University of WI-Whitewater

Department of Physics

2004 August 25

 

Minutes for August 25th meeting

 

Meeting called to order at 4:11 pm.

 

I.          Attending:        R. Benjamin, J. Constantinescu, G. Chulick, S. DasGupta, P. Rybski, S. Sahyun

 

II.        Approval of Meeting Minutes: Delayed until September 10th.

 

III.       Announcements

 

A.             Including four Pre-optometry students, the department -- as of August 18th -- had 54 majors distributed between all emphases, as well as 55 minors.

B.             We welcome Dr. Gary Chulick to our department.

C.             Preparation of and distribution of Syllabi. Post on the Web and distribute in class the first day. Send Syllabi to Benjamin to be posted on the Web. The Faculty Senate in 1998 created a list (and order of presentation) of materials that must be included in course syllabi. You will find this declaration at the following URL: http://acadaff.uww.edu/syllabi/SyllabiRequirements.htm

D.            Schedule of classes posting with Office Hours.  By September 8th, all faculty and staff members must post schedules outside their doors of their classes and office hours.  Each day containing scheduled classes should contain at least one office hour, unless that schedule of classes and labs exceeds eight contact and/or preparation hours.  Remember that Goodhue closes at 4:30 pm each day and that your students will need to call you in your office if your office hours are after 4:30 pm.

E.             All faculty and staff "absence due to illness" notifications need to be called into Lynn Miller as soon as is reasonable on or before the day of that absence.  Should she be unable to take your message in person, please contact another faculty or staff member in the department so that they may post an absence notice on your classroom or labroom door.

F.             Lynn Miller now has voice mail, active "24/7", for calls to the Physics office.

G.            New deadlines for Reappointment and/or Promotion/Tenure Decisions. The new deadline is September 7 for portfolios to be submitted to the department. The portfolios are to be reviewed and submitted to the Dean by November 5.

H.            New contract renewal options for tenure-track faculty. There are now one or two-year contracts.

I.               Photocopier room keys used last year will work on the doors behind which this Upham photocopier is now found.  As in previous years, unless otherwise instructed, Lynn Miller will leave completed photocopier jobs in the designated drawer in the photocopier room.

J.              Photocopier jobs submitted to Lynn Miller will be completed within 24 hours of being submitted to her mailbox.  Scheduling of completion of exceptionally long jobs must be negotiated individually, though most will be completed within 48 hours of submission.

K.            A key checkout sheet was distributed to the faculty. Please complete this sheet, listing your current complement of keys and return it to Lynn.

L.             Juliana Constantinescu went to Platteville for the "Tools for Girls" program.

M.           Dr. Ayanna Howard from JPL/CalTech will be speaking on Monday November 1, to give both a colloquium and a public lecture.

N.            A dinner welcoming our 15 entering freshman physics majors is scheduled for 6:15 pm Thursday, September 2nd, at Randy's Restaurant in Whitewater.  Individual letters have been sent by several faculty and staff, welcoming these students to our department and inviting them to the dinner.  They will be transported to Randy's in university minivans.

 

IV.       Old Business

 

            A.        Curricular initiatives

 

1.              Physics Colloquium Course. Benjamin will research the implementation for this course.

2.              Mechanics. Revise the mechanics sequence to integrate the physics dynamics and engineering statics and dynamics courses into one, two-semester sequence. All.

3.              Electronics. Create a new two-course sequence of an Analog and a Digital Electronics course with labs to be offered in alternate years.  This will replace the current Analog/Digital lecture and lab courses and the Microprocessor Laboratory course. Rybski.

4.              Introduction to Engineering course. Constantinescu and DasGupta.

5.              Planetary science. Leverage the opportunity from both introductory physics and astronomy courses to create a new planetary science course. Constantinescu and Chulick.

6.              Computational methods of physics. Sahyun, DasGupta, and Benjamin.

 

            B.        Renovation planning

 

1.              When do we move out? Earliest possible Fall 2005.

2.              Where do we store our equipment? Upham Extension classrooms and hallways, replacing Geography/Geology storage currently in extension hallways.

3.              Where do we teach our labs? Hopefully, this will be in the Upham extension first-floor, 60-student classrooms or in laboratory space created during Phase 2A.

4.              When do we move back? Earliest possible Fall 2006.

5.              Each of these questions is to be addressed in a meeting of science department chairs with college and university administrators on September 15th.  Decisions may be made at this meeting or later during Phase 2A.

 

V.        New Business

 

A.             The staffing plan for F2005-S2006 has been sent to Dean Ross.  A tenure-track replacement for Dr. Kenneth Menningen has been requested, along with two additional tenure-track positions lost in the past four years.

B.             The Spring class schedule was distributed. Review the schedule for time and room conflicts.  A final version of this schedule must be submitted to Lynn Miller by September 7th.

C.             There was a Peer assessment session at the L&S faculty retreat. This semester, we will adopt the best practices from the recommendation.

D.            Course rotation realignment. The schedule is out of synch with the 170 course sequence. We will need to reschedule the upper division courses to reflect the new sequence, to accommodate the new courses and to level the course load per semester.

E.             Colloquium/Observatory/Public Lecture schedule. We want to have colloquia by each of our faculty sometime this year. There will be several Madison taped lectures as well as "live" speakers. The Observatory Lecture series will occur once per month. 

F.             Self-study planning. In Spring 2004, the department initiated a self-study, directed toward updating the curriculum and departmental structures and culture to reflect "best-practices" identified by the National Science Foundation in a recently published study.  Representatives from regional colleges and universities will be invited to visit Whitewater to aid in this self-study.

G.            The idea of inviting local area guidance counselors to the department, or traveling to the counselors, to raise visibility and build contacts was floated.

H.            New programs.  The following new directions for the department were discussed:

 

1.              Forensic Physics Emphasis or Minor.  Work is underway to define an interdisciplinary minor in Forensics.  Rybski will represent the department in these committee discussions.  In addition, Rybski is contacting local, state and federal criminal justice agencies to determine the feasibility of creating a specific Forensic Physics Emphasis or Minor

2.              Teach Engineering courses as night or as Saturday morning courses. These could be offered here, or we could send a faculty person to UW-Rock County to give the courses.  Rybski will contact Representative Debbi Townes concerning her work to create an Engineering program at UW-Rock County and to determine ways in which our department could assist.

 

Chulick/Constantinescu moved to adjourn. Motion passed.  Meeting adjourned at 5:30 pm.

 

Respectfully,

 

 

Steven Sahyun

Secretary for the Day

 

XC:      Dean Howard Ross, College of Letters and Sciences

            Dean Lee Jones, Graduate School, Extension Division and Summer Session

            Provost Richard Telfer

            Chancellor Jack Miller

            University Archivist