Minutes of Physical Sciences
Task Force
May 3, 2002
Meeting Place: RGC 326
Meeting Time: 9:30 am
Participants: Jeff Bechtold, Dean Becker, Dale Biggs, Bob
Blodgett, Chris Cavalli, John Cise, David Cuddeback, Leslie Davis, Saad Eways,
Jim Heath, John Fulton, Ron Johns, Tim Jordan, Mostafa Pirnia, Laura Tacheny,
Allen Underwood
1.)
Approval of Agenda
2.)
Approval of Minutes for 4/05/02 A revision was made
regarding the presence of mercury thermometers at RGC 108 as well as at NRG
3.)
Information items presented:
a.)
Catalog Updates All curriculum and degree changes have been approved.
The courses within the Physical Science department
(PSC 1603, PSC 1633, and PSC 1643) are now listed under Environmental
Science and Technology.
An AAS degree and an advanced technical certificate
are available in Environmental Technology.
GEOL 1345 (Introduction to Oceanography) (3-2-3) is
now GEOL 1445 (4-3-3).
The following statement has been added to the
Associate of Science degree in Engineering, Geology, Physics, and Physical
Science: "To receive an Associate of Science in (Engineering/
Geology/Physics/Physical Science), students must: (a) make a minimum of grade
of "C" in all required math and science courses and (b) have an
overall GPA of 2.0 or greater."
b.)
Minor Students/Major Problems The handout is a FAQ sheet provided by Maggie
Culp in Student Services. Under nearly
all circumstances, treat minor students as if they are legally adults. The main exception is the need to obtain a
parent or guardian's signature on the waiver form for field trips.
c.)
Task Force Chair Elections These are now run by mail by Sharon
King. These must be conducted even if
there is only one candidate. Sadly,
there is no place for write-in candidates.
d.)
New Web Address ACC's web page and email addresses are changing to www.austincc.edu, just like the big
schools. The Web gurus have finally
acknowledged that we actually perform an educational role here in the community
colleges. The old email addresses will
continue working for another 18 months.
e.)
Eligibility Lists Our criteria may become the college standard.
f.)
Safety Training The handout has the updated safety training schedule for faculty and
staff. There will be sessions for
faculty the afternoon, evening, and weekend of August 23, which is Faculty
Development Day this fall. All faculty
will have to take this training if they havent completed it beforehand. The Physical Sciences faculty have to do
less than those in the other sciences.
g.)
Section Cuts Expect more section cuts for spring, '03.
h.)
New Faculty At the administrator retreat on April 26, Steve Kinslow said
that all vacant staffing table positions (including the two physics faculty
slots) would be filled.
4.)
Items presented for discussion:
a.)
Adjunct Intro Committee After some discussion, it was decided that the
best way for the committee to develop an adjunct faculty intro manual was for
the TF Chair to send out copies of Biology's manual along with a list of topics
to be included in our own version(s).
Members could express their opinions by email and vote on what should be
included. Members could then be
assigned portions of the manual to write.
Ideally, the manual will be ready for the fall.
b.)
Dean Commendation It was thought that giving the dean a semi-official commendation
from the Physical Science and Biology Task Forces would be a nice gesture. There was some debate about the wording of
the proposal, but the TF approved it as written.
c.)
SACS assessments The TF Chair inquired about the status of the SCS assessments in the
various disciplines. Apparently, the
tests/analyses have been done on a regular basis.
d.)
Lab Tech Revolt A copy of the memo sent to the campus managers by the biology lab
techs and lab coordinators was handed out and discussed. There was general understanding and
agreement with their anger at having the lab techs serve arena registration,
especially when some classified employees don't (e.g., janitorial staff). It was agreed that the biology folks are
brave, and that we would courageously encourage them as they flung themselves
onto the punji sticks of administrative policy.
e.)
Standardized Syllabi The bugbear of standardized syllabi has finally
arisen. However, it isn't as bad as
feared, and is actually not unreasonable.
Steve Kinslow would like to have such syllabi implemented as fully as
possible in the fall semester. A
handout going over the criteria was passed out, and an exciting discussion
followed about what some of the topics meant.
The TF created two committees to develop master syllabi this
summer. The physics committee will
consist of Chris Cavalli, Laura Tacheny, Jim Heath, and Jeff Bechtold. The GEO/PSC committee will include Bob Blodgett,
Leslie Davis, and Ron Johns.
5.)
Items presented for action:
a.)
Picture Day David Cuddeback had the digital camera and was able to
photograph the participants for bulletin board displays.
6.)
New Business:
a.) None
Minutes of ESTE/GEOL
Subcommittee
May 3, 2002
Since
only two geology faculty attended, the breakout session in GEO/PSC was
cancelled.
Minutes of PHYS/AST/ENG
Subcommittee
May 3, 2002
Participants: Jeff Bechtold, Dean Becker, Dale Biggs, Chris
Cavalli, John Cise, David Cuddeback, Saad Eways, Jim Heath, John FultonTim
Jordan, Mostafa Pirnia, Laura Tacheny, Allen Underwood
1.)
Jim
Heath distributed a handout synthesizing the
results of the faculty voting on required topics for PHYS 1401.
Discussion centered on some of the
particular sections that were recommended but not required, particularly in the chapter on Heat. The criteria for
calling a topic required was then
briefly discussed before being drawn to a close.
2.)
Dr.
Majeed Abdurraham was a guest speaker and gave a one hour talk titled "An
Introduction to Witten's String Theory" and also discussed his main
contribution to this growing area of research. A lively question and
answer discussion concluded the presentation. The task force really appreciated
Dr. Abdurraham taking time to talk to us, and warmly thanked him for his
effort.