Meeting Place: RVS - 2265

Meeting Time: 9:30am

Participants: James Friedrichsen, Lala Guerra, Sal Valastro, Ron Johns, Chris Cavalli, Paul Nacozy, Hadi Parhikhteh, Dean Becker, Bob Blodgett, Karl Trappe, Larry Wigginton, Jeff Bechtold, C.D. Rao, Dale Biggs, Leslie Davis, Saad Eways, David Wolf, Cindy Carr, John Underwood, John Cise, James Heath, Eric Ebner, Elliot Richmond, George Staff, Paul Williams

1.) Approval of Agenda

2.) Approval of Minutes from: Changes were made in the February 3, 2006 minutes.

3.) Information items presented:

a.) FERPA Rules and Helicopter Parents – Everyone in the meeting was informed that students’ privacy was protected by the FERPA (Family Education Rights and Privacy Act) rules. Both students’ personal and scholastic information could not be released to anyone, not even to their parents. The only exceptions would be a written permission from the student or if the student is claimed as an exemption on their taxes. If information were to be given out without those two exceptions the college could lose funding. Concerns and suggestions were discussed.

b.) Phase II Reorganization – The Department Chair position was reassessed and the department chair and assistant dean job description and what authority they have been rewritten. The recommendations for department chairs are a 3 year term and a 12 month contract. This should imply an increase in pay but there are down falls to it. If the department chair is on a 12 month contract, they will not receive intersession breaks. This also implies that the department chairs have to do 42 LEH per year. The release time has been increased. Rules for department chairs 1, 2 and 3 are as follows: department chair 1 gets 27 LEH release time, department chair 2 gets 24 LEH release time and the department chair 3 gets 21 LEH release time. If they are required 42 LEH per year and then subtract the release time this will then equal to how many LEH are left for the year to teach. Everyone in the meeting wanted to know the difference between the department chair 1, 2 and 3. James Friedrichsen informed everyone it all depends on the size of the department. Everyone shared their concerns and suggestions. James reminded everyone that these were only recommendations and that everything was not finalized yet.

c.) Website Organization – Paul Williams discussed the reorganization of the department website. Paul stated that he had revamped the web site into a more efficient style and still needed more information in order to complete the website. Paul told everyone, that if anyone was interested in looking at the new website to go to www.austincc.edu/physci_tf/newindex

d.) Master Syllabi – The Engineering Department was the only department that needed to update their Master Syllabi. Saad Eways said he would make sure it would get done.

e.) Collaborative Update – Saad Eways informed everyone that the Collaborative was coming along great. He mentioned to everyone that the 3^rd seminar was March 4, 2006 and involved Earth Science. Ron Johns, Jan Smith and James Heath were conducting this seminar. He also said that the next seminar was scheduled for the 1^st week of May and involved Life Science. The faculty conducting this seminar is going to be Les Albin, Alice Sessions and maybe Suzy Mathis. He also mentioned that 26 teachers were involved in these seminars and that the teachers had completed 70 to 80 developmental hours so far from the 110 hours that they would need to complete. Since it has been a great success so far this year, the program will rollover next year but with less money and will include 1/3 of AISD teachers. Everyone asked questions and made suggestion.

f.) Budget Development – The deadline for the budget planning is coming upon us soon. Ron told everyone that he had received information from some faculty and if anyone else wanted to request anything else to email him or James Friedrichsen.

g.) Student Safety Contracts - Please submitted them to Bob Blodgett.

h.) Field Activity Form - Many thanks to Jan Smith for the suggestions she made to revise the Field Activity Form. Hopefully it should be ready for the summer semester.

i.) Science Safety Committee – The Science Safety Committee is actively working with the College Accessibility Committee about how we handle students with disabilities in science laboratories. James Friedrichsen, Bob Blodgett and Sarah Strong attended a College Accessibility Committee meeting to propose our suggestions.

j.) New Geology Course Offered - There will be another new Geology course offered in the fall. The course will be a General Earth Science course. The title of the course will be Natural Hazards and Disasters.

4.) Discussion Items:

a.) Policy Discussion C or Better – Changes were made and everyone agreed with the policy.

b.) C or better in Conceptual Physics – It was decided that this item would be discussed at a later time when Laura Tacheny would be able to attend the Department meeting again.

c.) Policy to Substitute – Everyone looked over the Substitute Policy and everyone agreed with the policy.

d.) Lab Organization – The possibility of developing an more consistent and uniform lab structure and organization was discussed in respect to trying to assist new faculty member to become more familiar with the various available equipment and demonstration aparati at each of the campuses. It was decided that James Friedrichsen should try to see if there would be some sort of available funding for this kind of action prior to deciding what kind of structure we should try to establish such as either one person primarily in charge (and compensated) or forming some sort of committee to try and tackle this task.

e.) Faculty Evaluation Sheets - Chris Cavalli came up with evaluation forms for Engineering, Physics and Astronomy. James Friedrichsen asked if anyone had comments but reminded everyone in the meeting that it was simply a draft at this time.

5.) Action Items:

6.) New Business:

Minutes of PHYS/AST/ENG Subcommittee

March 3, 2006

Participants James Friedrichsen, Lala Guerra, Chris Cavalli, Paul Nacozy, Hadi Parhikhteh, Dean Becker, Karl Trappe, Larry Wigginton, Jeff Bechtold, C.D. Rao, David Wolf, Dale Biggs, Saad Eways, John Underwood, John Cise

Everyone at the meeting discussed what they liked and what they didn’t like about the books selected for the final pick.