UW-Stout Physics Department Meeting Minutes

Friday, September 22, 2006

Jarvis Hall, SW 103J

 

Members Present: Mark Larchez (chair), Robert Foley, Jo Hopp, Laura McCullough, Jim Pejsa, John T. Rompala (secretary), Alan Scott, and Ellen Carlson

 

The meeting was called to order by M. Larchez at 9:07 a.m..

 

1.      Announcements

a)      L. McCullough has been elected to serve on the all-university associate professor promotion committee.

b)      Open labs functioning and are now available to the students according to the published schedule.

c)      M. Larchez participated in a meeting of college department and system construction representatives.  The purpose of the meeting was to consider strategies and venues for carrying out business and teaching duties during department displacements resulting from new building construction.  No consensus was reached.

d)     J. Pejsa described the system he has developed enabling staff to transfer files from their computers to the front desk computer.

e)      R. Foley asked that computers in the research area be relocated as a space consideration.  J. Pejsa said that one of those computers is to be used to upgrade the computer used by student assistants.  The other is to be sent to surplus.  As a related space issue, it was suggested that the storage room adjacent to the research area be cleared of outdated supplies.

f)       L. McCullough reminded staff of her e-mail message concerning the call for volunteers to the Mentornet Program.

 

2.     Minutes for meeting of August 28, 2006

        A. Scott moved that the minutes for 08/28/06 be approved as submitted.  This motion was seconded by L. McCullough.  One spelling error and a grammatical error were brought to the attention of the members.

        The minutes were approved with these errors corrected in a voice vote.

 

3.     Faculty Senate: Report from departmental Faculty Senator Alan Scott           

        A. Scott’s participated in the senate meeting of September 19, 2006.  He reported that

  • The Chancellor announced that freshmen enrollment is 1533 and total enrollment is 8324. 
  • The Chancellor outlined a timeline for the implementation of the polytechnic initiative to clarify definitions.  The plan spans three years and includes an internal white paper and consultation with industry representatives. 
  • A shift in admission policy has been adapted to a more holistic appraisal of applicants.
  • The senate voted against supporting UWS-7, a policy dealing with the dismissal of tenured faculty under special conditions.
  • The senate voted to support UWS-4, which incorporates the Institutional Review Board guidelines for protecting human subjects participating in a research program.

 

4.  Promotion Committee:

           M. Larchez distributed copies of department by-laws dealing with promotion.

a)  Procedures for this year should be established.

A draft of suggested procedures was distributed.  The suggestions addressed issues of confidentiality of applicant identity, committee recommendations and priority list.  After discussion members concluded that approval of these suggestions falls to the committee itself when and if a need for their implementation arises.                                   

b) The department chair chairs the department promotion committee.  An alternate should be chosen for the committee chairs’ meeting(s) which will be  7:00-8:00 am and 4:00-5:00 pm Tuesday October 10 in the Badger Room of the MSC.

     J. Pejsa will act as alternate committee chair.

     A representative and an alternate to the CAS promotion committee should be selected. J. Hopp will represent the department on the CAS promotion committee.

     A. Scott will act as alternate representative to the CAS promotion committee.

     These selections were made with unanimous consent of the members.

 

5.  Lab Equipment & Procedures:  Any problems to report?

J. Hopp reported that the lab manual should reflect the change in the spark rate for free fall experiment apparatus.

       

6.  S & S budget and travel budget

a)  The WAPT meeting will be held in Wausau .  With $6C available, members agreed to award $2C in travel expenses to those attending.

b)  The AAPT winter meeting is in Seattle .  J. Hopp is requesting funds to attend as part of her Professional Development Grant.

c)  The summer meeting of the AAPT is in the next fiscal year. 

7.    Other

       L . McCullough informed members that The Science News is now available to those requesting issues for their students.

 

8.    Adjourn

        The meeting was adjourned at 9:52 a.m.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

JTR