College of ScienceAcademic Report for 2005-2006

Executive Summary

1. 2006-2007 Highlights a. Programmatic achievements

Initiatives in support of student engagement and success The College is coordinating a Pre-Calculus project with EOP, ASC, Ecampus Research, capstone, or field experiences for undergraduates are now parts of the

curriculum in Environmental Sciences, Geosciences, and Physics First-year seminars or professional introductory seminars are in place for Biology,

Biochemistry, Microbiology, Physics, pre-dentistry, and pre-medicine The College has developed a graduate course in teaching at the University level,

MB699 Success in the College Classroom Assessment plans are in place for every major unit in the College and the first

outcomes are being reviewed Geosciences began working on a collaborative effort with COAS and the Honors

college to use existing COAS and Geo Honors courses to channel students into a 5th year MS program in Oceanography, Atmospheric Sciences, Geology, Geography or Water Science.

Major research/scholarship initiatives The national Earthscope office will be established at OSU beginning this

month John Falk in Science and Mathematics Education was awarded a $1M grant

by NSF for the Informal Science Education Resource Center Physics and Chemistry received a large part of 2007 ONAMI funding to OSU Botany and Plant Pathology (joint with CAS) finished the year with the

greatest amount of new grants and contracts of any Department on campus Funds were committed by the Murdock Trust and by the National Science

Foundation to Chemistry to install a 700-MHz NMR Major outreach/engagement initiatives

Geosciences planned and led GIS Day on Nov. 16th: ~480 middle and high school students from Corvallis, Beaverton and Portland

The Department of Chemistry delivered "Chemistry Day" at local elementary schools (several each year, by a variety of faculty and staff).

The College continues to coordinate and sponsor Discovery Days, a hands-on learning opportunity for K-12 students (>2000 students)

27th Annual Oregon Invitational Mathematics Tournament was held at Oregon State University on Saturday, May 12, 2007.

National/International impact of programs and initiatives OSU’s programs in Geosciences were ranked 6th nationally in impact. The

Department of Geosciences was a major contributor to that success. John Falk and Lynn Dierking from Science and Mathematics Education have given

over 20 invited presentations and keynote speeches in 8 countries and 10 locations around the USA on their free-choice learning initiative

The American Society for Virology annual conference was held here July 14-18, 2007, with great success

Mike Behrenfeld, Andy Blaustein, Jane Lubchenco, and Viktor Podolskiy, among others, were featured in multiple national and international news outlets

b. Faculty recognition and awards Rubin Landau, professor emeritus of physics, received a 2006 Undergraduate

Computational Engineering and Sciences Award from the Krell Institute.

Dawn Wright, Geosciences, received the Raymond C. Smith Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of Geography, UC-Santa Barbara.

Prof. Mas Subramanian was named the first ONAMI Signature Faculty Fellow. Prof. Walt Loveland's coauthored book, Modern Nuclear Chemistry, was one of two

"Best Undergraduate Textbook" winners for 2006, by Am. Assoc. Publishers. Ursula Bechert was elected as the Vice-President on the National Professional

Science Masters Association Board of Directors Peter Clark in Geosciences received the Easterbrook Distinguished Scientist Award

from the Geological Society of America. Anita Grunder, Geosciences was elected Vice President of the International

Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior

c. Student recognition and awards Ann Willyard, a graduate student in Botany, received the prestigious George R.

Cooley Award from the American Society of Plant Taxonomists Mark Albins and Josef Uyeda in Zoology earned NSF Predoctoral Fellowships. Margot Hessing-Lewis in Zoology received a 3-yr. NERRS research fellowship Katie Hay in Physics was awarded as an Outstanding Student Paper at the Fall

meeting of the American Geophysical Union Rhianna Johnson, a senior in zoology, received a scholarship for internship abroad

from the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program

2. Strategic Plan Implementationa. Focus for 2006-2007: Enhancing student success, increasing research and outreach,

and enhancing diversity and community

For each focus area, list the initiatives undertaken and the outcome at the end of the year (include international dimensions within diversity)Enhancing student engagement and successo Led efforts with OHSU to deliver first year medical education in Corvallis o Implemented assessment protocols for all of our major undergraduate programs o Participated in planning and delivering parts of the BRIDGE program o Reviewed pre-calculus mathematics courses and initiated the pre-Calculus projecto Advising and student performance reviews led to a commitment to offer a trailer

section of Introductory ChemistryIncreasing research and outreach o Support, with COAS, of the OSU Climate Research Coordinating Working Group o Major role in the President’s Ocean Commission o Led discussions on rebuilding electron microscopy facility, supported mass

spectrometry central facilities including bridge fundingo Lead role in preparation of OTRADI proposalEnhancing diversity and communityo Reconstituted a Diversity Committee and completed community and

diversity surveys of faculty and staff, undergraduate majors, and graduate students. o Units in the College have expanded their community building activities and

all now have a fall social event and most have a spring event.

Provide a brief self-assessment of the unit efforts in the three areas: what worked; areas that need improvement; major barriers: The College worked through some very difficult conversations this year. We have developed a culture where the budget and management issues are clearly seen as tools to allow us to accomplish the things we want in a classroom, which is very effective. The second thing that worked is our commitment to transparent and consultative decision-making. I think one of the things that challenges us is the fragility of our finances; issues like fund balance management and the 80-10-10 exercise (which still requires resolution) provide unexpected distractions from the initial

annual plans. Changes in other units that pass responsibilities down also consume significant time.

b. Summarize major unit activities during 2005-2006 that helped promote one or more of the thematic areas:

Arts and Sciences:o Continued delivery of core general education and service courses to the campuso Promotion and development of the Professional Science Masters Program with

discussions expanded to Forestry, Fisheries and Wildlife, and other unitso Expansion of Honors College course offeringso Development of content pathways to complement the Education Double Degreeo Planning and fundraising for the LPI/Chemistry Science CenterLife Sciences and Health:o Support of the Biological Mass Spectrometry facility and bridge funding for the

Environmental Health Science Centero Major contributions to the OTRADI legislative initiative for drug discoveryo Leadership role in development of the OSU-OHSU partnership for ORMED program o Core funding for an NMR spectrometer a key facility for the organic synthesis groups who

are exploring routes to make a number of bioactive natural products o Support for planning on structure of shared analytical facilitiesNatural Resources:o Support for the Rural Communities Initiative through the work of Hannah Gosnello Support for the IWW through the development of the Transboundary Water Initiative,

consultation on the OSU Water Agenda, and development of a certificate program in water resource policy

Earth Systems:o Retention of one of our key senior faculty in climate studieso Planning and participation in the President’s Ocean Commission o Funding and support for the OSU Climate Initiative Workshopo Support for real-time instrumentation of the Oregon Dead Zoneo Chemistry faculty engaged in research in environmental chemistry, detecting, and

tracking the fate of, anthropogenic chemicals in the environment.Enterprise and Innovation:o Mas Subarmanian named first ONAMI faculty fellow; reestablishment of a materials

science research institute at OSUo Planning for the replacement and upgrade of our electron microscopy facilitieso Chemistry faculty involved in ONAMI initiatives on Safer Nanomaterials and

Nanomanufacturing (sponsored by AFRL), Nanometrology and Nanoelectronics (sponsored by ONR), and Nanoarchitectures (sponsored by ARL)

c. Summarize major accomplishments for 2005-2006 in support of the OSU Capital Campaign: Beginning with Bob Lundeen’s leadership gift to science, engineering, and the student experience, the College has had a very successful year. We have completed commitments for the Science Center, completed or surpasses our goals for capital projects and program support, and have nearly completed our goal in scholarship support.

3. Other initiatives and their outcomes: The College office has instituted regular meetings of the office managers and the unit business staff to promote a sense of support and community. College leadership has participated in sexual harassment training and an open forum with Terryl Ross on diversity initiatives. We have had discussions on how to provide faculty support and leave in a consistent way to deal with the loss of a spouse or other serious personal issues. This remains work that requires coordination with the University.

4. Scorecard

a. Performance on college-level metrics: The College reached all our major goals in private giving this year and is sustaining progress on most of the key metrics including graduates, invention disclosures, and the % of US minority students. Grant and contract applications have gone up for the fifth year in a row. The student to faculty ratio remains a point of concern, particularly the student FTE by course to faculty ratio. That ratio remains nearly double the ratio at many of our peers, and is the single most challenging metric we face.

b. Leveraging resources Initiatives to leverage state resources: The PSM program was featured in the

America Competes Act (S. 761) passed by a vote of 88-8. The College contributed significantly to the cases made to the Legislature for the Science Center, OTRADI, and ONAMI ($45.2M). We remain engaged in the conversations about ORMED.

Initiatives to improve administrative efficiencies: We continue to pursue the consolidation of business services; our current constraint is the lack of expansion space in the current offices in Wilkinson Hall. The College remains leanly staffed with only 1.0 FTE split between two Associate Deans. We partner with Advancement for our communication needs, rather than hiring someone to do that in house.

5. Assessment of your 2005-2006 Priorities Complete the budget redistribution process started in FY06: The second phase of the

base budget redistribution was completed. Initiate a long-term planning exercise for facilities development: The funding for the

new Science Center has largely been secured: initial discussions shaped a plan for short-term and long-term development of space.

Complete the planning for reorganization of life sciences : The conversations provided a clearer definition of the shared expectations of positions in the joint units, a clearer direction for the Department of Zoology, and the initiation of a review of the undergraduate life sciences curricula. A working group of the unit heads will identify next steps.

Complete at least four faculty hires in the coming year, including at least one each in Physics and Chemistry: five major searches were initiated in FY07. We hired a young woman in Physics Education who will begin in fall term. We also brought a new research faculty member to Geosciences and retained one of our most prominent climate scientists. The other searches did not yield hires for a variety of reasons discussed in the report.

Complete the initial phases of the General Science degree restructuring: We have secured funding from Ecampus to support the development of online versions of sufficient upper-division courses to provide a degree completion pathway in General Science.

Continue with COAS discussions about the Earth Systems Institute: ESI discussions were put on hold unitl President’s Ocean Commission finished. The Commission report endorsed a major commitment to ocean and coastal science. Next steps will require knowing outcomes from the September retreat.

Complete a diversity and community assessment for the College: The College Diversity committee was reconstituted and completed detail climate surveys with separate instruments for faculty and staff, undergraduate majors, and graduate students.

6. Proposed Goals for 2005-2006, particularly in the areas of

Key goals to be lead or coordinated by the Dean’s office include: Complete review and recommendations on the undergraduate life science curriculum Complete Category I proposal for Integrated Science and first online courses for the

Program Consider the increasing disengagement of some tenure-track faculty because of shrinking

faculty size, increased use of instructors, and expanding class sizes Develop and discuss with College model guidelines for faculty workload and positions Hold at least four focus group discussions on diversity and community in the College Complete architectural planning for the Science Center and a space assignment plan for the

new facility and the vacated space, as part of the long-term facilities development plan Complete a plan for life science directions through the work of the unit heads workgroup, in

consultation with the faculty

Goals for the Capital Campaign benchmarks are already in place.

College of ScienceAcademic Report for 2004-2005

College committed to partnerships.

1. 2005-2006 Highlights

The departments and programs in the College of Science submitted 57 pages of accomplishments by their students, faculty, and staff in academic year 2006-2007. The College made major contributions in the discussions about student engagement, research initiatives on the Legislative agenda, and outreach and engagement in the community. I have presented only a portion of those accomplishments in this report, to note the breadth and impact of the work of the members of the College.

a. Programmatic achievements

o Initiatives in support of student engagement and success

The College has a continuous process of review and discussion about student success, both in our major programs and in our baccalaureate core and service classes. We continued this work this year, with a focus on the lower-division classes in several programs. We also completed a census of our student engagement activities to assess what kinds of programs we had developed already and what experiences could be shared among units. That complete census is included as an appendix at the end of this report.

The College has made focused efforts to develop curriculum for non-majors, students using Ecampus courses, and the Honors College.

Some of the notable accomplishments this year:

Assessment plans are in place for every major unit in the College and the first outcomes are being reviewed. The approaches range from standardized tests, course portfolio work, student interviews, and capstone projects. The assessment plans include direct and indirect vehicles and provide some models that may be useful to other units on campus.

The College is coordinating a Pre-Calculus project to address the lack of success of so many students in the transition into OSU curricula due to their weak preparation in mathematics. The project is focused on pre-calculus courses MTH 111 and MTH 103, and it is made possible by the very substantial support from the COS. We ran pilot sections of MTH 103 this year with private funding and have organized a working group with representatives from Math, EOL, Ecampus, and the Academic Success Center to develop integrated curriculum and strategies.

The Calculus sequence in Mathematics has been redesigned to emphasize problem solving skills in addition to basic skills and information.

The Department of Mathematics now offers nine classes through the Honors College. These include calculus through differential equations and probability, providing a meaningful

experience for Honors students in Science and engineering.

