June 16, 2020 Minutes

Council of Department Chairs

NOTE: These minutes reflect discussions that happened on the date of these minutes. Due to the COVID-19 situation, things are rapidly changing. For offical policy, please wait for documents from the appropriate offices.

As of 6/16/2020, since the date of this discussion there have been major changes to the research recovery discussion.

Attendees (6/16/20): Curtis Bennett, Barbara Taylor, Tangan Gao, Chris Brazier, Andreas Bill, Babette Benken, Christine Whitcraft, Dessie Underwood, Lisa Martin, Margaret Karteron, Rick Behl, Kris Slowinski, Will Murray (invitee, incoming Chair), Henry Wu, Maryanne Horton.

  1. Approved agenda
  2. Approve minutes from June 2.
    1. Add a disclaimer that there have been major changes tot he Research Recovery Discussion since the date of discussion.
  3. Announcements
    1. Operations
      1. None
    2. ASM update
      1. Staff evaluation email has been sent to all chairs and supervisors. Send the draft back to Henry by July 31st. The evaluations can then be finalized by end of August.
      2. Program Codes:
        1. COVID program code is not a funding source, it is purely for tracking purposes in case you have any expenditures you would not normally have due to remote teaching. It is only a tracking tool, money will not be distributed.
        2. CARES program code: We do not yet have approval funding. We cannot purchase from CARES as of yet.
        3. You cannot use both CARES and COVID at the same time; you can use only one program code. We should be getting close to what we asked for and we should be hearing by the end of the week but we cannot spend it on items for this fiscal year. After June 22nd, any purchase will be charged to next year.
    3. Dean's Report
      1. AB 1460
        1. State Bill for requiring ethnic studies is expected to pass soon. It will affect our students and is expected to move GE Category D3 to be all ethnic studies beginning next year. The major impact so far has been on CLA.
      2. Virtual labs – info to Maryanne
        1. Maryanne would like to fundraise for virtual labs but she needs more information.
          1. Needs to get a sense of what it is and what it’s going to cost by next Friday (6/26):
            1. Costs for creating new labs and related visual assets, costs for personnel etc.
            2. Which courses it will affect.
            3. A paragraph of what the course going to do for you and the positive impact it will have on students.
            4. Include whether the virtual lab would be beneficial for long term use in that particular course.
      3. Repopulation*
        1. Closed buildings will not have AC – Still under discussion
          1. No AC, no custodial service in general.
          2. Faculty (not at high risk) can still go to the buildings to pick things up, but need to fill in Covid-19 chiclet on SSO and fill in coming to campus form at CNSM site.
          3. Faculty should be able to spend time in closed buildings with Dean approval.
        2. Open buildings will have limited density, so faculty will be asked to be at home except for essential tasks. – Still under discussion
          1. Lab Research has been designated as essential.
          2. Don’t want faculty coming in to spend long periods of time in their office.
          3. If buildings are open, classrooms can likely be used for teaching on Zoom, but this is still under discussion
        3. Dean can approve exceptions, but will have limited approval because of limited density
          1. Have not yet determined what density will be.
        4. Planning currently is to have student tents available for those who have some on campus classes. – Still under discussion
          1. Tents on the lawn to cover any climate issues for students who need to come to campus for classes for WIFI connection purposes, quiet study space, etc.
        5. Some limited library access we hope. – Still under discussion
          1. For students and faculty
      4. Travel *
        1. There is no travel that will be supported without Provost approval prior to at least next calendar year.
        2. Anything that you would need to fill out a travel form for, you will need Provost approval.
        3. Driving to local field research sites should be fine.
        4. Where possible will make exceptions for sabbatical travel
        5. International Travel – since whole world is Level 4, insurance may not be available, which we believe will prevent all international travel with campus support (state side or foundation side).
      5. No meetings in fall but can be exceptions – Still under discussion
        1. Exceptions will only be made for rationale that meetings cannot be done in a virtual format.
        2. Richard D. Green lecturers will likely need to be done virtually.
        3. If something can be done remotely, it should be.
      6. Juneteenth – Provost will have a campaign around Juneteenth
        1. Friday 6/19
        2. CNSM will be coordinating with the Provost’s office messaging so that we can communicate effectively from the college.
      7. Japanese Garden
        1. What educational experiences can it support?
        2. What should be the regular educational programming there?
          1. Send the Dean an email with this information if you think your department can provide educational experiences and regular educational programming.
