colleges—Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Radcliffe, Smith, Vassar, and Wellesley. Even works on southern educational reform and southern female education do not explore the full extent of women’s roles in campaigns to professionalize and modernize higher education in the South. Parrish was a central figure in these movements. She founded and served as president of the first southern branch of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae (ACA) and co-founded the Southern Association of College Women (SACW), which later merged with the ACA to form the American Association of University Women. The SACW raised funds to endow female colleges and campaigned for uniform academic standards, coeducation, and curricular reform.

A developmental leave would provide me with the block of time that I need to complete the relevant secondary readings on the South, educational reform, women and education, and the relationship between feminism, pragmatism, and progressive reform. I have partial drafts of several chapters centered on papers presented at professional conferences, but I need to complete the secondary readings in order to weave these segments into a seamless narrative that fully situates Parrish’s life within both regional and national contexts. Completion of the manuscript will greatly enrich the foundation of knowledge upon which I draw in teaching my undergraduate course, History 3368G, Democracy and Education, and will lay the groundwork for the creation of a graduate course in Progressivism and education that would be of interest to graduate students from a variety of disciplines. Moreover, once published, the study will firmly establish my reputation in the field and enhance my ability to secure funding for subsequent research projects on the history of education in the South.

Kay Nichols
Associate Professor
Department of Management
I will study employee engagement, but from a perspective not commonly examined in the management literature–that of contingent employees. Employee-employer contracts such as temporary work and independent contracting are common variations on the typical permanent work contract. My interest is focused on the employment status-employee engagement linkage, and the moderating effect of core self-evaluations on this linkage. My sample is contingent employees at two staffing agencies–an information technology staffing company in Florida, and a general temporary agency in Texas. I will utilize my leave to collect and analyze data, and to produce manuscripts for publication.

Rodney E. Rohde
Associate Professor
Clinical Laboratory Science Program
This longitudinal study (September 2010 – May 2012) will examine acquisition of MRSA in a cohort of nursing students by tracking nasal carriage of MRSA at the end of each of five semesters of clinical practice along with questionnaires that identify other known risk factors (TX State IRB #2010F5693). The collaborative project (Clinical Laboratory Science and the School of Nursing) will provide evidence for the necessity of a larger study of MRSA prevalence in healthcare providers in the public domain (regional or statewide) as well as studies of compliance with contact isolation in a local hospital setting. The goals of the investigator include publication, presentation (at all levels), and application for large grants (CDC, NIH, DOE, etc.). This project represents translational research that will bridge education, public health, and clinical/medical arenas.

Jaymeen R. Shah
Associate Professor
Computer Information Systems/QM
Specific goals of the leave period for the research project include completion of the literature review, observe and interview service providers and develop the initial research model. I plan to allocate more time for these parts of the research project mainly because healthcare is a new area of research for me. There is potential that I may be able to complete more parts of the research project during the leave period. To enhance my knowledge of analysis services, my goal is to be able to create information cubes for analyzing large data sets.

Mark Todd
Professor
Art and Design
Over the past twenty years, I have had several occasions to collaborate with an artist colleague from Canada, Derek Besant. Our original collaboration was a series of largescale paintings that were exhibited at the San Antonio Museum of Art and the Galveston Arts Center in 1992. That original collaboration expanded both of our work experiences, in regards to process and aesthetics. During the proposed leave Mr. Besant and I will create a series of unique images in portfolio form. Our intent will be to distribute and exhibit the portfolio and to use the work for proposal seeds for public art (environmental graphics) projects.