Memorandum Chemistry Task Force
DATE: August 28, 1997
TO: All Chemistry Faculty
FROM: Dr. Kathy Nabona
RE: August and September Task Force Meeting Minutes
CC:
Election of Task Force Leader:
Art Meyer was the only full time faculty member to submit his name for consideration as Task Force Leader. He was unanimously voted in as Task Force Leader.
Budget and Signature Authority:
Signature authority was decided to be delegated to the Chemistry Task Force leader and all Assistant Deans on each of the campus locations. This included Art Meyer, David Fonken, Saad Eways, Linnea Fletcher and Steve Kirschner.
On review of the budget, it was decided that the amount each individual campus could spend per account would be based on the amounts that had been budgeted the previous fiscal year.
Adjunct Faculty Representation:
The mandate set forth by Dr. Fonte stated that the number of adjunct faculty members to serve as voting members could be up to one-half the number of full time instructors. Because chemistry has 6 full-time faculty members and a faculty member that teaches in two disciplines, it was decided to have 4 adjunct representatives serving on the Task Force. It was decided that these faculty members would be chosen by the adjunct faculty. The representation would be such as to have one adjunct faculty for each of the campuses.
Spring Schedule:
The Task Force began to work on the Spring 1998 schedule, but decided to have a subcommittee make recommendations about the schedule. The subcommittee consisted of Linnea Fletcher, Kathy Nabona, Madan Mohan and John Young.
Unit Purpose:
This was tabled until the next Task Force meeting.
CHM 1614.2 Lab Handouts
The Task Force agreed that the selling of the lab handouts produced
by ACC faculty for use in the Introduction to Chemistry lab would
be discontinued. We agreed to continue with the Task Force policy
of copying these materials and handing them out to the students.
Election of Task Force Leader:
Due to the resignation of Art Meyer as Task Force Leader, Stev Rodi called a Chemistry Task Force meeting to elect a new leader. John Young and Kathy Nabona had previously submitted their names to Dr. Rodi; however, at the meeting only Kathy Nabona submitted her name. Kathy Nabona was unanimously elected and then presided over the meeting.
Unit Purpose:
Task Force agreed to continue to use the Unit Plan adopted the previous year.
Student Learning Outcome of 1634:
It was decided after much discussion that the mechanism in place to evaluate student learning in CHM 1634 was not achieving the intended purpose. A new mechanism was adopted which involved tracking students from CHM 1634 to the next course in the sequence, CHM 1644. The success of these students would be assessed by the rate of withdrawals and failure in this course. Failure is considered to be a grade of D or F.
CHM 1614.2 Lab Handouts
Dr. Rodi announced to the Task Force that the practice of the Chemistry Department related to handing out materials to students for the Introduction to Chemistry lab was to be discontinued. Three options were given to us for the adoption of either a new policy or a new book. They are as follows:
1. Allow central duplication to copy the lab handouts produced by ACC faculty and sell them at a discounted price at the bookstores.
2. Allow an outside publisher to format the handouts and sell them at the bookstore.
3. Adopt a completely new lab book.
Most Task Force members were opposed to such demands placed on us. We were told emphatically that we must adopt one of the three policies or face reprimand. It was decided to continue this discussion at a later Task Force meeting.