Faculty Meeting Notes - Fall 2006 - 2007

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11/08/06

Attendees: Greg Kremer; Jay Gunasekera, Bhavin Mehta; Frank Kraft; Paul Bosscher, Gary Graham, Izzi Urieli, Dave Bayless, Bob Williams (attended 1st part); [Carole Womeldorf, Khairul Alam, Rudy Pasic; Ken Halliday,absent]

 

Reminder Schedule: 

* Dinner Party Friday at 6 at Dr. Iz's place. - Izzi will send Directions.

 

Announcements and quick updates:

 

Randy's health status - stable but in ICU

 

SAB: need input from students about ET181 and MATH344 - what did they get out of them and what do they think of the outcomes (see Izzi for proposed new ET181 outcomes).

 

PhD in Biomechanics: being proposed by Physical Therapy.  If it proceeds, Bob will serve as ME rep.

 

No meeting next week.  Items may be sent around via email.

 

Action Items:

 

1. Departmental Risk Assessment - rating list and rating process. 

·        Risk rating results complete for two categories - Safety and "Perceived and Real Dishonesty".  See Handout.

·        Feedback relative to the process - if it is working we will continue to rate the other categories in the same way.  If improvements are needed we will make them for the future categories.

·        Next Steps

1.    Committees to propose actions to reduce OCC for areas in need of risk management plans and monitoring.

1.    Safety Risk Committee: Randy and Shyler plus reps from SAB, GSAB, Lab Committee, and Grad committee (beware of conflict of interest)

2.    Academic Honesty Risks: Izzi will act as liaison with the college Academic honesty council and will present this info to them.  On the department level we will wait to see what happens with the AHC, then determine how to proceed.

2.    Next categories to rate:  Graduate Program issues, Undergraduate Program issues, Administrative (Lab space and equipment management issues),...

 

2. ME Response to the P-word -

·        "Final" draft of initial departmental statement was reviewed.  Good discussion led to some changes.

1.    Based on our discussion, I will release the statement from the chair rather than from the department.  I still need to make the college (and University?) aware of the content of the statement.

2.    Plan is to work with SAB (newsletter?), GSAB, and ME advisory board to determine how best to make it available to students and alumni.

·        Additional and more complete statements will follow after cases have been adjudicated.

·        One way to positively put forth our remaining concerns is to make recommendations to the provost about improved ways to handle the investigation and release of information for future cases in a way that is more appropriate than it was handled for the ME faculty.

 

3. Faculty Responsibility Statement - in development at college level, reaffirming and clarifying the faculty handbook.  We will review a draft at a future meeting.

 

4. Curriculum and Ugrad issues -

·        Ideas for visiting professor, adjunct instructors, ...

·        Grad students to teach some courses (Eric Lafay - ME398 Winter)

·        Need instructor for ME455 if we are to offer it in Spring.

 

The following items were not addressed due to lack of time:

·        Response from CE about CE220 and CE223 prerequisites.

·        The lab committee is reviewing equipment and other issues related to use of 015.  We need additional space for ME288 and development of the other labs. (Status?)

·        Follow up with MATH on prereq issue for MATH344 [Izzi]

 

 

Other

·        long term actions  -

 

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11/01/06

Attendees: Greg Kremer; Jay Gunasekera, Bhavin Mehta; Rudy Pasic; Frank Kraft; Bob Williams; Paul Bosscher, Gary Graham, Izzi Urieli, Carole Womeldorf, Khairul Alam, Ken Halliday, Dave Bayless Matt Dixon, David Burnette

 

Reminder Schedule: 

 

Announcements and quick updates:

ME Lab Walk Thru for a quick safety check this Friday [Khairul]  015, 011, 012, 296, 410, 406, 408, 298, 404, 249, RTEC? [Ask Randy to accompany Chris]

 

New faculty hiring committee: [Ken, Bob, Rudy] Reviewed completed position description.  Online hiring process is underway.

 

GSAB: Efforts/ideas to improve Career Fair.  If faculty have contacts in industry, please get names to David.  Departmental support to reduce cost for some companies?  Ideas to get students signed up for career services and get them to the career fair?

 

ME Graduate committee:

·        Departmental policy for thesis committee: No need to have a college representative plus the external representative.  They can all be from ME.

