Program Review Self Study
Chemistry Department
Spring 2001
I. |
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II. |
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III. |
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IV. |
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V. |
Governance Process at the Program, College and University Levels |
VI. |
I. Program Introduction/History
B. The department of chemistry has responded to the recommendations from the last program review. These recommendations and responses along with an analysis or their effectiveness follow [Note: Since the recommendations are listed here, they are not listed in an Appendix]:
- The Department should review its curricular priorities and consider making service courses a higher priority than liberal arts and general education courses.
The department has an obligation to ensure that the appropriate curricula for service units, including the liberal studies program and general education courses are provided. There had been concern that an insufficient number of courses to service the students in biological sciences was offered. The Dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics provided additional resources to increase the number of service courses for the service areas. This seems to have resolved concerns of the biological sciences department that the chemistry department was not offering a sufficient number of classes for its students.
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The Department of Chemistry, the Dean of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and the Vice President for Administration and Business Affairs should consult regarding a simplification of the safety regulations and procedures regarding Chemistry laboratories. They should especially consider the possibility of having only the safety officer of the School audit Chemistry's compliance with safety regulations.
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The Department should evaluate the Consultant's recommendation that it institute a computer-competency requirement for BA and BS majors. It should consider whether such a competency requirement might be achieve by instruction in major classes or by prerequisite courses. If it adopts a computer course prerequisite, it should explore the possibility of sharing a suitable course with other science programs.
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4. The Department should evaluate the Consultant's recommendation that it require a course in technical writing as part of its BS program.
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The department should institute a formal training procedure for new Teaching Assistants and consider the possibility of sharing the training program with other science programs.
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The Department should, subject to adequate resources, make Chemistry 125 a requirement for the BA degree and a prerequisite for Chemistry 164.
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The Department should consider making a full BS in Biochemistry part of its five-year plan.
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The Department of Chemistry should, in conjunction with the Department of Criminal Justice, propose a concentration in forensic chemistry as part of its BA program or as part of its BS program
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The Department should review its undergraduate offering to determine whether any courses might be consolidated or otherwise reorganized to provide better sequenced instruction or to save resources.
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The Department of Chemistry should evaluate the curricular, faculty, staff and resources implication of a graduate-level Materials program.
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The Department should by April 1997, evaluate its ability to gain the resources to maintain a quality MS program. If the Department's evaluation concludes that it will not have the necessary resources for a MS program, it should propose the discontinuation of the MS program. If it proposes to discontinue the MS program it should consider the development of a graduate certificate program or a materials program. If the Department believes that it does not have the enrollment, faculty and other resources to maintain an MS program in which nearly all students do a thesis, it should submit a report to the Dean of the School of Natural Sciences and to the Academic Senate's Curriculum Policies Committee. The Dean and the Committee should evaluate the report for the Vice President for Academic Affairs and recommend continuation or discontinuation of the program.
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The Department of Chemistry and the Dean's Office should "Investigate the feasibility of developing alumni and business contacts which may help raise funds for the department."
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The Department of Chemistry should request a laboratory course fee plan to supplement state-supplied operating expenses.
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The Department of Chemistry should explore the possibility of requesting a "technology fee" to supplement its budget.
Until recently, when a new Director of Environmental Health and Safety was hired, there had not been simplification of safety inspection procedures. Both the safety officer and staff of EHS were doing audits at different times. The new Director seems more service oriented and is working with departments to make EHS more user friendly and supportive. We believe that this portends an audit process that safety audits can be done cooperatively with departments.
The faculty discussed this recommendation and agreed that its majors needed to become proficient in use of computers and their applications. There were two issues that caused the department not to institute a course requirements: (1) The degree programs are already unit heavy and another required course would only make the situation worse and (2) the department did not have the personnel or dollar resources to institute a course.
Recognizing the need for students to become proficient in computer use and applications, the faculty began to include applications of computers into its lecture and laboratory programs. For example, students in Chemistry 1B are required to prepare most of their reports using a word processing program and to learn to use EXCEL to organize and chart data. In upper division courses the use of word processing and EXCEL is continued and more sophisticated programs involving chemistry applications are introduced, such as HYPERCHEM in Chemistry 110L and GAUSSIAN in Chemistry 140A/140B. Recently Chemistry 1A introduced the use of word processing software and EXCEL. Many classes now use the Internet as a resource tool for students and require students to use the Internet to find materials for reports. The reality is that the majority of chemistry courses now require computer competency.
The faculty discussed this recommendation and decided the use of additional resources did not justify the development of a new course. Chemistry 141 was reaffirmed as the key technical writing course in the chemistry program. Chemistry 162/164 recently were identified as courses that need to emphasize technical writing since the biochemistry concentration majors take these courses but not Chemistry 141. Thus, the department has now expanded its original emphasis in writing to three courses. In addition, after a discussion of assessment information re writing abilities of students in upper division laboratories, the department recently instituted a requirement that all students who enroll in an upper division laboratory must have completed the two-semester requirement for English as required by the University.
A half-day training program for new teaching assistants is offered each fall semester. However, it is still quite limited in its goals. The coordinator of the Chemistry 1A program is the person responsible for this training and he has found it difficult to have all the individuals available at the same time for more than half-day. This issue needs again to be reviewed and resources found to improve the situation. Dr. Crawford, one of the two Chemistry 1A coordinators plans to expand TA training in the summer of 2001.
The faculty discussed this recommendation and agrees that Chemistry 125 should be a requirement for the BA degree; however, there are space and resource issues that are difficult to solve. The addition of Chemistry 125 as a prerequisite for the BA degrees would require three or four new laboratory sections in an academic year at the minimum. The laboratory used for teaching Chemistry 125 is also shared with Chemistry 20L and Chemistry 25; there is the ability to offer only one more laboratory section in that room. No other space is available. Also, there is the issue of personnel dollars to teach the course. Furthermore, the biochemistry faculty does not believe Chemistry 125 is necessary for students enrolled in the BA in chemistry with a biochemistry concentration program.
