December GSO/Faculty Meeting Minutes December 8th, 2021 GSO attending members: Fox Foley, Shania Nichols, Riley Dawkins, Ashley Elliot Faculty Members: Jeff Blackmon, Catherine Deibel, Rob Hynes, Kip Matthews Meeting time: 42 minutes
Updates from October/November:
Thank you for the social event, it was very nice :)
Forum with GCC felt good to be heard but obviously some disagreements and issues raised
GCC Taking issues very seriously and not in position yet to bring back to full faculty
This month’s discussion:
a. Bring up issues with McElgin and Classical Mechanics – just to put it on their radar
i. This really comes back to a broader curriculum issue and why the qual is lame and our classes don’t prepare us always for it
ii. McElgin knew last semester that it didn’t go well but he was the only one who would teach in person. Tried his best but we can see it kinda didn’t work out
iii. Faculty have to teach what’s given in course description but faculty have the freedom to teach how they want
Rob: course descriptions are very vague though
Also.. faculty want to get rid of the GRE which is nice. But not the qual?
GRE is on temporary expulsion but faculty seem in agreement to remove it but haven’t removed it yet. Ilya was waiting to hear what decision was at the graduate school level so how can our dept get rid of it
COVID (still)
Heard anything about omicron cases… are vaccines still required for next semester too?
Vaccine requirement is permanent
Also no masks, big yikes. Some TAs are worried about not being able to enforce mask-wearing now.
Will the university say fully vaccinated is with boosters? CDC said so so hopefully LSu will follow that but right now no ruling on that
Still mask required when you enter sign on door for main office but that’s technically illegal. Jeff wanted to keep a mask requirement though and that we are not allowed to ask anyone to put on a mask.
For TAs some have asked students to please wear them anyway, but without a mask mandate in the Spring, puts TAs safety at risk unfortunately. Shania: can we have KN95 masks on hand for TAs? Jeff: yeah we can try to do that. We can still say we “encourage” you to wear masks.
Let Carol Duran know to let facility services know when HEPA filters are out of filters or don’t work. Also a number to call on the fiter.
Carol is leaving next spring :(
Position to go vacant or hire someone else? Eh… Carol’s position is not full time and also will hire Shannans replacement hopefully before the end of December and might be an internal hire and then have to make another hire.
Carol will be here mostly through semester.
Are planning a going away party for Hortensia and Shannan
Faculty search updates?
Hanyu is here! Enthusiastic and looking for grad students! (another neutrino option)
Hearne search: make formal offer to James Sauls but some concern with diversity.
36 applicants, only 1 was a woman, but only 2 they interviewed and thought fit the position. But this is a very senior position.
Faculty are voting on it right now, favorable for making an offer. 3 other searches: ongoing!
How’s the website/email situation and new IT guy?
Lucas is great and willing to take on bigger changes that Hortensia didn’t. Have 150 people who have physics email accounts; we have to figure out how to transition those away (to ITS service (lsu email))
Updates from GSO
Didn’t meet in November and might not for December afaik
Still need to put together results from qual survey to send out, have been swamped
Faculty questions/updates?
Pizza lunches? How do grad students feel? Dude it was nice to have in person meeting and looking forward to more meetings in the Spring.
Hopefully GSO can get some social stuff going soon…
TL;DR
Fill out your course evaluation surveys please! Don’t be afraid to leave a lot of feedback where you think it is due, we like to have records.
Carol is leaving next Spring :((
The dept is slowly filling back up with people/hires, v nice to see faces and have social events again :)