Thirteen Mathematics courses from beginning algebra through first-year calculus are taught by Extended Campus and provide an important alternate pathway.

Research, capstone, or field experiences for undergraduates are now required parts of the curriculum in Environmental Sciences, Geosciences, and Physics, and are majors parts of the experiences for many students in other programs (80% of Microbiology students and 2/3 of Biochemistry students, for example, have a research experience by the time they graduate).

First-year seminars or professional introductory seminars are in place for Biology, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Physics, pre-dentistry, and pre-medicine. All departments run a welcome picnic or departmental social event in the fall.

The College provided funds to help update equipment in the Library Learning Center, and continues to staff the center with representatives from Math, Physics, Chemistry, and life sciences. The Library Center work is coordinated with the efforts of the Math Learning Center, the Chemistry Mohole, and Physics and Biology tutoring.

Chemistry has implemented a new safety training program with a new coordinator. Several prior initiatives have been continued (research safety seminar; safety audits); two new initiatives are a Departmental safety Web site, and a requirement for a safety audit prior to use of Department resources.

The Professional Science Masters program continues to grow. The program is in discussions with Geosciences, Microbiology, Forestry, and Fisheries and Wildlife to develop new program tracks. PSM provides orientation packets to help students transition to graduate school, opportunities for social interactions in a fall and spring picnic, and meetings with industry partners during the annual program partners meeting in November.

Physics is expanding their Physics Education work to include lower division teaching. The Teaching Seminar this year studied current best practices, as presented by Prof. Redish (Maryland) in his new book. Prof. Redish also visited us. These efforts were all intended as a preparation for our work when our faculty hire in Physics Education begins in September.

The Physics Paradigms program received new NSF funding for the efforts to export the program to other institutions. We just had a site visit from the advisory board of the program.

We have developed a new course for the Honors College for introductory physics. This course is aimed at both the engineering and biology students. Even though the latter group does not have the requirement of taking calculus, many of the biology honors students do have the necessary background.

Science and Mathematics Education continues to be a major partner in the Double Degree program, providing the principal pedagogy courses for aspiring K-12 math and science teachers. The Department has also received Ecampus funding to put MS program on-line. Activity started fall 2006 and will be completed by spring 2008. This year five courses have completed the Category II process. Fifteen students are currently enrolled in three of these courses.

Science and math education faculty developed a Category II proposal in consultation with physics faculty for new laboratory-centered physics course, Physics 111: Inquiring into Physical Phenomena and designed and taught an experimental section of Physics 106, Fall 2006, to engage students in inquiries into physical phenomena.

The College has developed a graduate course in teaching at the University level, MB699 Success in the College Classroom. Janine Trempy leads the course which has become an increasingly popular course for graduate students across campus. This course now has graduate students from the Colleges of Agricultural Science, Science, Engineering, Liberal Arts, Education, Forestry, and COAS. The course covers syllabus design and articulating learning outcomes, understanding different pedagogy, crafting an engaging lecture, developing learner centered activities, teaching to different learning styles, teaching students to think and write in their disciplines, assessing students’ learning in progress, test construction/preparing students for tests, evaluating and documenting teaching effectiveness.

The Department of Microbiology has been very active in assessing student learning by seeking undergraduate input via a student-organized committee. This has resulted in better student engagement through a process that gives students an opportunity to have their voices heard.

Microbiology also introduced the Quizdom in-class instant response technology to lower level courses, allowing the instructor to gauge the extent of understanding for certain points, and to make immediate adjustments as necessary.

Senior thesis options in Geosciences have been put in place and the Geography BS has been completely revised.

The Geosciences department expanded GeoDay, their student conference in May at which graduate students make presentations on their research topics. The forum is open to everyone, and feedback for the presenters is provided in a supportive environment (before they go to a conference). This year, the 9th year we have supported this student organized conference, 25 students made presentations.

Geosciences has encouraged the growth of a strong student organization (Geosciences Club) which has sponsored a major international field trip to Spain this past June (lead by Andrew Meigs and Anita Grunder). In addition, they have provided leadership in interacting with the department Board of Advisors (alumni advisory group) and has co-sponsored tailgaters with the department for students, faculty and alumni prior to football games this past year.

Geosciences began working on a collaborative effort with COAS and the Honors college to use existing COAS and Geo Honors courses to channel students into a 5th year MS program in Oceanography, Atmospheric Sciences, Geology, Geography or Water Science.

The College secured funding for a distance version of the General Science degree. This work will include the development of an Integrated Science degree for students interested in teaching science and mathematics.

We began review of the introductory Biology sequence with discussions about a more segmented course structure.

Completed revisions and additions to our distance course offerings to increase student opportunities, including a new DPD course, Environmental Justice, and work on the major statistics sequences.

Upgrades were completed to classroom facilities in Cordley Hall, Wilkinson Hall, and upgrades to equipment in some of our electronic class laboratories.

Statistics developed a new course module on microarray data for students in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Program.

Biochemistry and Biophysics provided financial support for four students to attend OHSU undergraduate research conference

• Major research/scholarship initiatives

The College has a diverse and successful portfolio of research and scholarship endeavors. I note here some of the major accomplishments of the faculty, including efforts focused on graduate recruitment and education, which are essential parts of our research work:

o Faculty members in the College were active participants in most of the funded Provost’s Initiatives, including:

o Ecosystem Informatics (Mathematics, a new hire)o Rural Communities (Geosciences, new hire on board)o Computational Biology (Microbiology, Zoology, Botany, Biochemistry, each with

new hires in this area)o Subsurface Biosphere (Botany, Microbiology)o Water and watersheds (Geosciences, Microbiology; Michael Campagna’s

tenure home will be in Geosciences)o Healthy aging (Faculty in the LInus Pauling Institute associated with

Biochemistry and The College is providing major financial backing in the faculty positions in all of these areas.

The Department of Botany and Plant Pathology (joint with CAS) finished the 2006-2007 Academic year with the greatest amount of new grants and contracts of any Department on campus ($7M, with $4M through AES, $3M through COS). The success was led in particular by Jim Carrington of CGRB, new assistant professor Todd Mockler, and Reserch Professor Mike Behrenfeld.

Tom Wolpert, Professor, received grants from USDA and NSF to continue his research to understand the interactions that occur between a plant host and its microbial parasite at the molecular level.

Jeff Chang and Todd Mockler, Assistant Professors, joined in a collaborative effort to purchase and run a DNA sequencing instrument that is the envy of other institutions and that can produce an amount of sequence equivalent to the human genome every two weeks or high quality draft genome sequence for about eight bacterial genomes every week.

Joey Spatafora, an Professor and Associate Chair, leads an international group contributing information about fungi to the “tree of life”, an NSF sponsored project to catalog all the species of life on earth. Their “tree of life” grant was recently renewed, one of only six awards made.

Dan Arp, Professor and Chair, serves as PI for an NSF Research Coordination Network grant involving scientists at several institutions. The project coordinates research efforts and information sharing in the area of nitrification.

John Falk in Science and Mathematics Education was awarded a $1M grant by NSF for the Informal Science Education Resource Center.

Shawn Rowe (HMSC and Science and Mathematics Educations) is Co-PI with University of Oregon (Oregon Institute of Marine Sciences) Pacific Center for Ocean Science Education Excellence (COSEE Pacific), funded by NSF at $1.2 million

Physics and Chemistry received a large fraction of the ONAMI funding awarded to OSU for 2007.

The work by Viktor Podolskiy, an associate professor in Physics, in laser optics keeps drawing national attention.

Geosciences led a Joint (Geology and Geography) Seminar series on Geovisualization: A Window to Earth Surface, Structure, and System, funded by L.L. Stewart Faculty Development Award and OSU Foundation funds. Organized by Dawn Wright and other Geoscience faculty. (Winter 2007).

Statistics received a grant from the Oregon Water Enhancement Board for research in statistical techniques for estimating salmon populations. Further support from ODFW is anticipated to develop an environmental statistics unit within the department, and a grant proposal has been submitted to BPA.

Statistics collaborated with CGRB in preparation of an IGERT proposal in bioinformatics, with Annie Qu as a co-PI.

Funds were committed by the Murdock Trust and by the National Science Foundation to Chemistry to install a 700-MHz NMR to support chemical structure determination, providing one of the highest field strength magnetics in a northwest academic lab.

The National PSM Association (NPSMA) was founded as a non-profit 501(c)(3) educational organization in 2007 with initial start-up funds ($40,200) from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation awarded in 2006. This organization will generally promote PSM programs nationwide with its work supported by an additional $500,000 3-year grant from the Sloan Foundation.

Ed Brook and Peter Clark were members of the OSU Climate Research Coordinating Working Group that helped organize a workshop on Climate Change Research for OSU and locally-housed federal agency scientists, held on June 14th and 15th of June 2007. This workshop was the first step in a larger effort to define a Climate Change "Initiative" at OSU. 

Coastal Disaster Initiative – Peter Ruggiero in Geosciences helped spearhead a collaborative (COAS, Engineering, Geosciences) proposal to the Dept of Homeland Security this past year. The outcome of this is still uncertain. However, sooner or later, this area will become a research center here. It is only a matter of time, and how we find an opportunity.

The national Earthscope office will be established at OSU beginning this month. Earthscope is a major NSF initiative to examine the to Explore the Structure and Evolution of the North American Continent and Understand Processes Controlling Earthquakes and Volcanoes Collaborative effort between Geosciences and COAS (Lillie and Trehu).

Coastal mapping initiative - somewhat in parallel, a group in Geosciences, SeaGrant, together with DOGAMI and the Coastal Caucus of Legislature have been working on obtaining funding to create a near shore map of the Oregon Coast. This would impact things as wide reaching as power generation and Tsunami preparation. It failed in this session of the legislature – but (according to Jay Rasmussen) will re-appear..

The Mathematics Department now has half of its faculty involved in funded research. It is remarkable for a math department to maintain a ratio of 0.5 funded projects per faculty line. Some of the grants in math include support from NSF and DOE.

In Science and Mathematics Education, Rebekah Elliott in partnership with WestED received funding for Researching Mathematics Leader Learning through NSF-TPC program, $2,017,115.

Shawn Rowe (HMSC) in Science and Mathematics Education was Co-PI with University of Oregon (Oregon Institute of Marine Sciences) Pacific Center for Ocean Science Education Excellence (COSEE Pacific), NSF $1.2 million.

Microbiology professor Dennis Hruby's work on smallpox and Vaccinia viruses at OSU and his company Siga Technologies has yielded a small molecule that is a potent inhibitor of the smallpox virus (discovered at Siga). The drug is a very promising protection against smallpox.

Faculty in Microbiology have published more than 80 peer-reviewed articles and been awarded 2 patents.

Major outreach/engagement initiatives

The College is committed to working on programs that bring science and mathematics outside the walls of the University. Some of the notable accomplishments this year include:

The College has been a partner with Oregon Sea Grant in developing a program in Free Choice Learning. Shawn Rowe of Sea Grant and Science and Math Education is now a tenure-track faculty member and is working with Lynn Dierking and John Faulk, the two leading national scholars in Free Choice Learning to lead this program.

The College continues to coordinate and sponsor Discovery Days, a hands-on learning opportunity for K-12 students that includes participation from a number of OSU departments and community organizations including Botany & Plant Pathology, Brad's World Reptiles, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Fisheries & Wildlife, Geosciences, Hatfield Marine Center, Microbiology, Nuclear Engineering,Physics, and Science & Math Education. The College manages this but it is run as a University event.

Science and Engineering have continued to develop our joint K-12 Outreach Office to coordinate and manage our various programs.

Departments in the College host several sessions of Adventures in Learning, a summer program for middle school students. Departments also participate in SEPS, SMILE, and Saturday Academy. The College continues to run Science Connections in the Portland School District providing enrichment programs for middle and high school students and teachers.

Milton Harris Award lecture was given as a public lecture corresponding to Discovery Days. The lecture this year was by Ed Waymire in the Department of Mathematics on “100+ Years Of Brownian Motion : the gift that keeps on giving”

The annual lecture by the Gilfillan Award winner is now a public lecture, this year as part of Golden Jubilee. Jane Lubchenco of Zoology gave this year’s lecture on "Mutiny for the Bounty".

Statistics held the Department’s 50th Anniversary celebration in June 2007.

Several College faculty members served as judges for the Northwest Science Fair in May 2007.

Geosciences planned and led GIS Day on Nov. 16th: ~480 middle and high school students from Corvallis, Beaverton and Portland, GPS hikes, presentations, lab tours, GIS demos, map galleries, hosted by Dawn Wright

Geosciences also participated in da Vinci days in July 2006 for the first time; a dozen student and faculty volunteers provided information on mineral resources, sustainability, water resources and GIS to over 1000 visitors.

The annual Lonseth Lecture was delivered May 8, 2007 by Professor Jim Douglas, Jr., Purdue University, on The Role of Capillarity in Multiphase Flow in Porous Media.