Until recently the Department did not have sufficient faculty in the area of Biochemistry to seriously consider implementing a full BS in Biochemistry. With recent hires in Biochemistry there is sufficient faculty to potentially offer such a degree. Issues involving space and operating budget resources will also have to be addressed. This issue should be reconsidered in the next several years.
The department now has an approved BA in Chemistry with a concentration in forensics.
The Department reviewed this recommendation and did not find courses that should be consolidated. The requirements of the ACS make it difficult to consolidate or develop innovative courses for the BS degree because of prescriptive course expectations. More importantly, a recent survey of alumni indicates that they wanted a greater variety of courses in the major when they were students. They believe the BA and BS course offering do not provide a sufficient variety of electives.
The faculty discussed this recommendation. Although a meritorious idea, the faculty believes there is insufficient student demand in the Sacramento area for this type of training. More importantly, the Department does not have faculty who are trained in this area. The expertise does not exist to teach a significant series of courses in the area of Materials.
The faculty developed a report that proposed a significant revision in the graduate program, making it more relevant to the needs of employers in the Sacramento region. In particular the revised graduate program is to emphasize analytical applications, particularly separations technology, and biotechnology. The Dean and others supported this report and the result was approval of a new MS graduate program in chemistry. It is designed to be more open to other majors and to permit students to do some of their research at an employer's workplace.
The College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics now has a development officer who works with departments to develop alumni and business contacts. Over the last several years the faculty have been quite active in obtaining donated equipment worth well over $200K.
The Department now has a laboratory course fee plan.
Although the faculty agree with this concept, it felt that a laboratory course fee was a sufficient additional cost for students. Furthermore, it was a challenge to have the laboratory course fee approved and implemented; it is unlikely that a new course fee would be approved today.
C. What state and national trends are occurring in your discipline? How does your curriculum and course offering compare to those of similar programs in your discipline? What responses to changes in the discipline is your department planning and/or implementing?
We have many examples of how we are incorporating new trends into our program.
New Pedagogy
There is a growing interest in hands-on "inquiry-based" learning in chemistry. The CSUS Chemistry department has a long history of hands-on independent research in its laboratory courses (Chem 125, 110, 141, 133, 164). In all of these courses, the independent research experience culminates in a scientific poster presentation in the department. Two courses in our department, one laboratory and one lecture, particularly incorporate inquiry-based learning approaches.Chem 164
Chemistry 164 has been developed into a semester-long independent research experience where students design and conduct their own projects. The emphasis is on experimental design and exploration in solving problems in research (for more information, see "Developing Experimental Design and Trouble-shooting Skills in an Advanced Biochemistry Laboratory", L. M. Roberts, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, in press).Chem 161
Chemistry 161, a one-semester biochemistry course, has recently been taught using an inquiry-based approach where students in small groups teach each other the concepts. The course focuses on metabolism and incorporates information from the research literature illustrating important concepts in metabolism. The class is assigned a paper and the members of each group are responsible for teaching each other the experimental evidence that supports the paper's conclusions and how that information ties into metabolism as a whole.Participation in MBIG
Several junior faculty in the department are members of MBIG, the Molecular Biology Interdisciplinary Group, which involves faculty from chemistry and biology in joint, integrated teaching and research activities. MBIG, the recipient of recent NSF-CCLI and Merck Interdisciplinary grants, is in the process of developing a core facility that will be used in biochemistry and molecular biology instruction.New Developments in Chemistry
Chemistry is a constantly changing field, which presents challenges for instructors trying to cover existing material while incorporating new ideas and results of scientific research. Faculty in the department meet this challenge by integrating new developments with the presentation of fundamental principles in chemistry. For example, new methodologies in organic synthesis, such as the use of new types of protecting groups, have been incorporated into Chem 124 and 128 lectures. In biochemistry, new developments are constantly incorporated into lecture material. For example, topics such as protein folding are taught in conjunction with applications to human gene therapy. Recently published information on receptor proteins is incorporated into lectures on membrane proteins. A new laboratory involving Internet based computer analysis of proteins was added to the introductory biochemistry lab. Chem 110 now includes a substantial coverage of materials science, including zeolite chemistry. Furthermore, in addition to presentation of new information in lectures and new activities in lab, many of the faculty in the department actively engage students in their research, which facilitates "real-life" demonstration of principles and concepts learned in classes.The Chemistry department has kept pace with changes in the community by remodeling its graduate program. The program now emphasizes analytical and biochemistry, in keeping with the interests of local industry. Two new courses were added to the curriculum, Chem 260 (Protein Chemistry) and Chem 245 (Computational Chemistry). Chem 260, designed as a journal-based course emphasizing research literature and student presentations, is currently in its inaugural offering and has 11 students from Chemistry and Biology enrolled.
In general, the CSUS Chemistry department compares favorably with other departments, particularly in the area of independent research activities for students.
New Computer and Media-based Technologies
Faculty are integrating new technologies into the curriculum of the chemistry department. Some examples are offered below:
- Web home pages
- On-line assignments
- Internet-based searches
- Use of Excel, Mathematica, and other software in laboratory courses
- Listprocsd for research students
- Structure viewing in lecture using Rasmol
- Power point presentations by students
- Specify the expectations for the
- Indicate on what these expectations are based:
- How are expectations communicated to students:
a. Discipline
b. Writing and reading in the major
c. Computer/information competence
The expectations established in the assessment plan of the department are based on surveys of faculty and alumni in terms of their perceptions of what students need to learn in the field of chemistry and biochemistry. Further more, the B.S. curriculum is determined by the standards developed by the American Chemical Society.
