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SIPS DEI Council Update: Reporting bias

The SIPS DEI Council is open to anyone in the SIPS community who would like to participate in building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community in our school through monthly online meetings and working groups on various topics.  New voices, viewpoints and energy are always welcome.  Our next meeting is April 12, 10 to 11 a.m. For more information and Zoom link, email: sips-dicouncil@cornell.edu. Visit the SIPS Diversity, inclusion, & accessibility webpage.

Reporting Incidents of Bias at Cornell

What follows is from the Cornell AgriTech DEI Bulletin.  Many thanks to our colleagues Anna Katharine Mansfield and Amara Dunn-Silver, Cornell AgriTech DEI Council co-chairs, who are taking such a strong lead with their DEI efforts. They write, like any group, DEI practitioners use jargon as a shortcut to convey specific meanings that may be unclear or confusing to anyone unfamiliar with the terms. As part of our DEI Bulletin series, we are exploring some key terms, concepts and practices that are important to DEI. If there’s a topic you’d like us to explore, contact Anna Katharine or Amara, or you can submit a suggestion anonymously. 

In our December bulletin we wrote about implicit biases – the subconscious views we hold about other people based on the way they look, speak, act, think, believe, etc. Incidents of bias can happen when a person’s biases – subconscious or conscious – motivate hurtful words or actions. It could be a “joke” that belittles a person because of their race or country of origin. It could be assumptions about a person’s seniority or expertise based on their gender. A full definition of “bias activity”, it can be found on page 8 of Cornell’s University Policy 6.4 – Prohibited Bias, Discrimination, Harassment, and Sexual and Related Misconduct.

Experiencing a bias incident is hurtful both to the person targeted by the bias and bystanders who witness the event. Bias incidents harm everyone involved, although the impact differs depending on the identities and power you hold. If you’re the target, and especially if you hold a visible identity that seems to attract commentary, experiencing repeated bias incidents can make the world feel like an unwelcoming, unsafe, and hostile place. If you have witnessed a bias incident, you might keep thinking about it long after the event; you may even have imagined things you wish you’d said in the moment, and feel regret or impotence for not speaking up. Victims and bystanders alike experience dehumanization and distress.

One option you always have as a Cornell employee, student, or visitor when you witness or experience bias at work is to report it.

The Office of Institutional Equity and Title IX (OIETIX) tracks bias incidents experienced by Cornell employees or students, and can provide you with support if you want or need it.

Some things to know about Bias Reporting at Cornell:

  • Reporting is confidential.
  • Reporting can be anonymous. However, OIETIX will not be able to follow up and offer support if you report anonymously.
  • You don’t need to be sure it was bias to report it. You can still report an incident even if you aren’t sure it was “serious enough” to be considered bias. OIETIX can make that determination. If it bothered you, it’s worth reporting.
  • Bias perpetrated by someone not associated with Cornell can be reported. The person who committed the bias does not need to be a Cornell employee or student for you to report the incident. OIETIX still wants to know what happened and wants to be able to support you.
  • Bias that happens off-campus can be reported. Many of us are involved in Extension activities or other responsibilities that take us off campus.  If you experience bias on a farm or at an off-campus event you attend in connection with your work or studies at Cornell, OIETIX still wants to know about it.

Responding to bias:

If you see bias taking place, you are encouraged to intervene if you feel safe doing so. This intervention can take many forms, but the goal is to interrupt bias while preserving the dignity and humanity of everyone involved – including those committing the bias and those experiencing it.

The basics of bystander intervention training are available free at Right to Be, a non-profit started in 2005 to equip witnesses to interrupt street harassment. Proficiency takes practice, though, so the Cornell AgriTech DEI Council and Cornell Cooperative Extension recently offered a workshop on Responding to Bias in Agricultural Extension Work. Led by Kathy Castania (Opening Doors Institute) and Eduardo González Jr. (Assistant Director for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Cornell Cooperative Extension), this event allowed attendees from Cornell AgriTech and regional or statewide CCE teams to brainstorm responses to real-life situations, and practice them with expert coaching. If you couldn’t attend but wish you could have, be sure to let Anna Katharine or Amara know so that we can gauge interest in offering this workshop again.

If you think it would be helpful to offer this workshop on the Ithaca campus, email the SIPS DEI council: sips-dicouncil@cornell.edu.

