Faculty Meeting January 8, 2016

Faculty Meeting January 8, 2016

In attendance: Grant Thompson, Stephen Brandt, Scarlett Arbuckle, Rebecca Hutchinson, Kelly Biedenweg, Tiffany Garcia, Bruce Dugger, Susie Dunham, Katie Dugger, Bob Lackey, Taal Levi, Jim Peterson, Don Lyons, Nancy Allen, Dan Roby, Guillermo Giannico, Doug Reese, Lisa Ellsworth, Dana Sanchez, Selina Heppell, Dave Paoletti, Stan Gregory, Carl Schreck, Cynthia Sellinger, Kathy Boyer, Danielle Jarkowsky, Jonny Armstrong, Michael Banks, Megan Wright, Dana Warren, Lindsey Thurman, Rob Chitwood, Liz Kelly, Ann Leen

Agenda:

Announcements:

Connie Davis was killed in a car accident Wednesday, Jan 6th. Connie was a great help to us when Jan Cyrus left the front office – many people got their paychecks, thanks to her. More information will be distributed as it becomes available.

Next Faculty meeting will be on February 12. Primary topics will be Graduate Program issues and graduate student funding.

Committee Reports

ü  Diversity: survey coming out next month

ü  Curriculum: there is a committee meeting next week

ü  Scholarship: Nancy is training Leighann to take over next year. Scholarship applications are due in the near future – see emails from Susie and Nancy. Please submit letters of recommendation as a word file rather than PDF.

ü  Grad committee: the grad handbook is being revised and they will bring to the February meeting.

Policy updates:

1.  Paid Sick Leave for Graduate Students

Oregon Mandatory Sick Time Law

Effective Jan 1, 2016

This change will include:

ü  Graduate Assistants

ü  Regular students (Federal Work Study students are excluded)

ü  BlueSun and other temp employees

Sick Leave will be accrued at a rate of 1 hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked.

Graduate accrual rates are slightly different as negotiated by CGE. Grad Assistants working at .49 FTE will accrue at 10 hours/term.

Maximum accrual is 40 hours in a fiscal year.

Sick leave must be recorded on timesheets in 1 hour increments.

When employees can begin to use sick leave depends on their appointment type:

ü  Grad assistants are eligible for sick leave with pay immediately upon accrual

ü  BlueSun can begin to use on the 91st day of employment. Those employed before Jan 1, 2016 are eligible to use as it accrues.

ü  Student workers TBD

Employees will only need to enter sick leave taken, not work hours.

ü  Beginning in March grad assistants will enter their sick leave hours in EmpCenter. From now thru March they will need to submit a paper timesheet if they take any sick leave. If no sick leave is taken, no time sheet is required at this time.

ü  The process for regular student workers is still in development.

Leave Donation: Graduate Employees on active appointments may irrevocably donate up to 30 hours of accrued sick leave to other Graduate Employees on an active appointment. This process will be handled by the Office of Human Resources in Kerr.

Substitute Work: Graduate employees can substitute for work of another Graduate employee. Grad students may not work in excess of their available substitute hours. For a grad assistant at .49 FTE, the maximum substitute is 4 hours per term.

I have copies of accrual policy for grad assistants and BlueSun if you would like a copy.

There are open lab sessions scheduled for those who have questions on EmpCenter and information on earning and entering sick leave. http://mytime.oregonstate.edu/node

Additional information: http://hr.oregonstate.edu/sick-time-law

http://mytime.oregonstate.edu/node/190

2.  Travel Insurance requirements for international trips (Selina) Students traveling internationally will have to enroll for additional insurance @ $2.00/day. It can be covered by a grant, salary savings, or student can pay.

New Interdisciplinary Project in Data-Enabled Science and Engineering: Risk and Uncertainty quantification in marine science and policy (Banks)

Michael provided information on a program to engage and support 30 grad students in cross disciplinary research with a strong focus on diversity recruitment. A document of information on the minor program proposal was distributed prior to today’s meeting, see attachment, below. Watch for announcements for student recruitment soon.

http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2015/sep/nsf-selects-oregon-state-build-cohorts-leaders-marine-science-data-and-policy

Space

Survey results presented by Chitwood, will email

§  Lots of space devoted to storage, but this includes active equipment storage. Old samples should be moved to Fairplay – contact Rob if you need info on that.

§  Most faculty are generally satisfied with their space but some really need more (or don’t have any right now and need it)

§  Shared space can work and may be a good way to go

Report on our meeting with Capital Planning

§  Agrees that being in 3-4 buildings is a problem, more research space needed

§  Upcoming inventory in March: look at your space and ask yourself if you are using it as best you can.

§  Discussed how best to present our space issues. The bottom line is that it is a problem to be spread out over 4 buildings. Demonstrate what we CAN’T have or do by our lack of a unified space, and how it negatively impacts research productivity and our department growth.

Nash re-wire planned for summer 2016 – this was not discussed, more info to come

Initiatives:

·  Hovland - Putting in a bid to convert the 2nd floor Hovland classroom into a grad space for FW. Plan will be to convert Nash 134 into shared lab space if this happens

·  Weniger – We gave up space on the 2nd floor of Weniger to Department of Statistics in hopes of developing an annex in Weniger including a FW office and admin assistant, labs and offices. Will be developing a plan for that with input from Capital Planning.

