| Faculty Advisory Committee Minute Archives |
Date: November 3, 2004
To: EMS Faculty
From: Cindy Brewer, Chair of FAC
Re: Minutes of EMS Fall Faculty Meeting, October 27
Eric Barron introduced Yaw Yeboah, new EGEE Head, and Tim Bralower introduced Jenn Macalady , new faculty in Geosciences; welcome.
Cindy Brewer, Chair of the EMS GI Ad Hoc committee, listed the EMS courses her committee has identified to meet new University Intercultural and International General Education requirements. We currently have five GI courses and the committee has identified 26 courses to submit for US and International (IL) Intercultural designations by December 16. Courses from all departments are included and additional course development is planned (Water/West, Weather/Business, Resource Wars). We are now requesting proposals for US and IL course development and enhancement.
Denice Wardrop, Chair of the Fixed Term and Research Faculty committee, described the group’s first initiatives. There are 130 fixed-term faculty and 130 tenure-track faculty in EMS. The new committee will re-administer a survey conducted ten years ago to learn about new and continuing issues important to this diverse group.
President Spanier visited our meeting for 20 minutes at Dean Barron’s invitation. He commended our focus on strategic planning and the goals we have set. The new student center offers wonderful accessibility for our students, which is important because Penn State is now the most expensive public university in the United States. He praised our student centered emphases, which complement our high per-capita productivity in research, scholarship, graduate education, and outreach. He was delighted to see a standing-room-only faculty meeting.
In response to questions, President Spanier discussed the MatSE building plans, costs, and multiple fund-raising efforts. He hopes for a state government decision in 2004 and anticipates a 3- to 4-year planning/building effort after the remainder of $80 million in funds are organized. He reflected on the demographic shifts that are particularly affecting non-UP Penn State campuses and noted increases in out-of-state students. He speculated that disaffiliation with Dickinson is likely because the Dickinson Board of Governors will not place a high priority on creating a high-quality program of the caliber we expect of all Penn State programs.
EMS Unit Heads presented five-minute synopses of their strategic plan drafts using a single slide each (linked. Slides shared a common format with three columns headed: Creating the Most Student-Centered College, Empowering the Next Generations of Scholars, and Strengthening Our Departments and Institutes.
1. Harold Schobert, Energy Institute, proposed energy as a strategic initiative area for the University, similar to current University consortia (EI has $11.4M funding in EMS, $20M total with Engineering included, 120 companies in partnerships, plus state and federal agency partnerships). Completeness in our energy emphases, from extraction through conversion to use, is unparalleled in world. EI student opportunities include Schreyer Honors College theses and engineering student internships (undergrads from seven college supported recently).
2. Michael Adewumi, Africa Alliance, described involvement in AESEDA of over 50 people across the university, including from our other campuses. AESEDA will partner with HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) and African universities and will integrate students in all facets of their work. AESEDA’s goal is to combine approaches of social science, science, and engineering to develop socially responsive development policy to help Africa achieve mainstream and global power.
3. Gary Messing, MatSE, noted the Vice President for Research and MRI Director were pressing on funding for the MatSE building, and described planned research emphases in electronics, infrared sensors, soft materials, energy, and nano-surgery tools. MatSE will restructure their curriculum to be more agile because materials disciplines are more interdisciplinary now (e.g., bio-engineering). The undergrad program will be more research intensive and include more international experience. More high-level undergrads will be attracted through a planned MatSE honors program. The professional development aspects of the program will also be improved through emphases on proposal writing, ethics, and entrepreneurship.
4. Tim Bralower, Geoscience, is planning a more flexible undergraduate curriculum by reducing prerequisite courses in the major to allow more timely graduations. Expanded field trips and field courses (e.g., western U.S.) are planned for undergrads. All undergrads will be a vital part of a research team and labs shared by grads and undergrads on multiple teams will build community. Lab consortia among faculty will address the space crunch and allow improved facilities.
5. David DiBiase, Dutton e-Education Institute, works with all EMS programs and extends our student centered goals to adult professionals who are not free to come to campus. EMS offers two online professional masters (Oil and Gas Engineering Management and Masters in GIS) and two post baccalaureate certificates (Weather Forecasting and GIS). Three EMS web courses are offered for resident students and the e-Ed Institute proposes that every Penn State student take at least one online course to prepare our grads to be life-long learners. The e-portfolio initiative and EM SC 602, on teaching and learning for grads, are also sponsored by e-Ed.
6. Yaw Yeboah, EGEE, has four ABET-accredited undergraduate programs and six graduate programs. The department will continue to consolidate and integrate programs by planning common core courses and streamlining policies and processes. For example, they will consolidate to two graduate programs (EGEE and Minerals & Petroleum Engineering). The department plans to increase student entries in national competitions and offer a BS/MS 5-year program. The department’s web offerings have increased student diversity (EGEE 102 is 50% women and EGEE 101 is 20% minority). They are planning collaboration and partnerships with EI, AESEDA, and HBCUs.
7. Roger Downs, Geography, described plans to redesign the department’s suite of 13 zero- and 100-level General Education courses to be modular and scalable. A professional course designer will guide this revision over three years, with a goal of flexible presentation and update to create a similar texture and feel among courses, centering on a coordinated experience for students. The department will strengthen centers and institutes (GeoVISTA, Wetlands) and begin three-year foci on two initiatives where the department has a national reputation (public policy, environmental justice).
8. Eugene Clothiaux (for Bill Brune), Meteorology, described the shift to preparing students for private sector careers and changing to a more flexible program that can rapidly reflect new research areas. Core courses will change to be better suited to being taught by three or four instructors so that individuals can swap flexibly between teaching core courses and teaching new research topics. The department is building a critical mass of faculty focused on weather and economic decision making. New topics are computationally intensive and department spaces will be reconfigured to push technology out to new and better student work spaces.
9. Kate Freeman (for Sue Brantley), EESI, described the Institute’s work to address the important national need to communicate science to citizens through projects such as the 3D GeoWall in the EMS museum. EESI emphasizes student research by crossing boundaries (such as earth sciences with life sciences) and bringing students in to use high-performance computational facilities. They will co-fund a facilitator to assist in seeking large funding opportunities, build video conferencing facility in EES, and incubate new centers for research.
Presentation of the plans of the Associate Deans was abbreviated because we wanted to break for the reception. Rob Crane (10. Associate Dean for Education) plans to develop an EMS Scholars program and build international experience, service learning, and research experiences for undergraduates. Alan Scaroni’s (11. ADGER) plans include building professionalism and community among the graduate students.
We adjourned at 5:35 to the EMS Museum for our reception where posters for the presentations were interspersed among food and drink and the Dean invited us to continue the conversation about our draft strategic plans.