At AgriTech we grow things, including the courage to disrupt harassment and other bias incidents.

 

Diversity & Inclusion

Welcome to new SIPS Plant Sciences Coordinator Lauren Boggs

Lauren Boggs head shot-Magdalen Lindeberg

SIPS leadership is pleased to welcome Lauren Brown Boggs who started her new role as Undergraduate Coordinator for the Plant Sciences Major on April 11. Lauren brings significant relevant experience to the role, having previously worked in the registrar’s office for Architecture, Art, and Planning. In that capacity she worked with the AAP Office of Admissions and Student Services and the academic departments of the college to provide academic record, course, and room scheduling support for undergraduate and graduate students in Ithaca, New York City, and Rome, as well as providing guidance on a variety of systems and policies. She is also herself a graduate of Cornell CALS.

In her new position Lauren will support the Plant Sciences Undergraduate Major in SIPS and report to Leah Cook. Prior to her appointment as SIPS Student Services Lead, Leah served as the Plant Sciences Undergraduate Coordinator and has been covering this role and her leadership responsibilities since November.  Lauren’s office is located in 105 Surge A Building and she can be contacted at 607-255-8826 or by email at leb69@cornell.edu. Stop by and say hello!

undergraduate

Four SIPS Graduate Students receive the Barbara McClintock Award

-Magdalen Lindeberg

Congratulations to Shuyao Kong, Jiameng Lai, Anna Sophia Westbrook, and Gordon Younkin, recipients of the Barbara McClintock Graduate Student Award.

Sophie-Westbrook headshot

Sophia Westbrook is a graduate student in the DiTommaso program. Her research focuses on ecosystem services provided by non-crop plants in agricultural settings

 

Shuyao-Kong head shot

Shuyao Kong is a graduate student working with Adrienne Roeder. His thesis research concerns the molecular mechanism of Arabidopsis sepal initiation using computational and experimental approaches

 

lai jiameng head shot

Jiameng Lai is a graduate student in the program of Ying Sun. Jiameng’s research is focused on modelling the annual dynamics of satellite-derived land surface temperatures with a particular focus on urban heat islands

 

Gordon-Younkin head shot

Gordon Younkin is a graduate student working with Georg Jander in the Boyce Thompson Institute. Hie research focus is on cardiac glycoside production by  wormseed wallflower (Erysimum cheiranthoides) and their role in protection against herbivory

 

The Barbara McClintock Graduate Student Award is made possible by an endowment from Dr. Robert Rabson to honor outstanding senior graduate students studying in the Plant Sciences (Plant Biology, Plant Pathology & Plant-Microbe Biology, Plant Breeding, Horticulture or Soil & Crop Sciences) at Cornell. It is awarded annually and students are selected based on their academic, research, teaching, and outreach achievements as well as on their potential to continue an outstanding career in the Plant Sciences. Income from the fund is used to support training of the awardees.

Awards, graduate students

Recent publications from the SIPS community – March 21, 2024

Characterizing soil hydrology in the Indo-Gangetic plain of Bihar, India: Methods and preliminary results.

Rossiter, D. G., Arenas-Calle, L., Urfels, A., Nayak, H., Sherpa, S., and McDonald, A. 2024. Geoderma Regional 37:e00784.

EPSPS Gene Amplification Confers Glyphosate Resistance in Palmer Amaranth in Connecticut.

Aulakh, J. S., Kumar, V., Brunharo, C. A. C. G., Veron, A., and Price, A. J. 2024. Weed Technology:1-22.

Evaluation of Malus Germplasm Identifies Genetic Sources of Powdery Mildew and Frogeye Leaf Spot Resistance for Apple Breeding.

Awan, S. I., Thapa, R., Svara, A., Feulner, H., Streb, N., and Khan, A. 2023. Phytopathology 113:1289-1300.

A Perspective on Current Therapeutic Molecule Screening Methods Against ‘Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus’, the Presumed Causative Agent of Citrus Huanglongbing.

Kennedy, J. P., Wood, K., Pitino, M., Mandadi, K., Igwe, D. O., Shatters, R. G., Widmer, T. L., Niedz, R., and Heck, M. 2023.  Phytopathology 113:1171-1179.