Expectations are communicated primarily through course syllabi. The portfolio web site referenced above will also become a way for communicating information to students.
The curriculum of the BS program is structured to meet certification requirements of the American Chemical Society and the BA curricula meets the needs of students in the fields of teaching, biochemistry and forensics. Nationally the curriculums of chemistry departments are very similar although the course offerings may be different in terms of supporting the curriculum. When the assessment plan was developed the faculty carefully developed learning expectations that matched the curriculum. See matrix
C. What teaching strategies has your faculty found to be particularly effective in helping students achieve your learning expectations?
The department uses a variety of teaching strategies that students find helpful:
- Tutorial assistance is provided in a room staffed by faculty. This room is referred to as the "Help Office".
- Students working directly with faculty on scholarly projects. A one to one working relationship provides students an opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge they have learned to real problems. Students develop informal relationships with faculty that promote their positive feelings about the environment in the chemistry department. Furthermore, students are able to have well-written letters of reference when they seek employment or apply to graduate school.
- Advanced computer applications are embedded in several courses. The faculty are increasingly providing students an opportunity to learn about chemical molecular modeling and chemical calculations using computers.
- Problem solving activities in lectures are used to gauge student understanding.
- Home grown homework problem sets that are designed to meet the learning expectations in classes.
- Literature assignments which develop the critical thinking skills of students.
- Capstone laboratory experiences that require students to integrate and synthesize their skills and knowledge in a laboratory environment.
D. Describe your department's involvement in and evaluation of distance and distributed education courses:
Some faculty use the WEB as an adjunct for courses, otherwise, the department is not involved in distance learning.
E. Describe your program's assessment plan.
F. Using assessment data, analyze the effectiveness of your program:
The department has in the last two years focused on assessing students in their writing skills and in their development of laboratory skills via capstone experiences. During the 1999-2000 academic year the faculty assessed the writing skills of students in upper division laboratory classes. Instructors of key writing classes provided information to the faculty. In addition faculty reported on their experiences with writing in other classes. Students were showing weakness in their writing skills in several areas: Development of complete sentences, spelling, coherent logic and in some cases not realizing what "plagiarism" means. The faculty decided that students must complete English 20 or its equivalent by the end of their sophomore year. All upper division laboratory courses now require student to complete two semesters of English. We will have to monitor this change in a few years to see if it helps students in our laboratory courses in terms of writing reports.
The faculty reviewed the outcomes of Capstone projects in the 2000-2001 academic year. Faculty used a survey form to assess the quality and characteristics of the posters developed for the final capstone experience. The results of these individual surveys were discussed in the spring 2001 academic semester. For a summary, click here:
G. Describe how your department maintains consistency in multiple sections of courses.
Sections within General Chemistry courses (1A, 1B, 6A and 6B) use the same text, syllabus, lecture and lab schedules, and homework problems. Weekly meetings ensure that instructors will emphasize similar material, and that grading will be consistent.
Sections within the Organic Laboratory I (25) use the same text, syllabus, and laboratory schedule.
Sections within the first semester Biochemistry Laboratory (162) use the same text, syllabus, do the same experiments, and require the same style of reports; i.e. those that emphasize technical writing.
H. Discuss changes needed to enhance or improve the effectiveness of your academic program outcomes:
The most important improvement would be nine unit teaching loads for all faculty who are actively involved in scholarly research. It is very difficult to be productive with undergraduate students in a chemistry laboratory until they have worked with the faculty member for at least one semester and sometimes two. When a faculty member is supervising five to ten students and teaching twelve units it becomes very difficult to find time to do a good job of teaching and supervising students. Furthermore time is needed to write research grants and papers based on a faculty's scholarly activities.
More financial aid for students taking chemistry classes would enhance their learning. Chemistry is a challenging subject and students need to spend ten or more hours per week outside of class. Most of our students are now working 25 or more hours per week and find it difficult to find the extra time to study. They come to class tired or only having superficially studied the text.
The availability of more space for instrumentation and laboratory research has become a critical issue. There is insufficient space for new faculty to establish a research program and to work with students. Instruments are crowded together in a variety of rooms and this makes it difficult for students to use them.
With the hiring of new young faculty who are expected to be involved in scholarly activities it is important that the College continue to support them after their first two years. During the first two years new faculty are given nine unit teaching loads and some operational funding for their research program. This is insufficient time and support for these faculty to become established and additional support needs to be provided if they are to be successful and meet ARTP standards. If they feel pressured and overworked, this then impacts their ability to teach courses.
I. If your department and its programs offer General Education and/or Service courses:
- Provide evidence that courses are meeting the General Education area criteria.
a. Neither Chemistry 1A nor 1B has any college level prerequisites.
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From the perspective of the departments being served, to what extent do your service courses meet their needs?
Chemistry 1A does require passing a placement examination. Currently about 70% of the students pass the exam. Those that don't are encouraged to take Chemistry 4.
b. Both Chemistry 1A and 1B are required for several majors, so they necessarily cover the broad range of topics and principles these majors require. Both courses are "principle based"; that is they utilize extensively one of the most elegant summary of principles, the Periodic Table, to require students to learn the principles or results of such topics as Stoichiometry, Thermochemistry, Quantum Chemistry, Chemical Kinetics, and the structure of materials. Further, since chemistry straddles the disciplines between biology and physics, it does indeed provide the foundation for our knowledge of living and non-living systems. These courses use the method of explaining how the early experiments have taught us what we now know, how fundamental inquiry has lead, and will lead to knowledge that is beneficial. The scientific method is emphasized throughout the courses, for instance in the study of gases, in which the ideal gas law, PV=nRT lets us know details of molecular dynamics, such as molecular velocities and kinetic energies of individual molecules, and quantum mechanics, in which some of principles developed by Newton had to be challenged. Both courses require written laboratory reports, and the material is graded according to the quality of the writing.
c. Chemistry 6A does not have a prerequisite other than high school course requirements. Chemistry 6B requires, of course, completion of Chemistry 6A with a grade of C- or better. Both courses are broad in scope and discuss general chemical principles, although using less mathematical approaches than in Chemistry 1A.
d. Chemistry 6A covers the basic principles of inorganic and physical chemistry. Chemistry 6B covers organic and biochemistry.