Proposal for a Minor in Risk and Uncertainty Quantification in Marine Science.

To fulfill the Minor requirements students need to take at least one course from each of the five learning outcomes listed in the Table 1. Additionally, NRT trainees will fulfill research and professional development requirements listed in Table 2.

Table 1. Minor in Risk and Uncertainty Quantification in Marine Science
Learning Outcomes / Class/Credit hours / Prerequisites
Professional Development / MRM 525 or OC 507 Seminar in Transdisciplinary Research (6) (*2 credit hours each fall, winter, and spring terms in:
a.)  Professional development (2)
b.)  Communication (2)
c.)  Collaborative Working Structure (2) / Graduate standing
Big Data and Uncertainty Quantification
3-4 CREDITS REQUIRED / ST 538 Modern Analytical Methods for Large and Complex Datasets
(3) / TBD
GEO 541-Spatio-Temporal Variation in Ecology and Earth Science (4) / ST 411 or ST 511 (Methods of Data Analysis) Recommended but not enforced
GEO 584- Advanced Spatial Statistics and Gis-Science (2) / None
CS 534-Machine Learning (4) / Graduate standing
CS 515-Algorithms and Data Structure (4) / Graduate standing in computer science and an undergraduate course in algorithms
Risk Analysis
3-4 CREDITS REQUIRED / MTH 567- Actuarial Mathematics (3) / MTH 463 or MTH 563 Probability I) or ST 421 (Introduction to Mathematical Statistics) or permission from instructor
MTH 563-Probability I (3) / MTH 312 (Advanced Calculus) or instructor approval required
MTH 527-Introduction to Mathematical Biology (3) / (MTH 256 or MTH 256H (Applied Differential Equations) and MTH 341 (Linear Algebra)
Earth Systems
3-4 CREDITS REQUIRED / MTH 428/528 Mathematical Biology: Stochastic Elements (3 credits) / MTH 341, and MTH 463 or permission of the instructor
ME 515- Risk and Reliability Analysis in Engineering Design (4) / None
OEAS 540-Bio-Geochemical Earth (4) / One year of physics, chemistry, and calculus, or instructor permission
OEAS 530-The Fluid Earth (4) / None
OC 530-Pric. of Physical Oceanography (4) / One year each of college physics and college calculus
OC 533-Coast and Estuarine Oceanography (3) / One year of college physics and one year of calculus
OC 522-Ocean Biogeochemical Dynamics (4) / Bachelor's degree in scientific field or consent of instructor. OEB students are required to also take OC 523 (Ocean Ecological Dynamics) and OC 521 (Applications in Ocean Ecology and Biogeochemistry) as part of first-year Tier Two curriculum. COREQS: OC 521, OC 523
OC 523-Ocean Ecological Dynamics (4) / None
ATS 520-Principles of Climate: Physics of Climate and Climate Change (4) / MTH 25 (Integral Calculus) and PH 202 or PH 202H (General Physics) or PH 212 or PH 212H (General Physics with Calculus)
ATS 521-Climate Modeling (4) / ATS 420/ATS 520 (recommended-- Principles of Climate: Physics of Climate and Climate Change, talk to instructor if not taken); no prior programming knowledge required
Social Systems
3-4 CREDITS REQUIRED / COMM 524- Communication in Organizations (3) / None

PPOL 546- The Policy and Law of United States Coastal (4)

/ None
PPOL 545-International Marine Policy (4) / None
PPOL 548- Marine Policy (4) / None
MRM 530 – Principles & Practices of MRM (3) / None
ANTH 581 – Natural Resources and Community Values (4) / 3 credits of social science

AEC 552 – Marine Economics (3)

/ AEC 351 or AEC 352 or AREC 351 or AREC 352

(*) Total credit hours for minor: 18 Students MUST take at least 1 class from all five categories.

Table 2: Research and Professional Development for NRT Trainees
Learning outcomes / Class/Credit hours / Prerequisites
Orientation to Transdisciplinarity / GEO 508 NRT Intensive Field Course/Workshop (3)
12-18th, Sept., 2016 / Graduate standing
Stakeholder engagement / GEO 510-Internship Option (1-4) / 12 credits of upper-division geosciences.
Collaborative Working Structure / OC 599-Special Topics in Oceanography—
(3) / Minor in R&U
Collaborative group project / Thesis chapter / Minor in R&U
Additional optional offerings for each learning objective (not required, but of interest to NRT trainees) / CS 531-Artificial Intelligence(4)
/ Graduate standing in computer science

FES 523-Qualitative Analysis in Social Science (4)

/ FES 522- Research Methods in Social science or FOR 522) or equivalent and ST 511-Methods of Data Analysis or equivalent. Discuss course equivalency with professor
SOC518/628-Qualitative Research Methods (4) / SOC 204 or SOC 204H –Introduction to Sociology

(*) The research training is not part of the minor in R&U, but it will be required for all NRT trainees.