Mathematics continues to run the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates, a highly successful, multi-year summer program (PIs: Dennis Garity, Paul Cull. Senior personnel: Don Solmon, Juha Pohjanpelto, Tom Schmidt and Christine Escher)

The OSU team from Mathematics was awarded Meritorious Winner in the COMAP Mathematical Contest in Modeling which places them in the top 14% internationally. (Organized by N. Gibson.)

27th Annual Oregon Invitational Mathematics Tournament was held at Oregon State University on Saturday, May 12, 2007. (Organized by Lyn Riverstone and Scott Peterson. Many OSU Math Faculty worked to host this major statewide event for high school students.)

Larry Flick with Len Cerny, doctoral student in Science and Mathematics Education, developed a new course for practicing teachers in science and technology on Teaching Science through Engineering Problems fostering better transfer of learning in science.

Maggie Niess with graduate students in Science and Math Education developed a new course for practicing teachers of mathematics on designing dynamic spreadsheets and new types of problems that foster active problem solving.

Janice Rosenberg and Rachel Harrington conducted math teaching activities at Linus Pauling Middle School as professional development for LP teachers and associated with pre-service experiences for SMED teacher cohort.

The Department of Microbiology was well represented in outreach activities through the Undergraduate MSA (Microbiology Student Association) Club. The MSA participated in Discovery Days, both Fall and Spring terms. Discovery Days brings over 4000 preK-8 students to OSU for hands-on science and engineering activities. The MSA developed new activities, and fully staffed the microbiology booth all day for a total of two days in the fall and two days in the spring.

Faculty and students from the Department of Microbiology were invited by K-12 schools to deliver microbiology learning modules with hands on activities.

The Department of Chemistry delivered "Chemistry Day" at local elementary schools (several each year, by a variety of faculty and staff).

College faculty members participated in the Apprenticeships in Science and Engineering (ASE) midsummer conference by hosting a 90 minute hands-on lab activity and organizing a panel of science majors, graduate and undergraduate students, to meet with the program interns (junior and senior class high school students).

Chemistry provided used lab goggles, lab coats and some chemicals to groups involved with Saturday Academy and Summer Stars programs.

National/International impact of programs and initiatives

The faculty members of the College are very visible in the national and international science community. I highlight here cases in which faculty members are participating in or leading national science programs or cases in which they have been featured in national media. Following that I have noted some of the news stories in the national media that featured COS faculty. Some of these people hold joint positions with Science, Agricultural Sciences, or Research Centers (LPI, EHSC, CGRB). I’ve grouped these under the strategic themes to reinforce the span of the work of the College of Science.

Of the 18 Science and Nature papers published with OSU faculty as authors or co-authors, Science faculty members contributed to 8 of those papers.

OSU’s programs in Geosciences were ranked 6th nationally in impact. Geosciences was a major contributor to that success.

The U.S. Senate passed America Competes (S. 761) by a vote of 88-8. This is the bipartisan bill, originally introduced as the National Innovation Act, which would appropriate $60 million to NSF over five years specifically for Professional Science Masters program development (Section 4004). Ursula Bechert, who directs the PSM program for the College, helped coordinate letters of support for development of this program from key OSU administrators, industry representatives (e.g., the Vice President of External Affairs for Associate Oregon Industries), and government agencies. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden and Congresswoman Darlene Hooley both expressed support for creation of the proposed Management for Science Professionals Graduate Certificate Program.

Peter Clark, Geosciences, is the leader of the Paleovar project (collaboration with COAS, UO and U Minn), a major climate research initiative.

Ed Brook, Geosciences, is running the nation’s principal laboratory for measuring carbon dioxide in ancient ice cores. The group is now developing techniques for measuring methane. The work is regularly recognized on the national stage

Hannah Gosnell’s programs in Geosciences have begun to have a significant impact on how people are thinking about the evolution of property ownership in the west. In addition to her scholarly production, she has had several high profile articles published in national and regional newspapers (e.g. Oregonian “ A Fat Wallet runs through it”).

John Falk and Lynn Dierking from Science and Mathematics Education have given over 20 invited presentations and keynote speeches in 8 countries and 10 locations around the USA on their free-choice learning initiative.

Falk & Dierking published an edited volume, In Principle In Practice: Museums as Learning Institutions, one of the results of a 2004 NSF-funded international conference focusing on identifying and analyzing the last decade of research about free-choice learning in and from museums. The conference and book were designed to inform future research, evaluation and practice. (Falk, J.H., Dierking, L.D. & Foutz, S. (Eds.). In Principle, In Practice: Museums as Learning Institutions. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press).

Falk and Dierking organized Teacher Researcher Day at national conference of National Science Teachers Association, St. Louis, March 28, 2007.

Science and Mathematics Education hosted four visiting scholars from South Korea.

OSU Mathematics developed and ran a DOE/NSF Workshop on Modeling, Analysis and Simulation of Multiscale Nonlinear Systems, June 25, 2007 to Jun 29, 2007, Corvallis with an national and international audience.. (Organized by R. Showalter, M. Peszynska, S-Y Yi)

Malgo Peszynska was a Principle Lecturer at the Rocky Mountain Mathematics Consortium Summer School Jun 19, 2007 toJun 29, 2007, Laramie, WY.

Science hosted a DOE Multiscale Mathematics and High-Performance Computing Summer School, Jun 29, 2007 to Jul 3, 2007, Corvallis. (Research Presentations: R. Showalter, M. Peszynska; Instructional Classes: V. Bokil, N. Gibson.)

Joseph Beckman of Biochemistry and of LPI was noted as a “Highly Cited” scientist in Biology & Biochemistry by ISI with one of the top 5 most cited articles in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology since its first publication.

In Biochemistry, P. Andrew Karplus’s paper on “Structure of Cysteine dioxygenase” was featured as the cover figure of the Journal of Biological Chemistry (July 7, 2006 issue).

P. Shing Ho’s paper describing the use of halogen bonds to control DNA structure published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, was featured in the journal on its cover and as in “In this issue” item.

Lynn Dierking gave a keynote presentation at a U.K. Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-supported seminar "'Questions of Access': Research and Practice” in January, 2006 at Newcastle University’s International Centre for Cultural & Heritage Studies and a keynote address “Fostering Tomorrow’s Learning Society” at the International Symposium on Advanced Technologies in Education “Designing the School of Tomorrow” symposium held in Athens, Greece in January 2007.

The ongoing research in the Giovannoni laboratory in Microbiology that has been funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation is contributing to an understanding of the biology of the oceans and the importance to the health of the Earth. With global warming threatening, such studies are becoming high profile and more critical.

The American Society for Virology annual conference was held here July 14-18, 2007, with great success. The host and organizer was Dennis Hruby with general support from other OSU virologists, chiefly in the Department of Microbiology. There were about 1400 attendees.

Some stories featuring College faculty members in national and international outlets:

Arts and Sciences:

Scientist finds 100 million-year-old bee (Washington Post)A scientist has found a 100 million-year-old bee trapped in amber, making it possibly the oldest bee ever found. "I knew right away what it was, because I had seen bees in younger amber before," said George Poinar, a zoology professor at Oregon State University. The bee is about 40 million years older than previously found bees. The discovery of the ancient bee may help explain the rapid expansion and diversity of flowering plants during that time.

With Fruit Fly Sex, Researchers Find Mind-body Connection (Medical News Today, UK): Male fruit flies are smaller and darker than female flies. The hair-like bristles on their forelegs are shorter, thicker. Their sexual equipment, of course, is different, too. "Doublesex" is the gene largely responsible for these body differences. Doublesex, new research shows, is responsible for behavior differences as well. Barbara Taylor, an associate professor of zoology at Oregon State University, took part in the fly research, which was published in Nature Genetics.

Discovery About Evolution Of Fungi Has Implications For Humans (Science Daily)As early fungi made the evolutionary journey from water to land and branched off from animals, they shed tail-like flagella that propelled them through their aquatic environment and evolved a variety of new mechanisms (including explosive volleys and fragrances) to disperse their spores and reproduce in a terrestrial setting. The work is funded by a $2.65 million "Assembling the Tree of Life" grant from the National Science Foundation that was awarded to Duke University, the University of Minnesota, Oregon State University and Clark University in January 2003.

Scientists Announce Creation of Atomic Element, the Heaviest Yet (Washington Post)Scientists in California and Russia announced yesterday that they have created the heaviest atomic element ever made, adding a new item to the universal menu of matter known as the periodic table and revealing fresh secrets about the nature of atoms, the fundamental units of physical stuff. Walter Loveland, a chemistry professor at Oregon State University, said the proof involved was tricky, but he found the results "impressive and internally very self-consistent" and "a tremendous intellectual achievement.

Bacteria boast the 'tiniest genomes' to date (New Scientist)The tiniest genomes ever found belong to two types of bacteria that live inside insects, researchers have announced. Cell biologists say these findings show how few genes a cell needs to get by: "I think it's important because scientists are trying to understand the minimal parts you need to encode for a cell to function," says Stephen Giovannoni of Oregon State University.

OHSU pact promises more doctors, more places to train (The Oregonian)Oregon Health & Science University is teaming up with Oregon State University and Samaritan Health Services in Corvallis to train more doctors and improve rural care. The agreement, announced last week, further regionalizes medical education in Oregon and seeks to address a looming shortage of doctors in the state. The new collaboration with OSU and Samaritan will allow OHSU to expand its entering class to 160 students by 2009, with some students doing their first-year course work and part of their later clinical training outside of Portland.

Origin, dynamics, and sustainability of the Earth:

Scientists to create history of seismic activity in Indian Ocean region (DailyIndia.com)A joint team of US, Indonesian, Japanese and German researchers are collaborating on a joint study to create a history of seismic activity in the Indian Ocean region. “We hope to create the same kind of history for the Indian Ocean region, which is surprisingly similar to the Cascadia Subduction Zone in structure. If anything, the Indian Ocean is even better suited for this analysis because there is a huge basin between the rivers and the deep ocean that keeps the terrestrial sediments close to land," said Oregon State University marine geologist Chris Goldfinger.

Amphibians in losing race with environmental change (YubaNet.com)Even though they had the ability to evolve and survive for hundreds of millions of years - since before the time of the dinosaurs and through many climatic regimes - the massive, worldwide decline of amphibians can best be understood by their inability to keep pace with the current rate of global change, a new study suggests. The basic constraints of evolution and the inability of species to adapt quickly enough can explain most of the causes that are leading one species after another of amphibians into decline or outright extinction, say researchers from Oregon State University, in a study published today in the journal BioScience.

Dead Zone reappears off Oregon (New York Times)For the fifth year in a row, unusual wind patterns off the coast of Oregon have produced a large “dead zone,” an area so low in oxygen that fish and crabs suffocate. Jane Lubchenco, a marine biologist at Oregon State University, said the phenomenon did not appear to be linked to recurring El Niño or La Niña currents or to long-term cycles of ocean movements. That made Dr. Lubchenco wonder if climate change might be a factor, she said, adding, “There is no other cause, as far as we can determine.”

Scientists sound alarm for world’s amphibians(Chicago Tribune)Fearing a mass extinction of the world's frogs, toads, newts and salamanders, 50 international amphibian experts are sending out an unprecedented SOS calling for an urgent global mission to avert

a cataclysm. "These are bioindicators that something is wrong with the planet," said Andrew Blaustein, a zoology professor at Oregon State University and one of the pioneers in the field.

Water, water everywhere(Oakland Tribune)Someday, having that perfect Bayside view may not be all it is cracked up to be. Scientists are predicting the Bay's waters could rise by 3 to 4 feet in 100 years, flooding up to 4 miles of low-lying Baylands. According to a study by the United States Geological Survey to be released later this summer, more than half of the California coast is in the midst of eroding for the first time this century. The trend began in 1970 after a century of stability, said Peter Ruggiero, a geosciences professor at Oregon State University who participated in the USGS study.

Project aims to 'seed' oceans to heal them (USA Today)Trees may not sprout from the ocean, but that doesn't stop one expert from talking about the need to save the ocean's "forests." Three months ago, NASA released satellite data showing that ocean plant life is rapidly shrinking as more carbon dioxide builds up in the atmosphere. The buildup helps feed the climate changes that warm the seas and disrupt the pumping of vital nutrients from the ocean depths, Oregon State University oceanographer Michael Behrenfeld says.

Technological change and innovation:

Era of High-Speed Optical Computing Approaching (Photonics.com)Physicists have discovered a way to manipulate the transmission of optical signals in tiny wires, dramatically slowing, stopping or even speeding them up to velocities faster than the speed of light -- a major advance that could open the door to a new era of computing and information processing based on optics. The findings by physicists at Oregon State University are being published in the journal Physical Review Letters and are an important step toward manipulating light pulses in the same conceptual way that conventional electronics, since the dawn of switches, semiconductors and transistors, has manipulated electrons.

