February 18, 2020 Minutes

Council of Department Chairs

Attendees: Behl, Bennett, Bill, Brazier, Gao, Horton, Karteron, Martin, Slowinski, Underwood, Whitcraft

  1. Meet New Staff (Genna Beckenhaupt, Time Certain 10:05) - Introduced new assistant to Maryanne.
  2. Approve agenda (10:00am)
  3. Approve minutes
    1. Approval of minutes from February 4.
    2. Discussion about Graduate Dean's list and other awards. Departments can have their due dates when they want to accept them so long as they get to the College Office by Wednesday, February 26.
    3. Approved minutes from February 11 with edits.
    4. Led to a discussion of other awards. Graduate Dean's List requirements come from Graduate Dean's office (not ours). For departmental awards, each department may require what documents they want. However, for the Green's award (to undergraduates), we would like some documents for choosing the speaker.
  4. Announcements
    1. Operations updates
      1. Email went out to Probationary and Tenure faculty proposing an amendment to the vote on RPT. There is a March 11 meeting to discuss the proposed amendment and vote. Amendments to the amendment are due by March 4. Chairs felt that we should add the words "for a one-year term" at the end of the amendment. The chairs were asked to email this amendment to Margaret.
    2. ASM updates
      1. Election voting on March 3:
        1. There is an LA County voting station in the Pyramid - so faculty, staff, and students can vote (Orange County voters won't be able to vote there).
        2. Staff may take 2 hours leave to vote, but the request must be sent in at least 2 working days (i.e., Friday) before the election.
    3. Academic Senate Report
      1. Ethnic Studies requirement was discussed at length. Everyone (faculty and staff) should have gotten the academic senate poll, and feedback through the senators was requested. It is really important for people to send back the surveys. 
        1. At the senate there was clear unhappiness about the political influence.
        2. Also concern about the narrowness of human diversity.
  5. Associate Deans
    1. Academic Programs
      1. March 7 event updates
        1. Website is in draft. Chairs are asked to let Kris know by the end of the day if they have any recommended changes.
        2. Chairs should let us know if there are any flyers, etc. they want at the event.
        3. We would like to link to videos from departments if possible. Please send the links to Kris by Friday.
        4. First email message will go out on Wednesday.
        5. Recommendation that check in be from 8:00-8:45.
        6. There will be a $250 stipend for faculty (with chair approval) who participate and prepare materials. Non-exempt staff (with chair approval) will be paid overtime. Exempt staff should be given a day off in trade. If non-exempt staff want to trade a day off, then they need to be sure it is during the same week.
        7. Workshop registrations will be shared as we have the information.
      2. Academic Probation and Disqualification
        1. The number of students disqualified at the university is increasing campus wide. 
        2. We have a downward trend for retention. Typically, in our college, students do badly in the fall and then because of the short timeline, students who have failed in the fall end up in too many courses that tip them into disqualification. They fail one course, retake it plus several other hard courses and then fail those. We have been trying to change it so students who are on probation are put on a contract with a registration hold.
        3. For transfer students. There is a recommendation that we think about policy changes. 
      3. Update requested for transfer admissions. Overall about the same number of students as last year.
  6. SEF/HVDI fund preliminary discussion
    1. We still have not heard about the proposal for SEF.  SEF proposals will be due sometime in March. 
    2. Preliminary discussion
      1. Math: 
        1. Want to replace computers for teaching lab: about $49K (PCs). Open to all students when not needed for a class. If other departments want to use the lab for a class, let Math/Stat know. Also used for calculus placement.
        2. HVDI tutoring same as last year
      2. Physics: 
        1. AFM/MFM (shock item) lost because of power outage: $85-90K – upper division, grad labs, and research. - recommendation for a discussion with Chemistry
        2. Rheometer - $40K (probably for next year). For new class to be developed.
        3. Multiple other items
        4. HVDI: $20K to get back to last year's numbers for tutoring.
        5. Roll out rooftop for telescopes
      3. Biology
        1. 2 competitive proposals submitted
          1. Upgrade BIO 212 lab to be more inquiry based (211 done with added experimentation). Requires stuff $75K for compound microscope with fluorescent capability. Current labs are dated. (around 680-700 students per year).
          2. Truck: 2006 diesel truck died. With 4-wheel drive (and racks) is $42K
        2. Designated
          1. Spectrophotometer in minutes from last year. ($23K)
          2. Service Contracts (Last year was $35K)
          3. Parker needs engines ($28K)
          4. Iatrascan (??) $20K
          5. Lab chairs for MLSC $10K - may be better in competitive
          6. Data projectors (current ones are failing) - 15 units at $8250 total
          7. Smaller stuff
          8. High speed cameras for physiology classes  
          9. Microscope (fluorescence eliminator is being moved) Some for Physics
      4. Chemistry (from printout)
        1. Competitive
          1. Fluorescence imaging system: ($180K?? - $90 K for the basic instrument)
          2. SEM prob for 2021-22
          3. Chiral HPLC 2021-22
        2. Designated (unranked)
          1. Spectrophotometer: $11K
          2. CEM Discover SP (microwave reactor) $24K: OChem labs
          3. Autoclave ($10K). - Think about Instapots
          4. Balance ($15K). - recurring item
          5. pH meters ($12K) - recurring item
          6. FTIR repairs $10K
          7. Service Contracts: as before, but also $22K (MS unit)
      5. Geology
        1. Portable XRF (x-ray fluorescence spectrometer) $85K - minerology, sedimentology and large number of research projects.
        2. Student operated drones for geospatial mapping $18K
        3. 2nd Digital topographic sandbox (currently in use in all 3 100-level labs) $8K
        4. Replacement of x-ray detector on SEM. (Silicon drift detectors SDD) $10K
        5. Misc. shared lab equipment $8K
      6. Science Education
        1. Competitive:
          1. A minivan for outreach. $50K. Biology got one for $32K (Cargo space needed)
    3. Reminder - for this year's SEF, we need to have everything paid by March. Get current orders in by end of February because it takes time (and sometimes vendors don't send invoice). This way we have a chance to use our money by end of April.  
    4. For next year: Dean's office is asking that everyone get most orders in by Nov. 1, and give a report of what hasn't been purchased/ordered yet.
  7. Adjourn (11:46)

Submitted by Curt Bennett, Dean, CNSM

Meeting Minutes APPROVED on February 25, 2020.

Upcoming Dates

  • Monday, February 24 - Summer Student Research Assistantships proposals due (from faculty mentor)
  • Wednesday, February 26 - Graduate Dean's List candidates due from departments
  • Monday, March 2 - Final Decisions on Sabbatical Leaves
  • Saturday, March 7 - Science and Math Freshman Showcase
  • Wednesday, March 11 - Graduate Research Fellowship applications due.
  • Saturday, March 14 - Math Day at the Beach (James Holzhauer is lunchtime speaker)
  • Saturday, March 21 - Science and Math Freshman Showcase?
  • Monday, April 13 – Nobel Laureate Lecture
  • Thursday, April 16 - Fellows Colloquium Featuring Michael Peterson on Quantum Computing
  • Saturday, April 25 - Open House
  • Monday, May 18 - Commencement rehearsal, 11 am
  • Tuesday, May 19 - Commencement, 1pm