Attachment A
Faculty Senate Agenda
September 19, 2002

SUMMARY OF COMMENDATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

COMMENDATIONS

The Program Review Team commends the Environmental Studies Department for

  1. The hard work, flexibility, and resilience of the faculty and staff as the department undergoes its current transition
  2. The commitment of the faculty and staff to building and further strengthening the department, evident in their active participation in the program review process
  3. Its efforts to improve diversity among both faculty and staff
  4. The involvement of faculty with both students and the greater Sacramento community
  5. The research and scholarly accomplishments of the faculty for the last five years
  6. Its ability to serve students so well with the limited resources of a small program
  7. Its students' high regard for the teaching effectiveness of the faculty
  8. Its willingness to respond to student demand for career advising with coursework
  9. Its students' good understanding of the program's expectations and goals
  10. Graduating students who are easily placed in the job market
  11. Its good working relations between part-time faculty and the rest of the department
  12. The able leadership of the last chair, Angus Wright, and the current acting chair, Tom Krabacher, Professor of Geography.

The program review team thanks the Environmental Studies Department members for their professionalism and complete cooperation throughout this review process.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Recommendations to the Department of Environmental Studies

I. Students

  1. Increase efforts to recruit more majors and increase enrollment numbers. (p. 9)
  2. Update program information on department home page and find ways to keep the web site current, perhaps by securing the help of the IT staff of the College. (p. 10)
  3. Share the responsibility of student advising among all department faculty members, and consider providing information to students about minors and career options during advising meetings. (p. 10)
  4. Consider implementing more formal methods of communicating program goals and objectives to students, by designing an orientation program for new students and publishing program information in a student handbook. (p. 11)
  5. Consider designing a formal, structured internship program that would create opportunities for students to work with relevant local agencies and help the program cultivate a relationship with these agencies as well. (p. 11)
  6. Gather data to address the concern of students that the program should have a B.S. degree option. (p. 11)

II. Curriculum

  1. Create a curriculum matrix that explicitly links desired student outcomes to specific courses that would accomplish the stated objectives. (p. 13)
  2. Liaison with faculty teaching courses related to Environmental Studies to reduce possible overlap in course content and to discuss plans for future curriculum development. (p. 14)
  3. Consider ways to more explicitly include course components to help students improve their computer literacy and acquire other technological skills. (p. 14)
  4. Consider the possibility of creating some double majors to increase options for students. (p. 14)
  5. Consider splitting ENV 10 course into two courses: ENV 10A and ENV 10B, with each course focusing on the science and policy areas respectively, to achieve a more equitable balance of teaching load in the department and to introduce students taking lower division classes to a broader spectrum of Environmental Studies faculty. (p. 15)
  6. Explore restructuring the current ENV 120 course: consider using the Biometrics course in Biological Sciences to cover the statistics component of the course and use the course to cover topics such as spreadsheets, computer applications, and other technological skills. (p. 16)

III. Faculty Governance

  1. Review department procedures for assessing the teaching effectiveness of part-time faculty. (p. 16)
  2. Attempt to give part-time faculty as much advance notice as possible about their teaching assignments. (p. 16)
  3. Consider the possibility of forming subcommittees for various tasks to spread the department workload. (p. 17)
  4. Support the Chair in his efforts to increase the visibility of the department on campus and to develop stronger relationships with other departments as well as the larger Sacramento community. Consider forming a Community Advisory Board to solicit input about the effectiveness of the program. (p. 17)
  5. Consider converting the Chair's position from the current 9/12 to a 10/12 position. (p. 17)

IV. Resources

  1. Explore the possibility of obtaining some lab space, both by negotiating shared space with either Biology or Geology and by negotiating for space in the new science building currently being planned. (p. 18)
  2. Explore the potential of the library's online resources and work with the social sciences librarian to further develop resources to support the research of both faculty and students. (p. 19)
  3. As the needs of the department grow in the future, consider the possibility of converting the secretary's job to a 12/12 full-time position. (p. 20)

Recommendations to the Dean of Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies

  1. Consider providing assigned time to Environmental Studies faculty to recruit more majors. (p. 9)
  2. Consider providing support for the department to hire an additional faculty position in the policy area. (p. 15)
  3. Support the Chair in his efforts to increase the visibility of the department on campus and to develop stronger relationships with other departments as well as the larger Sacramento community. (p. 17)
  4. Consider supporting the department by providing additional resources if the department decides to convert the Chair's position to a 10/12 position. (p. 17)
  5. Consider supporting the department's efforts to secure its own lab space, both for classroom use as well as to attract potential future hires. (p. 18)
  6. Consider providing funding for the department to acquire its own photocopying equipment. (p. 19)
  7. Consider providing resource support if it becomes necessary for the department to convert the secretary's job to a 12/12 full-time position to meet the needs of a growing program. (p. 20)

Recommendations to the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

  1. Consider providing resource support for the department to hire an additional faculty position in the policy area. (p. 15)
  2. Support the Chair in his efforts to increase the visibility of the department on campus and to develop stronger relationships with other departments and the larger Sacramento community. (p. 18)
  3. Consider supporting the department by providing additional resources if the department decides to convert the Chair's position to a 10/12 position. (p. 18)

RECOMMENDATION TO THE FACULTY SENATE

The program review team recommends that the Environmental Studies Department programs be approved for six years or until the next program review.