          2. ES&P and Science Ed have been partnering with the Gardens informally.
          3. Any suggestions or needs to make this happen can be sent in your email to the Dean.
  4. Associate Deans
    1. Academic Programs
      1. Fall Schedule, Waitlists, and Transfer Needs. We won’t have a completely accurate picture before June 26th.
      2. Fall Student Research Symposium Ideas,
        1. Options are to cancel, move the symposium to spring semester, or do a virtual symposium (examples below).
          1. https://www.mines.edu/undergraduate-research/symposium-2/virtual-project-gallery-2/
          2. https://online.une.edu/online-learning/virtual-research-symposium/
          3. http://urweek.ugresearch.ucla.edu/
        2. Important to continue with the symposium as a way to build community and showcase student work. Whatever virtual/digital assets we create for the symposium can be used later.
        3. Faculty should create a five-minute video showing what their research is about as a way to help students who are participating in the symposium for the first time.
        4. Opportunities for round table discussions, break out rooms, follow-up, and expansion.
        5. This can be done as a course through Beachboard or BeachSync with lots of interactive elements. We can have a simpler version be public facing to avoid accessibility issues.
        6. Should have it sooner in the Fall semester; ideally in the first month.
        7. Possibly split the symposium in two between undergraduate symposium (later in the semester) and graduate symposium (earlier in the semester).
        8. Talk to your faculty and ask them to tell us how they see the future of the symposium. We need to think about the format in this new context.
      3. Updates on SOAR
        1. Started Freshmen SOAR last week
          1. 162 students scheduled for the registration workshops on June registration days.
          2. From that 162, 134 students have enrolled in classes, Beachboard course completion ~80%, in NSCI 190A ~90%, in correct math/science classes.
          3. The remaining 650+ freshmen will be in late July.
        2. Transfer side is about halfway through; all advising done through EAB
          1. 430 transfers (-46 with missing documents) signed up.
          2. Advising started on June 1st.
          3. 243 reports in EAB thus far; deadline June 26.
      4. Modularization of NSCI 190a
        1. One, asynchronous section.
        2. Short, self-contained modules.
        3. Minor stipend for faculty; send faculty suggestions to Kris ASAP.
        4. Have hosted 18 webinars with total attendance at about 1,500 people.
      5. SI/Embedded Student Discussion
        1. Cancelling BIOL 212, 213, 260, 370 SIs; to be replaced by embedded ISA.
        2. Math 113/119A/122 discussion will be tomorrow.
        3. Asking for feedback on why we want use ISA method and a commitment to do things this way.
        4. Fixed amount of money available for ISA that instructors can decide how to apply the money in the best interest of the students.
        5. Looking at whether or not it would be wise to move from SI model to ISA model.
        6. Convert existing SI to asynchronous SI.
    2. Research
      1. CNSM research recovery update
        1. Field work
          1. Field researchers can fill out the form and submit it to begin field research.
          2. EH&S does not need to see these forms individually (unlike the lab forms).
          3. Anyone who comes on campus (even just to pick up or drop off gear) must complete: COVID-19 awareness and prevention training, a COVID-19 symptoms pre-screening, and building occupancy – All of these will soon be available through the CNSM website.
          4. The Fieldwork Notification and Checklist will be needed for tracking and contact tracing purposes.
          5. The symptoms pre-screening and building occupancy forms must be filled out right before people come to campus, not the night before or any time in advance.
        2. Labs
          1. EH&S wants to individually approve each lab’s application.
            We sent two applications yesterday and were told they were satisfactory. As soon as LA County health protocols are released, EH&S can approve the forms.
          2. An updated (minor changes that will have only a few minor effects on what PIs have written) Laboratory Research Recovery Application; an annotated blank version was sent to all Chairs. All the forms will soon be available through the CNSM website.
          3. If Barbara received an application before today (6/16), she has already transferred it over to the new form with the faculty member. After today, she will not transfer them and faculty must use the correct form.
          4. If asked, Chairs should inform faculty that we are waiting on the LA County Department of Public Health to release safety protocols specifically for colleges and universities.
  5. Mentoring Policy - Deferred until next CDC Meeting.
  6. Adjourned.

 

Upcoming Dates:

Friday, June 19, 2020 - Send Maryanne description of virtual lab development and costs so she hast his for fundraising. 

CDC Meetings to be every other week during summer.

 

Submitted by Allie Puz (Communications & PR Coordinator, CNSM)

Meeting Minutes were APPROVED on Tuesday, July 7, 2020

*Note: This reflects discussion on the date of the CDC meeting about policies, not actual policy. Faculty and staff should wait for official communication on each subject before acting.