Phosphate-solubilizing bacteria increase maize phosphorus uptake from magnesium-enriched poultry manure biochar.

do Amaral Leite, A., de Souza Cardoso, A. A., de Almeida Leite, R., Barrera, A. M. V., Queiroz, D. D. L., Viana, T. C., de Oliveira-Longatti, S. M., Silva, C. A., de Souza Moreira, F. M., Lehmann, J., and Melo, L. C. A. 2024. Biology and Fertility of Soils 60:421-436.

CRISPR/Cas9-induced DNA breaks trigger crossover, chromosomal loss, and chromothripsis-like rearrangements.

Samach, A., Mafessoni, F., Gross, O., Melamed-Bessudo, C., Filler-Hayut, S., Dahan-Meir, T., Amsellem, Z., Pawlowski, W. P., and Levy, A. A. 2023. The Plant Cell 35:3957-3972.

Chlorine dioxide affects metabolism of harvested sweet corn.

Liu, S., Zheng, Y., Wang, R., Shi, Y., Cai, W., Xu, T., Wu, C. e., Ma, L., Bai, C., Zhou, X., Wang, Q., Watkins, C. B., and Zuo, J. 2024.  Postharvest Biology and Technology 211:112834.

Insight into a two-part plant breeding scheme through Bayesian optimization of budget allocations.

Jannink, J.-L., Astudillo, R., and Frazier, P. Crop Science n/a.

Identification and Characterization of Pythium, Globisporangium, and Phytopythium Species Present in Floricultural Crops from Long Island, New York.

Garrido, P. A., Proaño-Cuenca, F., Flor, F. J. F., Benítez, E. A. D., Torres, Ivanna F. S., Kaiser, A. R. K., Sain, L., Peñaloza, Y. A. M., Marek, S. M., Melouk, H., Daughtrey, M., and Garzon, C. D. 2023.  Phytopathology 113:1335-1346.

A major gene for chilling tolerance variation in Indica rice codes for a kinase OsCTK1 that phosphorylates multiple substrates under cold.

Wu, J., Liu, H., Zhang, Y., Zhang, Y., Li, D., Liu, S., Lu, S., Wei, L., Hua, J., and Zou, B.  New Phytologist n/a.

NYUS.2: an automated machine learning prediction model for the large-scale real-time simulation of grapevine freezing tolerance in North America.

Wang, H., Moghe, G. D., Kovaleski, A. P., Keller, M., Martinson, T. E., Wright, A. H., Franklin, J. L., Hébert-Haché, A., Provost, C., Reinke, M., Atucha, A., North, M. G., Russo, J. P., Helwi, P., Centinari, M., and Londo, J. P. 2023. Horticulture Research 11.

Positive effects of public breeding on US rice yields under future climate scenarios.

Wang, D. R., Jamshidi, S., Han, R., Edwards, J. D., McClung, A. M., and McCouch, S. R. 2024.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121:e2309969121.

Publications

Recent publications from the SIPS community – March 14, 2024

Spatio-temporal modeling of high-throughput multi-spectral aerial images improves agronomic trait genomic prediction in hybrid maize.

Morales, N., Anche, M. T., Kaczmar, N. S., Lepak, N., Ni, P., Romay, M. C., Santantonio, N., Buckler, E. S., Gore, M. A., Mueller, L. A., and Robbins, K. R. 2024.  Genetics.

New approaches to dissect leaf hydraulics reveal large gradients in living tissues of tomato leaves.

Jain, P., Huber, A. E., Rockwell, F. E., Sen, S., Holbrook, N. M., and Stroock, A. D.  New Phytologist n/a.

Localized measurements of water potential reveal large loss of conductance in living tissues of maize leaves.

Jain, P., Huber, A. E., Rockwell, F. E., Sen, S., Holbrook, N. M., and Stroock, A. D. 2023.  Plant Physiology.

Copine proteins are required for brassinosteroid signaling in maize and Arabidopsis.

Jing, T., Wu, Y., Yu, Y., Li, J., Mu, X., Xu, L., Wang, X., Qi, G., Tang, J., Wang, D., Yang, S., Hua, J., and Gou, M. 2024. Nature communications 15:2028.

Harvest Timing of Standing Corn Using Near-Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy.

Digman, M. F., Cherney, J. H., and Cherney, D. J. R. 2024. Sensors 24:1397.

Proanthocyanidins: Key for Resistance to Globisporangium (Formerly Pythium) Seed Rot of Pea.

