Hydrological Sciences Academic Cluster Faculty Meeting
November 21, 2002 1:30 - 3:00 PM
Rm 265 Williamson Hall

Minutes

Attending; Mark Brown (Chair), Mike Annable, Ken Campbell, Clayton Clark II, Joe Delfino, Wendy Graham, Jennifer Jacobs, Jim Jawitz, Jon Martin, George O’Conner

1. New Faculty
The faculty present voted to admit Mark Clark (Soil and Water Science).

2. HSAC Petitions
Eric Davis’, petition to be exempted from a course in surficial hydrology (supported by Jon Martin, Hydrology) was remanded to Jennifer Jacobs, chair of the surface hydrology subject area, since under current practices, the chair of subject should make the decision instead of the entire HSAC Faculty Committee.
Discussion ensued regarding the petition and current practice as follows:
The faculty were concerned that there was not an overarching reason for the petition other than the fact that it was somewhat of a hardship for the student to take the required course. Dr. Jacobs might wish to speak with Mike Annable to determine if his course is an acceptable substitute
There was some discussion regarding the fact that the current policies/practices and the web page do not agree in so far as student petitions are concerned. The web site states “…Petitions for variances from the published HSAC course guidelines must be submitted by the student’s major advisor to the Chair of the HSAC. The Chair will then send out the petition by email to the Hydrologic Science Faculty Coordinating Committee for a vote. Upon receipt of a simple majority vote in favor, the petition will be approved.” Please note that no formal petition procedures are given in the by-laws of the HSAC, but instead are given on a separate web page titled Curriculum Information. In the March 19, 2002 minutes of the HSAC Faculty Committee Meeting ,...“It was agreed that in the future student petitions will be sent to the member of the faculty coordinating committee responsible for the appropriate subject area for approval. That faculty member will make a decision and notify both the student and the HSAC Chair of the outcome. Petitions will no longer be brought to the entire faculty for approval.”
In light of the confusion it was suggested that the web pages and current policy be brought into sync. However discussions also included potential revision of current practice since several faculty attending the meeting expressed concern that current practice (ie decisions on petitions are made by “the member of the coordinating committee responsible for that area”) puts undo pressure on individual faculty members and no longer involves the HSAC Faculty Committee.
It was suggested that this policy be reviewed at the next meeting of the HSAC Faculty Committee.

3. Course Teaching and Scheduling
Chairs of the subject areas gave updates on their program re iev s regarding course offerings and scheduling. Several subcommittees of the 6 subject areas had met and evaluated courses. It was proposed that further discussion and action be delayed until the Spring semester meeting of the HSAC faculty Committee.

It was proposed and agreed to that each of the subject area committees would complete their work by January 1 including: review of current course offerings, additions and deletions as appropriate, collection of both hard and electronic copies of course syllabi. It was further agreed that the Chair of the HSAC Faculty Committee would call for the Spring semester meeting early in the semester to facilitate changes to the web page in a timely manner.

4. Curriculum Additions / Deletions
The faculty voted to:
Add ENV 6 052 (Fluid Flow in Environmental Systems) to the subsurface hydrology subject area.
Delete SOS 5050 (Soil-plant-water relations)
The following changes to the course listings were suggested:
Course number for Groundwater Geology should be GLY 5827
Course number for Hydrologic Processes should be GLY 6117
Discussion regarding methods for approving additions and deletions ensued. It was felt that in the future additions/deletions should be routed through the chair of the appropriate subject area. These would be brought to the full Faculty Committee by the respective chairs (including hard and electronic copies of the course syllabi) for final action by the Committee at a regular semester meeting.

5. Colloquium Coordination
Mike Annable has agreed to coordinate the Hydrologic Colloquium for the academic year 2003-04.
Discussion regarding appropriate course listing for the seminar ensued, It was suggested that the seminar be offered under the CWR designation and that the home department of each student taking the seminar be given credit for the student’s registration in the course.
Mike Annable agreed to look into getting an EES course number for the Colloquium in the spring and check into obtaining a CWR course listing.

6. CUAHSI Update
Nothing new

7. Water Institute Update
Nothing new. All appears to be on hold pending the sweeping changes proposed by U of F administration.

8. Other Business
It was suggested that C.V.s of participating faculty be listed on the web site. Further discussion resulted in the suggestion that links he provided to each faculty s personal web page. The link information should be sent to Jim Jawitz, who continues to spearhead the web site . . . .good job Jim!