Discovery could be key advance for nanotechnology (Bend Weekly)Biochemists at Oregon State University have discovered that a little-known type of chemical bond called a “halogen bond” can be used to control and manipulate the three dimensional shape of DNA, opening the door to new types of engineering at the atomic level. The findings, just published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a professional journal, may be a significant step forward for the emerging science of nanotechnology.

Managing natural resources:

Warming Oceans Put Kink in Food Chain, Study Says (National Geographic)The growth of tiny plants at the base of the ocean food chain is tightly linked to changes in the climate, according to a recent study. The finding shows that as temperatures warm, the growth of single-celled ocean plants called phytoplankton slows at Earth's mid and low latitudes. The plants' growth increases when the climate cools. Michael Behrenfeld, a botanist at Oregon State University in Corvallis, was lead author of the study. He said the research demonstrates a solid link between climate change and marine life.

When co-operation is the key to survival (New Scientist, UK)Forget what you might have heard about "nature, red in tooth and claw". Mother Nature, bless her heart, may be much kinder and gentler than most people give her credit for. As always there is more to discover, says Bruce Menge of Oregon State University in Corvallis. "Whether the overall structure of the system is dominated by positive versus negative forces, we just don't know yet," he says.

Seafloor videos show trawling impacts (The Oregonian)Bottom trawling on the vast mud seafloor off the Oregon coast can damage an often-ignored ecosystem, say two Northwest researchers. The first study of trawling's effects on the mud flats of the outer continental shelf indicates that the practice can disrupt the organisms that live on the bottom and the fish species that swim above them. Mark Hixon of Oregon State University and Brian Tissot of Washington State University Vancouver used videotapes they took on submarine dives to compare areas that had been trawled with untouched areas (also an AP story on MSNBC)

'Ten Commandments' could improve fisheries management (Innovations Report, Germany)Poorly managed marine fisheries are in trouble around the world, researchers say, while ecosystem-based management is a powerful idea that in theory could help ensure sustainable catches - but too often there's a gap in translating broad concepts into specific action in the oceans that successfully meets these larger goals. To address that, Mark Hixon, a professor of zoology at Oregon State University, today modified a very old set of rules and issued "Ten Commandments" for ecosystem-based fisheries science, in a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Life sciences and health:

Vitamin C awareness a common goal (Shanghai Daily)From the common cold to all kinds of maladies, our day-to-day lives are frequently tormented by minor health setbacks now and then. However, a proper vitamin C intake can help prevent or treat some chronic diseases. "No other nutrient other than vitamin C has been shown to have such a significant impact on mortality or a highly-beneficial effect on health," said Dr Balz Frei, director and endowed chair of Linus Pauling Institute of Oregon State University.

Advance helps explain stem cell behavior (Biology News Net, Canada)Biochemists at Oregon State University have developed a new method to identify the "DNA-binding transcription factors" that help steer stem cells into forming the wide variety of cells that ultimately make up all the organs and parts of a living vertebrate animal. The findings were made using mouse embryonic spinal cord as a model, and will be announced this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a professional journal.

Analysis: Protein helps brain 'clean house' (United Press International)PGC-1a, a protein that regulates energy production in cells, has now been proven to help the brain clear itself of free radicals that damage its neurons. "Being able to stimulate antioxidant defenses in the brain is something we really want to be able to do," said Joe Beckman, a member of the Linus Pauling Institute and the director of the Environmental Health Science Center at Oregon State University.

b. Faculty recognition and awards

Faculty members in the College were recognized by a variety of awards inside the College and University and outside the university. I have included here largely recognition external to OSU, including a couple grant awards that were based on reputation as much as proposal review. I have included one or two significant OSU awards:

Rubin Landau, professor emeritus of physics, has received a 2006 Undergraduate Computational Engineering and Sciences Award from the Krell Institute.

Dawn Wright, a professor in the Department of Geosciences at OSU, has received the Raymond C. Smith Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of Geography, UC-Santa Barbara. The award was given for her body of work in research, teaching and service since joining the OSU faculty in 1995. She has also been announced as the UCSB Commencement Speaker for the Science and Mathematics Baccalaureate Ceremony on June 16.

Lynda Ciuffetti in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology will serve as Faculty Senate President 2007-2008.

Peter Bottomley of Microbiology was awarded the 2006 Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring Award.

Associate Prof. Yun Shik Lee in Physics was awarded a Humboldt fellowship to support his sabbatical leave in Germany.

Lisa Madsen of Statistics was elected Secretary-Treasurer of the Oregon Chapter of the American Statistical Association. She was also the recipient of a Young Researcher Travel Award to attend and make a presentation at the University of Florida Winter Workshop.

Virginia Lesser in Statistics is serving on an Expert Review Panel charged with reviewing the Census of Agriculture conduced by the National Agricultural Statistics Service. She also served as a reviewer of an NRC report “Understanding American Agriculture: Challenges for the Agricultural Resource Management Survey.”

Prof. Douglas Keszler was named Distinguished Professor, and presented a lecture on "New Materials for Energy and Process Efficiency" on May 22. Prof. Keszler's research group has become one of the largest in the Department of Chemistry, and he now brings in more than $1M per year in external funding. He is also a member of ONAMI's Faculty Leadership Team.

Prof. Mas Subramanian was named the first ONAMI Signature Faculty Fellow.

Prof. Walt Loveland's coauthored book, Modern Nuclear Chemistry, (Loveland, Morrissey and Seaborg; Wiley) was named by the Association of American Publishers as on of two "Best Undergraduate Textbook" winners for 2006.

Prof. Staci Simonich in the Department of Chemistry received the College of Agricultural Sciences' Savery Award for Outstanding Young Faculty in 2006.

Ursula Bechert was elected as the Vice-President on the National Professional Science Masters Association Board of Directors until December 2008 and then will serve as the President for one year.

Larry Enochs in Science and Math Education was appointed for a 5 year term as Research Column Editor for The Rural Educator

Jeffrey Stone, associate research professor of botany and plant pathology, has been reappointed as a member of the Invasive Species Advisory Committee of the National Invasive Species Council.

Nam Hwa Kang in Science and Mathematics Education was appointed as Associate Editor for the journal School Science and Mathematics Education

Peter Clark in Geosciences received the Easterbrook Distinguished Scientist Award from the Geological Society of America.

Anita Grunder, Geosciences was elected Vice President of the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior

Anne Nolin in Geosciences received a NASA Group Achievement Award.

Indira Rajagopal (Biology, Adjunct Biochemistry & Biophysics) was Named Professor of the Year in the OSU Honors College and received a Mortar Board Society “Top Prof” award.

c. Student recognition and awards

I have noted here principally awards external to OSU.

Ann Willyard, a graduate student in Botany, received the prestigious George R. Cooley Award at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists, held in Chicago July 8-11.

Heather Lintz, graduate student of Mary Kentula and Mark Wilson in Botany, received the Pielou Award from the Statistical Ecology Section of the Ecological Society of America.

Mark Albins and Josef Uyeda in Zoology earned NSF Predoctoral Fellowships. Sarah Eddy received an Honorable Mention.  

Margot Hessing-Lewis in Zoology received a NERRS research fellowship for 3 years.

Dafne Eerkes-Medrano & Margot Hessing-Lewis in Zoology received HMSC Markham research endowment awards of $10,000 each.

Shawn Butcher, a graduate student in Zoology received AAAS Pacific Division Alan E. Leviton Student Research Award.

Rhianna Johnson, a senior in zoology, received a scholarship for internship abroad from the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program. She went in the spring to Rarotonga in the South Pacific’s Cook Islands to intern at the Esther Honey Foundation Animal Clinic.

Laura Linn, a senior in zoology, was selected for an internship at the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia during Winter term. She enjoyed it immensely and fit so well into their program that she plans to stay for a few more years.

Katie Hay in Physics received an award for an Outstanding Student Paper submitted to the Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

Paul Newhouse and Annette Richard, both graduate students in Chemistry working for Prof. Janet Tate, were awarded NSF IGERT fellowships for the 2006/2007 academic year.

Will Martin, Walt Woods, and James Yih in Mathematics were COMAP (the Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications) Meritorious Winners.

2. Strategic Plan Implementation

a. Focus for 2005-2006: Enhancing student success, increasing research and outreach, and enhancing diversity and community. For each focus area, list the initiatives undertaken and the outcome at the end of the year (include international dimensions within diversity)

The specific initiatives and priorities for FY2007 are discussed in Section 5, as is a synopsis of what worked and what didn’t. Some of the specific accomplishments related to the strategic plan are noted in the programmatic achievements section above. I include here a few notable initiatives or general accomplishments in each area.

In addition to the priorities considered last summer, the College spent significant time in the fall working on the management of fund balances. We have a large complex set of reserve accounts

and managing the overall targets required managing multiple accounts across each department. We also committed significant time to the 80-10-10 budget planning exercise in the winter and spring and the many conversations that exercise initiated.

Enhancing student success

The College is committed to quality educational programs. The two most important parts of our current strategy are to create strong assessment processes to improve student retention and expanding access to new populations of students through our distance and through some alternative graduate and professional programs. The assessment work is particularly important so that we can revise the delivery models for our most critical courses in a timely way; the resource constraints that have led to extremely large classes require consideration of novel delivery and course support mechanisms

The College spent considerable time and work at the unit level on issues of student engagement and student success. I believe we have seen significant success in identifying the key issues and strategies to address them. Some of the specific initiatives and actions included:

The Department of Chemistry provides a good example of the contributions of units in the College. The Department of Chemistry provided more than 38,000 student credit hours, graduated 36 undergraduate majors, 7 M. S. degrees and 8 Ph. D.s. There were 155 undergraduate majors (plus about 15 double majors), 75 graduate students, and research expenditures were $2.3M. The Department had the largest SCH count in Summer, 2006 (3715) for any unit in the University.

The College led the efforts to craft an agreement with OHSU and Samaritan Health Services to deliver first year medical education in Corvallis. This program would address a critical physician shortage in Oregon and would provide a compelling environment for our students in health professional programs. The program was not funded by the Legislature, but we anticipate proceeding after review of the financial options.

The College has worked to develop curricular pathways and programs that complement the Education Double Degree. This work has informed the preparation of a proposal to the national UTeach initiative.

The College made a focused effort to implement assessment protocols for all of our major undergraduate programs. Assessment representatives in each unit worked closely with Janine Trempy and with Academic Programs to explore a variety of assessment techniques. The results are very encouraging and are providing examples that can be shared between units. We have started an assessment council that meets periodically to share results and ideas.

Janine Trempy provided leadership to the Provost’s Workgroup on Student Engagement. The work of this group will hopefully provide some guidance on strategy and direction for efforts at the College and Department level.

Sherm Bloomer represented the Deans on the Enrollment Planning Workgroup and spent significant time working with the Program Quality subgroup.

The College has been involved in planning and delivering parts of the BRIDGE program, which appears to be highly successful in helping students at risk adapt to and succeed in the university environment.

The Professional Science Masters program continues to grow and is a key piece of our

strategy to increase our graduate enrollments. The program is in discussion swith Geosciences, Microbiology, Forestry, and Fish and Wildlife about expansions in tracks. We have secured funding from Ecampus to create a stable management curriculum and to move the cohort course online to make them accessible to PSM students at other partner institutions. We are routinely tracking PSM graduates and are actively supporting formation of the PSM Alumni Network. This will be operated through the National Professional Science Masters Association, in which we have been very active throughthe efforts of Ursula Bechert. Discussions with units have led to the development of a proposal for a unique PSM degree, to complement current MS programs.

We completed discussions about consolidating the College’s four life science units (Zoology, Botany and Plant Pathology, Microbiology, and Biochemistry and Biophysics) into two units. It was clear that the present structure meets the needs of the College of Agricultural Sciences, particularly in the area of Plant Science. CAS also did not see that a move of Microbiology more towards a human health focus made strategic sense for them. After much discussion the College decided to reconsider the strategy required to create a sustainable future. The discussions did create: a retreat and strategic vision for Zoology, a better understanding of the two Colleges’ expectations for the joint departments, a working group for a review of the undergraduate life science curriculum, and a unit head working group to plan the next steps.

The College managed to provide access to almost all required seats in our service and baccalaureate core courses in the last year. While not an initiative, doing this consumes a very large amount of our energy for planning and management and is a testament to the committed work of the faculty and staff in those units.

The College and Departments conducted a number of reviews of our lower division and service course offerings. Several actions came out of those discussion is:

o We reviewed the performance of students in pre-calculus mathematics courses and initiated the pre-Calculus project described above. This has included pilot offerings of MTH 103 and .

o In Chemistry, we offered an additional section of a majors' lab (CH 461) to clear backlog of students closed out in prior year, Performed curriculum development for service Analytical Chemistry lab (CH 324), and Introduced online versions of Organic Chemistry (CH 331, 332) and Inorganic Chemistry (CH 411, 412).

o A review of the advising for first year students in Biology, as it related to mathematics skills. This led to a review of the course performance in MTH 111 as a function of math placement score (a very strong positive correlation) and the associated timing of Math, Chemistry, and Biology courses. These discussions produced a commitment to offer a trailer section of Introductory Chemistry to allow students to phase in their work in basic science in a more appropriate way.

o Changes in the advising for pre-pharmacy students led to the development of a summer term sequence in Anatomy and Physiology to serve the needs of those students.