Ewing, E. E., Weeden, N. F., and Simko, I. 2024.  J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 149:37-49.

Publications

Recent publications from the SIPS community – March 7, 2024

Motivating organic farmers to adopt practices that support the pest-suppressive microbiome relies on understanding their beliefs.

Bloom, E. H., Atallah, S. S., and Casteel, C. L. 2024.  Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 39:e8.

A scoping review on tools and methods for trait prioritization in crop breeding programmes.

Occelli, M., Mukerjee, R., Miller, C., Porciello, J., Puerto, S., Garner, E., Guerra, M., Gomez, M. I., and Tufan, H. A. 2024.  Nature Plants.

Tapping into the plasticity of plant architecture for increased stress resilience.

Rahmati Ishka, M., and Julkowska, M. 2023.  F1000Research 12.

Complete genome assembly provides a high-quality skeleton for pan-NLRome construction in melon.

Mo, C., Wang, H., Wei, M., Zeng, Q., Zhang, X., Fei, Z., Zhang, Y., and Kong, Q. The Plant Journal n/a.

Global consortium for the classification of fungi and fungus-like taxa.

Hyde KD…Hodge, KT…. Zucconi L. 2023. Mycosphere 14(1): 1960–2012

Extraordinary preservation of gene collinearity over three hundred million years revealed in homosporous lycophytes.

Li, C., Wickell, D., Kuo, L.-Y., Chen, X., Nie, B., Liao, X., Peng, D., Ji, J., Jenkins, J., Williams, M., Shu, S., Plott, C., Barry, K., Rajasekar, S., Grimwood, J., Han, X., Sun, S., Hou, Z., He, W., Dai, G., Sun, C., Schmutz, J., Leebens-Mack, J. H., Li, F.-W., and Wang, L. 2024. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121:e2312607121.

Behavior and Feeding of Two Beetle Pollinators of Zamia integrifolia (Cycadales): Rhopalotria slossoni (Coleoptera: Belidae) and Pharaxanotha floridana (Coleoptera: Erotylidae).

Simon, A., Salzman, S., Specht, C. D., and Raguso, R. A. 2023. Florida Entomologist 106:199-202, 194.

Biochar improves the nutrient cycle in sandy-textured soils and increases crop yield: a systematic review.

Bekchanova, M., Campion, L., Bruns, S., Kuppens, T., Lehmann, J., Jozefczak, M., Cuypers, A., and Malina, R. 2024. Environmental Evidence 13:3.

Identification of Novel Quantitative Trait Loci Associated with Table Grape Fruit Quality Characteristics in a Segregating Population and Transferability of Existing Quality Markers.

de, L., Moreira, S., Clark, M. D., Tabb, A., Karn, A., Londo, J. P., Zou, C., Sun, Q., Prins, B., DeLong, J. D., Burhans, A., Yang, H.-C., Naegele, R., Zyl, S. v., and De-Long, J.

Reply to: Model uncertainty obscures major driver of soil carbon.

Tao, F., Houlton, B. Z., Frey, S. D., Lehmann, J., Manzoni, S., Huang, Y., Jiang, L., Mishra, U., Hungate, B. A., Schmidt, M. W. I., Reichstein, M., Carvalhais, N., Ciais, P., Wang, Y.-P., Ahrens, B., Hugelius, G., Hocking, T. D., Lu, X., Shi, Z., Viatkin, K., Vargas, R., Yigini, Y., Omuto, C., Malik, A. A., Peralta, G., Cuevas-Corona, R., Di Paolo, L. E., Luotto, I., Liao, C., Liang, Y.-S., Saynes, V. S., Huang, X., and Luo, Y. 2024. Nature 627:E4-E6.

Publications

Recent publications from the SIPS community – February 29, 2024

A balancing act: Synthetic oversampling corrects skewed distribution of aflatoxin in maize and improves prediction of contaminated kernels.

Siegel, C., Aoun, M., Windham, G. L., Williams, W. P., and Nelson, R. J. 2023.  Food Control 154:109953.

Chromosomal evolution, environmental heterogeneity, and migration drive spatial patterns of species richness in Calochortus (Liliaceae).

Karimi, N., Krieg, C. P., Spalink, D., Lemmon, A. R., Lemmon, E. M., Eifler, E., Hernández, A. I., Chan, P. W., Rodríguez, A., Landis, J. B., Strickler, S. R., Specht, C. D., and Givnish, T. J. 2024.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121:e2305228121.

