Information Letter #2

TO: Faculty and Staff of:
Department of Atmospheric Sciences
Department of Geology & Geophysics
Department of Geography
Department of Oceanography
Geochemical and Environmental Research Group
Integrated Ocean Drilling Program
Texas Sea Grant Office

FROM: Björn Kjerfve, Dean
College of Geosciences

DATE: 16 May 2006

I want the information shared at College Executive Committee meetings to reach the faculty expeditiously. Thus, to continue the development of better communications between the Dean’s Office and the faculty in the College of Geosciences, I am submitting a second Information Letter to you via email and will be posting it at http://geosciences.tamu.edu/communications/ .

First Town Hall Meeting this Week

The first of the promised College of Geosciences “town hall” meetings for faculty is scheduled for O&M 205 this Friday afternoon (19 May) at 2:00 pm for one hour. The inaugural topic is “Tenure and Promotion Demystified.” It is my intention to make a brief opening statement and then give the floor to you. I want to listen to your concerns, give you the opportunity to voice your opinions, and I will attempt to answer questions. The format is relaxed and informal and if there are too many participants for the room it will be first come, first served. The plan is to hold town hall meetings at approximately monthly intervals.

GFAC

GFAC met with the Dean and Executive Associate Dean last week to discuss a number of issues of interest and concern to the faculty. In particular, we discussed the need to clarify the tenure/promotion criteria in the College. The GFAC, with the addition of Dr. Jonathan Smith, Chair of the College of Geosciences Tenure and Promotion Committee, has agreed to provide a draft revision/rewrite of the College T/P guidelines with 15 November 2006 as a target completion date. This draft will be presented to the faculty for discussion and ratification.

Enrollment Management

We recently met with Alice Reinarz, Assistant Provost for Enrollment, to discuss enrollment issues in the College of Geosciences. Although the number of undergraduate majors in the College has slightly increased during the past 3 years, most of that increase has largely been in Environmental Geoscience and Environmental Studies. Our confirmed Fall 2006 freshmen Geosciences majors are down by 4 students (65 as opposed to 69 last year this time). Also, we admitted 32 transfer students for Fall 2006, as opposed to 27 last year this time. Our student credit hours have gone up during the last 3 years (you can see the charts at http://www.tamu.edu/oisp/reports/course.html ). We have been asked to consider hiring an undergraduate recruiter to boost both our freshmen and transfer students, especially to help us with outreach programs with certain high schools and community colleges and to collaborate with existing regional recruitment centers. We have asked for additional resources in order to hire such a person.

Likewise, we need to focus on recruitment of qualified graduate students, a particularly urgent need in OCNG. Dr. Reinarz suggested we develop a recruitment DVD that can be made available at our regional recruitment offices, recruitment fairs, and posted on our web site. With Jim Rosser and Jay Slovacek on board we have two crack multimedia artists willing to tackle this challenge. We need interesting photos and video clips that highlight the exciting things we do as faculty, students, and staff in the College of Geosciences. Please let us know if you have photos and/or clips you would be willing to let us use. Please communicate directly with Jay Slovacek at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

College Response to “Raiding Faculty” Issues

When we hire faculty in the College of Geosciences, we do so with the wish that s/he will have a long and productive career at TAMU. Therefore it is always disappointing when we lose faculty to other institutions. A quick and definitive response by both the Department and the College is critical to maximize the chances of retaining faculty who are considering leaving. However, it is always the policy of the Dean’s Office to ask the home Department, through the Department Head, to advise the College on how to respond. We need to have clear guidance from the Department about how far we should go in any counter negotiation. Thus, if you know that one of your colleagues has an offer elsewhere, let your DH know, convene a faculty meeting to discuss the issue, and then advise the Dean’s office how to proceed.

Search for College Development Officer

After consultation with the College of Geosciences, the A&M Foundation last week began a search for a new development officer for the College of Geosciences to replace Greg Willems, who was recently promoted and has transferred to the College of Engineering. An ad is being posted in the Chronicle of Philanthropy (in print and on the web) and disbursed via e-mail to A&M Foundation staff and university development assistants. Also, a similar announcement will be posted through Texas A&M University to provide national website access through tamujobs.tamu.edu, www.higheredjobs.com and, www.workplacediversity.com. Responses from advertisements will be reviewed two weeks from posting date to determine if additional exposure will be required for an adequate applicant pool. We are hoping to have the position filled before the start of football season.

Performance Metrics Related to Operational Funds and GAT’s

The Dean’s Office is regularly asked to provide summaries of performance data for the departments in the College to the upper administration. Thus, we have developed a summary performance metrics to assess the status and progress, particularly in several teaching and research categories. We have now done so for the past two years, and the most recent summary of the performance metrics for FY06 is attached to this information letter. These objective metrics are the basis for the allocation of graduate teaching assistants and departmental operational budgets and are therefore quite important.

In allocating GAT’s and GANT’s to the departments, the allocation is made proportional to the number of students in lab courses (which is exactly the same ratio as SCH’s in lab courses and approximately equal to the number of lab sections). For your information, in FY06 the total allocation for GAT’s and GANT’s was .1 million. The amount was distributed with ATMO receiving 8.4%, GEOG 21.9%, GEPL 51.1%, and OCNG 18.7%. Each department sets its own graduate stipend rates.

In allocating operational budgets to the departments, teaching and research are weighted equally. Teaching is weighted 40% as measured by SCH's (not by WSCH's since each department already has been rewarded for graduate students in the allocation of GAT and GANT funds). Research is weighted 40%. The research proxies are IDC returned (20%) and the number of GAR's on extramural grants and contracts (20%). These two research measures are used to capture research production objectively. The final 20% of the distribution of operational funds is based on the number of FTE faculty in the department, as a department with greater faculty needs more operational funds.

Download the spreadsheet portion of the letter here.