November 7, 2017 Minutes

Council of Department Chairs

Present: C. Bennett, K. Slowinski, B. Taylor, B. Benken, H. Wu, M. Karteron, M. Horton, B. Livingston, C. Brazier, R. Behl, T. Gao, A. Bill, L. Martin-Hansen, and L. Olsen-Cooper.

Agenda: Approved.

  1. Minutes: Meeting minutes for Tuesday, October 17, 2017 were approved.
  2. Announcements
    1. Chairs are asked to meet with the dean prior to any appointments that would create a new full-time entitlement.
    2. President's Outstanding Achievement Award information distributed.
    3. Tuesday, November 14, 2017 CDC meeting canceled.
    4. Spring Evaluations for Lecturers should be submitted to their departments by March 2, 2018 and to the College Office by April 9, 2018. Also, mini-evaluations are due to the departments on February 5, 2018 and to the College Office by Friday, March 23, 2018.
    5. Chancellor’s office has announced that there will be no extensions or waivers to category B. CSULB will not be pursuing any extensions or waivers to EO 1100.
    6. We note that the new rules for upper division GE will only apply to entering freshmen and community college transfer students who have not had continuous enrollment.
    7. New scheduling software going into place. All chairs have concerns with not being able to adjust enrollments.
  3. Updates from Chairs
    1. Gregory Whitaker has made a 3-year $10K per year scholarship commitment. This will support two new master's students; one student in Chemistry and one in Biochemistry with a $5K recruitment scholarship (each) designed to encourage top applicants to come to CSULB.
    2. The Geological Sciences department is hosting an alum, Melissa Bernardino (PhD candidate at the University of Colorado, Boulder), on Wednesday, November 8 at 5:00pm in HSCI-382. The seminar is titled "Rethinking the Isabella anomaly of the Sierra Nevada, CA: Constraints from shear wave tomography."
    3. The Dick Green Foundation has funded work with ESLA (Elementary Science Learning Academy) coordinated by Laura Henriques. ELSA sponsored a Saturday workshop for the elementary teachers in November with Susan Gomez-Zwiep as the facilitator. This past October, ESLA teachers were also supported by the Green Foundation to attend the California Science Teachers Association in Sacramento, CA. The teachers were incredibly enthusiastic about the opportunity as many of the elementary teachers have never been able to attend a science teaching science conference before their involvement with this project.
    4. Two of our graduates from the MS in Math, Option in Math Education program recently presented at national/state level meetings; they prepared their proposals during their Leadership in Math Education course (MTED 590), which they took while still in the program.
    5. UPRC Program Review Report of the Mathematics and Statistics Department was approved last week.
    6. Four freshmen classes from SATO High School (LBUSD) visited the Biological Sciences department last week.
    7. The Chairs Advisory Committee and they are currently discussing the responsibilities of Department Chairs and RSCA.
    8. The Far West Section (CA, NV, HI) Conference, which is the local section of the American Physical Society, was held at UC Merced on November 2-4, 2017. Seven students and three faculty members attended. Five students gave talks; three of them presented posters. Four alumni also presented at the conference.
  4. 4. Development Update
    1. The next Fellows Colloquium will be on March 22, 2018 and will feature Professor Mike Harris (Biological Sciences) in a history of science talk focused on neurobiology.
    2. A Microbiology Alumna has established a bequest to fund summer research fellowships in Microbiology. The value of this future gift is estimated to be in excess of $250,000.
  5. Associate Dean Reports
    1. The ARR (degree planner/audit) is now live for all of our graduation programs. In the spring, we will work on reviewing/correcting all catalog language.
    2. A draft document was provided giving:
      1. 1) Background information on the need for a CNSM RS Funds Task Force and 2) a revised description of the intended action of the task force (charge to the committee). Meeting attendees were asked to read the background and provide comments on that component of the document by the end of the week. Discussion in the meeting focused on the action or charge to the committee. Editorial comments were shared in the meeting. After all comments are received and the document is fully revised, it will be sent by email to CNSM faculty.
    3. Dr. Kris Slowinski (Instruction):
      1. Gave a presentation on student success and graduation rates.
      2. This led to a discussion regarding improving CNSM graduation rates. One suggestion was made to have a career day for select schools to recruit stronger students and to help keep students in the majors.
  6. Old Business
  7. New Business
  8. Adjourn: Meeting adjourned at 11:47 am.

Respectfully submitted by Lane Olsen-Cooper, Assistant to the Richard D. Green Dean

Meeting Minutes approved on: 12/5/2017