Biorational fungicides to manage cucurbit powdery mildew on winter squash in New York.

Indermaur, E. J., Day, C. T. C., Dunn-Silver, A. R., and Smart, C. D.  Plant Health Progress 0:null.

Vision-Based Vineyard Navigation Solution with Automatic Annotation.

Liu, E., Monica, J., Gold, K. M., Cadle-Davidson, L. E., Combs, D., and Jiang, Y. 2023. 2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS):4234-4241.

Syntrichia ruralis: emerging model moss genome reveals a conserved and previously unknown regulator of desiccation in flowering plants.

Zhang, X., Ekwealor, J. T. B., Mishler, B. D., Silva, A. T., Yu, L. a., Jones, A. K., Nelson, A. D. L., and Oliver, M. J. New Phytologist n/a.

Antibody array-based proteome approach reveals proteins involved in grape seed development.

Zhang, Y., Wang, Y., Liu, R., Fei, Z., Fan, X., Jiang, J., Sun, L., Meng, X., and Liu, C. 2024. Plant Physiology.

The jet-like chromatin structure defines active secondary metabolism in fungi.

Shao, W., Wang, J., Zhang, Y., Zhang, C., Chen, J., Chen, Y., Fei, Z., Ma, Z., Sun, X., and Jiao, C. 2024. Nucleic Acids Research.

 

Publications

SIPS Teaching Forums

SIPS Teaching Forum minutes will continually be added to this post, with the most recent meeting at the top. When new minutes are added, a link will be provided in the SIPS Monday News & Events.

SIPS Teaching Forum
February 27, 2024

Meeting sponsors & agenda

SIPS Teaching Forum Feb 27 2024-slides

  • Joss Rose, SIPS Director
  • Kathie Hodge, SIPS Assoc. Director of Teaching
  • Marvin Pritts, DUS for Plant Sciences Major
  • Frank Rossi, DUS for Agricultural Sciences Major
  • Leah Cook, Student Services Lead

Planning regular forums on a range of topics (share your ideas)

Topics for today:
Teaching equity across sections
Visioning – opportunities for curriculum development

Teaching Equity

Heterogeneous landscape of teaching expectations across SIPS

Different teaching types present a variety of complex demands:

  • lecture/labs/discussions
  • classroom capacity (labs in particular) is limiting
  • Some classes have very high enrollments while others are undersubscribed
  • Funding for Tas often feels limiting
    • CALS working on universal training for undergrad TAs
    • CALS is also training people in how to mentor UG Tas (Jonathan Russell-Anelli)
  • Geography: Ithaca and Geneva
    • a lot of topical expertise at AgriTech (Frank Rossi)
    • we don’t want all teaching faculty in Ithaca and all extension faculty at AgriTech (Joss)
  • Support Early Career and future faculty:
    • Need to consider teaching when hiring before they arrive
    • Ensuring success is a main motivator and we don’t want to devalue teaching
    • New faculty aren’t sure of what their appointment means (Gaurav Moghe)
    • Can we pay more attention to mentoring of early career faculty in teaching to promote excellence? Is there something better than course evals? (Dan Buckley)
    • ALI postdocs are working on improving excellence in teaching. Should SIPS have a more permanent instructional assistance? (Anna Levina)
  • We also support other important majors and our students are looking to other majors for course work as well (Justine Vanden Heuvel, Marvin, Jonathan)
    • useful classes in other units include non-CS Digital Ag in Animal Science (Frank Rossi)
  • Big Red Teaching Days – consider participating! (Marvin, Kathie)

Addressing Issues

Document appointments – courses and effort for each faculty member

Section Heads:

  • Individual discussions with teaching faculty
    • For new hires, include specific courses in the offer letter (Jonathan)
    • Do we need to be more equitable about when teaching expectations kick in? (Adam Bogdanove)
    • Should we consider more rotations in who teaches what? (Jonathan)
    • This may be especially important for service classes (1000-3000 level) (Frank)
  • Rubric about teaching expectations being refined by CALS
  • Explicit teaching expectations decided at the time of search
    • Search committee have representation from different sections
    • be sure that all SIPS has input on teaching needs (Justine)

Measuring excellence – University of California rubric for best practices. Provides evidence based objective metrics for improvement (Dan). Dan shared links on Teaching Practice Inventories from Stanford and UBC.