The syllabi of all our GE courses have recently been approved by the University GE Committee.
We contacted each of the chairs of departments who require one or more of our courses for their major and asked them if our courses were meeting their needs. The results were satisfactory; generally, the chairs were satisfied with our courses. Here are the responses:
a. Chair of Kinesiology and Health Sciences: "The courses (Chem 1A and 1B, 6A and 6B) meet our needs very nicely."
b. Chair of Geology: "Our students have an amazing amount of lab requirements. Is there any way a version of Chem 1B could be developed that only has one lab per week?"
c. Chair of Physics: "They seem to be satisfied with 1A, but not with 1B. Generally when our majors have taken upper division courses, they have felt they were profitable." The department chair contacted the chair of physics about this statement for further clarification. He said that the issue seems to be the coverage of thermodynamics, which is at the introductory level in Chemistry 1A and 1B; the students feel that the coverage is too low-level compared to that taught in thermodynamic courses taken in physics.
d. Dean of Engineering and Computer Sciences: "Our chairs will get back to you if there are any problems." (They didn't.)
e. Chair of Nursing: "Chemistry 6B continues to be a prerequisite to the clinical nursing program. There is a discussion currently among all nursing programs in the CSU to look at the chemistry prerequisite. Many of the programs require only inorganic. We are tasked (ugh) with setting a common core of pre-requisites. There is agreement that what we should like is an organic/biochemistry course, stand alone, that does not require a year of prerequisites, particularly if the student had taken chemistry in high school. We will keep you posted."
See II-G above.
- Enrollment patterns in the major (no data were available for the minors, concentrations, or credentials).
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Gender and ethnic composition
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Retention and graduation rates
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Part and full-time enrollments: The academic program profile for the chemistry department provides data only for Fall 1998 and Fall 1999.
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"Native" and transfer students: The academic program profile for the chemistry department provides data only for Fall 1998 and Fall 1999.
The department experienced approximately the same slight decline in the number of majors that the College of NSM did. We now have 93% as many majors as we did in 1996, and the College has 91% as many students as they did in 1996. On the other hand, the number of chemistry majors increased by 3%, to 161, during the past academic year.
The diversity of our students reflects or exceeds that of the community and the university. (University totals in parentheses)
African American |
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Hispanic |
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Asian |
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Caucasian |
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Female |
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Male |
We think two discipline-based retention programs on campus, the Science Educational Equity (SEE) program and the Multicultural Engineering Program (MEP) have helped maintain the diversity of our students.
The freshmen who arrive at CSUS as chemistry majors eventually graduate at about the same rate as all freshmen. The transfers aren't as successful as those who have chosen other majors. What concerns us is that only about one-fifth of the freshmen and one-third of the transfer students complete their major in chemistry.
Freshmen |
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Department |
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NSM |
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CSUS |
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Transfers |
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Department |
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NSM |
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CSUS |
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*The data represent the six year graduation rate for transfer students. |
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Full and Part-time Undergraduate Students
Fall 1998 and Fall 1999
F1998 |
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F1999 |
The relative proportion of each is comparable to the same ratios for the College and University. No specific response is needed in this report.
Fall 1998 and Fall 1999
Year |
Total Students |
New Transfers |
F1998 |
147 |
28 |
F1999 |
135 |
21 |
The percentage of new transfers is comparable to the same percentage for the College and University. No specific response is needed in this report.
B. Student Academic Performance
- Grading distribution: The following data summarize grade distributions taken from the Institutional Studies Web site.
Grade Distributions Fall/Spring 1993-2000
A |
B |
C |
D |
F |
CR |
NC |
I |
|
Fall 1999 |
19 |
27 |
26 |
6 |
7 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
Spring 2000 |
17 |
26 |
28 |
8 |
7 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
Fall 1998 |
16 |
23 |
29 |
5 |
11 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
Spring 1999 |
18 |
25 |
25 |
7 |
12 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
Fall 1997 |
15 |
25 |
28 |
8 |
10 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
Spring 1998 |
16 |
26 |
30 |
6 |
8 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Fall 1996 |
15 |
24 |
31 |
6 |
11 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
Spring 1997 |
15 |
24 |
31 |
6 |
11 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
Fall 1995 |
12 |
21 |
33 |
7 |
10 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
Spring 1996 |
14 |
23 |
33 |
6 |
8 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
Fall 1994 |
14 |
22 |
32 |
8 |
11 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
Spring 1995 |
15 |
26 |
30 |
8 |
8 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
Fall 1993 |
15 |
24 |
30 |
10 |
5 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
Spring 1994 |
16 |
23 |
29 |
8 |
10 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
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College F99 |
20 |
26 |
26 |
7 |
6 |
5 |
1 |
1 |
Univ. F99 |
31 |
26 |
16 |
3 |
3 |
11 |
1 |
2 |
College S00 |
17 |
26 |
28 |
8 |
7 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
Univ. S00 |
31 |
26 |
16 |
3 |
3 |
10 |
1 |
2 |
College F93 |
17 |
26 |
29 |
8 |
7 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
Univ. F93 |
29 |
28 |
19 |
4 |
3 |
7 |
1 |
2 |
College S94 |
18 |
25 |
28 |
9 |
6 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
Univ. S94 |
30 |
28 |
18 |
4 |
3 |
8 |
1 |
2 |
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GPA's: Institutional Studies provided the overall GPA by class level for the department but not for the university; thus, there is no comparison to university data. The overall GPA for chemistry majors from Fall 1996 to Fall 2000 [Fall semester data only] has increased as follows: 2.81; 2.83; 2.90; 2.91; and 2.93. This trend may be influenced by the increasing percentage of A's and B's that are now being given compared to five years ago. The trend in overall GPA for male chemistry majors is: 2.77; 2.82; 2.86; 2.86; and 2.88. For female chemistry majors the trend is: 2.86; 2.86; 2.96; 2.98; and 2.97. For the spring semesters a similar trend is observed; however, the overall average for each group is lower within the range: 0.0 to 0.11 with most approximately 0.01 to 0.04 lower. There is a general trend in increasing GPA from Freshman to Senior.
