[Plsfaculty] to vote or not to vote ... and more good news

Wed Apr 24 18:27:17 MST 2024

Hi all,

Please correct me if I'm wrong about this, but wouldn't it be prudent to use fellowship funds (if available) to pay for students in the labs of new PIs that would otherwise use startup funds? That would be one way to lower spending on startup funds to help with the SPLS payback while mobilizing the fellowship money in a way that feels like it meets all the guidelines set out by UA and CALES?

Basically a way to help free up funds for the payback and if a legitimate way to use the money,  might be worth including as an option on whatever vote happens. If this isn't a rainy day at the SPLS level, I'm not sure what a rainy day looks like. Just a thought echoed from some of the previous emails.

-d

________________________________
From: Plsfaculty <plsfaculty-bounces at list.cals.arizona.edu> on behalf of Brown, Judith K - (jkbrown) <JBrown at ag.arizona.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2024 5:39 PM
To: plsfaculty at list.cals.arizona.edu <plsfaculty at list.cals.arizona.edu>
Subject: Re: [Plsfaculty] to vote or not to vote ... and more good news

Dear all (and special thanks to those reiterating an interest in voting)

Over the last few months, I’ve learned more about the inner workings of SPLS than in my previous 34 years here. Shelley, i might win second place in the history competition. There is so much that boggles the mind, it’s difficult to know where to begin.

One point at a time,  I will explain what i understand so far.

1. First, since we are bound by our own and CALES guidelines, what would a vote serve. This is a proposal-not a binding document. Resources are finite. The requests should be prioritized if insufficient resources are available, and criteria for prioritizing will be specified (as required, per guidelines for CALES TA/GAs, and grad school scholarship.

  *   To use unit funds and scholarships, sufficient resources must be available. The situation remains in limbo and hasn’t changed since the last ten times the reality of the budget shortfall has been explained. We just keep wishing for a change.  The guidelines state, the Grad Committee prepares a proposal (an ideal scenario w priorities), the Business manager reviews financial resource availability, and advises the Dept Head/Director, accordingly. Funds will go to the highest priorities.
  *   Allocation criteria/parameters must be clearly communicated to faculty as a statement of dept policy to ensure consistent treatment. The Director makes the final decisions because that’s what Directors are supposed to do. The budget dictates what can be done, and what can and cannot be done must be prioritized - akin to managing personal finances.  Not only can we not meet our pay-back this year, but another reduction is also anticipated. Are we hoping that if we vote yes to do the wrong thing that we can alleviate the pain a bit longer. In this business, nearly every one of us has or will experience tough times with respect to grant funding.
  *   I’m hearing that most or all of us are amenable to pitching in dept funds to address emergency situations and using dept funds. The example at hand, is grad summer supplemental pay for students that cannot be supported on grants this summer.  It is a fact that all graduate students will receive summer salary. During faculty meeting, I asked everyone that could use grant funding to do so because we will have a shortfall if most are not covered on grants. If the only choice is to use scholarships or potentially available ‘community unit funds’ (July 1st), there is no debate.
  *   I proposed all three of the latter policies in faculty meeting and reiterated in the follow-up recap. Let’s agree too that when we have no grant funding or insufficient funds to support a student for 12-months/2 years, we will not take a new student (CALES Policy).
  *   Instead, spend your time writing/securing grants to take future students. Grant-writing/procurement is a primary responsibility and expectation of faculty. This is among the primary expectations and what we are paid to do and why we are paid the big bucks (so do it).

Therefore, shall we vote on these questions:

  *   Do you agree to use unit funds can be used to cover grad summer pay for students of faculty that cannot provide support, as the last resort to paying graduate students in the summer.
  *   Do you agree that for only this year, summer 2024, will exceptions be made for faculty that accepted a student knowing insufficient funds were available, and does not include students that cannot be funded despite efforts to obtain grants or renewals (hard times, potentially experienced by all during career).
Do you agree that faculty will not take students if they have no grant, or know at that time, that they do/will not have sufficient grant funds to pay their graduate student for 12-months over the first 2 years.
  *   Add your own

     *   Next, I propose we take up a similar discussion on TAships, and ultimately develop guiding principles/policies for GA and TA awards, to include specific criteria, as stipulated, in the CALES funding policy that are fair and equitable.
     *   Historically, the rule of thumb has been that a lecture-based course may receive a 0.25 FTE teaching assistant if it is expected to have 60+ (now 63?) students enrolled and a 0.5 FTE teaching assistant if it is expected to have 120+ students enrolled. The number of teaching assistants scales as expected course enrollment increases. Metrics are available as examples from other units. More on this soon.

2. From Leslie: At Dr. Brown’s request, I pulled the following is financial information from the system showing what was paid from scholarship and unit funds for Grad Student Funding in 2024.  I have included the balances for two accounts that have the most funding usable for student scholarships.  There will be very limited funding a

available from the unit to subsidize GRA/TA salaries.  If you utilize the Boynton Scholarships for summer salaries, it will reduce what is available for the academic year.

