Department of Physics
University of WI-Whitewater
Minutes for Faculty Meeting for
April 8th meeting
I. Attending: J.
Constantinescu; G. Chulick; S. DasGupta
(teleconference); P. Rybski; S. Sahyun;
Jeffrey Polak (SPS
representative)
Absent: R.
Benjamin (illness)
II. Sahyun/Constantinescu
moved approval of Meeting Minutes of April 1st meeting
III. Announcements
A. Chairıs
Announcements
1. Mavis
Fohtung, student of Bob Benjamin, and Steve McKeon, student of
Paul
Rybski, presented posters at Wednesdayıs UWW Undergraduate Research
Day.
Congratulations to all involved.
Both Mavis and Steve will be attending this
yearıs
NCUR conference on April 21st and 22nd.
2.
Problems
with WINS have been encountered with students who have
passed
out of or have been waived out of Math 152 when they have attempted
to
register for courses for which Math 152 is a prerequisite. The Registrar is
working
on the problem.
3. A
scheduling conflict has been found between Physics 280 (to become
Physics
305) and Physics 174. This has
been resolved by putting Physics 280 on
Monday,
Wednesday and Friday from 7:45 to 8:35 am in UH 238. No other time
has
been found to relocate this class.
4. A
scheduling conflict has been discovered between Physics 174 lab and
Math
255. Physics 174 lab is from
8:50-11:40 am on Thursday, and Math 255 is
from
9:30-10:45 am Tuesday and Thursday.
Students with this conflict need to fill
out
a Course Conflict form, have it signed by the two instructors, then work with
Dr.
Benjamin to arrange times to complete labs they are unable to complete by
11:40
am. Benjamin may wish to consider arranging his office hours that day to run
from
11:40 am through 1 pm, these students should be able to complete their work.
5. Rybski
has received the AIP employment report for Physics and Astronomy
degree
recipients in 2001 and 2002 and will circulate the report through the
mail.
Please
use no more than one day to review this material. Benjamin will receive this
material
in time for Tuesdayıs Senior Seminar.
B. Committee
Reports
1. Curriculum
When dropping Physics 282, we must consult with
Admissions
on course equivalency. We need to
move on changing the major/minor
requirements
to reflect dropped and added courses.
2. Graduate
Council None
3. Library
None
4. SPS
A meeting will occur on Monday, April 11, at 6 pm to decide a
substitute
date in late April or early May for the Yerkes excursion.
5. Upham
renovation No meeting has occurred of the steering committee,
but
progress has been made in constraining choices. The Demonstration Equipment
Setup
and Storage Room, previously UH 131, will be Room 160 (old numbering).
6. Webpage
None
C. Announcements
from the Floor
1. Sahyun
attended the March American Physical Society meeting and the New
Faculty
Workshop follow-on working session, concerning on-line homework
systems
and implementing technology in classrooms. He attended presentation
sessions
on Monday through Wednesday, taking some time to discuss some of our
equipment
with representatives of TeachSpin, their manufacturer.
2. Jeff
Polak compared WebAssign and University of Illinois-Urbanaıs
system
implemented at Madison, explaining why the Illinois system is superior.
2. Sahyun
attended the on-campus demonstration of iLife.
3. Sahyun
discussed upgrading our laboratory Macıs to OS X. This should be
done
through Greg Roehl rather than DoIT.
4. Sahyun
is working on a proposal, whose deadline is April 22nd, to Mary
Pinkerton
to upgrade his G3ıs in Room 21.
IV. Old
Business
A. Liquid
Nitrogen tank relocation
The
Liquid Nitrogen tank must be relocated before the beginning of Phase 2B
because
the room in which it is currently stored (across from Upham 131) will
disappear
when Phase 2B begins late this summer.
Two locations are possible:
(1)
in
a closet next to the NE entrance to the Upham extension; and (2) in a closet
immediately
east of Upham 141E that currently holds the multimedia control
electronics
for Upham 141E and the room immediately east of it.
Sahyun/Chulick
moved this matter be placed before the Upham renovation
committee
for action prior to the end of the semester. Approved on a voice vote.
B. Liquid
nitrogen tank handling fixture and scale
For
operator safety and for timely refilling of the tank, a combined handling
fixture
and
scale must be acquired.
Sahyun/Constantinescu moved the purchase of this
fixture
for a cost not to exceed $2,000.
Approved on a voice vote.
V. New
Business
A. Department
server purchase
Sahyunıs
FALCON server has proved extremely valuable as a repository for
documents
and data used for many purposes by departmental faculty. However, this was a
machine
purchased for his own research with startup funds. Now that he needs it for
research,
too much space is being taken up by others using it as the departmental
server.
Many
years ago, we had a Linux-based server (FEYNMAN.PHYSICS.UWW.EDU)
created
by Jeffrey Rufinus for his own use.
However, our needs were different at the
time,
so the server was allowed to die when Jeff moved to a different
university. As is
apparent
from the utilization of FALCON, we now have many needs for such a machine.
Given
the flexibility of the new Power Macs, Sahyun and Rybski propose the purchase
of
a
MiniMac with substantial hard drive space as the permanent departmental server,
to be
named
EINSTEIN.PHYSICS.UWW.EDU.
Constantinescu/Sahyun
move the purchase of this computer for $800. Approved
on
a voice vote.
B. Kudos
1. Sahyun/Constantinescu
moved that Mavis Fohtung and Steve McKeon be
commended
for their research work and their contributions to the 2005 UW-Whitewater
Undergraduate
Research Day. Approved
unanimously.
2.
Constantinescu/Sahyun
move a commendation for Lynn
Miller for her
extensive
assistance in handling last-minute details in arranging transportation for the
SPS
trip
to Ray-O-Vac. Approved unanimously.
Chulick/Sahyun move to adjourn at 3:57 pm. Approved on a voice vote.
Respectfully submitted,
Paul M. Rybski, Secretary of the Day
Xc: Chancellor
Jack Miller
Provost
Richard Telfer
Dean
Howard Ross
Dean
Lee Jones
Archivist
Karen Weston