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Students on Probation:
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WPE pass rates: Data is available only for Fall 1998 and Fall 1999.
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Preparation for upper division/graduate coursework: No data available from Institutional Studies. Our native students seem well-prepared for upper division work. Transfer students are less well prepared in organic laboratory if they took their second semester of organic laboratory at a community college. Most community colleges do not have the necessary modern instrumentation to offer a current organic laboratory course. Our incoming graduate student typically need some remediation in one or more upper division courses, usually organic laboratory or physical chemistry.
The data also includes two data points for college/university grade distributions. The report shows that the numbers for the college/university remain still within the ranges shown. The data shows that the university has seen a very small grade inflation in the A and B category from Fall 1993 to Spring 2000.
Historically the chemistry department has always given on a percentage basis fewer A's and B's than the College and University and more D's and F's. Compared to the College the numbers are closer. What is interesting to note is that there now appears to be grade inflation in the chemistry department. The percentage of A's and B's has significantly increased from Fall 1993 to Spring 2000, particularly in the more recent years. Interestingly, this also corresponds to the hiring of new and younger faculty. This leads to questions such as: Are the faculty becoming better teachers or do the newer faculty grade more generously than senior faculty , do all faculty now grade more leniently than in prior years or are students better now than in prior years?
Chemistry is a challenging major and the average GPA for all levels is appropriate.
Students on Probation and Disqualified
Data is Percentage of Total Chemistry Major Headcount Including Graduate Students
Semester |
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Fall 1996 |
10.3 |
5.7 |
175 |
Fall 1997 |
11 |
5.8 |
173 |
Fall 1998 |
10.2 |
4.8 |
167 |
Fall 1999 |
6.8 |
6.1 |
147 |
Fall 2000 |
15.4 |
5.9 |
169 |
Spring 1996 |
11.4 |
8.9 |
158 |
Spring 1997 |
12.9 |
4.1 |
170 |
Spring 1998 |
8 |
7.4 |
162 |
Spring 1999 |
6.5 |
5.8 |
154 |
Spring 2000 |
9.6 |
5.7 |
157 |
The department has not been given data to compare to the University or College. Except for Fall 2000 when the number of students on probation increased significantly from prior semesters, the data shows reasonable variations in magnitudes.
WPE Pass Rate: Chemistry Department
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Chemistry |
College |
University |
Fall 1998 |
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| Native | 83 |
83 |
75 |
| Transfer | 67 |
69 |
69 |
Fall 1999 |
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| Native | 67 |
59 |
67 |
| Transfer | 78 |
69 |
65 |
The data shows that chemistry majors pass the WPE at a rate equal to or greater than the College and University average. At this time the chemistry faculty do not see any action needed.
C. Student Academic Support
- Describe how the department provides academic and career advising. The department has historically had a coordinator of faculty advising, Professor Dan Decious. He has been an individual strongly committed to the welfare of students. He has overseen the distribution of advisees to other faculty advisors and has trained faculty in advising techniques. With Professor Decious's retirement, the department is making a gradual change to a different system involving all faculty. The department chair will direct chemistry majors to advisors in the student's area of interest. Before the faculty member is given information about the student, the department will prepare an advising folder for the student and keep a record of who is advising which student.
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What support does your department provide for students in need of extra assistance? To what extent are your faculty and students satisfied with the support available at the department level and the University level?
Career advising is done on an ad hoc basis. The department posts employment opportunities when notified and students can contact the employer directly. If faculty are aware of job openings they generally will contact students who they think are qualified for the position. Rarely do students use the services of the Career Center on campus.
The data from alumni indicates that one area of less satisfaction is in career advising. Institutional Studies informs us that the alumni of the university express a similar concern. Faculty do not view themselves as providers of employment for their students. They act as consultants and providers of suggestions when students seek assistance. It is the view of the faculty that the Career Center should be responsible for career advising on this campus.
The department offers a Help Office that is staffed by full and part-time faculty [Monday-Friday]. Students can go to this room and seek assistance with homework, laboratory reports and other concerns related to courses. Many faculty offer extra help sessions beyond normal class time. Faculty are available during office hours to help students. Rarely does the department chair receive complaints about a faculty member not present during office hours.
On the fourth and fifth floors there are tables in the foyer that students use. These students will seek help from each other and from faculty when they pass the tables. Often one can observe several faculty interacting with students at these tables. Students who take advantage of this opportunity tend to perform at higher levels in classes and are more involved in the community of the chemistry department, including being student leaders in the Chemistry Club. When the new science building is designed there must be space provided in the corridors and hallways for this type of student-student and faculty-student interactions.
D. Student Professional Development
What opportunities does your department provide to socialize students into the discipline or to provide them with professional opportunities?
