Meeting Minutes: Committee on Biological Sciences
Academic Advisory Committee for the Biological Sciences
March 13, 1998
Cigna Center, Room 220, Macon Georgia
| Attendees: | |
| Ga. Tech | Jung Choi |
| Georgia State | No Representative |
| MCG | No Representative |
| UGA | Catherine Teare-Ketter |
| Ga. Southern | John Averett |
| Valdosta | Dave Bechler |
| Albany | No Representative |
| Armstrong Atl | Ken Relyea |
| Augusta | Emil Urban |
| Clayton | Becky Halyard |
| Columbus | George Stanton |
| Fort Valley | No Representative |
| Georgia Coll/St U. | Dan Caldwell |
| Georgia Southwestern | Betty Elder |
| Kennesaw | Ralph Rascati |
| North Georgia | Tom Fox |
| Savannah | No Representative |
| Southern Polytech | Bill Burnett |
| West Georgia | Greg Stewart |
| ABAC | Ray Barber |
| Atlanta Metropolitan | Barbara Morgan |
| Bainbridge | Robert Lane |
| Coastal Georgia | Gene Keferl |
| Dalton | Bill Jump |
| Darton | Mike Stoy |
| DeKalb | Betty Molloy |
| East Georgia | Marvin Baker |
| Floyd | Michael Windelspecht |
| Gainesville | George Chapman |
| Gordon | Steve Greenwald |
| Macon | Eric Sun |
| Middle Georgia | John Pasto |
| South Georgia | Terry Harrington |
| Waycross | Molly Smith |
| BOR Liaison | Dorothy Zinsmeister |
The meeting was called to order by Chairman Gregory Stewart at 10 a.m.
Committee members were provided with workload information, copies of summer course offerings for 1998, program sheets, and course outlines from many of the institutions.
The meeting began with a discussion of workloads as they are being proposed at the various institutions. The summary sheet that Greg Stewart provided to the committee members indicates that there is variation from institution to institution. It appears that variations are acceptable as long as institutions do not experience an increase in salary costs under the semester system as compared with the quarter system.
At some institutions, the number of students per class is figured into the workload. At the State University at West Georgia, if a class has 60 students, the faculty member receives credit for 1 1/2 classes and if the class has 90 students, the faculty member receives credit for 2 classes.
One committee member asked how release time was figured. Greg Stewart said that he had to take the cost of release time into account when proposing faculty workload. Another problem concerned on-line courses. At least one institution is providing release time to a faculty member only while he or she is developing an on-line course. After the initial development, a faculty member would receive less workload credit than the faculty would receive for teaching regular classes. This proposal did not take into account all the time the faculty member would spend keeping course materials updated on the Web and the time the faculty member would spend communicating electronically or in person with his students.
Since most committee members did not know the workload for department chairs under the quarter system, they compared the amount of release time given to department chairs under the quarter system. In ten of the institutions, department chairs are given one course release per quarter. In six institutions, department chairs are given half-time release. Others are released from two courses per quarter. At one two-year institution where departments are large and often contain many disciplines, department chairs teach two courses per year.
Another question was asked concerning how directed studies and research supervision fits into the workload. Under the current quarter system in at least some of the institutions, three directed studies (as documented by students enrolling in 3, 3-5 credit hours of research/directed study) is equal to one credit hour. For research, at some institutions, a student receives one credit hour if he or she works in the lab 5 hours per week. Students are allowed to earn up to 4 hours of research credit as an undergraduate. A faculty member would earn 1 credit hour towards workload if he or she supervises 3 students doing research.
Next, discussion centered around advisement workload. Depending on the institution, there is a wide range in the number of students that a faculty member sees per quarter for advising purposes. The average seemed to be around 50 students per quarter.
It was pointed out that teaching load and workload mean two different things. The public may think that faculty have it easy because they teach 15 hours per week. It is necessary for us to educate the public as to what we do. When advisement of students, committee work, community service, development, and sometimes research are added to the time spent teaching, most faculty work long hours.
Dorothy Zinsmeister brought greetings from the Board of Regents. She told the committee about some of the initiatives that are being discussed by the Board. She encouraged committee members to attend a board meeting. (Meetings are open to the public.) This year one of the big initiatives is in the area of teacher preparation. Guiding principles are being developed that will provide a framework for the advancement of teacher preparation in Georgia. Some of the issues addressed by the principles include out-of-field teaching, broad field programs, and the collaborative nature of teacher preparation programs.
This past year, the Academic Advisory Committee on Biological Sciences was fortunate to have received two grants, one to help fund the annual SOTAB meeting and the other to provide a Biological Sciences Speakers' Bureau. To obtain grants for 1999, the RFP will be released May 1, proposals are due June 1, and on July 1, money will be available to those granted awards. Dorothy Zinsmeister reported that the RFP is already out for the Teaching and Technology Grants.
Next, Dorothy Zinsmeister discussed common course numbering and common course descriptions for the biology courses for science majors. Because the biological sciences committee was later than some of the other academic committees in turning in common course numbers, some institutions had already sent their new catalogues to the printer. For these institutions, it will be a year before the correct numbering system is used. The biology course for science majors should be numbered 1107 & 1108 or 2107 & 2108. Some institutions had devised numbering systems that had specific meanings within the institutions. The academic committee's numbering of certain courses, such as the biology sequence for science majors, will take precedence over an individual institutions numbering system.
The members of this committee have not agreed on the topics that will be included in Biology 1107 (2107) or Biology 1108 (2108). They have agreed on the topics for the overall sequence. Dorothy Zinsmeister emphasized that this can cause a transfer problem if a student does not finish the sequence at the same institution. It was decided that in order to help advisers, the committee would print a transfer guide or grid which will show course equivalents. Greg Steward asked that each committee member again send him a list of topics that his/her institution cover in the first course of the sequence (1107 & 2107) and a list of topics covered in the second course of the sequence (1108 & 2108). Greg Stewart needs these topics and the course numbers by April 1. Catalogue course descriptions for each course are sufficient if the description clearly delineates the topics covered in each course.