The College has been working with community colleges to identify a degree completion pathway for students in their two-year Associates Degree Programs for Nursing. The expansion of the WOU nursing program funded in the Legislative Session now provides context in which those discussions can go forward.

Increasing research and outreach

The College has four major threads to our strategic for research growth and impact: materials science (aligned with ONAMI and Drug Discovery, led by Chemistry and Physics); earth systems change (aligned with COAS and ecology on campus, led by Geosciences and Zoology); mechanisms of molecular health (aligned with LPI, EHSC and led by Biochemistry and Microbiology); and applied mathematics and computational science (connected to most of the other areas and led by Mathematics and Statistics). These four major threads inform much of our research planning.

Some of the major research initiatives pursued by the College this year were:

Support, with COAS, of the OSU Climate Research Coordinating Working Group that helped organize a workshop on Climate Change Research at OSU and locally-housed federal agencies, held on June 14th and 15th of June 2007. This workshop was the first step in a larger effort to define a Climate Change "Initiative" at OSU.  The overall goals of this "Initiative" include: (1) Develop a formal organization to foster climate research on campus and to serve as a magnet for external funding. (2) Promote stronger collaboration across units to generate greater internal funding, increase potential for inter-disciplinary research initiatives, and provide a means for OSU researchers to connect with colleagues. (3) Enhance infrastructure support, where infrastructure includes building, laboratory and major equipment. (4) Develop graduate and undergraduate programs in climate studies. (5) Provide outreach vis-à-vis climate change research and implications.

The College has started discussion about an initiative to form a center or institute around applied mathematics and computational science. Ralph Showalter in Mathematics and Belinda Batten in Mechanical Engineering are the principal contacts for the discussion.

The College played a major role, through the Ocean Principals Group, in planning and participating with the President’s Commission on Ocean, Coastal, and Earth System Futures.

The College has a major need for research instrumentation in almost all of our strategic areas. We have made a significant investment in time this year trying to plan for some of the major facilities on campus:

COS has taken the lead in discussions about replacement of our electron microscopy facility and support for the staff operating the facility

The College has supported the biological mass spectrometry (with CAS, Research Office, and other units) in the interim between funding of the EHSC proposal)

The College participated in the Research Office’s Task Force on Mass Spectrometry and helped produce recommendations on support models for major analytical facilities.

The College helped provide bridge funding for the stable isotope facility in COAS that serves users across campus.

COS took the lead in finding a solution to the issue of managing software licensing on campus after IS had to change their staffing.

COS coordinated discussions among all building occupants on cost-sharing the replacement of the RO water system in Weniger Hall

Frank Moore took a lead role in the preparation of the OTRADI proposal, working with John Cassady and colleagues at OHSU and UO.

Research initiatives. The Materials Science faculty participated in several new collaborative initiatives: 1. "MIT/OSU/HP Focus Center on Nonlithographic Technologies for MEMS/NEMS;" funding from DARPA and HP - $3.75M. 2. UO/OSU Master's Internship Program in Optical Materials and Physics, to be initiated summer 2007. 3. UO/OSU/PSU NSF IGERT: Interdisciplinary Materials Program to Accelerate the Transition from Student to Scientist, $1.25 M. 4. NSF National REU program in solid-state chemistry, jointly hosted by OSU and UO Chemistry Departments.

One new faculty member in Mathematics arrived to participate in the Ecosystem Informatics Initiative, as did one Research Faculty member in Mathematics. A new faculty member in Zoology arrived to join the Computational and Genome Biology initiative.

An IGERT proposal in Computed Tomography was submitted to NSF withsuccess at the first round.

In Science and Mathematics Education, every faculty member have been involved in leading external funding proposals pending review with NSF, Department of Education, NOAA, and Spencer Foundation most in collaboration with other units.

We are working to coordinate our outreach efforts through the College and with programs throughout the University. Some of our specific new actions include:

o Expanded participation Discovery Days and developed a regular rotation of events so the twice a year event is more useful to teachers and classes

o Chemistry now hosts school groups in our teaching labs for hands-on activities (6-8 times a year, on average) and plans and puts on Family Science Nights at schools in the Willamette Valley (typically 8-10 a year).

o Teach summer chemistry classes for Adventures in Learning (a two-week program for TAG middle school kids)

o Chemistry, Physics and Microbiology deliver a Summer Science Camp.o The College participates in Teacher Workshops put on by the SMILE and

Science Education Partnerships (SEPs) programs (1-2 times a yea

Enhancing diversity and community

The College reconstituted a Diversity Committee and completed community and diversity surveys of faculty and staff, undergraduate majors, and graduate students. Additional discussion is included in the sections on progress on last year’s priorities.

Units in the College have expanded their community building activities and all now have a fall social event and most have a spring event. We will next year have events for every unit at graduation.

The College’s recruitment of majors has had some significant success in recruiting minority students into science and math programs. The latest metrics show our population of underrepresented students at about 20%. Statistics provides a good example. The Department recruits a very diverse graduate student body. In particular, over 40% of our graduate students are female and about 40% are international students.

Provide a brief self-assessment of the unit efforts in the three areas: what worked; areas that need improvement; major barriers

The College worked through some very difficult conversations this year. These included the discussions about the structure of life sciences, the 80-10-10 budget prioritization exercise, and the fund balance management issue. I believe there were two very clear messages from those conversations about what is working as we pursue our strategic plan.

First, as can be seen in the list of accomplishments and initiatives, the faculty and staff in the College are fiercely committed to their programs and their students. While many of the accomplishments listed above are noted as by “the College”, in truth most of these are driven by individuals who believe in the potential of their students and of their research programs. I am particularly impressed by the number of actions taken to address issues of student engagement and the student experience in our service and baccalaureate core classes. I believe we have developed a culture where the budget and management issues are clearly seen as tools to allow us to accomplish the things we want in a classroom. They may limit us at time, but they seem to not obscure the important goals of the College.

The second thing that worked is our commitment to transparent and consultative decision-making. The leadership of the College has worked to make our financing, commitments, and policies transparent to the College. We have tried to develop a culture where open debate and disagreement is encouraged as we struggle with difficult decisions. The 80-10-10 exercise was a fine example. There was long and open discussion about the process and the priorities, but in the end a grudging acknowledgment of what were in fact our core priorities. The decisions are ultimately made in the Dean’s office, and not all of those decisions are welcomed (I note that the 80-10-10 exercise has a great deal of debris remaining to be worked on) but I believe that the members of the College feel that there views were represented and considered. It was encouraging to see how the leadership group approached and solved these problems. I believe much of the success the members of the College continue to enjoy is because of these practices.

I think one of the things that continues to challenge us is the fragility of our finances. When our planning for the academic year happened last summer, neither the fund balance issue nor the 80-10-10 exercise were before us. Both consumed a substantial amount of time and energy from the leadership. They did not prevent us from making progress on most of our major initiatives, but they probably did keep us from making more progress than we did. This is less a criticism than an observation. Because the units and the University lack significant reserves, we are living on the edge and must spend significant time making sure we do not slip below a sustainable financial state. There is no quick fix for it, but it is an issue to consider.

The other issue I saw occur this year that diverted attention from larger strategic goals was collateral consequences from decisions in other units. A couple examples are the change in software licensing support in IS and the lack of cental maintenance support for something as central as the deionized water supply for Weniger Hall. Both issues were important enough to the College’s research work that the Dean’s office had to spend significant time finding a collaborative solution to the problems. Neither was large, but are simply examples of a class of issues that come up every year and that are diversions from our core goals.

b. Summarize major unit activities during 2005-2006 that helped promote one or more of the five thematic areas

The College has a major role in each of the five strategic areas, as is probably clear from the breath and depth of what is described above. Most of the accomplishments and initiatives described above could be listed here. Some of the major areas of contribution include:

Arts and Sciences:

o Continued delivery of core general education and service courses to the campuso Promotion and development of the Professional Science Masters Program with discussions

expanded to Forestry, Fisheries and Wildlife, and other unitso Activities in each of the other thematic areas promotes progress in the basic scienceso Expansion of Honors College course offeringso Development of content pathways to complement the Education Double Degreeo Planning and fundraising for the LPI/Chemistry Science Center

Life Sciences and Health:

o Support of the Biological Mass Spectrometry facility and bridge funding for the environmental health science center

o Major contributions to the OTRADI legislative initiative for drug discoveryo Leadership role in the development of the OSU-OHSU partnership for the ORMED program to

expand the training of medical students in Oregono Core funding for an NMR spectrometer a key facility for the organic synthesis groups who are

exploring routes to make a number of bioactive natural products (potential natural product-based drugs).

o Support for planning on structure of shared analytical facilities

Natural Resources:

o Support for the Rural Communities Initiative through the work of Hannah Gosnello Support for the IWW through the development of the Transboundary Water Initiative,

consultation on the OSU Water Agenda, and development of a certificate program in water resource policy

Earth Systems:

o Retention of one of our key senior faculty in climate studieso Planning and participation in the President’s Commission on Ocean, Coastal, and Earth

System Futureso Funding and support for the OSU Climate Initiative Workshopo Support for real0time instrumentation of the Oregon Dead Zoneo Chemistry faculty (particularly Profs. Staci Simonich and Alexey Shvarev), adjunct faculty

(Field) and emeriti (Ingle) engaged in research in environmental chemistry, detecting, and tracking the fate of, anthropogenic chemicals in the environment.

Enterprise and Innovation:

o Mas Subarmanian named first ONAMI faculty fellow; resestablishement of a materials science research insitute at OSU

o Planning for the replacement and upgrade of our electron microscopy facilitieso Chemistry faculty (Evans, Keszler, Kong, Subramanian, Remcho) involved in ONAMI

initiatives on Safer Nanomaterials and Nanomanufacturing (sponsored by AFRL),

Nanometrology and Nanoelectronics (sponsored by ONR), and Nanoarchitectures (sponsored by ARL)

c. Summarize major accomplishments for 2005-2006 in support of the OSU Capital Campaign

The College made tremendous progress in our Capital Campaign work. Some of the highlights include:

Hiring of a new Associate Director of Development for the College.

Commitments for the Science Center project secured, though not public yet. The project is in the formal planning stages now.

Completion of the Yeats Professorship in Geosciences

Bob Lundeen’s leadership gift to science, engineering, and the student experience.

Jon and Stephanie DeVaan’s gift to scholarship support

Gifts from the Harrisons, Stones, and Verniers in support of the Science Center

Growth of the largest discretionary fund in the academic colleges (the Renaissance Fund) which has supported faculty setups, renovations, and retentions.

The last campaign report records $4,169,236 in new gifts or pledges in FY07, excluding any of the commitments for the building project. This is the highest annual private giving total the College has reached in the last ten years.

The College has completed or surpasses our goals for capital projects and program support, and has nearly completed our goal in scholarship support. We expect to surpass the last shortly. Our goal for faculty support is proceeding more slowly, but we are still in the exploratory stages of identifying alumni with capacity for that kind of support. We have several gift proposals out for the establishment of professorships or chairs.

The graph on the following page summarizes our progress to date. I have combined the goals for Science and LPI, since they are so intimately tied together because of the Science Center.

3. Other initiatives and their outcomes [e.g., Faculty/Staff Professional Development Activities]

The College continues to consolidate business services for most of our units into a single, integrated financial office. We made a major expansion of that center this year.

The College office has instituted regular meetings of the office managers to share experiences and explain new initiatives.

The College business officers have periodic meetings with the unit business staff to promote a sense of support and community.

College leadership has participated in sexual harassment training and an open forum with Terryl Ross on diversity initiatives.

The College has made a clearer policy on providing staff opportunities for training and professional development.

We are developing a set of training materials for new Department chairs, as we rotate our chairs on a more regular basis than do many units.

We have had discussions on how to provide faculty support and leave in a consistent way to deal with the loss of a spouse, severe family illnesses, and personal issues. This remains a work in progress that requires coordination with the University.

4. Scorecard

a. Performance on college-level metrics

The last version of college-level metrics are copied here.

The College reached a new high in private giving this year, with over $4.1M in gifts and pledges, (excluding bequests and funds committed for the Science Center). We are making sustaining progress on most of the key metrics including graduates, invention disclosures, and the % of US minority students. The last is particularly gratifying to see.

Grant and contract applications have gone up for the fifth year in a row. New grant awards are down some, reflecting the smaller awards and more competitive environment at most of the agencies, as well as somewhat reduced faculty numbers.

The the student to faculty ratio remains a point of concern, particularly the student FTE by course to faculty ratio. The reality is that we will make little progress in growing the faculty on state dollars, so we need to explore augmenting staff through private funds and we must consider alternative modes of course delivery that recognize the student to faculty ratio. There are ways to make large classes more effective. That ratio remains nearly double the ratio at many of our peers, and is the single most challenging metric we face.

b. Leveraging resources

Initiatives to leverage state resources

The College has been as engaged as possible in developing support for OSU’s Federal and State agendas.