·        List of approved Grad faculty - Draft

·        Turn-it-in software - role and use...  Seminars coming for students to alleviate fear.

 

Scheduling conflict with 636 and 663 - Frank will reconcile

 

Chairs and Directors Council - Gen Ed (again), Vision Ohio Priorities, (University-level) changes to process for faculty reviews and raises?

 

Proposed Graduate Certificate in Environmental Sustainability - feedback or concerns? (propose to include our courses?, modify proposal to better serve engineering?, ...)

 

RCENT ME Freshman student request to interview someone who has worked "as a professional in engineering" ...  send him to Ken

 

Greg is out of town on Friday.

 

Action Items:

 

1. ET181 - Reviewed proposed change to outcomes.   [Izzi]  Follow up with SAB - what did they get out of ET181 and MATH344, and what do they think of the outcomes.

 

2. Departmental Risk Assessment - rating list and rating process. 

·        Risk rating results complete for two categories - Safety and "Perceived and Real Dishonesty". 

·        Feedback relative to the process - if it is working we will continue to rate the other categories in the same way.  If improvements are needed we will make them for the future categories.

·        Next Steps? Committee to propose actions to reduce OCC.

 

3. Curriculum and Ugrad issues -

·        Grad students to teach some courses (Eric Lafay - ME398 Winter, ME455? Spring)

·        Ideas for visiting professor, adjunct instructors, ...

·        Ken is meeting with CE on Friday about CE220 and CE223 prerequisites.

·        Follow up with MATH on prereq issue for MATH344

·        The lab committee will review equipment and other issues related to use of 015.  We need additional space for ME288 and development of the other labs. (Status?)

·        IT117 - 2 sections in Winter and Spring and maybe summer.

 

4. ME Response to the P-word -

·        Status of fourth draft?

·        Other statements addressing concerns to specific audiences?

·        Additional and more complete statements after cases have been adjudicated.

 

·        Initial Results from the Plagiarism Hearing Committee...

 

Other

·        long term actions  -

 

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10/25/06 - No faculty meeting - but a successful ME faculty/staff/student social was held in room 103.

 

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10/18/06

Attendees: Greg Kremer; Jay Gunasekera, Bhavin Mehta; Rudy Pasic; Frank Kraft; Bob Williams; Paul Bosscher, Gary Graham, Izzi Urieli, Carole Womeldorf, Khairul Alam, Matt Dixon, David Burnette [Ken Halliday and Dave Bayless absent]

 

Reminder Schedule: 

·        Finalize Spring Class schedule ASAP to get better shot at room selection

 

Announcements and quick updates:

 

Paul - For family reasons (never adjusted to Athens) he will be leaving OU at end of Fall quarter to go to Harris Corporation in Florida.  He will try to help us make a smooth transition.  We are sorry to see him go, but we thank him and wish him well.

 

New faculty hiring committee: Bob, Rudy and Ken will be the hiring committee.  First order of business is to craft a position description. 

 

Surplus Computer Equipment  awarded (See Bryan Jordan to claim them)

·        ME100 (Ken), 1 w/monitor, 1 w/o monitor

·        Junior Lab (Paul), 2 w/monitors

·        Senior Lab (Carole), 2 w/monitors, 1 w/o monitor

·        Automotive Lab (Greg), 1 w/monitor

·        ME TA offices, 4 w/monitors

 

A College Committee has been formed to support a "data mining strategy" for sampling theses to check the extent of incorrect citations and possible plagiarism in all RCENT theses.  Frank will represent ME.

 

Plagiarism definitions to be discussed in the second round of academic integrity workshops - held Wed and Thursday of next week.  Please make an effort to attend and participate.

 

SAB: Date for ME faculty/student social is next Wednesday, Oct 25.  Meet in back of Stocker at noon.  Pizza lunch will be provided, with some simple games and activities. 

 

GSAB: Web Site concerns - not enough info to be used for successfully recruiting grad students.  We should improve research areas on graduate faculty web pages, or improve departmental web page on research, or both.

