Minutes of Physical Sciences Task Force

February 1, 2002

 

Meeting Place: CYP 1090

Meeting Time: 9:30 pm

Participants: Jeff Bechtold, Dean Becker, Dale Biggs, Bob Blodgett, Terry Cassady, Chris Cavalli, John Cise, Dan Dewberry, Saad Eways, Jim Heath, Ron Johns, Tim Jordan, Maurine Poe, , Elliot Richmond, Jan Smith, George Staff, Laura Tacheny

 

1.)     Approval of Agenda

2.)     Approval of Minutes for 12/07/01

3.)     Information items presented:

a.)     Timely Timesheets — Try to ensure that timesheets are submitted by deadlines.  Our areas have been quite good about this.

b.)     Estaffing — The timelines for estaffing have been revised again.  Only MSTA's and HPTH's will be assigned before the schedule is sent to the printers.  The other adjuncts get to try to do estaffing over spring break when no one is here to help.

c.)      Insurance Fees — A $2 insurance fee will be added to all classes with labs or required field trips.

d.)     Load Reduction Requests — Requests for load reductions need to get to Ron Johns by 1/29 for the summer and 2/8 for the fall so he can forward them to the dean.

e.)      Faculty Online Input Form — Still messed up.  They'll let us know when it's ready to be used.

f.)       Reduced Tuition Memo — the college estimates that the cost of this fiasco will be about $800,000, for the reasons we outlined in the memo the TF sent to Dean Fonken. 

g.)     Datatel Degree Checks — Tomi Welch has written a routine that will do automatic degree checks, determining what courses students have completed, etc.  Admittedly, counselors should be doing this.  In addition, Saad Eways  expressed some concerns about degree approval, since the people doing the degree checks are not the ones who approve the granting of the degree.

h.)     Hiring Committee Progress — The committee has reviewed the applications received so far and is preparing to do interviews.

i.)       MSTA Applications — We have the following MSTAships :

Geology — One MSTA III, one MSTA II, and one MSTA I

ESTE — One MSTA III

Eng/Phys/Ast — Six MSTA III's, one MSTA II, one MSTA I

HR should inform us soon of any new changes or procedures for MSTA applications.  This led to a discussion by the TF about MSTA's in general.  It was decided that assignments of MSTA's will be made by the relevant evaluation committee from among the pool of applicants.  It was also agreed that MSTA's should be a form of award to our best adjuncts, not merely stuffed with whoever happens to apply, regardless of their overall qualifications or teaching skill.  Unfortunately, assignments in the past have often been done at the whimsy of previous TF Chairs, whose primary concern seemed to be to ensure that all MSTAships were staffed regardless of merit.  It was agreed that vacant positions were better than MSTA's who are not among our best faculty.

j.)       Lab Asst. Job Descriptions — The posted job descriptions did not match the recommendations of the original committee that wrote them.  They have now been revised and should better match what lab assistants actually do.

k.)     Safety Stuff — The college has a new Safety Committee charged with trying to identify school-related hazards and reduce their risk.  Bob Blodgett is the Safety Officer for the Physical Sciences.  There will be a training session later this month.

 

4.)     Items presented for discussion:

a.)     Increased Lab Enrollment Limits — There was some suggestion that we should increase the enrollment limit for physics lab classes to 25.  This was unanimously rejected as being unsafe.  In keeping with past policy, all labs will have enrollment limits of 24.

b.)     Practical Class Limits — Classroom or laboratory size often limit the number of students that can enroll in a particular section.  However, no limits have been set as to what constitutes a practical upper limit on enrollments due to the nature of the class itself.  After some discussion, the following limits were set for the courses in the TF:

