Physical Sciences Task Force
Meeting Minutes
October 15, 1999

The Physical Sciences Task Force met at 9:30 AM Friday, October 15, 1999 in room 2242 at NRG. Members in attendance: Pedigo, Pirnia, Bechtold, Cavalli, Blodgett, Johns, Staff, Potter, Heath, Williams, Becker, Underwood, Smith, Prahovic.

1. Approval of Agenda - approved.
2. Approval of Minutes- The Minutes of the September 17 meeting were approved with Ron Johns name deleted from attendees.
3. The latest draft (October 8) of rules on faculty portfolios was discussed. The Task Force agreed that the portfolio structure we approved last month was quite sufficient to address all of our needs, and that anything more would be useless extra work. The TF Chair was directed to submit a memo to that effect to the Dean and the Associate VP in charge of faculty development.
4. Task Force members were notified of the new requirement that any driver of a college-rented or -owned vehicle must get a Motor Vehicle Record check from DPS before the proposed trip. The procedure is to call Michelle at 223-7115 and submit a copy of your diver's license to Risk Management at HBC.
5. The Task Force was alerted that there exist many new Administrative Rules which were approved last spring and are currently being enforced with little or no notice. Particular attention was called to the job descriptions for Task Force and TF Chair. It seems that we have lots of duties this year. A copy of these job descriptions will be distributed at the next (November 19) meeting.
6. Items for discussion and thought were presented but not acted upon, including: an update on Earth Science Week activities including the "question-of-the-day" feature, Vice-Presidential recognition of Bob Blodgett for his service to the college, a proposal to include prerequisite information in the Course Schedule each semester, a request that we try to insure that faculty advisors college-wide give consistent placement and prerequisite information when advising students, and the new requirement that new adjuncts be observed in the classroom by the TF Chair or designee. It was observed that the current degree plans are somewhat messed up, which might account for some of the advising misinformation.
7. Several ideas for adjunct recruiting were proposed: ads in the Statesman for our specific disciplines, notices for adjunct vacancies posted on the web, notices posted at UT, and ads in the SWT and Southwestern U student papers.
8. The new procedure for mentoring was discussed. The TF feels that it is counterproductive to change a system that works, and that the Assistant Deans are able to assign mentors at the time of hiring rather than having the TF Chair contact new hires separately to assign mentors.
9. Two new entries, were added to the list of TF committees: Technology, chaired by Paul Williams, and Laboratories, with Al Underwood as Chair. Several faculty volunteered to serve on these committees.
10. The Task Force agreed to buy grade books for instructors if they want them, but that instructors shall accept the grade books that we routinely stock.
11. The current textbook inventory was approved for spring, and the TF Chair was directed to use judgement in correcting the inventory on Datatel.
12. Breakout sessions-

GEO/PSC - ( 1) Paleontology (GEO 2614) needs to be changed to a 4-3-3 class. Submitted the paperwork to the whole task force, where it was approved, then submitted forms to Dean Fonken. They are to be submitted to Dianne Olla of the Curriculum Committee by Friday, Oct. 22. (2) Discussion of portfolios for faculty evaluation and how to prepare them. (3) Bob Blodgett reviewed current ArcView licensing agreements with ACC and the potential for establishing a college-wide supervisor to keep costs down and make the distribution of this software more efficient. (4) Discussion of need to update videos for both GEO 1653 and PSC 1603 ITV classes. Ron Johns will contact Linda Clement about purchasing newer video collections with similar themes. (5) Discussion of current status of environmental technology program, including plans to establish transfer agreements and a relatively standard curriculum between ACC, Palo Alto College in San Antonio, and Universidad Tecnologica in Saltillo. Jan Smith presented a preliminary outline for the survey of potential students. She has agreed to contact Linnea Fletcher to get valuable input on how to implement a new curriculum program. (6) Members agreed to revise current SACS assessment for GEOL 1403. Each will write up three multiple choice questions for each of the following topics: river systems, petrology, groundwater, minerals, and structural geology. A selection of the three best questions from each of these topics, plus three from the currently used topic of plate tectonics, will be chosen at the next meeting. This new list of questions should provide a better evaluation of whether or not students are meeting the desired criteria. (7) Review of core recovered from the Edwards Aquifer monitoring well drilled at NRG. Core recovery was excellent, showing a variety of sedimentological and textural features. There were many oo’s and ah’s.

AST/ENR/PHY - (1) The trial section of PHY 0141 is in the spring schedule at RGC with Jim Heath as instructor. Two inexpensive algebra books were recommended by Jim as texts and approved by the TF. (2) Also, Wall and Wall was approved as the textbook for Applied Physics. (3) The TF Chair asked if all attendees had received and understood the Course Guidelines for physics and astronomy courses. It was noted that these guidelines will be used in the evaluation process this year. (4) The TF also agreed to begin review of Engineering Physics textbooks very early in the spring, because the deadline for entering approved texts for fall will occur by early March. (5) The session was interrupted by Ron Johns, who brought forward a proposal to increase lab hours for GEO 2614 (Paleontology). This proposal was approved after brief discussion.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:50 am.