Faculty Meeting December 14, 2004

Agenda:

1. Freshman College Program (in this file)

2. Undergraduate curriculum

3. Graduate program

4. MAT/BS in teaching (summary in this file)

5. Adjunct Professor proposal (summary in this file)

6. News (in this file)

Paul Bingham (Cell Biology) and Jeff Levinton (Ecology and Evolution) presented the plans for the Freshman colleges. There are now 6 such colleges, each located in one of the quads. Each has a loose theme (Human Development for Bingham and Science and Society for Levinton).

Students in the colleges attend a 1 credit course in the spring, sited in the colleges. Faculty are encouraged to take one of these courses; to make it work will require that each faculty does one every 3 or so years. The format of these courses varies widely with the faculty, but they are designed to bring the students into contact with faculty, research, and the intellectual world.

Bingham described their program for the spring, organized around a set of 12 prerecorded video clips by faculty on various aspects of research or social endeavors. These clips are used by each of the instructors as the springboard for a particular class meeting. Videos will be made available soon so we can see the sort of thing that is being done.

Levinton’s courses vary with the instructor; Mike Simon had his class read a book (Martin Rees’ “The Final Hour”) and the class time was for discussion of this work. Students prepare questions or comments on this reading.

Combined BS/MAT program for physics teachers (Chair’s summary)

NY State high school teachers need a masters degree within 5 years of starting to teach. This program would offer a combined BS and MA in 5 years, rather than the 5.5 years needed if done separately, as the pedagogy courses can be amalgamated. The university generally is putting together a proposal for all such combined MA programs and Physics will be joined to this. We envision no further change in our program, so the chair is empowered to help bring our program into the general one once completed.

The spreadsheet outlining the requirements is listed separately on this web page.

The faculty endorsed an appointment to Helio Takai of BNL as an adjunct professor, as recommended by a committee chaired by Peter Stephens. Takai has initiated the Mariachi project for detecting ultra-high energy cosmic rays using scintillators in schools to see extensive air showers and reflection of sub-horizon radio stations from cosmic ray trails.

Letter of request to Dean is on the web page

News items

1. Sabbatical requests for 2005-6. These are due in the Dean’s

office by March 1, 2005 (for both fall and spring semesters).

Hence I would like the request by Feb. 15, as I have to write a

justification.

2. Fall teaching requests (primary assignments) are due now (I

would like these before you depart for the winter break.

3. In August 2005, the campus will be audited by the EPA for

hazardous waste practice. Such reviews are occuring at all

major research universities, and some have resulted in

O($106) fines. There will be prior mock reviews to find all the

problems and get them fixed. There will mandatory meetings

for all department staff and faculty who work in laboratory

spaces or store hazardous wastes.

News items

4. Searches:

a) Theoretical or Computational Astrophysics: Mike Simon chair. There are 64 applications (closing date is Dec. 15).

b) Theoretical Nuclear Physics, joint with RIKEN Institute, BNL. Jack Smith chair. There are 53 applications (closing date is Dec. 15).

Both searches are provisionally approved, but final approval to culminate these requires that CAS solves its budget deficit problem. At last notice, the College plan to deal with the shortfall by credit for increased revenue had not been approved, leaving still ~$750K of $1.5M deficit. I am hopeful that we will be able to conclude these searches and plan to proceed to invite candidates.

Overall, 23 searches in CAS this year (6 in Natural Sciences and Mathematics).

c) Biological Physics. (Exp’t or theory) We have a pending request for a search for a joint hire with BNL. BNL has agreed in principle, with the BNL department to be chosen based on the candidate’s field. This search was strongly endorsed by the Dean, but is held up by the budget uncertainty.