Minutes of Physical Sciences Task Force
Meeting Time: 10:00 am
Participants: Paul
Williams, Lala Guerra, George Staff, Karl Trappe, Saad Eways, Paul Nacozy,
Chris Cavalli, Bob Blodgett, Jim Heath, Dean Becker, Jeff Bechtold, John Cise,
Elliot Richmond, David Froehlich, Hadi Parhikhteh, Allen Underwood, Sal
Valastro, C.D. Rao, Larry Wigginton, Mostafa Pirnia, Dale Biggs, Mike McGraw,
Karl Trappe, Qurrat Thakur
1.) Approval of
Agenda
2.) Approval of Minutes from February 1, 2008
Minutes of February 1, 2008
meeting were approved
3.) Announcements
a.) Update on
Budget Process – Paul announced that next year there would be three broad areas
for the
budget. The first one would be Technnolgy
Plan, from which we requested $90,000.00 for Capital Items
over
$500.00. The second one would be Operating, where we requested $15,000.00 for a Geology
hourly and $5,000.00 for Engineering
supplies. And the third one would be New
Initiatives,
which would
be for a Fulltime IT person.
Election was to pass on May 10th for
the Round Rock campus, the campus would open in Fall
2009.
There was also a discussion over our
department’s role and facilities requests when the
campus opened.
c.) Fall
Estaffing Update – It was announced that Estaffing for the first round had
ended and that the
second round
would start on April 15th.
d.) Update on Full time Geology
Position – Faculty was informed that Jan Smith’s Geology full time position
was
available and that it needed to be filled by Fall 2009. Paul Williams mentioned that a temp
full time
position for fall
2008 would be considered.
e.) General
Education Committee Seeking Members – It was announced that the General
Education
Committee was seeking members for next
year.
f.) Reminder
of Core Curriculum Assessment – Paul Williams reminded everyone that this would
be the first
semester that
we would be using the Core Curriculum Assessment.
g.) Remodel
of Room RGC 328 – John Underwood told everyone that Room 328 at the RGC was
being
remodeled
during the semester break. A Engineering
project room and equipment room would be added
to the
room.
5.) Discussion
& Action Items:
None
Minutes of
PHYS/AST/ENG Subcommittee
April 11, 2008
Participants Paul
Williams, Lala Guerra, James Friedrichsen, Karl Trappe, Saad Eways, Paul
Nacozy, Chris Cavalli, Jim Heath, Dean Becker, Jeff Bechtold, John Cise, Elliot
Richmond, Hadi, Parhikhteh Allen Underwood, C.D. Rao, Larry Wigginton, Mostafa
Pirnia, Dale Biggs, Mike McGraw, Qurrat Thakur
Proportion
of Conceptual Questions on Exam
James
Heath brought up concerns of the proportions of the Conceptual Physics
questions in the Exam. There was a
discussion and suggestions and concerns were shared. The item was tabled for the next department
meeting.
Use
of Electronic Homework
There
was a discussion of the use of Electronic Homework. There were concerns and suggestions on the
item.
Report
of Standards Committee
The
Standard Committee met and would like to come up with guidelines for PHYS
1405.
It
was agreed that for our next meeting, required topics would be presented. Once the guidelines are developed, the
changes would be made in our Master Syllabus.
Engineering
Fields of Study
There
was a lengthy discussion on adding an Engineering field of study in our fall
2009 catalog. After the discussion, it
was agreed that we should move forward to adopt it.
Astronomy
Posters
Chris
Cavalli passed out Astronomy Posters to be posted on every campus.