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Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology 8 Year Program Review – Self-Study Outline University of Connecticut DEPARTMENT OF ECOLOGY & EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY 8 YEAR PROGRAM REVIEW SELF-STUDY 2012 1 8 Year Program Review – Self-Study Outline Executive Summary Highlight the most salient points of this self-study. Place particular emphasis on new directions and remediation of existing problems. (OIR program review data are attached in Appendix ES1) The goal of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) at the University of Connecticut (UConn) is for its Faculty members to be the leaders of their fields. As evidenced by our enhanced standing in the recent NRC rankings relative to previously designated peer and target institutions, our program has improved substantially since our last review (Appendix ES2). EEB is a strong, vital, and professionally active group of committed researchers, teachers, graduate students and post-docs. Members of the Department are highly productive and influential scholars. Since 2005 EEB faculty have published 658 peer-reviewed articles in leading journals and 111 book chapters. They have authored 16 books and edited another 13 and have garnered more than 53,000 citations to their work. Active extramural awards during this period totaled $28,363,819 (~$75,000,000 if non-UConn funds are included)—a 63% increase in external support over the review period. EEB engages in research collaborations with colleagues across multiple UConn Colleges, Schools and Departments, and at institutions across the U.S. and the world. Our commitment to professional service is extensive, with faculty members holding an unusually large number of influential positions in professional societies and journals, as well as a major presence on federal review panels. EEB faculty members are routinely selected for leadership roles within the University. Since 2005, these have included Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Education, Interim Dean of the Graduate School, Chairs of 11 University Committees and as members of dozens of other University and College committees. Nearly all of our mid- and upper-level courses are taught by tenure-track faculty. Departmental means on student evaluations, particularly in upper division courses, are routinely above those of the University. We maintain a signification investment in time-consuming laboratory courses, believing strongly that organismal biologists should be broadly trained. We contribute significantly to courses fulfilling the General Education mission of the University. EEB is responsible for the majority of the introductory biology lab courses, providing 55% of all introductory biology seats offered by the 3 biology departments since 2005 and teaching 55% of all “W”-students in the life sciences (W-courses fulfill the University’s writing requirement). We have responded proactively to an unprecedented increase in the total number of students majoring in biology, generally, and in our own major, as well (both of which have doubled since 2005). EEB is heavily invested in undergraduate research and the Honors program, with faculty members having supervised over 300 research undergraduates in their laboratories (56 completing theses, 49 of them Honors) and many of them co-authoring publications. Comparisons with peer and target institutions, and the other biology departments at UConn, indicate that our teaching commitments are large. We are particularly proud of our graduate program. Feedback from graduate students suggests that our graduate teaching (combining individual mentorship with seminars and lecture courses) is highly successful. NRC data show that the completion rate and time to degree of our graduate students exceeds that of almost all of our peer and target institutions. 82% of our Ph.D. students graduating since 2005 hold professional positions related to their field. Since 2005 our graduate students have earned 25 extramural awards, including NSF Pre-doctoral, EPA Star, NASA and Switzer Fellowships, plus Fulbright awards, NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement grants and numerous professional society awards. The Department is home to an average of 20 post-docs per year, 55 in total since 2005; 91% of the 35 no longer in residence have gone on academic or other positions in science. Public engagement activities range from local and regional efforts to high-profile projects in South America and Africa. While active and successful in traditional outreach venues, EEB has also established a significant presence in cyberspace, educating the public via blogs, social medial and numerous websites. Space has improved substantially for a subset of our faculty since our last review, with 15 faculty members now housed in the new Pharmacy/Biology building. Unfortunately, the rest remain in poor space within the Torrey Life Sciences building (see below). 2 8 Year Program Review – Self-Study Outline Our Vision and its Limitations: We feel that EEB is at a cusp. To this point the faculty have been sincere, united and energetic in their efforts to make the Department an international leader in organismal biology. We have shared a vision of excellence as something always to strive for, but never quite attain, and thus we rise towards an ever-higher bar. As individuals we feel empowered, not diminished, when each new hire is better than we are, and thus we as a whole are better. By many of the metrics used to evaluate scholarship and productivity, we exceed our peers. But we are exhausted. Our investment in the University has not been matched by the University’s investment in us. Structural problems identified in the previous review remain. Faculty effort and workloads are approaching an asymptote and morale is eroding. Without a serious University commitment to our program, the progress we have made will stall and we fear we will regress towards the mean. The principal outcomes of this self-study have been the documentation that we truly are doing more than ever and the revelation and clarification of impediments to our further advancement. If we are to move to the level of our target institutions we need to resolve several issues, some raised by the previous review and some newly emerged. Principal among these are (1) a steadily increasing administrative load, (2) an alarmingly top-heavy faculty, (3) inequitable and inadequate space, (4) constraints on graduate recruitment, and (5) an unsupportive environment for the care of our non-model research animals. (1) The time available to faculty members for innovative and competitive research is steadily eroding owing to excessive ‘businessification’ of University practices. Responsibility for paperwork (e.g., travel, purchasing and grant accounting) continues to shift from staff to faculty while requirements for more reports, more explicit accounting for time, more mandated training sessions and more emphasis on contractual agreements, skyrocket. This wasteful use of faculty members’ time diminishes their ability— and commitment—to making EEB and UConn the best they can be. The return of a lost office staff position would help to relieve this administrative strain. (2) The number of tenured faculty members has decreased by 2 since 2005, despite substantial increases in undergraduate enrollments, with the student-to-faculty ratio rising from 71:1 to 103:1. Two new hires (one starting 2013, one search ongoing) will return us to our 2005 number, but given the impending retirement of 2 senior faculty members, improvement will be very short-term. Multiple years of University hiring freezes, have left our faculty exceptionally top-heavy (76% are, or will soon be, Full Professors and only two—including our newest hire—are Assistant Professors). Implementation of our cluster hire proposal for 6 junior faculty members in Biodiversity and Global Change would help to return balance to departmental demographics. (3) The quality and quantity of EEB space is starkly dichotomous, with half the department in the new Pharmacy/Biology building (PBB) and the other half in the decaying Torrey Life Sciences building (TLS). The last minute, unannounced elimination of a planned bridge between PBB and TLS has fragmented the department, causing an erosion of departmental cohesion. We are encouraged by the President’s recent efforts to obtain funding for a new building, but also recognize that even if successful, it cannot address departmental space needs for many years. (4) Our graduate program has remained static at ~48 students and the number of TAs has not kept pace with the doubling of undergraduate enrollment. NRC data show that EEB’s average number of University- supported students per faculty member (0.63) is lower than 5 of 9 peer and target institutions. We continue to see a decline in our ability to recruit some of our best applicants because our competitors offer evermore attractive support packages. Enhancement of our graduate program requires additional student support, particularly the availability of full fellowships, summer support and a larger TA pool. But, we are about to implement a new model of TA assignments in introductory biology that we believe will help to mitigate our present shortage. (5) EEB experimentalists often study non-model species requiring animal care. The Office of Animal Care (OAC) continues to impede work on such ‘exotic’ animals. Three faculty members have now been forced to change their research programs as a result of this lack of support. 3 8 Year Program Review – Self-Study Outline A. Unit Description, Mission, Goals, and Recent History Note: Relevant data are provided
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