Physical Sciences Task Force

Meeting Minutes

April 6, 2001

The Physical Sciences Task Force met at 11:00 AM Friday, April 6, 2001 in room 2213 at RVS. Members in attendance: Heath, Eways, Rao, Smith, Johns, Blodgett, Pedigo, Bechtold, Cavalli, Williams, Biggs, Pirnia, Cise.

1. Approval of Agenda – approved.

2. Approval of Minutes- The Minutes of the March 6 meeting were approved, with correction of a typo in 4 from "Administrative Rue" to "Administrative Rule", despite the possibly more descriptive nature of the former version.

3. The following information items were presented: (1) Faculty Evaluations have been completed and sent to the Dean. (2) Fall 2001 staffing will be done soon, and the new E-staffing system will be used for adjunct assignments. (3) Interviews have been scheduled for the three new FTF positions slotted for the Task Force next year. (4) The group was warned that the new TF Chair will only be here during the first six weeks of summer, so there may be problems with getting things approved after July 4. (5) Budget development for FY 02 is underway and will be finished soon. Get those requests to Al Underwood’s committee soon. (6) Ron Johns presented an update on the status of the Environmental Technology program. The prognosis is good. (7) Reminder: John Cise has organized a tour of the Tokyo Electron facilities this afternoon.

4. The following items were discussed: (1) The proposed new Task Force Chair Election Procedure was discussed. The group should expect to vote during April 23-26. (2) The new MSTA appointment process was discussed. Several new applicants came forward after the Chair’s e-mail reminder, so there is competition for most available spots. (3) Unit Level Institutional Effectiveness (ULIE) data and reports are needed quickly. Send all information about last year, as well as data and a report for this year, to Al Underwood, Chair of the Long Range Planning Committee. (4) Paul Williams circulated a draft of proposed Technology Objectives for our physics courses, and asked for input as well as copies of existing course objectives.

5. The following action items were dealt with: (1) Bob Blodgett was named as proposed Chair of the Environmental Science and Technology Program Review for next year, and Jan Smith was named as proposed Chair of the Geology Program Review. These names will be forwarded to the Dean. [Note added in proof: this was revised by the Dean to show Ron Johns as Chair for Geology].

6. New business: none.

7. Breakout sessions-

GEO/PSC – (1) Several new editions of our current textbooks are about to come out. Since we are relatively satisfied with the current selections and are overwhelmed with our current responsibilities, we resolved to merely adopt the new editions rather than conducting an extensive review of available texts. Should the new editions prove radically different and unsuitable, we will then review the alternatives. (2) After conducting a poll of the PSC faculty, the decision was made to keep Miller, now in its 12^th edition, at least for the summer session. However, a thorough overhaul of the curriculum of PSC 1603 (Science and the Environment) and BIOL 2106 (Environmental Biology) will be done in the fall in coordination with the Biology Task Force. It seems likely that Miller will then be dropped from the approved textbook list for PSC 1603. (3) Fresh from the San Saba Member of the Wilberns Formation, everyone got a free stromatolite.

AST/ENR/PHY – (1) After some discussion, it was decided to approve the new 9th edition of Hewitt as our Conceptual Physics text for next Fall. There is no need to phase it in, because Conceptual Physics II will go for the first time next Fall. (2) The text for Introduction to Engineering was left as it is. (3) Saad Eways gave an update on the comments from Lynn Beamon’s committee about the Engineering Program Review, and what response we might make.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:15 PM.

Submitted by Daryl Pedigo, TF Chair.