On the Federal level we received support for the Transboundary Water Program in concept, but that has not yet translated to funding. We have collaborated with Engineering, Education, and COAS on Federal Agenda items.

One important goal was met when U.S. Senate passed America Competes (S. 761) by a vote of 88-8. This is the bipartisan bill, originally introduced as the National Innovation Act, which would appropriate $60 million to NSF over five years specifically for PSM program development (Section 4004). Once this has been appropriated, we will be applying to the National Science Foundation for funding to support expansion of our programs at OSU.

In the last Legislative session the College contributed to:

The case statement and public messaging for the LPI/Chemistry Science Center that helped secure (with tremendous efforts from the President and Jock Mills) $31M in state bond support for construction.

Associate Dean Frank Moore was a key member of the team that wrote the OTRADI proposal that was eventually funded at $5.2M. OSU’s portion is for support of our natural products and synthesis groups in Chemistry and Pharmacy.

The success of some of the ONAMI initiatives including laser optics, transparent semiconductors, and the recruitment of Mas Subramanain were due to work by faculty members in Physics and Chemistry. These successes were an important part of making the case for the commitment of $9M to the ONAMI initiative.

The College was the key OSU partner in developing the ORMED proposal for physician training in Corvallis that OHSU brought to the Legislature. It was not funded, but the project is continuing and it is likely that funding will ultimately be secured.

Initiatives to improve administrative efficiencies

We continue to pursue the consolidation of business services in the College to establish a professional management center. Our current constraint is the lack of expansion space in the current offices in Wilkinson Hall.

The College has been working to create a series of policies to guide chairs in dealing with routine and not so routine issues that come up. The goal is to make it easier for people to step into that job and to be consistent in the application of policies.

The College remains leanly staffed. We have only 1.0 FTE split between two Associate Deans, and a modest staff for the size of our operation. We will be increasing some of the central staff in support of the Campaign. We have tried to work with Advancement for our communication and design issues, rather than hiring someone to do that in house. I believe that cooperative approach has been very successful and has produced better work at a lower overall cost.

5. Assessment of your 2006-2007 Priorities

These are the priorities noted in last year’s annual report. I note in orange where significant progress was made and in blue where major issues need to be resolved. The first six impact both “Enhancing student success” and “Increasing research/scholarship and outreach”. The last directly addressed “enhancing diversity and community”.

Complete the budget redistribution process started in FY06.

The second phase of the base budget redistribution was completed and units adapted their program offerings to those changes. In almost all cases, the same access was provided as existed before the redistributions. There is now fine-tuning to be done as units adjust to the revised budget and an assessment of the current base budget distribution. One more cycle of reallocation, likely tied to faculty vacancies, may be considered. The process was complicated by the need to manage fund balances through the year and the discussions initiated in the 80-10-10 budget prioritization process. The 80-10-10 conversation will need to be brought to closure after the September retreat and beginning of the academic year.

Initiate a long-term planning exercise for facilities development. The Science Complex will address only a part of the issues for the Department of Chemistry and the issues are becoming increasingly damaging to the research programs in Gilbert, Cordley, and Weniger.

The chance to build a facility that houses joint instrumentation, class laboratories, and research labs for LPI and part of Chemistry creates the working space needed to plan a long-term renovation of science research space in the College. The funding for the new facility has largely been secured. The initial discussions shaped a plan to use space vacated in Weniger for physics labs, in Gilbert for surge space to allow renovations room or floor by floor, and to lay the groundwork for the Phase II Chemistry/Life Science facility. The working long-term plan we have developed is to finish Phase I and II, of the Science Center renovate Gilbert to serve as a home for applied mathematics and computational physics, to renovate Kidder Office space for mathematics and statistics, and to use vacated Weniger space for growth in the Geosciences/COAS Earth System enterprise.

Complete the planning for reorganization of life sciences after discussion with the College of Agricultural Sciences and implement those organizational changes to be in place in FY08.

The conversations with CAS continued through much of the year and were brought to a conclusion, with a decision to retain the current organizational structure of the joint units. The conversations provided a clearer definition of the shared expectations of positions in the joint units, a clearer direction for the Department of Zoology, and the initiation of a review of the undergraduate life sciences curricula. The discussions did not yield a resolution for the mismatch between life sciences program resources and the diverse strategic plans of the five life sciences units/programs. A working group of the unit heads will begin identifying an alternate strategy to that proposed by COS.

Complete at least four faculty hires in the coming year, including at least one each in Physics and Chemistry. This may prove extremely challenging since the research office lacks the ability to commit to additional setup commitments and it appears that the College will have few or no spendable reserves remaining at the end of FY06.

We initiated five major searches in FY07, for one instructor in Microbiology, two tenure-track positions in Chemistry, one tenure-track position in Physics, and one senior-hire in Zoology. We hired a young woman in Physics Education who will begin in fall term. We also brought a new research faculty member to Geosciences and retained one of our most prominent climate scientists. Our candidate for the first position in Chemistry declined because of an offer with a 30% higher setup package (we were at nearly $500K, so a strong offer); the second candidate there withdrew because of the physical facilities. In the other Chemistry hire, we lost the first choice candidate because of spouse relocation issues; the other candidates had taken other positions by the time the first offer was resolved. We will reopen one of those searches this coming year. The two finalists for the Microbiology instructor position both had serious shortcomings. The search was reopened. The senior hire was a target of opportunity, a female full professor in marine mammal physiology. Despite a very strong offer from us, with support from the Provost and the Research Office, a counteroffer from UC Santa Cruz kept her and her husband there. We are considering next steps to strengthen physiology in our health science programs.

Complete the initial phases of the General Science degree restructuring (this is related to the Life Sciences programs).

We have secured funding from Ecampus to support the development of online versions of sufficient upper-division courses to provide a degree completion pathway in General Science. We are using this as leverage to create and Integrated Science degree to serve students in pre-education and those with broad interests in Science, and will refocus the General Science degree on pre-health professional programs and align it with the Biology degree. We need to identify specific course structure and alignment in the two programs (the education pathways must be aligned with national standards outcomes) and we need to initiate the formal Category I and abbreviated Category I processes.

Continue with COAS discussions about the Earth Systems Institute.

Early in Fall term Geosciences and the Dean’s office worked with COAS leadership to develop an outline of what such an institute might look like and what the associated School of Earth Sciences would do. Discussions with the President and Provost in the Fall concluded that it was best to wait until the recommendations from the President’s Ocean Commission were in before taking next steps. College effort contributed to the planning and presentations to the Commission. The Commission report reinforced the notion of a major commitment to

ocean and coastal science. Next steps will require knowing outcomes from the September retreat.

Complete a diversity and community assessment for the College.

The College Diversity committee was reconstituted and worked through late Fall and Winter to develop survey assessments of community and diversity targeted at faculty and staff, undergraduate majors in the College, and graduate students in the College. In spring term the surveys were distributed. We got a 67% response rate from faculty and staff, a 39% response rate from graduate students (500 total), and a 25% response rate from undergraduates (2690 sent). These are very high return rates for this kind of survey and are a testament to the thought the Committee put into design of the survey. We are compiling the data now and are preparing a summary report to distribute to the College in the Fall. This will provide the direction for focus and forum groups to meet in this coming year.

6. Proposed Priorities for 2007-2008

The following are issues that we would like to make progress on in the coming year.I should note that I expect the discussions at our September retreat may raise issues and priorities that I am not aware of and that will require attention through the year. Those discussions will at least provide context for the issues below. Note that those in bold are ones likely to require direct oversight and engagement of the Dean’s office. Many of the other actions will be led by unit level personnel or committees.

Improve the undergraduate experience through curriculum revision and review (leadership for a number of these will be rooted at unit levels in the College):

Completion of planning and initial implementation of the Pre-Calculus Project (with EOP, Academic Success Center, Ecampus, Math)

Definition and course development of Science and Math Education’s undergraduate initiative in support of the Double Degree and the possible Uteach pathway

Complete review and recommendations on the undergraduate life science curriculum

Completion of Category I proposal for Integrated Science and development of first online courses for the Program

Increase faculty engagement in the undergraduate classroom: Consider the issue, raised by some chairs, of increasing disengagement of

some tenure-track faculty because of shrinking faculty size, increased use of instructors, and expanding class sizes

Develop and discuss with College model guidelines for faculty workload and position description development

Expand our opportunities for graduate student recruitment and success: Complete Category I proposal to make the Professional Science MS Degree a

distinct program Complete development of management courses for scientists Identify two new pathways for the PSM program

Enhance the climate for community and diversity: Distribute and discuss the results of the climate assessment surveys

Hold at least four focus group discussions on diversity and community in the College

Submit at least one proposal to address diversity in one of our disciplines (Geosciences)

Increase our capacity for research and engagement: Complete architectural planning for the Science Center and complete a space

assignment plan for the new facility and the vacated space, as part of the long-term facilities development plan

Development of an OSU Research Center to provide efficient and stable management, funding and development of interdisciplinary scientific research and education resources in support of Mathematical and Computational Modeling.

Pursue the recommendations of the Climate Initiative Workgroup and the next steps in implementing the recommendations of the President’s Ocean Commission

Complete a plan for life science directions through the work of the unit heads workgroup, in consultation with the faculty

Work with the Research Office and Provost’s Office to identify a plan to address central support for our core analytical facilities.

Goals for the Capital Campaign benchmarks are already in place.

College of Science Student Engagement Census April, 2007

Appendix I: Census of Student Engagement Activities in the College of Science

There has been a great deal of discussion this year about student engagement and the undergraduate student experience at OSU. Many units are diving into this and coming up with additions to their programs or curriculum. Units in the College have been engaged in a lot of such work over the last few years. We are trying to capture the range and impact of activities we already have in place so we understand what the College has been doing and what the most effective practices have been. Given the scope of the College’s undergraduate work this does not capture every activity, but does show the range and depth of work.

1. Experiences for first-year students (orientation seminars, welcome parties, field trips, etc.)

First-year Zoology students are required to attend an orientation. It’s held at the beginning of fall term in Cordley 1109. We serve pizza and sodas. Shawna Harvey presents lots of advising information, tells about ways to get involved in various opportunities, and gives “survival tips.” She also distributes folders with brochures on campus resources, Zoology information, and advising information. Attendance ~40

We have tried to organize activities for first year physics students in the past, but have not been successful in finding a good solution. About half of our juniors started in a different major or in a different school, and we lose about half our first year students to other majors. Needs to be worked on. We have about 20 first year students in CP, PH, and EP. . PH

Physics organizes an open house for first year engineering students to discuss engineering physics. The attendance in Fall was about 30, and gave us three new EP students. .

Biology is the host for a Connect Week luncheon in the courtyard of Cordley Hall. All the Life Science Departments are represented. Students meet with advisors, faculty, Dean’s office staff, and even the President stops by each year. We normally have about 100-125 students attend.

We sponser a Connect to Health Professions event with desserts and introductions oto the advisors and pre-health professional clubs.

Biology has developed an extensive presentation and set of materials for the START orientation sessions each year. Two years ago OSU Student Orientation and Retention indicated that Biology had the best START presentation at OSU.

All Biology first-year students and transfers are required to take BI 198 Biology Freshman Orientation in the fall. We have around 200 students in this course each year.

Several hundred Biology and other first-year students take BI 107 Pre-Dental Orientation or BI 109 Pre-Medical Orientation to prepare for these careers. These course provide hands on experiences (caring chalk or drilling in practice teeth), do mock admissions, and bring in speakers and former students.

The College also offers ENSC 101, a 1-credit orientation for Environmental Science majors, BB 111, a 1-credit orientation for Biochemistry majors, MB 110, a 1-credit orientation for Microbiology majors, and SED 407, 2-credit orientation for students interested in science and mathematics teaching.

College of Science Student Engagement Census April, 2007

We are currently in discussions with SOAR about developing optional ALS course sections restricted to Biology students. These small sections would compliment the BI 198 lecture and allow for smaller group interactions.Most units run a fall picnic or department social event to introduce new undergraduate and graduate students to the Departments.

Environmental science freshman and transfer students participate in a field trip to the Andrews Experimental Forest

Zoology Orientation Meeting – Orientation for Zoology Majors which promotes success at OSU and helps prepare students find a career in Zoology. -65 students

2. Student support and tutorial services: (Math Learning Center, Math Excel, MoleHole, etc.)

Physics operates a student help room in Weniger (noon to 6 pm) and in the Collaborative Learning Center (6pm to 10 pm) where teaching assistant are available for questions relating to the service courses. Used by a very large number of students.

