Meeting Place: RVS 2211

Meeting Time: 10:00 am

Participants: Paul Williams, Lala Guerra, Chris Cavalli, Jim Heath , James Friedrichsen, Elliot Richmond, Luis Cuellar, Ron Johns, Bob Blodgett, Gary Crane, Peter Wehner, Bruce Darling, Dale Biggs, Anne Turner, Saad Eways, Mostafa Pirnia, Jeff Bechtold, Paul Nacozy, Kay Plavidal, George Staff, Cindy Carr, Clyde Springen

General Session

1.) Call to Order

2.) Approval of Agenda: Approved

3) Approval of Minutes from February Meeting (Will do at May meeting)

4.) Information items

a.) Department Chair Election – Jim Heath was elected the new Physical Sciences Department Chair.

b.) Summer Schedule – Paul Williams let everyone know that he was still working on overloads for the summer 2010 schedule.

c.) Fall Staffing – First round of fall staffing is in process. Second round of fall staffing will start April 14, 2010.

d.) Cedar Park Planetarium –Everyone was informed that Cedar Park is very interested in opening a Planetarium. There was a discussion on the item and everyone shared their concerns and suggestions.

e.) John Cise - Everyone was informed that Dr. Cise was in the hospital.

f.) Astronomy Talk - Jim Health announced that his next Astronomy talk would be April 16, 2010 at RVS in room 8100, starting at 7:00pm

g.) Earth Day Fair – The upcoming Earth Day Fair was announced. Not all information about the fair was yet available but everyone would be updated as soon as it is.

5.) New Business:

Minutes of GEOL/ESTE Subcommittee

April 2, 2010

Participants Bob Blodgett, Pete Wehner, Anne Turner, Bruce Darling, Cindy Carr, Amy Cunningham, George Staff, Ron Johns

ENVR 1301 textbook

George led a long discussion regarding the choice of textbook. The final decision will be given to Lala so she can enter it in the system.

Minutes of PHYS/AST/ENG Subcommittee

April 2, 2010

Participants Paul Williams, Lala Guerra, Chris Cavalli, Jim Heath , James Friedrichsen Luis Cuellar, Gary Crane, Dale Biggs, Jeff Bechtold, Paul Nacozy, Mostafa Pirnia Clyde Springen, Saad Eways.

Follow-up Paperwork for Texas Section Meeting

Faculty that attended the TSAAPT/APS meeting were requested to fill out the Out of District Travel form so they could get reimbursed. They were also told to fill out the Professional Development Report to receive credit hours for attending the meeting.

Physics IPR Update

Chris Cavalli informed everyone that the Physics IPR was almost complete and would be turned in before the April 15^th deadline. The complete Physics IPR will be posted on the website for everyone to look at.

PHY 1653 Update

The approved paperwork for a new course number for PHY 1653 has been misplaced. The people at TCCMS will try to see if they can find it. If the paperwork is not found, a new application for a new course number will have to be submitted again.

RGC 335

Renovation for room 335 at RGC is on hold because of lack of details on the proposal. Saad Eways, Paul Williams and the dean will meet to improve the proposal.

Assessment

A draft of the assessment was passed out to everyone. There was a lengthy discussion on it. It was decided that the assessment would be used as a trial run for those that would like to use it instead of the usual assessment. It was also decided that the level of the assessment questions would be discussed later.