The Physical Sciences Task Force met at 9:30 AM Friday, September 17, 1999 in room 2213 at RVS.

1. Approval of Agenda - approved as amended to include new business items.
2. Approval of Minutes- The Minutes of the August 18 luncheon meeting were unavailable, and so will be approved at the next meeting.
3. Committee Assignments for the year were approved as circulated, subject to revision by the TF Leader in order to try and accommodate individual faculty requests and additional TF needs.
4. Budget division was discussed by individual discipline. Resources were in general allocated based on enrollments, facilities, and FT faculty assignments.
5. Portfolios were discussed in detail, and an agreement was reached on the proposed structure for this year:

Minor portfolio: required of all adjuncts and most FT faculty will include a copy of the syllabus and final exam for each different course taught during the past year, a list or schedule of lab activities by week or date for each lab course taught during the year, and one additional (optional) supporting document of the faculty member's choice.

Major portfolio: required of one-third of FT faculty each year will include all of the minor portfolio items with the following changes: a copy of ALL exams, not just the final, for each course taught during the year, a copy of two laboratory assignments for each laboratory course taught during the year, and one additional document (mandatory) to illustrate or describe teaching innovations or other new developments made during the year.

6. The draft ACC Harassment Policy was discussed and approved with no changes. The TF believes that the wording is sensible yet flexible.
7. Items for discussion and thought were presented but not acted upon, including Spring textbook changes, MSTA and HPTH selection, possible changes to Course Guidelines for PHY and AST, and status reports on the Spring schedule, the Environmental Tech program, Earth Science Week and the NASA Education Forum coming in October. Newly acquired physics books for the ACC Library were called to everyone's attention.
8. Several new business items were discussed, including the idea of having most or all of our meetings at RGC, having a designated contact person for the bookstore (TF Leader and Asst. TF Leader), and Jeff Bechtold volunteering to schedule speakers for Engineering Week this year. The TF Leader was also asked to send Physics Course Guidelines to each TF member, and to conduct an e-mail poll regarding holding meetings primarily at RGC.
9. Breakout sessions-

GEO/PSC - Bob Blodgett will discuss (with the bookstore manager) availability of Miller 10^th edition for Spring 2000. If available, there will be no mid-year change to the new edition.

AST/ENR/PHY - Course content was discussed, and the proposal by Jim Heath was approved with modification (omitting most treatment of vectors). Paul Williams recommended that everyone look at Wall and Wall as a possible textbook for Applied Physics. The idea of pursuing a partnership with Austin Astronomical Society on their new observatory at Lake Buchanan was discussed and rejected. However, Dean Becker and Jim Heath agreed to try and resurrect the Pedernales Falls observatory site, which was turned down only because AAS is not a state agency. The proposed changes for stellar and solar astronomy were rejected, primarily due to constraints imposed by the Common Course Numbering System and transferability to UT.

10. . The meeting was adjourned at 11:40 am.

 Submitted by Daryl Pedigo, TF Leader, September 23, 1999.