Monday, August 1, 2022

GEOS Department Committees 2022-3


Staff Liaison:  Attend all committee meetings, establish and maintain a filing system for committee documents and make a bullet list of discussion/decision items from each meeting. The expectation is that each committee will meet regularly during the academic year. Initial meeting should be early in Fall semester to determine committee chair and vice chair. discuss and rank business/initiatives before the committee and set date/time of next meeting. Organize meeting calendar invitations and remind chair and vice chair if meetings are needed.

--- Director/Coordinators/Advisors ---

BA Geography Advisor: Performs career advising and refers routine course planning to Fulbright advising center. For non-standard students (late transfer or degree switch), refer to other faculty or directly advise on course schedule to get back on plan and move to Fulbright advising.

BS Earth Sciences Advisor:  Performs career advising and refers routine course planning to Fulbright advising center. For non-standard students (late transfer or degree switch), refer to other faculty or directly advise on course schedule to get back on plan and move to Fulbright advising.

BS Geology Advisor: Performs career advising and refers routine course planning to Fulbright advising center. For non-standard students (late transfer or degree switch), refer to other faculty or directly advise on course schedule to get back on plan and move to Fulbright advising.

Geology Field Camp Coordinator: Oversee all aspects of preparation for GEOS 4686 Geology Field camp. This includes, but is not limited to, advertising, review and approve student applications, selection of teaching assistants for field camp, ensure field equipment (including vehicles) are maintained properly leading up to camp, field guide production, and safety plan. All of these activities are to be done cooperatively and by consensus with field camp faculty. Advise Department Chair on target enrollment and multi-year faculty coverage plan for field camp that ensures two-deep leadership at all times in the field. Coordinator may participate in field camp as swing faculty, but does not count toward requirement of two-deep leadership. [2 comm credits]

GEOS Honors and Graduate Director: 
 Oversee all aspects of Honors and Graduate activity in the department, including notification of pertinent deadlines to faculty/staff/students. Department Vice Chair inherits this position. Sits ex officio on the Graduate Admissions Committee. [2 comm credits]

Geoscience PhD Coordinator: Coordinates with Graduate Committee to review/rank all GEOS PhD applicants and makes recommendation to Geosciences Chair to admit/decline.  Coordinate with  Scholarship & Awards Committee to assign departmental scholarships to PhD TAs without DDF/DAF (as funds allow).  Sits ex officio on the Graduate Admissions Committee. Has access to Eddie Valek endowed funds to support the PhD program. 
In coordination with individual advisors, monitors PhD Student progress. [2 comm credits; 1 course relief]

MS Geography Coordinator: Coordinates with Graduate Admissions Committee to review/rank of all MS Geography applicants, select TAs and makes decision to admit/decline with notification to department chair. Coordinate with Scholarship & Awards Committee to assign departmental scholarships to MS TAs (as funds allow). Assigns each admitted student to an initial faculty advisor that may, or may not, become the thesis advisor. Sits ex officio on Graduate Committee. [2 comm credits]

MS Geology Coordinator: 
Coordinates with Graduate Admissions Committee to review/rank of all MS Geology applicants, select TAs and makes decision to admit/decline with notification to department chair. Coordinate with Scholarship & Awards Committee to assign departmental scholarships to MS TAs (as funds allow). Assigns each admitted student to an initial faculty advisor that may, or may not, become the thesis advisor. Sits ex officio on Graduate Committee. [2 comm credits; 1 course relief]

 --- Standing Committees ---

Curriculum: Reviews curriculum and degree programs and makes recommendation for modification/deletion/addition to Geosciences Chair and Faculty. Approves MS Geography quantitative and computational electives not in the approved elective list.

Diversity and Inclusion: Works to integrate best practices for diversity, equity and inclusion into department policies and programs. Serves as an advisory body to the Geosciences Department Chair, who sits ex officio on the committee. [$5000 annual budget, does not carry over]

Graduate Admissions: Reviews and ranks all graduate Geoscience applicants. Reviews and ranks all applicants for MS Geography/Geology and PhD Geosciences teaching assistantships. Honors and Graduate Director, MS Geography and MS Geology coordinators, and PhD coordinator sit ex officio on this committee. Makes admit/decline/TA recommendations to Department Chair. 

Personnel Committee: Elected committee with staggered 2-year terms that reviews and submits recommendation to Department Chair for faculty annual evaluation as well as promotion and tenure (P&T). Prepares letter for faculty P&T including the formal vote of the committee.  Reviews tenure-track faculty third year portfolios, and submits written review and recommendation to Geosciences Chair.  Works with candidates for P&T to identify potential external reviewers. (Personnel Committee also serves as the unit Peer-Review committee as allowed by UA Board Policy 1405.11, revised 13 April 2019, section III.3.C.1. NB: when Personnel and Peer-Review committees are separate, Personnel does promotion and tenure while Peer-Review does annual reviews) [2 comm. credits]

Recruiting and Retention: (affectionately known as R&R) Build and retain student enrollment through effective recruitment activities. Specific focus on prospective students and new students during the first year in the department. Review and recommend policies, procedures, and strategies for maintaining and enhancing enrollment. 

Scholarship and Awards:  Selects deserving/eligible students for receipt of scholarships/awards funded by University Foundation endowed scholarship accounts. Application deadline Jan 15 via GoogleForm
Process and priorities:
1.  The following get automatic scholarships
a.  All GEOLBS students attending field camp
b.  All GEOGMS TAs (always 6)
c.  All GEOLMS TAs (always 12)
d.  All GEOSPH TA without DDF/DAF (max 9)
2.  Extra funds (if any) will be discussed by committee based on applications gathered via GoogleForm
3.  External scholarships
a.  Tulsa Geophysical Society scholarship must be for field camp so we put forward our best two GPA applicants from item 1.a and that money is given in addition to department scholarship as a reward for top academic performance
b. Other external scholarships based on application information, but not to any students in item 1 except possibly 1.a.