The chemistry department and faculty provide a variety of avenues for students to join in the community of chemists. Every fall at the start of the semester the chemistry department sponsors a pizza social that permits new and returning students to interact with each other and faculty. At the end of each semester there is a social-food event that students can share with faculty. Also at the end of the spring semester there is an event to honor graduating students. The Chemistry Club sponsors several events and meetings for students interested in chemistry as a major or career. Students have an opportunity to interact with each other and work cooperatively on projects.
Professional opportunities for students are offered by chemistry faculty and the chemistry club. Both promote the involvement of students in professional events such as National Chemistry Day and American Chemical Society undergraduate research conferences and poster presentations at American Chemical Society meetings.
The chemistry faculty find little at the University level that helps its majors socialize or provides them with professional opportunities. This occurs at the department level not the university level.
- Full and part-time faculty
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Student/Faculty Ratios and class sizes
|
Caucasian |
Asian |
Female |
Male |
Total |
Full time faculty |
13 |
1 |
4 |
10 |
14 |
Part time faculty |
6 |
0 |
3 |
3 |
6 |
The data shows the chemistry department has an appropriate male:female gender ratio within its faculty given that number of females graduating with a Ph.D. in chemistry and biochemistry is approximately in this ratio. The percentage of females in this department is greater than that found in many chemistry departments nationwide. On the other hand, the percentage of non-white faculty is very low. The department has made many attempts in recent hires to recruit applicants from different ethnic groups and we find very few apply. And those who apply often have weak academic credentials or are foreign nationals. Efforts to contact universities with significant number of minority applicants has not resulted in an increase in applicants.
The departmental Student/Faculty Ratio has actually decreased during the past six years, from 21 to 17. This is both because of a 6% drop in Full Time Equivalent Students (FTES) and a 13% increase in the number of full-time faculty. However, there has been a 70% increase in enrollment in supervised courses, and the faculty supervising these students are not given WTU's for the supervisory work they are doing. And we thought slavery had been outlawed.
B. Assess faculty profile for the ability to offer the curriculum and to support program goals.
The chemistry department hires new faculty in specific curriculum areas to meet program needs. As we hire we try to maintain a balance in our skills/qualifications to teach a variety of courses. Increasingly new faculty hires have interdisciplinary skills and this adds to the depth of abilities of faculty to teach courses in its programs. Also, all chemistry faculty are able to teach general chemistry courses and many entry level courses at the sophomore level. If by chance there is an ability or skill missing because an individual is absent or on sabbatical, then we try to hire a qualified part-time faculty member or adjust the course offerings and make course substitutions temporarily available to students.
C. Faculty as Teachers
- Analyze data from College Outcomes Survey (COS) and Program Assessment Questionnaire (PAQ) to identify any issues that need action. Describe plans for addressing issues.
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Describe how the faculty are involved in professional development activities to improve and enhance their teaching effectiveness.
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To what extent are faculty using "best practices" in their roles as teachers. How are faculty offering students a variety of learning experiences to address the diversity of student learning styles? (see COS data)
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Comment on your faculty's innovations in pedagogy and their knowledge of current trends in their academic specialties.
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Describe the department's process for evaluating teaching effectiveness (in the major and in general education offerings). How are the data used to enhance or improve teaching?
The COS and PAQ shows responses from 11 students and six faculty. This does not represent a good sampling and thus the data may be considered to be statistically questionable. However one can find a few themes that have appeared in other surveys and reinforces them. Students believe the department is very good at helping students develop their problem-solving skills. In addition they believe they received good preparation and instructor assistance in their courses. One of the major strengths is the 1:1 interaction with faculty, particularly in upper division courses. Students believe they needed more assistance with developing their computational skills, their writing and communication skills and in career counseling. Also they felt the department needed more modern instrumentation.
Interestingly students rated citizenship, international issues and other liberal studies skills as less important then the development of their analysis and problem-solving skills. Campus issues did not appear to be a major priority. Community based learning may be supported if it helps with job preparation but not if it is just to simply help society.
The faculty listed several issues that were of concern: (1) More participation in policy and curriculum decisions; (2) insufficient recognition and rewards for supervising students, doing field work, involving themselves in community services and student mentoring; (3) insufficient wtus provided for research and creative activities; (4) deficiencies in the writing skills of students; (5) lack of sense of community in department; (6) low level of funding for facilities, instrumentation, repairs of instrumentation and supplies; (7) and the need for more informal training in advising of students.
Some of the issues raised by students and faculty are being addressed: A second semester of English must now be completed before enrolling in an upper division laboratory ; the Dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics has slowly increased funding for scholarly projects; more travel funds are now provided by the College; and in the last two academic years additional funding for instrumentation has been provided.
The issue of additional funding for instrumentation repair and supplies is a significant one. Costs of chemicals, cryogens, repair parts, etc. continue to increase, generally at a rate higher than inflation. Although the operating budget has increased slightly in the last two fiscal years, it is still insufficient. What has been helpful is the addition of laboratory fees. Unfortunately this source of funds is being countered within the internal operating budget by a dramatic increase in costs of gases and cryogens-from around $9K to over $19K from the prior academic fiscal year to the present one.
The faculty concern about policy and curriculum seems misplaced. All issues relating to policy and curriculum are brought to the department either through a committee or directly at department meetings. The department chair makes every attempt to keep faculty apprised of curricular/policy issues within the department or those coming from higher administration. There has been concern by non-tenure faculty with respect to ARTP issues and these are presently being studied and addressed by an ad hoc committee.
This question has been mostly answered in previous sections. Many faculty are reading the literature of teaching and attempting to incorporate new pedagogy into their classroom instruction. In addition, the Dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics has been sponsoring Friday Forums which brings to the College individuals involved in science education and new educational pedagogy. Many of the chemistry faculty attend these presentations. Although we do not monitor what faculty do with these ideas, there is conversation among faculty about the highlights of some of the presentations.
