Minutes of Physical Sciences
Task Force
December 7, 2001
Meeting Place: NRG 2213
Meeting Time: 9:30 pm
Participants: Ivy Abraham, Jeff Bechtold, Dean Becker, Dale
Biggs, Bob Blodgett, Chris Cavalli, John Cise, Dan Dewberry, Jim Heath, Ron
Johns, Mostafa Pirnia, Roberto Rangel, C. D. Rao, Elliot Richmond, Jan Smith,
George Staff, Laura Tacheny, and Allen Underwood
1.)
Approval of Agenda
2.)
Approval of Minutes for 11/02/01
3.)
Information items presented:
a.)
Hiring
Committee Progress The committee is in place and awaiting the submission of
applications. Members still need to
take training, but that wont be offered until January.
b.)
NISOD
Awards NISOD is seeking the names of faculty to award teaching excellence.
c.)
JRF
grants These are grants to help older, low-income women get a college
education. Applications are now being
taken.
d.)
Adjunct
Payment Arrangements have been made to pay adjuncts who have served on
committees or attended TF meetings.
e.)
Trickle-down
upgrades IT is supposed to ensure that everyone has a computer with at
least 128 Mb RAM and a 20Gb hard drive.
Let Ron Johns know if your computer isn't up to speed.
f.)
Laptops
for RVS We would like to replace the computers in RVS 2213 with laptops
that could be used for Physics, Astronomy, Geology, and the new Environmental
Technology program. These would be more
secure and wouldnt get covered with rock dust. There are $1800 Panasonic laptops that meet our specs. Since Dell doesnt have a comparable laptop
with the features we need, we can thus get out of the Dell Exclusivity
contract.
g.)
Phone
directories the new phone directories have been ordered and are on their
way to all FT faculty.
h.)
Env.
Tech. program There have been about 20 inquiries about the program so
far. The new lab courses will be
offered at RGC and EVC in the fall, 2002 semester.
i.)
Sick
Leave Pool The sick leave pool is very low.
Please donate some of your excess sick leave if you can.
j.)
Budget
Warning Because of budgetary shortfalls, we need to spend our budget money
now rather than later. If we wait too
long, some of the money will be swept away.
k.)
Tutors/Open
Labs The Association of Minority Recruitment has grant money to fund
undergraduate tutors and research. We
plan to cooperate with Biology and Chemistry to recruit 6-7 student
researchers. We also plan on hiring tutors
and supervisors to provide:
12 hrs at NRG (8 Physics, 4 geology)
16 hours at RGC (12 Physics, 4 Geology)
16 hours at
RGC (8 Physics, 8 Geology)
l.)
December
Timesheets Due to the upcoming holidays, all timesheets for classified
and hourly people need to be in by Dec. 11 at 5:00 pm.
m.) Jim Heath has done a
fabo job with the Physical Sciences TF website. He plans to get links to the NRG monitoring well and to the Vomit
Comet research as well.
4.)
Items presented for discussion:
a.)
Eligibility
lists Because the current staffing procedures make no distinction
between newly hired people and those who have been here a while, the success of
recent recruitment efforts threatens our ability to give sections to some of
our excellent long-serving faculty.
Just this semester, for example, we have received applications for 2
Astronomy, 6 Engineering, 12 Env. Studies/Tech., 4 Geology, and 9 Physics
faculty. If we interview all of them
and make them eligible, we risk sacrificing known quality instructors for
unknown, potentially worse instructors.
After some discussion, the TF decided that this was a problem that
needed to be presented to the administration.
b.)
Minutes
If you are actually reading these minutes, please email Ron Johns at rjohns@austin.cc.tx.us. He is taking a survey.
c.)
Lab
Safety Potentially hazards in our labs were briefly discussed. Lasers, field trips, and other items were
mentioned. These issues will be
addressed later by the Safety Committee.
5.)
Items presented for action:
a.)
Office
Hours Faculty should update their spring office hours before leaving for
the holidays.
6.)
New Business:
a.)
Reduced
Tuition Fiasco The exapnsion fothe reduced tuiition pilot project to cover
all classes will be disastrous for the college's budget. John Cise presented some damning data on the
thousands of dollars that will be lost from Physics sections alone. Ron Johns will draft a memo about our
concerns and forward it to the Dean.
b.)
Teleconferencing
Roberto Rangel suggested that the TF should check into the possibility
of hosting TF meetings by teleconference using a 1-800- number. There seemed to be a general interest in the
idea, since it would allow many more adjuncts to participate.
Minutes of ESTE/GEOL
Subcommittee
December 7, 2001
Participants: Ivy Abraham, Bob Blodgett,
Dan Dewberry, Ron Johns, Jan Smith, and George Staff
1.)
The
status of the Program reviews for geology and environmental science and technology
was discussed. We will almost certainly
need to ask for an extension.
2.)
A
resolution was made to talk to the Biology TF about putting a rule in the
catalog that prevents a student from getting credit for both PSC 1603 (Science
and the Environment) and BIOL 2206 (Environmental Biology), since the two
courses have such similar curricula.
3.)
Given
the nature of our program, a decision was made to change the current Physical
Scinces degree into an Environmental Studies degree.
4.)
ACC
will check into getting a booth at the Earth Day festivities in Waterloo Park
in April. Ecology Action apparently
handles such things.
5.)
The
monitoring well at NRG is progressing along under the guidance of Bob
Blodgett. The well house design was
discussed, as well as the possibility of getting stone facing donated for the
building.
Minutes of PHYS/AST/ENG
Subcommittee
December 7, 2001
Participants: Jeff Bechtold, Dean Becker, Dale Biggs, Chris
Cavalli, John Cise, Jim Heath, Mostafa Pirnia, Roberto Rangel, C. D. Rao,
Elliot Richmond, Laura Tacheny, and Allen Underwood
1.) Jim Heath followed up
our previous discussion of the General College Physics I curriculum by passing
out a list of our current required topics list. A full discussion followed of the pros and cons of various ways
to frame this list, e.g., by mentioning specific sections in the current text
vs. by more general topic listing. It
was finally decided to have everyone mark off sections of the current list that
they felt could be omitted and not lose the main flow of the course. This was
done and Jim Heath will report back on the consensus of this vote at a future
meeting with the intention of making this consensus list the formal required
topics list.
2.) The committee also
expressed grave concern for the new administrative policy of half-price tuition
for many physics classes. John Cise showed us a list of courses that qualified
for the reduced rate and many of them were in prime timeslots that often turn
students away.