Faculty Meeting

The regular meeting of the faculty of the Department of Statistics was held in a hybrid format via Zoom and in Padelford Hall, room C-301 at 12:30pm, June 3, 2024. Abel Rodriguez, Department Chair, presided at the meeting. Kristine Chan was recording secretary. 

Announcements 

Adrian Raftery Presentation: Z. Harchaoui presented slides to commemorate A. Raftery’s work and service at UW in celebration of his retirement and emeritus status.   

New Business 

ASE Rates: Abel shared slides on the negotiated base rate versus the department variable rates for PhD students pre-general and post-general exam. 

In-Person Departmental Activities:  In-person attendance to department events, and especially department meetings and seminars, has been minimal over the past year.  Several current faculty members as well as visitors have remarked the Chair on the fact, and raised concerns about the lack of a sense of community.  As part of this discussion the Chair and Prof. Tyler McCormick suggested the possibility of moving the times of these two events so that they happen on the same date.  The hope is that this would encourage faculty to be in the department in person at least once a week, all at the same time. 

Timeline of RA Offers: The Chair has sent an email to the faculty regarding their funding plans for their RAs. He encouraged the faculty to respond as early as they can as it impacts the timeline for TA assignments.  In particular, the Chair indicated a clear expectation that faculty in the department will not offer RA positions to students who have already accepted a TA position for the same term. 

Minutes Approval Process: The Chair discussed the minutes approval process. Going forward, he proposed sending out the minutes to faculty electronically and giving them a week to comment/ask questions. Once the week is over, we send a 48-hour poll to vote or conduct a consent calendar. This is both to speed up approvals, and to allow for more time for higher priority discussion items in faculty meetings. 

Statistics Day: This is an annual event that was proposed by Z. Harchaoui that celebrates the work done by people in the Statistical field of study. This event will consist of distinguished speakers, getting BIOST involved, etc. 

Executive Session 

Debrief of Search Process: This was a moment to reflect on the faculty search of during Academic Year 2023-2024 and how to improve the process going forward. 

Adjournment 

There being no other items to discuss, the meeting transitioned to the executive session at 1:40pm, and was later adjourned at 2:00pm.