  • concerns about evaluation, that people evaluating may have never seen you actually teach (Greg Peck).
  • Seems like it might vary among sections (Joss).
  • CTI staff can assist with this and may be more skilled as trained evaluators (Jonathan).
  • peer review of teaching has been effective in the past (Marvin).

Looking forward

  • Aligning expectations across sections
  • Ongoing case by case assessment
  • Support early career faculty
  • Planning around sabbaticals and retirements. Alternate year classes are a nightmare for the MPS students (Dan)
  • Reallocate research effort to increase teaching capacity?

Visioning and curriculum development

  • New opportunities
  • SIPS grand challenge courses – e.g. climate

Emerging Teaching Needs (Marvin)

54 courses inactivated or at risk of being lost – Examples:

  • Field crops systems (hopefully will be taught by Crop Phys hire – in job description)
  • Principles of Veg production
  • Intro to Agroecology (current course is at the 4000 level. Lower level needed). Important link to new learning outcomes
  • Field Botany/Plant ID – Urban Plant Ecology?
  • Medicinal Plants – growing interest. Currently no capacity to take on more students in related minor
  • Multiple program areas with reduced courses
  • New CALS distribution requirements coming on line
  • Every CALS student will need a course in Ag, Food systems and nutrition – we could be offering this!
    • Data literacy
    • Ethics
    • Sustainability challenges

Talk to Frank and Marvin about course needs when writing position descriptions

Other options:

  • Adam – options for teaching these as modules?
  • Jonathan – summer field courses? (Marvin) this triggers summer tuition
  • Gaurav – impact of eCornell and certificates? (enrolled UGs can’t access)
  • Frank – once a week 2 credit classes for 7 weeks really work for some students
  • Greg – Grad needs: plant science stats class for grad students. Graduate physiology. Writing class
  • Anna – extension training needed. See Jeff Perry’s class EDUC 3510/5510 Engaged Learning through Extension, Outreach, and Instruction

CSTL Lunch & Learn (Jonathan)

Feb 28 12-1, 213 Kennedy Hall. Identifying students in distress

SIPS Director News, Teaching

SIPS leadership meeting minutes

Starting in 2024, SIPS leadership meeting minutes are being added to this post, with the most recent meeting at the top. When new minutes are added, a link will be provided in the SIPS Monday News & Events. This change has been made with the goal of increasing information transparency throughout the School

SIPS Executive Committee Minutes
Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Tour of Plant Science building Phase I renovation scheduled for Monday, February 26 at 2pm. Meet in hallway outside 135 Plant Science. (Meeting invitations sent out through Outlook.)

Annual reviews with faculty should be going on now. Joss distributed list of 10 questions to be sent to faculty for their consideration before their performance dialog meeting. Invitations to section heads for check-in meetings with Joss will be sent out soon.

  • SIPS Faculty Teaching forum
    • Topics will include:
      • Conversations in CALS on teaching efforts and equity
      • Emerging course needs and vision for SIPS
      • CALS distribution requirements for FA24
  • Updates from CALS Chairs Meeting (Joss Rose)
    See attached CALS Chairs Meeting Summary 2/8/2024
  • Current faculty search updates
    • Biodiversity – Faculty meet on Friday, February 23 to vote on which candidate to make an offer to. Chelsea has created a website for the Biodiversity Moonshot.
    • GIS – Zoom interviews for 8 candidates going on now.
    • Ecophysiology – 75 applicants are currently being reviewed. Pool has been approved by the Senior Associates Dean’s office.
    • Urban Plant Ecology – Job ad posted in AJO. Goal is to bring candidates to campus in May.
    • LIHREC SRA – Offer made with deadline for response Friday, February 23.
    • CEA – Plant Pathology – 7 candidates approved by Senior Associates Dean’s office for Zoom interviews which will be held on March 7.
    • Seed Biology – 18 applicants; Waiting for list of candidates for Zoom interviews to be approved by Senior Associates Dean’s office.
  • Faculty recruitment/Search-a-thon 2024-2025
    • Another event to be scheduled.
    • Considerations for hiring:
      • Think about cluster hires across years when requesting new faculty positions.
      • Space is at a premium – think strategically about lab/office space; sharing of resources.
      • Future needs around teaching.
      • Retirements
  • Other
    Suggestion to hold a formal SIPS orientation for new faculty as one group and then split into teaching and extension groups.

