Minutes for CEE faculty meeting March 12, 2008

Attending: Rosenfeldt (recording), Reckhow (presiding), Lardner, Arwade, Brena, Park, Ni, Collura, Chang, Tobiason, Lutenegger, Ergas, Gao

  1. Minutes from the December 5th meeting approved.
  1. Minutes from the February 13thmeeting approved.
  1. Water Resources Faculty Search (Reckhow): 5 interviews occurred, 3 names were passed to Department Head as “acceptable”. Phone offer made to one candidate (3/11/08) – formal offer in Provost’s office. Deadline for accepting end of next week. Made contact with all 3 acceptable candidates.
  1. Structures Faculty Search (Brena): Sixth and final interview today (3/12/08). (Brena and Arwade) Thanks for making coffees and seminars. Committee will meet this afternoon in an effort to quickly pass acceptable list to Department Head. Expect candidates are collecting offers form elsewhere, so rapid process desirable.
  1. Environmental Sensors Faculty Search (Tobiason): 33 applicants (low), narrowed to 8 candidates. Collecting information such that the list can be narrowed to 6 for interviews. (Collura – would hire hold position within Civil Eng.? Tobiason - expected yes.)
  1. Admin Staff Update (Reckhow):
  2. Department Head Secretary - Sarah Albright staffing main CEE desk. Departmentreceived approval to keep her on until April 26th, allowing time fornew department head (arrival March 24th) to decide on the next department head secretary.
  3. Bookeeper – CEE has approval to search (committee comprised of Jodi Ozdarski, Caroline Nofio, Kris Stetson and Lori Banas) – Interview 4 or 5 candidates next week.
  4. Looking into student help in Geotech area, but trying to consolidate this help with help in main CEE office.
  1. Academic Strategic Initiative (Collura): Handout (1 page) summary Draft Concept Paper re: Toward the Development of a CEE Certificate Program and a 5 year CEE BS/MS Offering; to be submitted in response to Dean’s offer of providing seed funding for 1 or 2 such programs. Resulting discussion included:
  2. (Collura) Program in line with ASCE “Body of Knowledge”
  3. (Lutenegger) Consider possibility of
  4. 2 x 15 credit certificates = 1 MSCE degree
  5. 1 or 2 core courses which would applicable to all certificate programs offered by CEE.

A general consensus was reached that the idea is worthy of consideration.

7a. Brought up during the final moments of ASI discussion. Tobiason noted that employers from the career fair stated that graduates they hireneed to know AutoCAD. Suggestions for addressing included:

  1. Ergas – offer more AutoCAD through 111 and 121
  2. Have AutoCAD taught for a 2 week section in 111.

Curriculum committee to consider revisitingAutoCAD issue.

  1. Update on Dean Evaluation (Lardner) – Online survey to fill out by March 24th. Request faculty members’letters. (Lutenegger) Tom gave a nice report.
  1. CommonwealthCollege (Ergas): The honors section of Engin351 is going well this semester. Proposed for consideration next meeting: Engin 351H to be considered a “CEE honors course”as outlined in the attached proposal.
  1. Announcements: Congratulate Sanjay for Lilly Teaching Fellowship! Looking for articles to be included in The Bridge. Open House on April 5 – soliciting help from faculty who have previously participated with demo labs. Jodi needs an electronic copy of each syllabus. We will be losing hot water in Marston Hall at some point.
  1. Collectively thank Dave Reckhow for serving as department head.

Proposal: Approve Engin 351H for CEE departmental honors requirements

Title:ENGIN 351H Writing in Engineering

Eligibility: JuniorCommonwealthCollege Engineering majors

Prerequisites: ENGLWRIT 112, or completion of the CW General Education requirement

Course Description:
This is an honors version of ENGIN 351: Writing in Engineering and meets the University's Junior Year Writing requirement and will function at a more advanced level than the non-honors sections. Students are expected to be proficient writers upon entering the course. The section will prepare students for major writing assignments, such as technical proposals, senior design projects, and senior honors theses. Course may also contain significant amounts of reading.

Proposed new CEE honors program: If the proposal is approved, CEE honors students will need to take the following to be considered for departmental honors:

English 112H

Honors Disciplinary Gen Ed (e.g. Honors level Math, Physics, or Chemistry)

Honors Interdisciplinary Gen Ed

Dean’s books series (3 1-credit classes)

2 CEE honors courses – 2 of the following, with one at the 300 level or higher:

Engin 111H, Engin 351H, 500 level CEE courses

CEE honors research - CEE 499Y and 499T (ENGR 597: Innovation and Entrepreneurship can be used to meet 3 credits of honors research for students in the management minor)

Pros: Approval will provide an additional incentive the CEE honors students to take the class. The course provides an enriched writing experience for the honors students and also requires them to write a proposal for an honors project during the junior year. Writing the proposal should increase the probability that they will complete the honors research requirements.

Cons: CEE honors students may have less incentive to take the 500 level CEE courses.