Southern Polytechnic State University

MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT

¾ MINUTES ¾

October 3, 2006

Note:  At times, issues of confidentiality may require that some items discussed in meetings be excluded from these minutes.

Present:

Absent: 

 Dr. Fowler – Prior conflict

Meeting began:   2:06 p.m.

Topics Discussed:

1.  A number of questions concerning Math 4451 were examined. Amongst them, should adjunct faculty members be eligible to lead this course? Should project advising be restricted only to Ph.D’s?

      Faculty suggested:

i.                     Only tenured or tenure-track faculty members would be eligible to lead the course.

ii.                   Anyone wishing to work in the capacity as a project advisor should receive permission to do so from the department chair. Such a person need not necessarily have a Ph.D.

            All were in agreement.

2. Dr. McMorran presented an overview of a hand-out entitled “Selecting a Math 4451 Instructor for Spring Semester”. The intention of which is to have the professor who has directed the largest number of student projects be assigned as the instructor of record in leading Math 4451. In the ensuing discussion several points emerged:

i.                     Students will be able to register for Math 4451 in any semester.

ii.                   If a student drops or does not complete the course would an advisor still receive project credit? After discussion it was agreed upon that an instructors project count would increase by one only for each student project that is completed. In particular, an instructors project count will not increase by fractional amounts for partially completed projects.

The proposed policy will be modified so as to reflect the above wishes.

3.  A proposed new catalog description for Math 4451 was presented. After discussion it was decided upon that further review would be necessary. An updated article will be presented for consideration at some subsequent time.  

4. MAA Student Membership.  The following new students were nominated to receive 2007 MAA membership:

            Hannah Hinkle, Michael Lomuscio, Jacob Makaya, Joseph Peppers, Jonathan Phillips,

            Kimberly Rhodes

5.  Peer Review

Dr.’s Fadyn and Dillon will both be subject to 5 year post tenure review in the spring. As such, Dr. Dillon must step down from the A&S Peer Review Committee and Dr. Fadyn from the Departmental Peer Review Committee. In addition, Dr. Edwards must also step down from the Department Peer Committee. (All effective late January.) The resulting vacancies will be filled by Dr.’s Pace, Fowler, and Gordon.

6.  Block Scheduling. To promote student bonding the VPAA would like to see groups of like majors be registered in the same section of a particular course.

            - This fall the Mechanical Eng. Department requested two blocked sections of

               Math 1111 (sections 3 and 5).  

            - Architecture had also requested that sections be blocked off for their students but did

 not specify which sections. It does appear however that they were successful in getting   their students into courses.

-  At the outset of future semesters Dr. McMorran will notify all professors who might  find themselves assigned to teach a section which has been targeted for block scheduling.

7.  Other Business

            - Travel Requests.  Please submit your travel requests.

            - There are two (2) special sections of Math 1111 (5 credit courses) this fall.

                        - In the spring only one (1) will be offered.

                        - The department is looking for interested faculty to teach this course

-         Requests for Equipment Money are due by Monday

-         A proposal to elect Dr. John Ziegler to Emeritus Professor received unanimous approval.

-         Dr. Zvi’s permanent schedule proposal, which called for drastically reducing the frequency at which we offer most of our upper level math electives, as discussed in an earlier meeting, appears to have been put on hold??? Discussion may not continue??

-         A brief look at the “restructuring proposal” model was discussed.  The university’s restructuring proposal discussions are ongoing.

-         Dr. McMorran announced that Arts and Sciences departments are in need of new hires. The mathematics department currently has 43% of it’s courses being taught be non-permanent faculty.

No further announcements were made.

Meeting adjourned 3:13 p.m.