 

 

Action Items:

1. ME Response to the P-word -

Jennifer Pauly-Gose met with the faculty and presented a third draft of our written response, removing all content that could be viewed as defensive and emphasizing our commitment to addressing the issues.  There was much discussion about whether or not we could or should address our concerns over the M-B report and the reasons that our department has been singled out, and there was concern over the tone of the report which some interpreted as admission of guilt and somehow approving of the way things were handled.  Since this is not the intention, it will be edited to avoid those perceptions and to eliminate references to due process.  A fourth draft will be circulated next week.  We will continue to work on a more complete statement, but its timing will depend on cases being adjudicated and how quickly some other activities progress.

 

 

Due to time constraints the following items were postponed until the next meeting - Nov 1st

2. Departmental Risk Assessment - rating list and rating process. 

·        Risk rating results for two categories - Safety and "Perceived and Real Dishonesty". 

·        Feedback relative to the process - if it is working we will continue to rate the other categories in the same way.  If improvements are needed we will make them for the future categories.

·        Detailed instructions about the rating process can be found in the spreadsheet that will be emailed to you, with additional info on our Risk Management Process web page

 

4. Other Items

Curriculum and Ugrad issues -

·        Letter sent to CE.  Awaiting reply.

·        The lab committee will review equipment and other issues related to use of 015.  We need additional space for ME288 and development of the other labs. (Status?)

·        IT117 - 2 sections in Winter and Spring and maybe summer.

 

ME Graduate committee:

·        No departmental policy to have a college representative plus the external representative.  They can all be from ME.

·        List of approved Grad faculty? (Status?)

 

·        long term actions  -

 

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10/11/06

Attendees: Greg Kremer; Jay Gunasekera, Ken Halliday, Bhavin Mehta; Rudy Pasic; Frank Kraft; Bob Williams; Paul Bosscher, Gary Graham. Izzi Urieli and Carole Womeldorf present for part of meeting. [Dave Bayless and Khairul Alam absent]

 

Reminder Schedule:

10/13/06  Deadline for nominations:  Presidential Teacher Award www.ohio.edu/apaa/ptaindexpage.cfm 

10/16/06 Academic Advising Begins - Winter 06-07

 

Announcements and quick updates:

 

Faculty and Staff Fall Dinner Buffet -

·        Date Friday Nov 10 is Veterans Day (No classes) - No problem! Stick with that date.

·        Start time ~6PM

·        Dinner buffet is provided - You are invited to bring your favorite drinks or an appetizer.  Please let Steph know if you will be bringing anything so we can plan accordingly.

 

SAB: Provided positive feedback on the proposed "academic policies".

Date for ME faculty/student social is Oct 25.

 

ME Graduate committee: Frank clarified requirements/procedures for thesis committees. 

The 1 external member from outside the college is actually the "college representative". 

The three other committee members can all be from the department or the college. 

There are some concerns within the department about the policy, so the grad committee will discuss the following:

·        Should we do something departmental to take the responsibility out of the student's hands for selecting the external member?

·        Should we have a departmental policy to have a college representative plus the external representative?

 

CAC/UCC/Academic Council:

·        New Version of New Course Approval Form (October) is online and must be used for new submittals

·        New tier II requirements will not go into effect until the Fall 2008 Freshman class

·        Future Course catalog updates will be driven by the online version - there will not be hard copies distributed as in the past.  Changes are subject to UCC review.

·        IMSE department is changing their name back to Industrial and Systems Engineering

·        Potential transfer credit issue with Physics courses (may get 4 hours of credit but not be req'd to take the normal 5 hour course) could cause issues with the # of hours of Math and basic science.  We have been advised to make changes to DARS to add a check for number of hours of Math and basic science to avoid problems with ABET.

·        All departments are encouraged to invite the Dean, the Provost or the President to faculty meetings at any time to discuss any issues that we have.  They want to hear from us and communicate with us.

·        Don't hire family members - it causes problems.

 

Action Items:

1. Curriculum and Advising - Ken provide info in handouts on

a. the transition plan for the new curriculum

b. status of the interactions with CE to support the new curriculum (per the 11/16/05 ME faculty meeting notes: CE discussed the CE220 co-req with MATH263C issue and stated "it was decided to keep it as a pre-requisite.  Most faculty felt a course in the summer after freshman year was a small price to pay for getting back on track.").

c. advising notes we should all be aware of

 

·        The lab committee will review equipment and other issues related to use of 015.  We need additional space for ME288 and development of the other labs.

