Meeting Place: RGC - 326

Meeting Time: 9:30am

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

Laurie Duncan, Dennis Dunn, Laura Tacheny, Allen Underwood, Jim Heath, Chris Cavalli, Jan Smith, Paul Williams, Saad Eways, Dean Becker, Clyde Springen, Paul Nacozy, Don Witt, Dale Biggs, C.D. Rao, Mostafa Pirnia

1.) Approval of Agenda

2.) Approval of Minutes from May: Postponed until next meeting

3.) Information items presented:

a.) HR Visit – James Friedrichsen announced to everyone in the meeting that HR had offered to come and talk about procedures. It was agreed that the visit was not necessary at this time.

b.) SAC department meeting – It was decided that our October 6, 2006 department meeting would be scheduled at SAC.

c.) Geology/ESTE tutor – Dennis Dunn will be the tutor for Geology and ESTE. Lala will make signs to post on campuses with Dennis Dunn’s hours.

d.) GEOL 1301 - Bob Blodgett’s book revision is progressing. Our new GEOL 1301 course is full and progressing along well.

e.) Incompletes – Currently we do not have a policy for incompletes. Guidelines need to be established. With some discussion, there seemed to be a general consensus that the student should have completed 75% of the course and have a passing grade. There is no official college policy on what is required to get an incomplete. James said he would write something up and present it next time for discussion.

f.) Faculty Workloads – All adjunct faculty members are now allowed to teach two lecture/lab courses per semester. It was also decided that fulltime faculty will not be assigned overloads until all full-time faculty have chosen their regular courseloads. They may submit their requests for overloads to the Dept. Chair at the same time as they choose their regular teaching load, but they will need to specify which section is their overload. This will allow everyone to choose their regular teaching schedule before any overloads are approved.

g.) Safety – Laura Tacheny commented that items in some rooms are being stored inappropriately and might pose a potential hazard to someone having a seizure. Laura and Bob have gone through rooms at RGC and corrected some problems there. Saad proposed that faculty arrange to get together some weekend and correct any remaining problems.

4.) Discussion Items:

a.) CYP, CYP, CYP – Things are proceeding smoothly, although there has been no word about purchasing equipment and supplies as of this meeting.

b.) TOP attendance - New Students with less than 12 credit hours need to register to attend a TOP session, The Orientation Program. Flyers need to be posted. Paul Williams, Laurie Duncan, George Staff and Chris Cavalli and Jim Heath will do the flyers and other materials. Paul said that someone would then man the station to try and get the word out about the new offerings at CYP.

c.) New Lab Tech and Hiring Committee – Ron will chair this committee, and Chris will also be on it. The job will be posted in the near future. The goal is to have the committee’s work finished by the end of October.

d.) Supply Budget (Ron) - Ron went over budget changes. Most of the disciplines have seen some increase in their budgets, though geology has taken a hit and has almost no hourly money. In case funding for new equipment at CYP does not come through, money from our regular budget may need to be reserved to purchase it.

5.) Action Items:

New committees were formed. Anyone not present was volunteered. The committees are listed in a separate attachment.

6.) New Business:

Minutes of PHYS/ASTR/ENGR Subcommittee

September 8, 2006

Participants James Friedrichsen, Laura Tacheny, Allen Underwood, Jim Heath, Chris Cavalli, Paul Williams, Saad Eways, Dean Becker, Clyde Springen, Paul Nacozy, Don Witt, Dale Biggs, C.D. Rao, Mostafa Pirnia

Textbooks -- Initial Response for our new General Physics Textbook seems favorable. There was a minor discussion about textbook prices. It was decided that we would look into considering a new textbook for the Engineering Physics course, since Tipler is scheduled to go into a new edition soon.

Upcoming AAPT meeting dates – Paul made an announcement about the upcoming AAPT meeting dates and urged us to apply to be able to attend Tom Okuma’s Physics Workshops.

Astronomy Course changes – It was decided that we would work to change the math prerequisites for our Astronomy courses and present this request at the next Curriculum & Programs meeting for approval.

Demonstration of new items – Richard demonstrated some new items to those that were present.

Minutes of GEOL/ESTE

September 8, 2006

Participants George Staff, Bob Blodgett, Sal Valastro, Ron Johns, Laurie Duncan, Dennis Dunn, Jan Smith

GEOL 1405 – It was decided that the name of GEOL 1405 (Applied Environmental Geology) would be changed to “Environmental Geology with Lab” because of the terror the word “applied” stirs in the heart of students. George Staff, Raymond Slade, Laurie Duncan, Carolyn Poe and Dennis Dunn would develop the curriculum.

Field Activities – Bob Blodgett announced that there were problems with field activities. First, insurance companies may no longer insure 15 passenger vans because of the recent spate of rollovers of such vehicles. Of course, all new vans have computerized stability control and most of the rollovers involved student drivers (which ACC does not allow), but the coverage may be withdrawn nonetheless. At the moment, however, ACC still has such coverage. In addition, the coverage we have been getting from Longhorn rental is inappropriate; getting the proper coverage, which Longhorn does offer, will be much more expensive.

The second problem is that the current, antiquated administrative rules were written under the presumption that all off campus activities would be extra-curricular. As such, they state that drivers must be full-time staffing table employees. This would prevent adjuncts from driving vehicles on their own field activities! Obviously, the rule needs to be changed. David Fonken is aware of the problem and said that he would pursue it.

Finally, the rising price of gas and insurance and rental and having to have full-time employees drive (= overtime) means that the cost of conducting field activities has skyrocketed. Bob investigated and found that mini buses were not significantly cheaper than vans.

To address these myriad issues, Bob Blodgett would meet with Robert Rogers about insurance, and Ron said he would take a look at trips done in the past.

GEOL 1403 Lab Manual - It was the consensus of those present that the current GEOL 1403 lab manual really blows. Unfortunately, it is also the best one out there. It was therefore decided that we really need to write our own. Several publishers offer custom publishing. Laurie Duncan graciously volunteered to oversee the project since she has experience as a science writer. Instructors are asked to submit their write-ups for labs to Laurie. Ron also knows an excellent technical artist who would be willing to create the drawings for the lab manual.