SIPS Executive Committee Minutes
Wednesday, February 7, 2024

General Updates (Joss)

  • BTI/USDA/SIPS engagement: topics/themes?

Welcome reception for Silvia Restrepo went very well; about 100 attendees.

Agreed that regular events should be held perhaps in the format of lightning talks on themes pertinent to BTI/USDA/SIPS.

  • Grad student visits: challenges/concerns?

No concerns. Shelby (GFA for SCS and PBG) has done a terrific job in supporting recruitment.

  • Grand Challenge Fellowships round 2

Coming soon. In general, process for round 1 worked well.

  • Dean’s presentation
  • SIPS report
  • Annual reviews and performance dialogs

Plant Science Building Renovation Update

  • Phase 1 is on track to finish by end of 2025. Phase 2 is in the design phase and now includes the Annex which was previously not being considered for renovation.
  • Coming soon – a tour of the renovation site for SIPS Leadership.

Faculty positions:

  • Administrative operations, updates, challenges (Cindy)
    • See attachment of Gantt chart for visual of the faculty search schedule from now through Fall 2025/Spring 2026.
    • See attachment of CALS/SIPS faculty search guidelines divided into responsibilities (Director, Section Head, Admin, etc) for each stage of a search.
    • Administrative staff are responsible for other tasks in addition to faculty searches, so we trying to find the balance between workload and providing the best support possible. One way to do this is to keep improving the faculty search process.
  • Moonshots
  • Community faculty renewal conversations and “Search-a-thon” ideas. (Rebecca)

Please review summary of position pitches from first Search-a-thon meeting. Consider if some pitches could be merged, are there corrections/updates, are there faculty needs missing from this list?

  • Updates from Section Heads on conversations in faculty meetings.
  • Pre-fill needs: mission critical roles. Potential faculty retirements.
  • Significance of space availability, space renovations
  • Admin ca
  • Onboarding packages for new faculty

Annual Reviews and Performance Dialogs

SIPS Executive Committee Minutes
Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Joss (SIPS Director)

  • Think about leveraging new faculty startup funds for equipment needs/replacements.
  • Bill Miller – MPS program director as of July 1.
  • Dan Buckley – Section Head for SCS as of July 1.
  • 2 remaining Moonshot searches should start soon with goal of campus visits in Fall 2024.

Mohamed (Graduate student representative)

  • Graduate students elected a representative to the DI Council
  • Holding regular social events every 2 weeks.
  • Professional development activities starting in February; goal is to connect with alumni to share their career experiences; suggestions of alumni to contact are welcome.
  • Recruitment

Met recently with graduate student organizing committee and SIPS Graduate Field Coordinators

  • 1102 will be a touchdown space for recruits hangout between meetings
  • SIPS social hour on February 9th
  • SCS/PBG will sponsor joint facilities tour.

Andrew (Postdoctoral representative)

  • Sent survey to postdocs and found out the following:
    • Want more social events.
    • Want more professional development opportunities.
    • Question – what category do postdocs fall in – faculty, staff??
    • How build networks as postdocs are hired all year round, so there is no real cohort.
    • Lack of postdoc orientation process.
  • Trying to recruit more leadership to help guide the group.
  • SIPS postdoc group now connected with BTI postdocs that work with plants.
  • To boost successful interviewing for future job prospects, Joss suggested holding program on chalk talks – what are they and how prepare effectively.
  • Suggestion – SIPS postdocs can join the Cornell University Student Association of the Geneva Experiment Station (SAGES) which could help promote engagement across campuses.

Magdalen (Assistant Director)

  • Administrative staff working on effective communication on who does what in SIPS is reflected in recent updates to the SIPS Professional Staff page on the SIPS website. https://cals.cornell.edu/school-integrative-plant-science/about/people/sips-professional-staff. More updates coming soon.
  • New centralized process for managing faculty searches lead by Cindy is working well to ensure consistent processes and opportunity for backup support if needed. All search inquiries should be directed to Cindy.
  • Magdalen – Head assistants and Cindy have spent a lot of time with process development in various capacities within SIPS.
  • Joss – they are also working on faculty orientation process.
  • Frank – kudos to Michele Blackmore for her efforts supporting Urban Plant Ecology search.

