[Proflist] AMS statement

[tucker at phoenix.atmo.ku.edu]

Alan,

I would like to address your suggestion under #1 below.
The AMS statement on the bachelor's degree is meant to 
address minimum standards - it says so in the introduction.
Perhaps it should address more than minimum standards but 
that would require reworking the whole statement.  

It is true that the AMS statement can help programs that
wish to hire more faculty.  Administrators certainly pay
attention to statements by professional societies.  Unfortunately,
administrators too often shoot for the minimum acceptable (like
too many students).

Your suggestion opens a number of cans of worms, however.  What
about universities where there are some faculty in the atmospheric
sciences program with mostly teaching appointments and some with
teaching research appointments (Yes, they do exist!)?  What about
part time faculty?  I think we are correct to set a minimum number
of full time faculty as I don't think we want an atmospheric sciences
program staffed with only part time faculty.  How do we define full
time teaching - some universities define it differently than others.
How much time do faculty members need to devote to graduate teaching
and research before it is substantial.  I am sure we can think of
schools that clearly fall into the category of having all full time
teachers.  Likewise, we can recognize some schools where faculty 
devote considerable effort to graduate teaching and research.  But
there are a lot of schools that do not neatly fall into these 
categories. 

Donna Tucker			   1475 Jayhawk Blvd.
Associate Professor		   213 Lindley Hall 
dtucker at ku.edu                     Department of Geography
(785) 864-4738 			   University of Kansas                 
(785) 864-5378 (fax)               Lawrence, KS  66045-7613                    
 

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Dear Mohan,

1.  As you know, I have already made the following suggestion:

I think we need to specify recommended numbers of faculty and not just 
the minimum.  This would be very valuable for all departments seeking to 
hire more faculty.  In other disciplines, national accredidation panels 
specify the number of faculty needed, and AMS can do a similar service 
for us.  In the second paragraph from the bottom on page 4, I recommend 
the following change:

"At undergraduate colleges with full-time teaching faculty, there should 
be a minimum of three faculty members, but the recommended level is five 
or more.  At research universities, where faculty devote a substantial 
amount of time to graduate teaching and research as well as 
undergraduate teaching, there should be a minimum of six faculty 
members, but the recommended level is ten or more to be able to cover 
all the necessary disciplinary areas.  The faculty members should have 
the expertise ..."

----

2.  In addition, a resolution was passed quickly at the end of the Heads 
and Chairs meeting in Boulder last week that recommended changes in the 
statement that would require 27 credits rather than 24 credits in the 
program.  I have not yet received a copy of it, but would like to 
recommend against it on a basic philosophical ground.

An undergraduate liberal arts education is the last chance a student 
will have to take courses in literature, fine arts, humanities, and 
social "science."  Students can specialize as graduate students or go on 
learning about meteorology in their jobs, but I would not like to 
require that they take additional courses as part of their undergraduate 
major.  This will allow them to take other elective courses in subjects 
that will broaden them as people and citizens, which I think is more 
valuable than one more meteorology or related course.

Thanks for considering my views.  I feel more strongly about the first 
one than the second one.

Alan

Professor Alan Robock
   Editor, JGR - Atmospheres
   Director, Center for Environmental Prediction
Department of Environmental Sciences              Phone: +1-732-932-9478
Rutgers University                                  Fax: +1-732-932-8644
14 College Farm Road                   E-mail: robock at envsci.rutgers.edu
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8551  USA      http://envsci.rutgers.edu/~robock


On Tue, 19 Oct 2004, Brenda Ward wrote:

>
>> 
>> Dear Colleague,
>> 
>> On behalf of the Board on Higher Education of the American Meteorological 
>> Society, I seek your comments on the revised draft statement on the 
>> Bachelor's Degree in Atmospheric Science.  The draft statement is available 
>> at:
>> 
>> http://my.unidata.ucar.edu/content/publications/Bachelors_degree_statement_2004.pdf
>> 
>> For your background, the current AMS statement on this subject is available 
>> at:
>> 
>> <http://www.ametsoc.org/policy/bachelor99.html>http://www.ametsoc.org/policy/bachelor99.html
>> 
>> Also, please share this draft statement with colleagues in your department. 
>> Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.  It would 
>> be most helpful if you can send me (mohan at ucar.edu) your comments by 15 
>> November.
>> 
>> Thank you in anticipation,
>> 
>> Mohan Ramamurthy
>
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