There is no definition of "best practices" within the field of chemistry. A variety of instructional strategies are necessary. Many faculty believe the "best practice" is 1:1 hands on instruction with students in a laboratory environment or in tutoring small groups. This is often difficult at CSUS because of the need to produce a certain level of FTES to maintain budgets.
Many faculty have gone beyond the lecture format to offer students a differing style of instruction. This includes: special tutoring sessions; newer types of laboratory instructional projects; WEB assisted courses; using the literature to teach a course; and small group interactions.
Refer to the prior section for comments on faculty innovation in pedagogy. Faculty keep track of current trends in their academic specialties by doing research with students. This is one of the reasons it is critical for the university to support scholarly programs with wtus and operational funding. This is the best method for faculty to keep current. If a faculty member teaches only lectures it is more of a challenge to be motivated to keep knowledgeable.
The chemistry department requires all faculty being considered for retention, tenure and promotion to have all classes evaluated by students. This set of data is used in personnel decisions. Faculty are required to submit professional files in which they address their student evaluation data and new instructional strategies incorporated into the courses they teach. If teaching is not at a standard acceptable to the ARTP Committee, the ARTP Committee will advise the faculty person and suggest improvement be made.
Generally the student evaluations are used internally by instructors. This data is not disseminated to a larger audience since the data is used in personnel decisions.
The students to select an outstanding teacher for the T. H. Cheng Award. This is a fund established by Dr. T. H. Cheng to recognize the outstanding service of Professor Richard Fish in working with students. Each academic year students select by vote one faculty member to be honored as an outstanding person who works effectively with students. We note that generally these individuals primarily work with upper division students.
D. Faculty as Scholars
- Describe the department's expectations for scholarly, creative activities.
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Describe scholarly and creative activities of faculty in the last six years.
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Analyze the extent to which the faculty meet the department's expectations for scholarly/creative activities.
The expectations for scholarly and creative activities are stated in the ARTP document of the chemistry department. For faculty seeking tenure and/or promotion, they must apply yearly for an external grant and publish papers in refereed professional journals. Specific requirements do not exist for full professors, however, to receive an above average FMI it is expected that they will participate in some scholarly activity.
With the hiring of several young faculty the level of scholarly and creative activities of faculty is excellent. Students are actively involved with faculty, faculty are publishing papers, and faculty are becoming more successful in obtaining internal and external grants. See vita of faculty for specific examples.
As noted in two above, the faculty are reaching and exceeding the expectations of the department. There are issues in need of improvement:
a. Increase the availability of assigned time for scholarly activities. The department is working with the Dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics to increase funding for assigned time or to support supervision. The Dean expects this support to increase in the next few years.
b. Increase funding for the operational budget of the department. This is dependent on the operating budget for the College. The recent increases in the operating budget have been helpful but since the early 1990's the operating budget is not keeping up with the increase in inflation for chemicals and costs of instrumentation.
c. Increase in operational funding to support equipment maintenance and purchase of new equipment. The Dean has been making strong efforts in this effort to obtain funding from the University. In the last two fiscal years the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics has been successful in receiving significant increases in its equipment budget. This has resulted in more funding for equipment in departments and has helped improve the curriculum. There continues to be a serious deficit in fudning for repair and maintenance of instruments. During the 2000-2001 academic year the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics provided $10,000 for repair of the Bruker nmr and the HP GC-MS. This funding of repairs is very important and needs to continue in the future.
E. Faculty Service to the University and Community
- Describe faculty involvement in service to the University
and Community in the last six years. Members of our faculty are
very involved in serving others. Examples include participation
in "Chemagination Day" and "Reaching for the Stars" programs for
children, setting up experiments for the Alliance for Minority
Participation Program (AMP), travelling to the community colleges
to help under-represented ethnic students transfer to CSUS, holding
office hours in the Science Educational Equity office, assisting
in research at the Sacramento Heart Association (a local physicians
group) making presentations to elementary, middle, and high schools.
In addition, faculty members have spent hours helping students
apply to health professional schools, coordinating student organizations
such as the Multicultural Organization of Science Students and
the Pre-Health Professional Student Organization. The work of
our Chemistry club has received national honors from the American
Chemical Society. Students do a variety of outreach activities,
including hands-on activities for children at Sunrise Mall during
National Chemistry Week, presentations at SCATS (Schools and Colleges
for Advancing the Teaching of Science) meetings, hands on activities
for elementary schools, demonstrations at River City Days, and
helped with undergraduate activities which enhance students' ability
to provide service to the community. Our faculty have been very
active in the Science Olympiad held at CSUS every spring. Our
"Wine Appreciation and Its Chemistry" course has filled for each
of the past 22 years, primarily by wine experts and neophytes
from the community. Near the end of each fall semester, the students
pick grapes in the Napa valley and make several gallons of quite
good wine. Our department has been so successful in implementing
an assessment plan that our chair is regularly invited to make
assessment presentations at other universities.
- Analyze the extent to which the faculty meet the department's expectation for service. Identify issues in need of improvement and describe action plans.
We believe our faculty excel in providing service to the university and the community. Refer to vita of faculty for examples of such service in River City Days, judging Science Fairs, and promoting science in a variety of areas.
V. Governance Process at the Program, College and University Levels
- Indicate the role of the chair in department governance. The department chair has a leadership role in the overall operations and governance of the department of chemistry. S/he has the responsibility of ensuring that the needs of students, faculty and staff are met within the resources granted to it by the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. S/he plays a key role in ensuring that the curriculum of the department is supported and is meeting the general requirements of the university. The department chair has to be both a facilitator and manager. S/he must support collegiality and the role of faculty in determining policy, curriculum and the directions that the department takes in its educational efforts. The primary allegiance of the department chair is to the department.
