Faculty senate approves new policy regarding rights of inventors
At the Faculty Senate meeting held Monday, senators approved the revisions to the Intellectual Property and Creative Works Policy and the reorganization of the College of Natural Resources.
The Intellectual Property and Creative Works Policy addresses the types of rights the university, departments and creators have to new inventions and scholarly and creative works, according to a draft of the policy.
The incentive of the policy is for more faculty inventors to get resources for the Office of Technology Commercialization, Brent Miller, vice president for research, said.
The office at Utah State University is lagging behind, Miller said. Where BYU and the University of Utah deal with about $3 to $4 million in royalties, USU only works with about $200,000 to $300,000.
The revisions call for changes to the percentages of royalties that go to the university, general units (departments, directors, etc.) and the inventor, according to the draft.
With royalties less than $50,000, the inventor will end up with less of the royalties but get more than they do currently in cases greater than $50,000, Craig H. Petersen, interim provost, said.
Concerns were raised over the reorganization of the College of Natural Resources including the appeal to students and the course overlaps with other programs.
The issue has been debated among faculty from each of the different departments in the college, said F. E. Busby, dean of the College of Natural Resources.
“We have failed to engage students in this decision. That has been a major mistake on our part to have left them out,” Busby said.
The new structure will only have three departments, which will help reduce the costs involved, Busby said. Funding has been a problem with the current system, he said.
They hope to have the new curriculum for Fall 2003, Busby said.
The Faculty Senate also passed a proposal to add a new doctorate of audiology and a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Certificate Program.
“This is a relatively new concept,” said James Blair, department head of communicative disorders and deaf education. “Most [doctorate] programs now exist in the Midwest and the East. This is an opportunity for Utah State University to be a pioneer and be nationally recognized. This meets one of President Hall’s objectives to have more doctorate programs.”
The new NEPA Certificate Program will be a 12-credit program offered yearly at USU, said Joanna Endter-Wada, professor with the forest resources department and watershed science unit.
Continuing Education runs the program, Endter-Wada said.
“This program is a nice fit. It compliments what we do, but doesn’t duplicate,” Endter-Wada said.
Other proposals approved by the Faculty Senate include: A late-add policy; plants, soils and biometeorology changes; JCOM emphasis changes; a multi-media development minor; Business Information Systems emphasis changes; law and society area studies certificate (course additions) and a Merrill Library Endowment.
The library endowment is optional to faculty members who would like to contribute to raise money to improve holdings in the library, Greg Jones, chairman of the Faculty Senate, said.