 

2. Departmental Risk Assessment - rating list and rating process. 

·        Khairul, Rudy and Carole have worked on revising the rating list to make sure that the terms being rated are actual risks and not symptoms. 

·        They have provided risk rating sheets for two categories - Safety and "Perceived and Real Dishonesty".  You are asked to complete the ratings for these two categories ASAP, but at the latest by the end of the day Tuesday 10/17.  You will also be asked to provide feedback relative to the process - if it is working we will continue to rate the other categories in the same way.  If improvements are needed we will make them for the future categories.

·        Detailed instructions about the rating process can be found in the spreadsheet that will be emailed to you, with additional info on our Risk Management Process web page

 

3. ME Response to the P-word -

Khairul did some further work on it and is preparing a short synopsis.  He still needs to meet with one or two people to clarify the story before finalizing his portion.  Carole suggests adding in some good news and getting external assistance in the writing process (Jennifer Pauly-Gose).

·        Are there key issues that need to be discussed/resolved among the faculty?  If so, please contact Greg so we can arrange a discussion.

 

4. Other Items

·        Should we adopt a standard citation format for all undergraduate and graduate departmental reports, including labs, design reports, project reports, and theses?  This could be added to our Technical Writing guidelines for the department.

·        Should we investigate Visiting Professorship candidates?  Glidden Professor applications are due January 31 2007.  Stocker Visiting Professor (due date?)

·        long term actions  - no time to address

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10/4/06

Attendees: Greg Kremer; Jay Gunasekera, Khairul Alam; Ken Halliday, Bhavin Mehta; Rudy Pasic; Izzi Urieli; Frank Kraft; Bob Williams; Carole Womeldorf  [Paul Bosscher, Gary Graham,  Dave Bayless absent]

 

Reminder Schedule:

 

Announcements or quick updates:

Grad committee: Frank presented info on citation styles - Chicago style and ASME style - and made an initial proposal to have all graduate students select one of these styles for their thesis.  The grad committee also proposed that all students working on a funded project must complete a thesis - not a project.  These items will be further discussed and approved at a later meeting.

SAB: Due to ME problems scheduling the student faculty social at 4PM, we are willing to do something at noon on a Wednesday in place of a faculty meeting.  We will let the students finalize the details.

Internships: Dave asked about internships during the academic year, proposing using ME489 to allow it.  Ken does not think that will work, since a special course designation is needed for the one credit to signify full time student status. Dave can follow up with Ken to look at different options.

 

Action Items:

 

1. Departmental Risk Assessment - rating list and rating process. 

·        Feedback has been compiled into an overall topic-based risk list. 

·        We reviewed the list and discussed options on how to complete the rating process in a way that is useful but not overwhelming.  Main concerns were that we should do ratings at the individual item level, but some of the items seem to be symptoms or solutions rather than risks so there needs to be more work done on the list before asking the faculty to do the ratings.

·        Khairul, Rudy and Carole offered to work together this week to improve the rating list.  They will report a status to Greg by Friday, with the goal of having something completed to send to the faculty by next week

·        We also discussed the rating process (SEV and OCC) and talked through an example.  Detailed instructions about the rating process can be found on our Risk Management Process web page

 

2. ME Response to the P-word -

Greg was unable to reduce the ME response to a 1-pager, but had reviewed and modified the document and had it reviewed by students and staff.  There were suggestions for modifying some specific items, and an overall discussion of what should be included in the response.  We will continue to work on creating a short fact-based statement and possibly a more detailed statement that could be posted on the website (the shorter document could refer to it). 

 

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9/27/06

Attendees: Greg Kremer; Jay Gunasekera, Khairul Alam; Gary Graham, Ken Halliday Dave Bayless; Bhavin Mehta; Rudy Pasic; Izzi Urieli; Frank Kraft;; Bob Williams; Carole Womeldorf; Matt Dixon (SAB), David Burnette (GAB); Stephanie Walker;  [Paul Bosscher absent]

 

Reminder Schedule:

Stocker Faculty Enrichment Funds - electronic copy to Angie and a hardcopy to Kay Reeves before noon this Friday, 29 September.