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The department does not have a formalized set of rules or procedures for departmental governance. Historically the department has been small enough that many issues are discussed at the department meeting level rather than at a committee level. Normally the faculty prefers to operate in manner that results in faculty consultation and decision-making without developing a large number of obstacles that hinder moving forward in solving problems or responding to issues.
The department chair also has to be able to work effectively with administration. The Dean and University develop plans to move in certain directions and departments at times must also move in the same direction. A department chair is critical in ensuring faculty understand the need for changes and inviting them to participate. Also, the department chair must be effective in presenting the needs of the department to the College Dean and University Administration.
The department chair is responsible for ensuring that the committees of the department [Budget, Curriculum, Safety and ARTP] meet when required and to transmit to faculty the recommendations of the committees. S/he can bring agenda items to the committees for discussion by the faculty.
B. Describe student involvement in departmental governance: There is no role. However, faculty are very involved with their students and if students express concerns these are brought to the department.
C. Relationships with the College and University seem quite good. There are always some differences but the faculty is able to work effectively with administrators.
VI. Institutional Support/Resources
A. Library
- Curriculum support offered by the collection: The
curriculum support is comparable to a small liberal arts college.
Over the last decade the number of journals and funding for new
books has been reduced. This has resulted in a more limited collection
of curricular materials and faculty and students are spending
more of their time at the library at UC, Davis. There has been
one significant addition: SciFinder. This online service for finding
chemical articles and journals is a real plus. Faculty used to
go to UC, Davis to use SciFinder and now they can use it from
the comfort of their tiny offices. Medline is also useful for
the biochemists.
- Services provided by the library for faculty and students: The lack of a centralized library support service for the sciences is a hindrance. Presently one has to go to a central support desk and the librarian responding may not know the sciences and resources. Questions can not always be adequately answered.
B. Computer/Technology
- Technology/resources for meeting program and faculty needs: Over the last several years a number of lecture rooms have been upgraded with computer projectors and access to the Internet. Squ 450 is used by several of our upper division lecture courses and it needs to be upgraded with these services. The department has made heroic efforts to ensure that faculty and students have access to relatively modern computers and software. This has had a negative impact on the operating budget of the chemistry department because now the department must also provide inkjet cartridges and paper and also do repairs/upgrades.
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Services provided by the media center and computer center for faculty and students: The training classes offered to faculty and staff have been excellent. A number of faculty have taken advantage of these classes to learn how to prepare web pages or to expand their computer knowledge and skills. The faculty/staff support center has been very helpful. The chemistry faculty primarily used the service of the graphics center in the media center. We have received excellent services, particularly from Sam Parsons.
ICC support for computer software upgrades has been limited because the individuals have been stretched over many departments. Additional hires are occurring and hopefully this will improve access to their services.
C. Student Support Services:
Admissions and Records, and the Advising Center have been quite helpful to faculty who avail themselves of their services. Most faculty probably do not use their services extensively except to use SIS+ to access student records. No one seems pleased with the operations of the Career Center. They do not seem overly interested in the sciences. Students report that they rarely find career information pertinent to the sciences.
D. Faculty Support Services:
Comments about these services have been addressed in prior sections. The Center for Teaching and Learning seems adrift since Alan Kalish left.
E. Physical Facilities and Equipment:
The facilities seem DIRTY. Hallways and walls are not adequately cleaned on a regular basis. The stairwells are constantly dirty and apparently janitors are not assigned the task of cleaning them daily. Chairs in many lecture rooms are old and in need of repair. No one seems to be responding adequately to concerns about the safety of students in chairs that are no longer functional. Lecture rooms are also not well maintained and the faculty feel this has a significant impact on morale.
F. Financial Resources
- Enrollment and faculty numbers support the curriculum: The chemistry department manages to get the courses taught. To do this workloads are incredibly high, particularly for those faculty who are supervising students in scholarly activities. Full supervisory credit for students needs to be provided. Class enrollments have increased compared to 15 years ago to ensure that students could have courses to graduate. This has impacted the quality of instruction and the ability of faculty to meet the personal needs of students.
- Program staff: The department has a department secretary, a half-time temporary clerical, an equipment technician and four service center staff. The department has requested an increase of two hours per day for the temporary clerical staff during the academic year. The amount of administrative work decentralized to departments, the need for more outreach efforts and an increasing number of questions from a growing student population has stretched clerical services. One more service center staff is needed in the fourth floor service center. The workload has increased significantly because all orders are processed and maintained by one of the fourth floor service staff; less time is now available to service laboratory needs compared to 15 years ago.
- Total operating expense budget: The department had a total operating budget near $100K in the late 1980's. When the budget crunch in the early 1990's caused a serious reduction in operating support for departments, the faculty had to find ways to reduce operating costs and to limit the types of experiments in classroom laboratories. Inventories of chemicals and supplies were drawn down to a very low level. In recent years there has been a slowly increasing operating budget but it is only about 75% of the best year in the 1980's. At the same time there have been continual inflationary increases in chemicals and supplies on the order of 10% each year. Fortunately, CSU along with UC now has a major contract with Fischer Chemicals that provides chemicals and some supplies at discount. Without this discount the department could not support its existing operations.
Furthermore, new expenses have arisen, particularly with the advent of the computer applications in the university: Computers, upgrades, repair parts, printers, inkjet cartridges and paper. Our budget in the 1980's did not have to absorb these costs also. Thus, we still operate with a lean budget and maintain instrumentation with minimal support. We have an equipment inventory that is over $2 million and yet we spend $15-20K to maintain it. This is an amazingly low number. As equipment ages we are finding it difficult to locate repair parts or contact service people in industry who know how to repair older systems.