Marvin (Director of Undergraduate Studies)

  • From Leah Cook to course instructors – Please realistically estimate your course enrollment caps rather than estimating low caps and then increasing enrollment numbers one by one as students ask to enroll in the course. This latter strategy has two consequences – instructors may be limited by the size of the classroom to accept more students as classroom assignments are based on estimated enrollment and it creates a heavy workload on admin staff to accommodate each additional enrollment request as they must be handled individually by issuing a unique code that will enable enrollment.
  • New course management system for CALS will be implemented next academic year with SIPS serving as the inaugural user. All SIPS courses will need to entered into the new system, so any course changes/updates need to be made soon. Also, all courses will use the PLS course code.
  • Lots of new required learning outcomes coming from CALS (e.g., ethics, sustainability and more) and SIPS needs to figure out which courses or create courses to meet requirements.

Frank (Director, AgSci)

  • Currently 124 AgSci majors.
  • 1st year cohorts from Plant Sci and AgSci joined together for some activities for the first time. This worked well.
  • Newly formed advisory committee with members from across the college is working well – reviewing curriculum, etc.
  • Kudos to Leah for her work on restructuring the AgSci administrative support role.
  • Currently there is an informal internship requirement within the program. Should an internship be an academic requirement? Should there be an administrative structure to manage this process? A learning contract benefits both student and faculty.

Jean-Luc Jannink (DGS Council)

  • Recruitment is Feb 8 & 9.
  • Process to assign TA’s will start soon.
  • Time to start thinking about next round of grand challenge fellowships.

Bill (Section Head, Plant Biology) – absent

  • Joss – Campus visits Biodiversity faculty search occurring now.
    Dan Buckley (MPS program)
  • Admissions coming up.
  • Approval received from college registrar to have flexibility on degree requirement courses.

Toni (Section Head, Soil and Crop sciences) – absent
Mike Gore (Section Head, Plant Breeding and Genetics) – absent
Gillian (Section Head, Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology)

  • Welcome back Awais
  • Reminder – PPPMB seminar Jan 31, Dr Silvia Restrepo BTI president.
  • LIHREC search – offer made.
  • CEA faculty search – many applicants; closing date end of January; in person interviews late April/early May with research seminar in Geneva and chalk talk in Ithaca.
  • PPPMB Faculty renewal talks ongoing.

Justine (Section Head, Horticulture)

  • Retirement party for Bruce Reisch is February 2nd in Geneva.
  • RTE listening session with Marcia Eames-Sheavly:
    • Lack of onboarding for RTE faculty
    • What group do we belong in?
      • Marcia offered to hold session with SIPS administrative staff.
  • Urban Plant Ecology faculty search waiting for approval to post the position in AJO from SrAD.
  • Seed faculty search reviewing for Zoom candidates; good pool of candidates.

Chelsea (Associate Director Faculty/DEI & DEI Council) – absent
Rebecca Nelson (Associate Director of Research)

  • Preparing equipment grant – send ideas for potential purchases to Rebecca.
  • Suggestion to form lab manager group. Will contact Sarah Carpenter and Sandy Harrington who may be able to help get this group started.

Kathie Hodge (Associate Director of Teaching) – absent

Cindy Twardokus (Assistant to the Director and Administrative Lead)

  • Admin staff are very busy doing the following:
  • Completing their own and scheduling meetings for section heads and faculty
  • On-going reappointment, promotion dossier preparation for faculty, RTE, adjunct and courtesy appointments.
    • 6 faculty searches currently in progress
    • Graduate student recruitment preparation
    • Cheyenne Cotton – new admin assistant at the front desk in Emerson doing a great job especially considering the amount of information she has been exposed to during her first 10 days.
    • Susan (Co-Chair Extension) – on leave from EC
    • Awais (Associate Director of Extension) – no report (had to leave meeting early)
      Other
  • Magdalen – contact Magdalen with event requests first to determine if request is within the scope of the SIPS events coordinator’s job. Resources for event planning are available even if requirements for the event are out of scope.
  • Widely used listservs will be added to the SIPS Resources webpage by Magdalen.
  • Andrew – space questions regarding accessibility and safety in some classrooms. Recommendation is to contact Andy Vail.
SIPS Leadership meeting minutes

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