Foundation – Endowments (the best news yet - but plan cautiously)

Porterfield

UA Acct#

Amt 2024

UAF Acct#

UAF Balance

5081280

$234,382.00

40-12-0105

$68,266.48

Boynton

UA Acct#

Amt 2024

UAF Acct#

UAF Balance

5512105

$42,283.89

40-12-4302

$401,357.50

==== not good news :

Not repeatable  2024-2025

SPLS GRAD STUDENT FUDNING

ACCT

1259340

AGTNR 00685

1259340

$265,336.52

Salaries

$35,024.59

ERE

$136,699.00

Tuition Remission

$437,060.11

Total Amount Paid for GRA – not sustainable

Students Salary  FY24

$713,726.00

These numbers below don’t include the $22,000.00 invoice paid for recruitment assistance and recruitment event expenses.

Expenses paid on 1259340 are much greater than other units larger than we are spend.  This is part why our shortfall cannot be met; other units were better prepared because they planned and did not spend their last dime just because they had one. To stabilize the SPLS financial situation, we will not overspend, as in the recent past. Priorities will need to be set and budgeted for. It is unclear how or why this was allowed to happen.

=====

Third, Scholarships have in the near and far past been awarded primarily for fall and spring semesters to supplement grant funds. I’d like to see us return to this precedent. For some time, we have been encouraged to include summer salary for grad students in grants. In the past, paying summer stipends for grads was optional.

Recall that 12-month grad funding is now mandatory (Staten recent memos CALES Policies, highlighted in Jia’s presentation).

=====

Fourth, apparently, our scholarships have not been managed in the spirit intended. See the attachment, Scholarships. Scroll to the bottom and read the memo from Mike Staten. Scholarships are to be advertised, applications evaluated, and awardees selected according to these guidelines. In the past, grad students applied/competed for these by submitting a short research proposal that evaluated by the Grad Committee, who announced the winners. Unless I’ve misread, recent SPLS practices are not in line with agreed-to responsibilities.  SLPS practices must be consistent with the guidelines.  Between Feb-April annually, CALES Student Initiative Analysis and Scholarship Administration office announces scholarship opportunities.  They manage undergrad and some of our grad scholarships. A few years ago, scholarships were consolidated under the SA, but some CALES units asked to be responsible for certain scholarships. Attached is a memo from Mike Staten outlining the guiding principles procedures. I recommend that the Grad Program Committee draft a Guiding Principles for faculty review and adopt the process, as expected.

To keep my word, I continue to stand with my talking points, by focusing on fostering an environment of greater stability and collegiality, restore business office functionality, and achieve fiscal trust/financial stability, with fairness and equity. One person alone cannot achieve these goals without the help and support of faculty. It can not be achieved without pain. But we can and will survive.

One last thought - for the next fiscal year, I recommend revamping our thinking and making necessary sacrifices to ensure SPLS regains financial stability, with fair and equitable use of resources. Second, look to the future – with sufficient start-up funds, a SPLS Director hire will become the reality, as will new faculty hires. If we pull together to support these and other common goals,  the department will become once again a place where you want to be.

I may be slightly biased, but I’m extremely motivated by the prospect of hiring a permanent Director. I’m fairly certain you’d prefer to be tormented by someone else, as soon as possible.

Let’s get on with it – a day at a time. I’m always available to discuss in person.

Best

Judy

From: "Palanivelu, Ravishankar - (rpalaniv)" <rpalaniv at arizona.edu>
Date: Wednesday, April 24, 2024 at 1:04 PM
To: "Brown, Judith K - (jkbrown)" <JBrown at ag.arizona.edu>, "plsfaculty at list.cals.arizona.edu" <plsfaculty at list.cals.arizona.edu>
Subject: Re: PPT from Dr. Jia Hu presentation yesterday

Hi Judy,

On Monday, I posted a suggestion for conducting a survey to vote on the GSPC proposal presented in last Friday's faculty meeting. Did you get a chance to review it? Please let us know if this option is no longer considered.

Additionally, can you please let us know whether the proposed GSPC plans for using Boynton funds for the summer stipend will also not be considered?

I am asking because decisions on it impact the steps we need to take to fill out the form, as you requested.

Thank you very much for considering my request.

Ravi

--

Ravishankar Palanivelu, Ph. D.

Professor

School of Plant Sciences

University of Arizona

Tucson, Arizona, 85721

Phone: 520-626-2229

Fax: 520-621-7186

Web: http://ag.arizona.edu/research/ravilab

________________________________

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://list.cals.arizona.edu/pipermail/plsfaculty/attachments/20240425/899f4baa/attachment-0001.htm>