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ADVISORY BOARD
MEETINGS

Agenda

November 5, 1999



8:45 AM Meet and Greet Advisory Board Members - 474 Van Allen Hall
(Please note room change from earlier agenda.)

9:00 AM Overview of the day and Introduction - 30 minutes
  • Schedule, general intro, purpose and history of board.
  • Self introductions
  • What do you hope to gain from your advisory board experience?
  • What expectations do you have regarding the board's interaction with the department?
Overview of Department, Trends, History - PowerPoint presentation

11:00 AM Tour - Van Allen:
  • Q-Machine - Mike Miller - B04 VAN (11:00 - 11:15 AM)
  • New Instructional Equipment - Ramon Torres-Isea - 268 VAN (11:30 - 11:45 AM)
  • Astronomy Lab - Carrie McGivern - 707E VAN (11:45 - 12:00 noon)

Noon Lunch - Sack Lunches from the Cottage - 474 Van Allen Hall
  • Guest - Kristin Loupee - UI Foundation

1:00 PM Tour - IATL:
  • Hasenberg Lab (1:00 - 1:30 PM)
  • Boggess Lab (1:30 - 2:00 PM)

2:00 PM Open Issues Discussion - Large Group - 2 hours - 474 Van Allen Hall

Enrollment Concerns
  1. How do we get more students enrolled into the Applied Physics Degree Program?
  2. Strategies to increase undergraduate and graduate enrollments.
  3. Strategies to increase woman and minority students in physics and astronomy.
  4. How do we get younger students (i.e., grade school and high school) excited about physics and astronomy?
Curriculum:
  1. Should we pursue a Professional (terminal) Master's Degree - joint MS-MBA?
  2. Should we pursue a BA degree with emphasis in outside areas (i.e., law, journalism, etc.)?
  3. Importance of interdisciplinary science experiences? (Department's involvement, industry involvement)
  4. What defines a quality experience for students?
  5. What kinds of computer experiences are beneficial for students?
  6. How do we get group research or work experience for students?
    • Student undergraduate research experiences.
    • Mechanism for finding advisors.
Relationship with Business and Industry:
  1. MPCS initiative
  2. How do we change the culture of Human Resources offices so that recruiters look more seriously at physics and astronomy majors?
  3. How can industry help us impact student learning?
  4. How do we develop better partnerships with business and industry? (i.e., coops, internships)
Sub Group Discussion - (break off into 3 groups - 30-minute small group and 15-minute summary report by group)

Your Experiences as a student:
  1. Talk about your experience as a student in the department.
  2. What didn't the curriculum prepare you for in the work world? Were you prepared?
  3. Comments on the quality of instruction.
  4. Value of undergraduate research experience.
  5. What classes did you take outside of physics that were beneficial? Speaking or writing experiences?
Alumni:
  1. How can alumni help us with recruiting?
  2. How can alumni help us with mentoring students?
  3. How should we go about strengthening alumni relations?
  4. What do alumni want from the department?
Research:
  1. How does research benefit students?
  2. How can we get students involved in group research projects?
  3. How does industry value research?
  4. Interdisciplinary research.
  5. Coops and off-campus research experiences.

5:00 PM Business Items:
  • Determine length of your term (1 - 3 years)
  • Vote on Chairperson and Vice Chairperson
  • Date of 2000 meeting
  • Suggestions on regular communication with Board (email, mailings, web site, etc.)
  • Evaluations

5:45 PM Dinner at the Brown Bottle


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