Minutes of Physical Sciences Task Force

April 4, 2003

Meeting Place: NRG 2228

Meeting Time: 9:30 am

Participants: Dean Becker, Jeff Bechtold, Dale Biggs, Bob Blodgett, Chris Cavalli, John Cise, Saad Eways, James Friedrichsen, Jim Heath, Ron Johns, Tim Jordan, Helen Nelson, Mostafa Pirnia, Elliot Richmond, George Staff, Allen Underwood, Sal Valastro

1.) Approval of Agenda

2.) Approval of Minutes for 3/07/03

3.) Information items presented:

a.) NASA Trip — The student trip led by Allen Underwood and George Staff to NASA was a great success. The students participated in, among other things, a rover-building project. Allen will present more complete details at the next meeting.

b.) Budget Gutting — The departments have had to sacrifice most of their remaining budgets for the year.

c.) AAPT Reimbursements — Anyone still wanting to be reimbursed for workshops at the AAPT meeting in January needs to send Ron Johns the paperwork ASAP.

d.) Physics Curriculum Changes — The Curriculum Committee meeting has been postponed. The forms have been submitted to them to change the prerequisite requirements to a minimum grade of “C” in the prerequisite course.

e.) Friends of ACC — John Cise gave a brief rundown of the tax referendum and the impact its passage would have on people’s taxes — about $50 a year in most cases. He also passed around sign-up sheets for the Sign Committee and Friends of ACC.

f.) Voting Adjunct Rules — The rules for how voting adjunct members of a department are chosen have been revised and were reviewed. There was a discussion of the rules with regard to the number of voring adjuncts. The way the rules are written requires that the number of voting adjuncts be equal to or greater than the number of full-time faculty. There was general consensus that the number of voting adjuncts should be no less than 50% the number of full-time faculty, but no more than 100% of the number of full-time faculty.

g.) Physics Hiring Committee — Saad Eways gave a rundown on the Physics hiring process. The committee pursued a relentless schedule of interviews and identified several excellent candidates whose names were then passed on to the dean. Unfortunately, the process seems to have stalled at Human Resources. Jeff Bechtold (and the rest of the department) expressed their concern regarding the unethical practice of interviewing people and then leaving them in limbo indefinitely.

4.) Items presented for discussion:

a.) Testing Guidelines — Those present rapidly reached an agreement that True/False questions are poor evaluators of student knowledge and should not be used on any tests.

b.) Suggestions for Faculty Evaluations — Ron Johns drafted a memo to send to Boyd Bush regarding problems in the evaluation process and possible ways to improve it. There was general agreement with the contents of the memo and a motion was made to send it forward. There was also agreement that the Dept. Chair should personally meet with an y faculty member that ranks “Needs Improvement”.

5.) Items presented for action:

a.) Department Chair Elections — George Staff was designated the Election Coordinator. No one came forward to challenge Ron Johns for the glamorous position of Dept. Chair. George tallied the votes, and Ron Johns won the election. Ron immediately called for a recount, but the results were the same.

b.) Professional Development Workshops — The Professional Development Committee has completed the preliminary draft of a recommendation to revise the professional development process. The plan basically:

1.) calls for 12 hours per year of PD for every full-time employee

2.) calls for 2 hour of PD per semester employed for every part-time employee

3.) suggests that all employees turn in portfolios

4.) proposes that PD be laid out on a 3-year cycle tied to the evaluation process and with annual revisions.

The Professional Development Committee is also encouraging more dept.-based PD and welcomes more departmental input in the process. Those present made a number of suggestions, which Ron Johns will forward to the PDC. Jim Heath also proposed a Departmental Development Day on April 25, which he will take the initiative in organizing.

Minutes of ESTE/GEOL Subcommittee

April 4, 2003

Participants: Bob Blodgett, Ron Johns, George Staff, Sal Valastro

Discussion of the curriculum for GEO 1653 was postponed until Leslie Davis was present.

There was approval to organize an optional oceanography trip for students down to Corpus Christi to visit the Aquarium and other sites of interest.

Minutes of PHYS/AST/ENG Subcommittee

April 4, 2003

Participants: Dean Becker, Jeff Bechtold, Dale Biggs, Chris Cavalli, John Cise, Saad Eways, James Friedrichsen, Jim Heath, Tim Jordan, Helen Nelson, Mostafa Pirnia, Elliot Richmond, Allen Underwood

The committee voted to change the mathematics prerequisite for PHYS 1401 from Intermediate Algebra to College Algebra. This decision was based on a survey of our PHYS 1401 students that showed that less than 10% of students in these classes would be affected and faculty experience that these students have low retention rates. The new prerequisite is comparable with other Texas college and university prerequisites.  

The breakout session included a presentation by a textbook publisher about their online homework tracking system. Textbooks will be voted on at the next meeting.   The impending General Physics textbook decision was discussed briefly. One faculty member is recommending a change of the current textbook. No other textbooks were forwarded for recommendation. Presentations and discussions of forwarded textbooks will proceed the vote at the next meeting.