Minutes of Physical Sciences Task Force

March 1, 2002

 

Meeting Place: RVS 2221

Meeting Time: 9:30 pm

Participants: Jeff Bechtold, Dean Becker, Dale Biggs, Chris Cavalli, John Cise, Dan Dewberry, Saad Eways, John Fulton, Jim Heath, Ron Johns, Tim Jordan, Helen Nelson, Mostafa Pirnia, Martin Prahovic, Elliot Richmond, Jan Smith, George Staff, Laura Tacheny, Allen Underwood

 

1.)     Approval of Agenda

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

3.)     Information items presented:

a.)     Hiring Freeze — As part of the budget crisis, HR has instituted a hiring freeze.  Supposedly, hourly employees are not affected, nor are the two physics positions that are vacant.

b.)     Budget Cuts — These are detailed below and were sent to Donetta on Feb. 25.  They are less than we feared, since David Fonken absorbed a bigger cut.

 

Unit

 

Account  Number

Object Code

Amount to be Cut

Astronomy

55501

6300

$395

6500

$46

6700

$24

Engineering

55505

6300

$100

Geology

55504

6300

$155

6400

$1003

Physics

55502

5410

$1500

6300

$1000

Total

$4223

 

 

c.)      Time Sheets — Due to spring break, these will be due March 5.

d.)     Web Workshops — Jim Heath detailed the upcoming Web workshops on March 8 and 29 for Front Page, and on April 19 for Dreamweaver.

e.)      Hiring Committee Progress — The committee is continuing to review the applications received so far.

f.)       FY '03 Budget — There will be an estimated $2 million deficit for FY '03.  The result is no new initiatives and the same number of sections as this year.  The college is creating an expanded Budget Review Committee this month. 

g.)     South Austin Campus — ACC recently purchased the ol' Albertson's on Manchaca and William Cannon.  The purchase is supposedly financed by bonds and building fees.  The administration is planning to go before the voters to raise revenue for renovation.  If this fails, they will sell the property, no doubt for a huge profit.  The campus offers the potential for creating a Science Center, and idea with some support from the higher-ups.

h.)     Service Center — The new dandy Service Center is up and running at 9101 Tuscany Way, just off 290 E and 183.  HR and the administration remain at HBC

i.)       Volunteer Teaching — Some of the sections cut this summer will be added back in if they are taught by volunteer instructors.  Those interested must still meet several criteria and be assigned by March 18. (Some heated discussion followed this item regarding the merits of teaching and serving the students versus sending the message that what we do isn’t worth anything.  In the end, we agreed to disagree).

j.)       MSTA Process — Applications are due in HR by March 20.  All adjuncts are encourages to apply.  Based on conversations from the last meeting, MSTAships will be regarded as an award for superior teaching and given to the best adjuncts that apply (if possible).  Some shifting of the MSTAships may occur in terms of what disciplines have what MSTAships to offer.  No one should assume that because they are an MSTA now, they will automatically be reappointed.  Likewise, no one should think that they can’t be appointed.

k.)     Catalog Changes — Changes can be made through March.  The TFC should be notified if anything needs a-fixin'.

l.)       Safety Training — The safety training on 2/22 went well, but was not able to be finished.  The remainder will be rescheduled for later in the semester.  The changes and procedures proposed by the Safety Committee are an attempt to progress towards safety rather than an attempt to impose safety from the top down.

 

4.)     Items presented for discussion:

a.)     Undead Classes — What are we to do with PSC 1613 (interdisciplinary Science) and SPS 1603 (Space Science)?  Neither has been offered in years?  The TF decided that we should offer them in a year or two, say, Fall, '03.

b.)     Resource 25 — This software is designed to ease the scheduling and identify the rooms available for certain classes at certain times.  No one could think of any special needs for lectures in any of our disciplines that would need to be identified.

 

5.)     Items presented for action:

a.)     Off-season Evaluations — Geology and Env. Science have been encouraging faculty to have student evaluations done on classes that they do not normally teach in the fall.  Otherwise, an instructor's teaching in such a class is never evaluated.  The TF approved the idea of this, and encourages faculty in all areas to do so.   

b.)     Eligibility Lists — There has always been an implicit assumption that faculty must be quality instructors and follow TF guidelines and policies if they wish to remain on the eligibility lists.  It is a good idea to explicitly state such guidelines and requirements.  Biology has already created such a list of rules.  The TF discussed this issue for some time, and numerous suggestions were made.  The TFC will draw up said guidelines and present them for a vote at the next TF meeting.

 

6.)     New Business:

a.) Predicting Student Performance — John Cise presented the results of the survey performed at the last TF meeting.  Not surprisingly, the faculty were able to predict student performance with amazing accuracy.  The results show a clear correlation between a student's previous performance in classes and their performance in a physics class.

 


 

Minutes of ESTE/GEOL Subcommittee

March 1, 2002

 

Participants: Dan Dewberry, Ron Johns, Jan Smith, George Staff

 

1.)     The item on service projects for the ESTE program was postponed until the next meeting.

2.)     Jan Smith and Alan Keenan have already cleaned out the lab prep room at RGC, so there is no need for further clearing at this time.

3.)     Jan Smith has received the geology adjunct applications and is processing them.

4.)     The Geology/ESTE Evaluation Committee agreed to meet most Fridays this month to review the portfolios and student evaluations.

5.)     The ACC Board has recently passed a draft administrative rule regarding student travel.  In looking over this policy, it has numerous self-contradictions and protocols that are, to put it very mildly, impractical and absurd.  Since we cannot follow the policy as defined, and since not following the policy will expose us to undue liability, it puts us in an impossible situation with regard to field trips.  The Safety Committee is meeting to work out how to handle this situation and will provide details as they become available.

 

 

Minutes of PHYS/AST/ENG Subcommittee

March 1, 2002

 

Participants: Jeff Bechtold, Dean Becker, Dale Biggs, Chris Cavalli, John Cise, Saad Eways, John Fulton, Jim Heath, Tim Jordan, Helen Nelson, Mostafa Pirnia, Martin Prahovic, Elliot Richmond, Laura Tacheny, Allen Underwood

 

1.) Phys 1407 curriculum issues were discussed briefly. Most importantly Laura Tascheny asked for volunteers to work with her on a curriculum committee. Jim Heath, John Fulton, and Dale Biggs volunteered immediately and the committee was set. They will report back to the task force with the results of their work at a future date.

 


2.) John Fulton and a learning lab tutor asked the task force for feedback on the learning lab. The quality and type of the tutoring was discussed. In general, most physics faculty were satisfied with the tutoring, but were very curious as to how the tutoring took place. Specifically, whether or not group work should or could be done. The tutors told us that group work was not very practical in the learning lab since the questions being asked are so specific. The discussion closed with an invitation from the learning lab for instructors to sit in on tutoring sessions to see first hand what is going on.

 

3.) Jim Heath brought us the results of our required topics vote taken at a prior meeting. The absence of gravity as a required topic was mentioned. The task force took an immediate vote, and gravity was moved up to a required topic. A discussion of waves in the curriculum ensued and will be resolved at the next task force meeting.

 

4.) Finally, assessment issues were discussed. Jeff Bechtold passed out copies of the force concept inventory (FCI). The task force debated whether or not to use this assessment instrument as part of a SACS program assessment. The task force decided to recommend that General College Physics I instructors give the FCI to their classes this year, but others still held the view that the PHYS 1653 tracking was a superior form of assessment. A final decision will be made at a future meeting.