Share

Related Links

Resources for Geoscience Heads and Chairs

Workshop Program

Heads and Chairs of Earth and Space Science Departments

Sunday, December 9, 2018, AGU Fall Meeting, Washington, DC
Location: Renaissance Washington, DC Downtown Hotel, Room 8-9

999 9th St NW, Washington, DC 20001

7:30 Sign-in, breakfast available

8:00-8:05 Welcome and Logistics – Pranoti Asher, Higher Education Manager, AGU and AGI Member Society Scholar-in-Residence

8:05-8:15 Introduction – Gary Solar, Chair of Department of Earth Sciences and Science Education, Buffalo State College and Chair, Board of AGU Heads and Chairs

Morning Session

8:15-8:30 Inclusive Graduate Education Network: Changing the face of graduate student participation in the physical sciences (Acrobat (PDF) 5.3MB Dec9 18) - Theodore Hodapp, American Physical Society and Julie Posselt, University of Southern California

The AGU and four other major professional societies spanning the physical science are embarking on a networked project that has already demonstrated success within physics at dramatically increasing the fraction of underrepresented racial and ethnic minority students successfully pursuing doctoral degrees. We will briefly discuss the nature of the project and solicit input on how we can bring this strategy to the Earth and space sciences.

8:30-9:30 Faculty Workload Equity: Achieving Balance on a Rocky Road – Julie Brigham-Grette, University of Massachusetts

Asking faculty to openly discuss issues of equity across the demands of teaching, research and service is extremely difficult, sometimes embarrassing, but also extremely important to personal academic fulfillment and workplace climate. If faculty are to share the academic mission of the department, it's critical that everyone feels important, invested, and involved in how to balance individual talents and expertise. Workload assessment is key to recognizing and appreciating that all faculty do not all share the same strengths. How do we reach a level of equity so that everyone feels valued?

9:30-10:30 How to Prepare and Conduct a Successful External Review of your Department – Lisa Park Boush, University of Connecticut

External reviews can be a challenge and often seen as a chore, but they also are opportunities for departments to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses and strategize for the future. They can also be high risk endeavors from an administrative point of view, because they can justify either additional resources or cuts to programs and units. The speaker will share what she and her faculty have learned about how to navigate this process successfully and use it for the good of their department.

10:30-10:50 Break

10:50-11:20 Universal Skills for Geoscience Graduate Student Success in the Workforce (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 709kB Dec9 18) – Sharon Mosher, University of Texas at Austin and Jeff Ryan, University of South Florida

Update on NSF sponsored initiative to assess skills and competencies needed by graduate students to prepare them for future careers outside of as well as within academia. We will present the results of the Geoscience Employer Workshop that involved the spectrum of employers of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric PhD and MS graduate students.

11:20-11:40 Update from AGI about Workforce Issues (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 3.4MB Dec9 18) – Christopher Keene, American Geosciences Institute

11:40-12:00 A student-centered vision for graduate STEM education from a new NASEM report - Layne Scherer, Study Director, Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

In the recent report on Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine make recommendations to realign the incentives in academic research to improve teaching, mentoring, and career exploration for students. The report includes sets of core competencies for master's and Ph.D. students to articulate an ideal vision of graduate STEM education.

12:00-1:00 Lunch, small group discussions, and business meeting

Small group discussion topics based on participant interests, determined from registration forms. The business meeting will include an overview of AGU Board of Heads and Chairs and election of new members of the Executive Committee of the Board of Heads & Chairs.

Afternoon Session

1:00-3:00 Strategies to Address and Eliminate Bullying in your Department (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 14.5MB Dec9 18) – Erika Marin-Spiotta, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Mary Anne Holmes, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Blair Schneider, University of Kansas; and Moses Milazzo, USGS

Bullying, aggressive behavior involving a power imbalance, is all too common in the workplace. It contributes to hostile work climates, causes personal distress, and reduces productivity. Despite its prevalence and impact, there are no federal laws that protect people from workplace bullying, although some states do have anti-bullying laws. In this interactive session we discuss strategies to address bullying and other incivilities in academia and identify actions that department heads and chairs can take to create environments where bullying is not tolerated.

3:00-3:15 Break

3:15-3:30 Updates about SERC opportunities for 2019 - Cathy Manduca, Science Education Resource Center (SERC)

3:30-3:45 U.S. National Committees for the Geosciences—Facilitating International Relations (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 2.9MB Dec9 18) – Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Associate Professor, University of California, Merced; Chair, U.S. National Committee for Soil Science

The U.S. National Committees for Geodesy and Geophysics, Geological Sciences, Soil Sciences, and Quaternary Research, housed at the National Academy of Sciences, represent the U.S. to their respective international scientific unions and undertake activities to advance the geosciences in the U.S. and abroad. We will share successful activities and initiatives and discuss opportunities for collaboration.

3:45-4:00 Wrap-up: Closing remarks and workshop evaluation

4:00-5:00 Reception

This workshop is a collaboration between the Building Strong Geoscience Departments project and AGU . The workshop website is supported by NSF under grant DUE-0817353 to the Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College.