PHYS 1311 (Stellar Astronomy)                = 30

PHYS 1312 (Solar System Astronomy)                = 30

ENGR 0145 (Statics Tutorial)                = 12

ENGR 0147 (Dynamics Tutorial)                = 12

ENGR 1201 (Intro to Engineering)                = 30

ENGR 2301 (Vector Mechanics — Statics)                = 20

ENGR 2302 (Vector Mechanics — Dynamics)                = 20

ENGR 2332 (Mechanics of Materials)                = 20

All EPCT courses                 = 12

PSC 1603 (Science and the Environment)                = 36

PSC 1633 (Energy Resources)                = 36

PSC 1643 (Science and Social Probs.)                = 24

GEOL 1305 (Environmental Geology)                = 30

PHY 0141 (Math for Physics)                = 12

PHY 1653 (Elementary Physics Methods)                = 24

All lab courses                = 24

c.)      TASP Requirements — Skill prerequisites aren’t given in Datatel.  Student can get an "F" on the TASP, but possess the necessary skills by taking developmental courses.  Since we don’t want students without the necessary skills to take a course, how do we ensure that they have the skills they need?  After some discussion, the TF decided it wasn't up to us since we don’t have the necessary information.

d.)     Conceptual Physics and Sonography — The sonography program has recently accepted PHYS 1405 for meeting the Physics requirement.  It was decided that opportunities for increasing the course's enrollment may exist in similar programs.

e.)      Marketing strategies — George Staff and Jim Heath have gone to great efforts to market the Env. Tech. and Physics programs, respectively.  The floor was opened for additional marketing suggestions, but none were forthcoming.

 

5.)     Items presented for action:

a.)     Office Hours — The FT faculty did an excellent job of inputting their office hours.  This should become regular practice every semester.  Adjuncts now need to do the same. 

b.)     Textbook Problems — Surprisingly, there were almost no textbook problems to act upon.  Laura Tacheny commented that there were insufficient numbers of textbooks for PHYS 1405.  Also the optional lab manual in GEOL 1305 was listed as required in some sections in which it was not used.

c.)     "D" Status — The TF decided in spring of 1999 to accept "D"'s as sufficient for completion of electives in any degree program in the Physical Sciences, but that it did not qualify as passing for any named or specified course in the program.  This needs to be stated in the catalog.  The TF voted to approve this be clearly stated in the catalog.

d.)    Physics Hiring Freeze — A motion was passed to act if the administration does not allow us to fill the two full-time faculty positions in Physics vacated last year.

 

6.)     New Business:

None

 

Minutes of ESTE/GEOL Subcommittee

February 1, 2002

 

Participants: Bob Blodgett, Ron Johns, Maurine Poe, Jan Smith, George Staff

 

1.)     AGI is attempting to get earth science reinstated as a valid science in high school curricula after the creationists on the Texas School Board got it removed.  It was decided that we should talk to Barbara Mink about drafting a letter on behalf of ACC in support of these efforts.

2.)     Geology and Env. Science and Tech. are still working on their program reviews, although both are nearly completed.

3.)     Env. tech. enrollments have suffered because of factors beyond our control.  We need to redouble efforts to boost enrollments in the new courses this fall.

4.)     The cuts in summer sections mean that some of the courses we were planning to teach this summer will not be offered.  Ways of getting the necessary LEH were discussed.

5.)     The schedule of the ESTY= courses in the fall has been majorly rearranged.   Water Chemistry and Aquatic Biology will be at RGC, Env. Sampling and Analysis and the Env. Geology lab will be at NRG.

 

Minutes of PHYS/AST/ENG Subcommittee

February 1, 2002

 

Participants: Jeff Bechtold, Dean Becker, Dale Biggs, Chris Cavalli, John Cise, Saad Eways, Jim Heath, Tim Jordan, Elliot Richmond, Laura Tacheny

 

1.) Jim Heath discussed marketing of Astronomy labs and stressed our help with word-of-mouth advertising, which has accounted for a significant number of the current students taking the class.

 

2.) Discussion turned to the need to continue assessments of our programs. The engineering data is available but the last two years have not been entered.  Some astronomy data is ready, but not all data has been reported. The old physics assessment, tracking of 1653 students, has not been done recently, but can be done using historical data. The task force will address, at the next meeting, whether or not to replace this assessment with pre- and post-testing with the force concept inventory in physics I classes.