 

Action Items:

1. Individual and Lab budgets - updates

  a. Lab committee (Izzi, Dave, Ken) and Computers committee (Bhavin, Bob and Khairul) will decide on budget issues for those areas.  Izzi (lab) and Bhavin (computer) are the contact persons who will work with Steph for the budget stuff.

  b. Please start slow on spending - money is not transferred yet

  c. Accountability - No personal items, purchases must support department mission -

                                 Avoid gray areas!

 

2. Advising - Advising week:  10/16 – 10/20

a) Steph will send the email announcements to students with 1 blind-copy blanket email to all students with individual instructions for each standing year. Steph will send a draft of the email to the advisors for approval, then will send the approved copy to all students.

b) Ken drafted a departmental policy for advising - some thing to add to it:

·        Only faculty advisors will distribute DARS in the context of an advising session. Steph will not pass out DARS after advising week. 

·        Group sessions are good for information sharing, but should be used only in special circumstances for actual advising.

 

3. Curriculum and Scheduling, including Dept. policy for Class schedule changes - Ken

a. 2-yr teaching schedule - get changes to to Ken this week for Spring 07 - 2008

b. Ken presented Departmental policy draft for discussion.  Get edits and additional info and comments to Ken before next mtg.

c. Info:  It appears very likely that the new Tier II requirements will be implemented beginning with the 2007-2008 catalogue.  This will add two required courses to all of our engineering majors.  Every student must take at least one course from each of six different areas:  Natural Science,  Applied Science and Technology (now including math classes above Tier 1), Humanities, Fine Arts, Cross-Cultural Perspectives, and Social Science.

·        Ken will modify our Humanities and SS requirements to try to include this in our program without increasing the total # of hours.

 

4. Departmental Risk Assessment Update -

Reminder of next steps. 

·        Greg & Steph will work with a few others to compile the feedback provided from advisory board members and others into an overall topic-based risk list.  They will then add rating columns and rating instructions and send to all. 

·        Participation in the rating process is required for all faculty and staff - it can be done individually, but it may be beneficial to do it in small groups.

·        After all ratings are received and compiled by Steph, we will review and discuss the results and decide how to proceed.

 

5. ME Response to the P-word? - Bob

Bob has a 3+ page draft of a written response, reviewed by Izzi.  Greg will review it and try to extract a 1-pager that we can release soon to students and alumni.  The 1-pager will be distributed to faculty and staff for review prior to release.  We will then decide if we want to post it on web, send as letter to editor, etc. We will also plan later releases based on the written document.

 

6. SAB update (scheduled student/faculty/staff social for a Tuesday at 4PM in the Fall - Matt will select a date and we will put it on the calendar); GAB update (GAB met and provided some input on the grad program for the risk assessment.  They will provide more input on the program later.)

 

7. Grad Program items? - Frank

·        ET502 Syllabus - FYI

·        Grad committee will discuss recommended Citation Format for theses? (author's last name, year) or (ASME reference format) or ...

 

8. ME Storeroom (405) update -

Equipment to be "surplussed" this Friday if not claimed by then.  View it in 011 and 405, and if interested claim it by putting a note on it with your name.  Unclaimed items will be moved to 011 cabinets or to University surplus.

 

9. Issues with Statics negatively impacting our department - Ken / Gary

Proposal started (for a Mechanics I and II sequence), will be discussed at a future meeting.

 

11. Steph - take a lunch hour.  Voice mail is OK for 1 hour a day (possible forwarding to Dean's office as an option).

 

12. Faculty development resources

 

13. Informational Items

·        Fall faculty/staff party, Friday Nov 10 - Dinner buffet by Nili, at the estate of Dr Iz

·        EHS will not be offering a single Chemical Hygiene training course this year, instead they are offering courses customized to the particular department/employees that require the training. The EHS session for OCRC students is Friday, September 29, in the ME conference room, Stocker 252, from 11AM-1PM.  Other ME students can attend.

·        Discuss projects with Angie/Dennis before going to Jack Bantle for funding (or he will send you back)

·        At the spring Town Hall Meeting, a student suggested that departments introduce their faculty to the incoming freshman as part of any introductory course.

·        Inventory list updates by October - Randy

·        CDC mtg: Discussed online hiring system problems.  These include: difficulty of use; bad