Chemistry assigns GTA’s hours at the Mole Hole at CLC Valley Library (hours posted at http://www.chemistry.oregonstate.edu/courses/molehole.html) and list of available graduate and undergraduate tutors kept in main office and posted on the web (http://www.chemistry.oregonstate.edu/tutors.html

Biology has met with the Academic Success Center, Educational Opportunities Program and other units in an effort to ensure we are serving all our students. As a result of these discussions, Biology took the lead in organizing a list of all academic resources available to Biology and other science students on campus. This resource is used extensively in our advising and other units now use it, as well.

Biology TAs staff tables in the Collaborative Learning Center in the Valley Library where they assist students in the 21X series. Biology 10X TA’s assist students in the Biology Learning Center in Weniger Hall.

The College has worked with Academic Success and Academic Affairs to support supplemental learning courses for mathematics and anatomy and physiology.

Mathematics runs and staffs the Math Learning Center in Kidder Hall that provides support to thousands of students each year. Statistics also provides tutoring and support through the MLC.

Life Science Student Lounge – Cordley 2046 provides all Life Science and Environmental Students with a comfortable and fully equipped lounge where students can study, rest, heat a meal, refrigerate their lunch or work on computers. This studious environment is used continuously by students. Capacity20.

Chemistry has individual tutors for general chemistry courses as well as tutors available at the Collaborative Learning Center; Mole Hole. Biochemistry also provides undergraduate tutors for some of their courses.

Z33x Human Anatomy & Physiology tutoring is available through the Academic Success Center. Students meet in weekly small group sessions with the same tutor. Sessions are held at the Collaborative Learning Center in the Valley Library. Additionally, the Z33x instructors hold optional open-forum review sessions twice weekly.

College of Science Student Engagement Census April, 2007

3. Peer-learning and teaching opportunities: (Undergraduate teaching assistants, undergraduate tutors, etc.)

Chemistry offers a teaching seminar fall term (CH 407) and students can earn credit through our teaching internship course (CH 410-teaching intern). Chemistry majors that have the Chemistry Education option are required to take CH 407 and 3 credits of CH 410 as part of their program. Undergraduate tutors are also assigned hours at the Mole Hole and undergraduates are hired as UTA’s in several chemistry laboratory courses.

A majority of Microbiology students serve as undergrad teaching assistants in MB 230 or MB 303 in their junior or senior year. Some do it for more than one quarter. They can also volunteer as a tutor for students experiencing difficulties in MB 230 or MB 303. In addition, we periodically offer microbiology courses to the community and use undergraduate teaching assistants to staff those courses. The courses include: Adventures in Learning, Association of Women in Science workshops for 7th & 8th grade girls, and Saturday Academy.

Biochemistry, Biology, Physics, and Zoology also use undergraduate teaching interns, probably 35-45 each year total..

We use peer leaders at START – we always have several Science students assisting us at START.

Student clubs provide study groups, field learning experience, and leadership/learning opportunities.

The College now runs a student Ambassadors program who help with Homecoming, OSU Day, Golden Jubilee and other such events.

Biology offers a BI 21X Teaching Intern program where undergraduates assist graduate students teaching in 21X labs. Around 20 students participate each year.

Nine students from Mathematics competed in the 2007 Putnam Exam, a well known national competition that runs annually. The team score ranked them 114 out of 402, an excellent performance for a first year.

The Mathematics Department sponsored a team in the 2007 COMAP Math Modeling Competition, an undergraduate team modeling contest lasting for 4 days. Our team finished with `Meritorious Winner' ranking, the highest designation just short of the top 14 teams from 949 teams from 12 countries.

The Mathematics Department will host the Oregon Invitational Mathematics Tournament for high school students in May, 2007. This will involve many faculty and graduate students over a weekend. About 250 Oregon 9-12th graders will compete individually at 4 different levels and together on group problem solving exams.

Biology worked with the Academic Success Center helped develop and promote the model for the new Sigma Delta Omega study tables in the Collaborative Learning Center.

Many of our students obtain some experience in a research lab. It is not uncommon for the more experienced among these to help train new people joining the lab in the techniques they’ve become familiar with.

Outstanding Z33x Human Anatomy & Physiology students may become tutors for the Academic Success Center.

College of Science Student Engagement Census April, 2007

Geosciences has a program of teaching interns – students sign up for credits under Geo410 and work with GTAs in introductory lab courses.(5 students)

4. Course innovation and engagement work: (new courses or dramatic revisions of courses to address learning issues—CH 121 revisions, Math 103 for example).

Course revision and innovation are a constant process in the College. These are some of the recent efforts.

Physics has used peer instruction using PRS units in our service courses for many years. We experimented with concrete to abstract problem solving methods (Pat Canan) and have hired a faculty member to integrate all our experiences and experiences from other universities to create a much higher level of student engagement in our service courses. Our astronomy bac core course is taught by a former graduate student who used to be a physics and astronomy teacher and is now working on a PhD degree in SMED with research focusing on student engagement in that course. Many students involved. .

Physics has developed a new course for prospective K-8 teachers which is completely inquiry based. Enrollment around 20 students. .

The Physics paradigm project is highly interactive, and uses many non-traditional teaching methods and is becoming a national model for undergraduate physics instruction. About 20-25 students per group. .

We have completely redesigned the MTH 103 to prepare students for the precalculus MTH 111 course. This involved the supervision of Associate Professor Barbara Edwards and a couple of Instructors over two terms. The MTH 111 course was supplemented substantially by additional recitation sections and study tables to involve closer contact and monitoring or progress and issues. This is an ongoing project that will be continued depending on the documented success.

Physics has developed a preparation course for students who need some extra review before starting the basic physics or chemistry courses. Work done together with chemistry and math. About 20 students involved. .

Loeser and Firpo in CH 362 have developed a peer review exercise in which students submit a communication styled papers prepared after a four week project to the ”Journal of Experimental Chemistry I” and they each peer review three papers (anonymously). The professors designed an official review form that each student uses to submit their reviews. Copies of real reviews written by one of the professors are made available for students as examples. The reviews are graded and the blind copy of a multicopied form is returned to each author for feedback . Students seem to enjoy this exercise and appear to learn quickly how to spot flaws in not only the chemistry but the writing style of their peers and learn about the advantages of effectively using drawing programs and word-processing techniques (figures, tables, etc.). Since doing the peer review exercise, are reported vastly improved, more professional and complete.

In addition to this exercise Chemistry faculty have started offering to review other required papers in advance of the due date during fall and winter term (six professional papers are required). They hold joint office hours in a room in the laboratory and invite students to drop in. Students quickly learn that they can get significant help polishing their reports and have easy access to the professors for questions. As the word gets out that this is really helpful, more students show up and the written papers improve with revisions. Neither of these

College of Science Student Engagement Census April, 2007

courses are WIC courses.

Ecampus CH 411 & 412 are now offered along with lecture format and off campus students can now take several chemistry courses that span first through senior year. (Lerner & Loveland)

CH 324 is being redesigned with web quizzes and new homework online has been written and implemented. (Westall)New experiments have been designed and implemented around miniature spectrometers (OceanOptics CCD) in CH 461 & 461H with funding from The Camille and Henry Drefus Foundation. (Pastorek & Ingle & Westall)

BI 450/451 Marine Biology has been revised to include greater coordination and continuity between the one to two week sections taught by each instructor during spring term at Hatfield Marine Science Center. In addition, student research projects have been added to the course.

Students in the non-majors BI 10X series now complete portfolios of their work and this is the basis of their grade in the course. The curriculum is also extensively revised annually to emphasize current issues dealing with biology.

Biology has several sections of Honor’s College courses including BI 21X H in which students develop and conduct research projects with the faculty member.

Microbiology has tested some innovative teaching techniques in MB230, in conjunction with the Center for Teaching and Learning, to enhance learning opportunities and address learning issues. These replace some lecture time with in-class activities.

MB390 (Janine) and MB330 (Kate) are focused on inquiry-based cooperative learning that demands in-class engagement and interaction with others: participation in-group projects demands dependence on others and responsibility to others to deliver a product; there is a lot of in-class discussion. These are excellent experiences even for non-majors.

MB311, a writing-intensive lab, involves more critiqued writing than usual for labs, with very liberal access to and contact with the professor (Walt).

We will experiment this fall with what could turn out to be a major revision of ST 201-02-09-11. We will try a new text (written by Dan Schafer) that has a somewhat different orientation than the current course. (This course is taken by hundreds of students/year).

There is a new Geo409 capstone course for all Geology, Geography and Earth Science majors that includes a WIC component. There are also several new WIC courses (Geo330, 323) – with the goal of introducing writing at an earlier point in UG curriculum

The Geography curriculum has been completely revised.

Geosciences’ Ecampus offerings have grown to 30+ sections/year of 20 different classes to 650 students. Over half are students that would not be able to take OSU classes otherwise.

5. Learning communities (linked courses, small group interactions around large courses)

Biology is currently in discussions with SOAR about developing optional ALS course sections restricted to Biology students. These small sections would compliment the BI 198 Biology Freshman Seminar and allow for smaller group interactions

College of Science Student Engagement Census April, 2007

In MB 110 we facilitate students making connections with other MB students in courses that they are currently taking. We also have a departmental computer room/lounge, which serves as an informal meeting place for students. This computer lab is used by some courses and its central location near our lecture and lab promotes collaboration and community building on projects

MB 390 Is built around team assignments and exercises.

GEO several Geosciences courses have begun using group learning activities within the large course format – even within the group of e-campus courses that we offer to >1000 students/year

6. Inquiry-based learning courses: (Hands on learning, engaged learning, beyond the standard lab---MB 230, Physics Paradigms, A&P, or courses based entirely in lab activities, etc.)

MB 390 The World According to Microbes is a campus model for how to create inquiry based learning in a non-majors classroom.

The Biology 10X and 21X series have been redesigned to incorporate inquiry-based learning exercises, as has BI 450/451.

We have used problem solving based exercises like Math Excel and Supplemental Learning to explore ways to improve performance in the pre-calculus math sequences.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute program provide several dozen hands-on research opportunities in summer

Experimental Chemistry I & II advanced laboratory courses for chemistry majors emphasize hands on learning. Inquiry and freedom to explore within boundaries is the heart of these integrated laboratory courses for chemistry majors (sophomore year includes biochemistry & biophysics majors also). (220 capacity for majors / year).

All Microbiology students must take at least 3 microbiology laboratory courses that are entirely hands on. In addition, the majority of our students have the opportunity to work in a research quarter – some for several years.

Physics pioneered the use of interactive class feedback devies (clickers) in lower division classes. These are now used in statistics and microbiology and their use is being expanded.

Jeff Arthur developed a number of computer-based modules for use in ST 314 – students work in class on their laptops on review problems and simulations and result are shared in real time.

7. Field-based learning: (Formal or informal courses based on field or experiential learning, GEO 490 Field Camp for example)

Chemistry Education option majors are required to take SED 309 and SED 409 practicum where they are placed as assistants in local K-12 schools. (5-10 students/yr)

For 26 years BI 450/451 Marine Biology has been taught in residence at Hatfield Marine Science Center. The course is recognized as an exceptional field-based course where students spend most days in the field or laboratory each spring term.

College of Science Student Engagement Census April, 2007

BI 371 Ecological Methods is a field-based course where students develop research projects as part of Biology, Botany, Zoology, and Environmental Science degrees

Microbiology uses field trips to local establishments having a connection with microbiology – such as biotech laboratories, hospital clinics, food industries, technical facilities, etc. Once per year we do a major field trip to a microbiology affiliated establishment farther away. We also take students to the Northwest branch of the American Society for Microbiology meetings.

All Geology majors are required to complete a six-week field program at a permanent camp we maintain in Mitchell, Oregon.

Several Zoology lab courses involve field trips to provide students with field work and specimen-collecting experience. Courses include: Z352 Marine Ecology Laboratory, Z362 Invertebrate Biology Laboratory, Z365 Biology of Insects, Z474/574 Systematic Herpetology, Z477/577 Aquatic Entomology. Combined enrollment/participation ~150 per year

40% of Geosciences courses have field experiences in a variety of forms – most are standard field trips/projects. The Department is currently in the process of developing a new field course that will be an introductory experience for all Geoscience students (Geo295).

The faculty and students in Geosciences have periodically organized major field trips to international sites of geologic importance (South Africa, Spain).

8. Service learning experiences: (learning for credit or not through community exercises, like the Oregon Prescription Drug sign-up program)

Students are encouraged to engage in service learning from the beginning of their career at OSU. Each fall we invite ASOSU and Student Involvement to our BI 198 Biology Freshman Seminar. We also have service projects such Discovery Days and Leaders of Positive Innovation which our students participate in on campus. Many of the biology students interested in medicine are involved in extensive service learning projects – two of them were photographed for the recent Oregon Prescription Drug sign-up program, for example.

Students in Chemistry’s Forensic Science option are advised to consider taking the Corvallis "Citizens Academy" a 10-week workshop, 3 hr/week, Wed 6:30-9:30 pm. Taught Fall and Spring. (3 students/yr?)

