Meeting Minutes: Committee on Geological Sciences and Geography
Meeting Minutes
Academic Advisory Committee on Geological Sciences and Geography
Friday, April 24, 1998
Armstrong Atlantic State University, Savannah, Georgia
The Regents Advisory Committee on Geological Sciences and Geography met at Armstrong Atlantic in Savannah on Friday, April 24. Thanks to Ron Beumer of Armstrong and funds provided by the Dept. of Geography at UGA, coffee and doughnuts were in place promptly at 8:00 am. For some reason the group seemed reluctant to leave the refreshments so that the meeting did not start until about 8:15 am. In attendance were Dorothy Zinsmeister, BO Regents liaison; George A. Brook, Chair (UGA), Sam Swanson Chair Elect (UGA); Fred Rich (GA Southern); Chris Semerjan (Gainesville College); Harry Trendell (Kennesaw); Robert Hartig (Fort Valley State); Pamela Gore (Dekalb); Tom Hanley (Columbus State); John Pratte (Clayton State); Drew Hyatt (Valdosta State); Tom Deaton (Dalton College; Jim Byrd (Armstrong Atlantic State); Dan Good (GA Southern); and Gvan S. Ghuman (Savannah State).
The meeting began with an introduction by Dorothy Zinsmeister, our liaison in the office of the BOR. Dorothy spoke for about 1 1/2 hours and answered our questions at the end. The guts of Dorothy's talk was that in the past committees have waited for direction from the BOR rather than take a leadership role. She noted that system initiatives rarely happen by discipline and encouraged our group to show initiative in deciding what is needed for Geol and Geog. She noted that a short meeting often is not sufficient to accomplish much and noted that Biological Sciences (she is one) meets for two days!! Food for thought! She encouraged the group to promote it's areas, noting that Physics had produced a booklet on the status of Physics in GA. She also encouraged dialogues with the high schools, and between 4-year and 2-year colleges in regard to courses in the core. She suggested that course outlines of core courses should be circulated in some way so that students at 2-year institutions get the material they need for effective transfer. Finally, she discussed progress by the BOR in improving teacher ed. For more details on this read the Atlanta J. and Constitution. Also, she told us that distance ed. is here to stay and suggested we join the bandwagon soon or be left in the dust! Dorothy's talk was useful and raised issues that were discussed after she left to meet with the Chemistry group.
After Dorothy left we refilled our coffee cups and ate more doughnuts, all the while mulling over important issues. The first issue addressed was the idea that our group could be split into two groups Geol and Geog. In fact there was strong support for not doing so and a number of convincing arguments were presented for staying together. The next issue addressed was a recommendation from the BOR that group chairs should serve for more than one year. A motion was presented recommending twoyear terms for chairs and co-chairs and this passed 12-0-2. As a result, Sam Swanson will be chair for the next two years unless someone brings a motion next meeting to change that. Next nominations for Chair-elect were asked for and Drew Hyatt's name was forwarded. No other nominations were made and Drew was elected Chair-elect (despite protestations about his youth) by a vote of 14-0-0.
Following this we considered the makeup of our current Executive Committees in Geol and Geog. After deliberation the group decided that the Geol. Exec. Comm. should be Sam Swanson UGA (Chair), Pam Gore Dekalb, Fred Rich, GA Southern and Chris Semerjan, Gainesville. The Geog. Committee should be Drew Hyatt, Valdosta(Chair), George Brook, JGA, Borden Dent, GSU, and Bob Hartig Fort Valley State. These comms. give a good balance of institutions across the state.
Discussion then turned to what we wanted to do and at this point Sam up of a manned website to answer questions schoolkids and others may have about the subject/s. Sam plans to submit a proposal to the BOR by the end of May for a few ks of support. Pam Gore circulated information on her Georgia Geoscience Online Course Adoption Project which is also an effort o promote geology.
The meeting closed at 11:00 am in time for some to make the field trip to Skidaway.
If I missed anything of importance in regard to the meeting please let me know.
George A. Brook (past Chair)
« Committee on Geological Sciences and Geography | return to top