At 12:30, the committee took a one hour lunch break. The committee reconvened at 1:30.
After lunch, the committee discussed semester course offerings at the various institutions. Handouts were provided by many of the institutions. Two of the institutions said that they had used courses that did not fit into Area F as courses in Area B (Institutional Options). Other institutions used Area B for computer literacy type course, communication, speech, etc.
As far as Summer Quarter 1997, no one knows what to expect in terms of enrollment. Some think that enrollment may be up since many students are trying to finish all their requirements before semesters begin. Committee members shared lists of their institutions' summer course offerings with each other. These should prove helpful when advising students. Because the summer quarter will be short this year, only a couple of institutions are planning to offer split sessions.
It was suggested that it may be hard to staff classes this summer because many full-time faculty are planning to take off this summer since there will be no break between the end of summer quarter and the beginning of fall semester.
Some institutions offer a nine-week session in the middle of the summer for education majors. This allows teachers in the county school systems to take classes and be back in their classrooms in August.
The committee members broke into three groups. The members of the regional and research university members nominated Dave Bechler of Valdosta State, the four-year college members nominated Elizabeth Elder of Georgia Southwestern State University, and the two-year institutions nominated Steven Greenwald of Gordon College to serve on the executive committee.
The entire committee approved the above executive committee members as well as
the chair-elect (John Averett of Georgia Southern University), the chair
(Elizabeth
Molloy of DeKalb College). The past-chair is Gregory Stewart.
The committee decided it would not be necessary to have another formal meeting
this year. If any of the committee members attend the Georgia Academy of
Science Annual Meeting on April 24 and 25, they may wish to meet informally at
that time. Ken Relyea is our representative at Armstrong Atlantic State
University, the host institution for the Georgia Academy of Science meeting this
year. Ken can probably help us find a room for a meeting if we need one.
Transfer issues were discussed. The Board of Regents has stated that if a student finishes all the courses in an area, the receiving institution must accept these courses. This will hold true for Area F if the student hasn't changed his or her major.
If a student needs a year of inorganic chemistry for his or her major and the student has not taken Chemistry 123 under the quarter system, the student must take second semester chemistry.
Pre-med students and biochemistry majors must take two semesters of calculus. Forestry, ecology, and marine science majors need only 1 semester of calculus.
Dorothy Zinsmeister reported on the success of the last SOTAB meeting. She presented the following statistics from the SOTAB meeting:
| # participants | 123 |
| males | 76 |
| females | 47 |
| institutions | 29 (23 public and 6 private) |
| donations | $4900 |
| # institutions donating | 22 (15 public and 7 private) |
SOTAB '99 will take place on January 29-30, 1999. This meeting will mark the 20th anniversary of SOTAB. Plans are to make this a special meeting. Dorothy Zinsmeister asked the group to think of the names of the original active members of SOTAB. Stewart Coward, Herb Davis, Rick Osborne, and Matt Callahan's names were mentioned. Dorothy Zinsmeister plans to invite these individuals to the 20th annual meeting.
Someone suggested that we might ask SOTAB speakers to discuss the five most significant findings in the past 20 years. The group came up with the following significant findings: gene function, developmental biology and ecology, neurochemistry, emerging pathogens, the global significance of science, water in the twenty-first century, and agricultural engineering. Other ideas include applied biology in the State of Georgia, political issues and science, and El Nino.
The SOTAB Steering Committee consists of Ken Relyea, John Parrish, Dorothy Zinsmeister, and the current-chair, past-chair, and chair-elect of the Academic Advisory Committee for the Biological Sciences.
It was suggested that we invite high school teachers to attend SOTAB. George Stanton agreed to write a grant proposal to try to obtain one of the Board of Regents Grants for Academic Advisory Committees to help fund the travel for high school teachers. We could honor teachers who take our students as student teachers. One hundred dollars could fund the registration and room and board for one person.
Since most of the grants that were funded this year were for under $3000, Dorothy Zinsmeister suggested that we submit two grant proposals, one to fund SOTAB and the other for high school teacher development. Greg Stewart said that as chair of the Academic Advisory Committee, he must sign the grant applications. He asked that he receive them by the middle of May so that he can meet the June 1 deadline.
Since none of the private schools were able to send representatives to meet with us, the group decided to discuss tomorrow's topics so that those who want to return home tonight can do so. Greg Stewart provided copies of the Biological Sciences Speakers' Bureau brochure. If any department is interested in inviting one of the speakers, he/she should contact Greg. If a speaker who teaches at a four-year school is invited to speak at a two-year school, the speaker could discuss with the students opportunities at the four-year school. This would be a good means of helping students bridge from the two-year to the four-year institutions.
It was suggested that next year we meet at Red Top Mountain the day or two before the American Physics Meeting. The physics meeting will be held in Atlanta on March 20-26. Thirty Nobel Prize winners have already agreed to attend.
Several committee members mentioned development opportunities. The
American Society for Microbiology will be meeting in Atlanta on May 17-21. ASM
has a student science day on Wednesday. Eric Sun from Macon State College told
the group about a trip to China to study China culture and ecology. ABLE
will be
meeting in Tallahassee in June. Georgia Institute of Technology has a Visiting
Faculty Program. Visiting faculty teach and do research at Georgia Tech.
This will be Bill Jump's last year as a member of the committee. He has been a
member of the committee since 1969.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:30 p.m.
Attachment: System-wide Equivalencies for Principles of Biology (Major Biology)