(2) Further develop the Ph.D. program. We recognize that we have built our Ph.D. program more slowly
than was initially anticipated. From the outset, though, the Ph.D. in Marine Biology was intended to be a
moderately sized program to ensure that students received the highest quality education possible. The
relatively small size of the program at present results in part from this guiding philosophy and also from
the self-limiting initial design of the program described above. However, we have now reached a critical
juncture, where enhanced university investment, in the form of more Ph.D. TAs, will be required to assure
our young program’s sustainability and continued success.
The department will continue to encourage managed growth both in terms of the number of Ph.D.
students and faculty mentor participants. We have already addressed many of the initial restrictions placed
on the program that limited the pace of development, and we intend to encourage further participation by
reaching out to our colleagues in other departments. The mechanisms for our non-biologist colleagues to
mentor Ph.D. students have always been in place, and we welcome their participation. We intend to make
a more active effort, though, to include faculty from other departments so that the Ph.D. program can
benefit from their expertise and provide valuable support to the students. These efforts will include open
discussions with outside faculty members to better define ways in which they may more easily participate.
(3) Recruit and retain top level faculty members. The department will continue to recruit new faculty
members who will contribute to the graduate and undergraduate programs, solicit extramural funding, and
provide research infrastructure for students. Given the deficiencies in graduate student support, detailed in
(1) above, the burden of support continues falls on individual faculty, requiring the recruitment of active,
productive faculty to maintain this graduate student support. To do this, the department will continue to
request better start-up packages and faculty salaries. In a past effort, we determined market value for
biology faculty members by comparison to like departments, allowing the university administration to have
data upon which to base potential changes in recruitment packages. Even comparisons with comparable
institutions within the UNC system reveal large disparities that will continue to affect faculty recruitment.
We will continue to highlight this problem, and its long-term consequences, to the university
administration.
(4) Request additional technical and support staff. Recruiting and retaining high-quality technical and
administrative staff is of great import to our department. The department would benefit from the addition
of at least one research technician to direct and instruct student in the usage of shared core facilities and
one administrative support staff to help address the high workloads of our departmental staff and faculty.
These individuals would benefit our graduate program by offering our graduate students the technical
assistance and training needed to efficiently utilize shared resources and equipment, as well as, by ensuring
that their administrative needs (hiring, budgets, compliance) were met.
Strategies to address this problem, as outline in our department’s Long Rang Plan, are:
· Increase by one the technical research staff to assist with established shared core facilities.
· Increase by one the support staff to assist with administrative needs (beyond the soon to be hired
advising coordinator).
(5) Increase diversity among faculty and graduate students. This goal is of fundamental importance to our
department and university. Our department is taking serious steps to include more historically under-
represented groups among our faculty and students, including instituting a departmental Diversity
Committee, taking a more active role in soliciting minority applicants for faculty positions, and working
with the university Department of Human Resources to promote diversity in our hires. We have much
work ahead of us, and one important area where the university can enhance its support of these efforts is to
provide targeted funding for increasing diversity. Enhanced financial packages available to recruit and