UArk Enrollment Fall 2022

 

Enrollment Update 2022

All plots represent Fall Semester enrollment data from UA Institutional Research and Assessment. Scope expanded to include enrollment, student semester credit hours, and diversity. One stop shopping. No plot comments, just the facts for discussion in person.

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.

2021 GeoHog Times Newsletter

 

Enrollment Update 2021

All plots represent Fall Semester enrollment data from UA Institutional Research and Assessment. Scope expanded to include enrollment, student semester credit hours, and diversity. One stop shopping. No plot comments, just the facts for discussion in person.

Curriculum by Design

 David Mogk 2013 blog post, Dept. Earth Sciences, Montana State University 
     Part_I       Part_II
AGI Study Report: 
     The Future of Undergraduate Geoscience Education
     Report PDF

...
Geospatial Technology Competency Model 
     LINK
     (GEOS geospatial certificates implement this model)

Geoscience Careers Outside Academia

 Science Journalism Resources / Careers Outside of Academia

Liz Kimbrough

lizkimbrough@gmail.com

Jan 2021

 

Science Communication

 

Science Communication Jobs

·      Journalism: Staff or Freelance

·      Public information officer (POI)/science writer for institution (Universities, NASA, USGS, museums, etc.)

·      Science communication for a journal (Nature, PLoS, Science, etc.) 

·      Blogs (https://scienceblogs.com/, Why science blogging still matters)

·      Podcasts (https://mashable.com/article/best-science-podcasts/)

 

Science Writing/Journalism Resources

 

Education

The Open Notebook: Amazing website with all things scicomm (See: Getting Started in Science Journalism)

New to Science Writing from NASW

Poynter News U: Online journalism classes

CommSciCon: Science communication workshops for graduate students

How to pitch a story: (example pitches, tips)

 

Professional Organizations

National Association for Science Writers  (Virtual internship fair Feb 6!)

Society for Environmental Journalism

 

Books

The Craft of Science Writing

The Science Writer’s Handbook

A Field Guide for Science Writers

 

Internships/Mentorships

Mongabay: 6-month internship to build portfolio 

Ensia Mentor Program: Pitch an idea and get paired with a mentor

AAAS Media Fellowship: For scientists at end of or just out of grad school 

AAAS Diverse Voices in Science Journalism

 

Top Graduate Programs

NYU SHERP

MIT Science Writing

UC Santa Cruz Science Communication

 

Great science writers 

Robin Wall Kimmerer

Ed Young

Carl Zimmer

Mary Roach

Jeremy Hance

Sarah Kaplan

 

Places to find great science writing

Smithsonian Magazine

Undark

Hakai

New York Times science section

The Guardian

Mongabay 

High Country News

The Revelator

Scientific American

Popular Science

The Atlantic

The Best American Science and Nature Writing (book published annually)

 

Other tips

Look for ways to cover conferences you attend or look for stories there to pitch

Write something for your local/school paper. 

Reach out to your University’s public information officer.

For scientists who want to write about their own research check out The Conversation

 

Jobs outside of Academia “Scategories”

·      Field Technician: government, industry, research assistant

·      Environmental Consultant

·      Land Trust (Land Trust Alliance)

·      Policy (AAAS Policy Fellowship, UN, UNESCO, EPA, etc.)

·      Wild Tech: satellite monitoring, Lidar, Planet satellites, Global Forest Watch, NASA, Spatial Ecology Lab, Asner lab, Your own Dr. Fernandes!

·      Teaching (Many private schools hire grad level scientists to teach)

·      Science Outreach: science centers, museums  

·      Management (City planner, water management)

·      Non-Profit

·      Government (USGS, USFWS, NOAA, USDA, EPE, etc). 

o   Usajobs.gov is a tricky place. It really helps to know someone on the inside to guide you through the application. Meet these people at job fairs, conferences, by volunteering or just send a short email to start a conversation.

 

Ways to find jobs

·      Job Boards: Society for Conservation Biology, Idealist, usajobs.gov, Job postings for professional organizations

·      Versatile Ph.D.: Empowering PhDs and post docs to build careers

·      Build relationships whenever/wherever possible

·      Talk to your school career center or a career counselor

·      Attend Conferences 

·      Social Media

·      Read the CV’s and bios of those you admire

 

Grad School Writing (Grants/Papers):

Form a writing group with your peers/professors. Meet every week for an hour, minimum. Each week you discuss your work with a partner (exchange a few days prior to group) AND each week the entire group focuses on the work of one member on a rotating, as need basis. 

 

Unsolicited Opinions

·      Relationships are the most important thing.  

·      Figuring out what you DON’T want to do is a success.

·      Paradox of choice: Choices can be overwhelming. Don’t tread water. Just swim in a direction. If you end up somewhere you don’t like…great! That’s one less choice and your swimming muscles are now stronger to take you in a new direction with more efficiency. 

·      Also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXsQAXx_ao0  

·      Thank you for coming to my TED talk.