Physical Sciences Task Force
Meeting Minutes
May 5, 2000

The Physical Sciences Task Force met at 10:30 AM Friday, May 5, 2000 in room 326 at RGC. Members in attendance: Heath, Underwood, Becker, Eways, Williams, Bechtold, Potter, Pirnia, Valastro, Smith, Blodgett, Johns, Rao. Pedigo, Cavalli, Biggs.

    1. Approval of Agenda - approved.
    2. Approval of Minutes- The Minutes of the April 7 meeting were approved.
    3. The following information items were presented: (1) Physics I at RVS this summer is on track, and the equipment has started to arrive. (2) We have narrowed the field of applicants for the full-time physics job for Fall 00 down to 6 finalists, and interviews have begun and will be completed this weekend. (3) Adjunct faculty awards were given to James Heath and Sal Valastro for outstanding service above and beyond the call of duty this year.
    4. The following items were discussed: (1) There are several MSTA vacancies for next year, some created as new positions just recently. We do not have enough qualified candidates to fill these positions. It was decided that the TF Chair would send out an e-mail reminder to adjuncts that such positions were available. (2) The term of service for the new Departmental task Force Chair was discussed. It was decided to leave the term as is (summer 00-end of spring 01), but to institute an informal cooperative arrangement to facilitate transfer of duties to the new person next year.
    5. The following action items were dealt with: (1) New Departmental Task Force Chair election. After some discussion the current Chair (Pedigo) agreed to serve next year, as did the current Assistant Chair (Johns). There were other interested parties, but they decided to step aside rather than participate in a contested election. This bodes well for next year, when Prof. Pedigo has already announced his intention to return to regular faculty duties.
    6. There was no new business. Everyone wished everyone else a "happy summer".
    7. Breakout sessions-

GEO/PSC - The status of the Environmental Surveys was discussed.

AST/ENR/PHY - The group reviewed the Required Topics lists for PHYS 2425 to incorporate the change of textbook to Tipler and the change of topics to include Thermodynamics in 2425. The changes were pretty straightforward, with only section numbers being revised to match the new book. A small number of thermodynamics topics were agreed on. It was decided to leave revision of PHYS 2426 topics for the Fall, because the new text will not take effect until Spring 01 for this course.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:45 am. Several members went to lunch together afterward to end the semester with a bit of fun.

Submitted by Daryl Pedigo, TF Chair.