The Biochemistry and Biophysics club organizes a number of community participation activities, including Habitat for Humanity, numerous health outreach activities, beach clean up, highway cleanup, soup kitchen, Relay for Life, etc.

Volunteer work is required for entrance to medical, dental, PT, PA school. College advisors are instrumental in helping students find these experiences. They have built up many contacts over the years.

The College organizes a Preceptorship program where pre-med students shadow a physician in Corvallis

Oregon Prescription Drug sign-up program was organized by pre-health student in the College. OPDP out reach has been very satisfying; students are showing initiative to organize events on their own and are very excited about it. Students from different disciplines are also excited to be working together (eg, prepharms with premed); over 100 are involved! People from the community are calling and asking for student volunteers too. EG: Bi Mart manager called to ask for volunteers to staff a Health Fair on May 6.

College of Science Student Engagement Census April, 2007

Microbiology does outreach to middle and high schools that involves our undergrad students, who are organized through the Microbiology Students Association. They make presentations at schools or at OSU-wide organized events on campus about a specific area of microbiology and some are quite passionate about this

Life Science Club members may work at Discovery Days and perform outreach service by teaching science to elementary school students and other visitors.

9. Internships or work experiences: (required internships as part of degree programs).

Biology students are encouraged to seek out internships in the BI 198 Biology Freshman Seminar class when we have representatives come from biotech companies, resources agencies, environmental consulting firms, non-profits and other areas. More than half of our students participate in a research or internship program during their undergraduate education. We also work regularly with Career Services to promote biology students interests at career fairs, as well as professional development opportunities. Our website and listserves list extensive internship options around Corvallis and our region.

Students in all of our 10 chemistry options + the BA can use graded CH 410 credit to fulfill up to 6 credits of their program but it is not required (except as noted above in pt 3). If students are working in a lab and earning internship credit they must first file a signed and endorsed learning agreement (http://www.chemistry.oregonstate.edu/undergrad/internships.html). The learning agreement is a contract between the student, the work supervisor, and the student’s academic advisor. Many chemistry majors work part time in science labs at local industries or on campus for pay and do not earn credit. As we are notified of opportunities for part time work in the local area (mainly from department alumni) these are broadcast over our listserv and it is the student’s responsibility to apply. (50 students/yr)

Internships are not required, so all are informal. They include, as noted above 2-4 students per year. Last year, Anahita Fallahi did one at Harvard and numerous other students have participated elsewhere, including at OHSU, Notre Dame, U. of O., UT Southwestern, NIH, etc.

Environmental Science requires either an internship or a research experience for graduation.

While only a few Microbiology students do official internships, a large number are able to get actual work experiences – some companies in this area that hire our undergrad students for work when they are still students are: Siga Pharmaceuticals, AVI Pharmaceuticals, Stalhbush Island Farms, National Frozen Foods, Oregon Freeze Dry, Good Samaritan Hospital.ENSC 410 – Internships

Internships are encouraged, but not required of “regular” Zoology students. They are required for the Zo PreVet option. Students work in local veterinary clinics, Chintimini Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, Brad’s World Reptiles, and Heartland Humane Society, to name the most common local venues. Students have also arranged internships elsewhere in Oregon (such as Oregon Zoo, Wildlife Safari) and the United States (Northwest Trek, Disney World). Several students have traveled abroad for internships organized through International Education. They have worked in Namibia, Mexico, Costa Rica, Cook Islands. Total participation ~20 per year

Geosciences has an active internship program, but it is not required for the BS or BA.

10. Undergraduate research experiences: (required or elective).

College of Science Student Engagement Census April, 2007

The majority of chemistry majors do undergraduate research on the OSU campus before they graduate. They do this as volunteers in a lab, for pay or for 401 credits. Many earn 401 credit and they can use this credit to satisfy part of their required option in chemistry. (30 students/yr)

Another opportunity that is broadcast to sophomore level chemistry majors is the many summer research programs across the US (e.g. NSF REU) and several majors each year participate in these off campus ( http://www.chemistry.oregonstate.edu/courses/ch361-464/ch362/Summer_Undergraduate_Research_Opportunities_fo_Chemistry_Majors.html )

Each spring the department hosts a research styled poster session called “Chemistry in Action” student prepare and present posters on a project that they have been working on for at least six weeks either as part of the WIC Experimental Chemistry II CH 463 7 463H course and CH 401 research. The poster session is open to the campus. (25 students/yr).

URISC and HHMI fellowships are also opportunities that chemistry majors are encouraged to apply for during the summer. (5-10 students /yr)

Faculty in several units pursue and receive additional grant funds to support undergraduate research and travel to meetings such as NSF REU. ( 3-5 students/yr)

Every student in physics has to do a research project and write a senior thesis. About 15-20 students involved each year. . PH

The Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program in Mathematics at Oregon State University has run continuously with funding from the national Science Foundation for 21 years.

Physics has several of our students participate in the OSU URISC program or at REU programs at other sites. About 5-10 students. .

Biology students are encouraged to seek out research opportunities during the BI 198 Biology Freshman Seminar. During the seminar, we have a student panel of upper classmen discuss what they got out of their research experiences and how they got involved. We also regularly have students receive both HHMI and URISC grants to do research at OSU, and several of our students go to other institutions for research opportunities in the summer each year, particularly at OHSU. Our website and listserve includes extensive information to help students find undergraduate research opportunities and funding. Again, more than half of our students are engaged in undergraduate research or internships.

About 2/3 of all BB students perform research in research labs before graduating. They take BB 401 and/or Honors College classes for their theses

Students from the College are one of the major cohorts in the International Degree and Honors College, both of which require a research experience.

Undergraduate research experience (ENSC/BI/ZOO 401) is available for Biology, Zoology or Environmental Science majors as Undergraduate Research Project Credit. These credits can be applied as upper division credit toward their respective programs.

Research experiences are not required in Microbiology but over 80% of our students participate in this experience.

Many students do Z401 Research in Zoology faculty labs. This is an upper-division Science elective. Participation ~60 per year

College of Science Student Engagement Census April, 2007

The undergraduate research thesis is an elective, however almost half of our students in Geology and Earth Science have done a research project in the past 3 years. Support for these students has been very strong from the faculty, and from our alumni base, which has helped us to build an endowment of over 250K to help fund such research. We have also just established new undergraduate thesis guidelines for Geosciences, which we hope will encourage more students to take that path. (20 students/yr)

11. Student clubs and student community-building activities: (Department clubs, pre-Health, end of year or Graduation events, annual award events and awards, others)

The College helps support many student clubs including Biochemistry Club, Botany, Life Sciences, SAACS (Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society), Pre-dental Society, Pre-medical Society, Pre-optometry Society, Pre-nursing Club, Geosciences Club, Math ClubMicrobiology Student Association, COS Ambassadors, Science and Math Education Club, Sigma Delta Omega – a new women’s sorority for science majors – started by Tari Tan

Chemistry has the Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society (SAACS) club for undergraduates that meets regularly and participates in outreach activities (15-20 students). In addition chemistry hosts chapters of two national honor society for chemists: Phi Lambda Upsilon and Iota Sigma Pi. Annual initiations are held to install new members. (15 students)Chemistry holds a separate Honors and Awards banquet each May to announce undergraduate and faculty awards and scholarships.

Chemistry will host for a second year a Graduation light reception for all chemistry graduates and their guests on graduation Sunday in the lobby of Gilbert Addition. (approx. 35 attended in 2006.

We have a chapter of the Society for Physics Students. Membership around 20 each year. .

Physics’ Fall and Spring picnics are open to all students, but are attended mainly by juniors, seniors, and grads. Total number of students participating around 40-50.

The Life Sciences Club is open to all students interested in the life sciences, but most of the members are Biology and Zoology majors. The club provides social and educational activities for students from outdoor activities to research talks. The club is advised by two members of Biology, and over a hundred students participate each year.

Biochemistry/Biophysics has a “newsgroup’ that meets once per week to discuss current events outside of science to keep students informed. There is also a listserv to which over 150 students receive twice weekly news summaries.

Biochemistry has multiple graduation activities, including a formal event on graduation weekend to which students and families are invited. We also have a graduating seniors party at our house that is less formal. Non-graduation related activities include the BB Social, which is held once per term at a faculty member’s house. All undergrads are invited to these.

Microbiology has a departmental email list to notify students of important information, a departmental club (the Microbiology Student Association), a lunch for our graduates and their parents, a lunch for microbiology scholarship recipients, and a yearly departmental picnic that includes faculty, staff, graduate & undergraduate students (and their families).

Science and Math Pre-education Club has ~12 students that participate in Science and Math Family nights in the local community; activities at the Corvallis Farmer’s Market; end of year field trip; fund raising

College of Science Student Engagement Census April, 2007

Zoology hosts an annual graduation luncheon in the Cordley Courtyard for graduates of Biology, Botany and Plant Pathology, Environmental Science, General Science, and Zoology and their families. Zoology attendance ~50

We have a very active Geosciences student club, which has been pivotal in organizing field trips, student activities and in providing feedback to the faculty and administration. (40 students)

Geosciences has an annual awards lunch where we recognize the accomplishments of our students, and announce our departmental awards and scholarships. This is for all undergrad and grads (200 students, although not all attend of course)

12. Student intervention and support activities: (do you email student on probation, any particular programs or activities you routinely take to work with students).

Biology emails all students who are on academic probation, warning, or suspension every quarter.

The head chemistry advisor contacts student on academic warning, probation and suspension to notify them of resources available to help them improve and to let them know we are available to help them if they would like to meet

Biology sends out letters of recognition to all students who make the Dean’s list each quarter.

We attend talks of students who complete the International Degree and/or Honor’s Degree in Biology (more of them do so in Biology than any other unit). We also attend the Honor’s poster presentations event each spring.

Biology advisors regularly refer students to the Academic Success Center, Educational Opportunities Program, Counseling and Psychological Services, and other units.

The College head advisor pulls a list after each term of all students on academic warning, probation., or suspension. She sends it to the chief advisor in each department who then communicates with the student. The head advisor also e-mails directly any student on academic probation and also e-mails any General Science student or Undecided student without an option who is on academic warning.

Head advisor pulls a list of all students on the Honor Roll after each term and sends it to the chief advisor in each department for follow up.

Emails are sent to all ES/ZOO/BI students on Probation with a request to visit their advisor for academic counsel. I routinely work with students to ensure their level of academic performance is actually rising and that, they have followed through with contacting tutors, counselors, TA’s. I then have them meet with me after their first round of mid-terms to confer on test results.

Each quarter students on AW or probation or suspension are notified individually and asked to see their adviser in Microbiology and Biochemistry and Biophysics and most other departments in the College.

Advice to students on Academic Warning and on Academic Probation include some strategies for improving their grades (Academic Success Center, ALS 116 course, meet with advisor, don’t continue in sequence in which student did poorly, reduced course load).

College of Science Student Engagement Census April, 2007

13. Advising innovations and improvements: (improved web materials, expanded access to advisors, etc.)

The College has created a cohort of professional advisors both centrally and distributed in some units to provide coherent and informed advising, particularly for the first two years of work at OSU.

Chemistry has an undergraduate web page that includes links to all things about the chemistry degrees and opportunities for undergraduates offered by chemistry. This web page is a tremendous resource for all academic advisors (on campus and off campus), prospective chemistry majors, current chemistry majors and alumni, and not least the 12 faculty serving as chemistry academic advisors.

Chemistry uses an online exit survey for graduating seniors and maintains picture boards of each graduating class prominently displayed in the hallway of Gilbert Hall.

Chemistry offers dedicated competitive scholarships to our best students. Many of these scholarships are a result of faculty and alumni donations and are specific for undergraduates. The Hach Scholarship for Chemistry Education targets up to four BS chemistry majors in the chemistry education option that plan to teach high school chemistry.

Biology has an innovative 2+2 advising model. The first two years are with a professional advisor. This allows students who need more advisor contact, and general institutional and career information to utilize individuals trained specifically for advising. In the second two year, students are assigned to faculty based on career interests. This junior and senior level interaction leverages the strength of faculty in mentoring students when they need help preparing for careers beyond the university. In a quick perusal of advising website materials across the campus, it is clear that units all over the university are embracing our advising model.

The College of Science website has been completely rebuilt and has better Advising and Student Services information.Most departments are using the has been completely rebuilt and has a new Degree Audit format. Students are starting to access their degree audit on-line.Head advisor sends out e-mails to all COS students twice each term:

1. Reminder about last day to register/add/drop and a reminder to apply to graduate2. Reminder about the last day to withdraw from classes or S/U as well as a reminder

about upcoming registration for the next term.

The College runs a Health Career Fair to provide access to information on careers..

Medical and dental paperwork is on web, to supplement in-person meetings and to accommodate those who are applying from out of town.

Recent program changes or additons include: Revised Environmental Science Web Site, Revised Biology Web Site, Academic Success Resources for Biology Students at OSU, Careers in Animal Behavior, Pre-Vet Medicine Students Web Sites of Interest, Study Abroad in Biology, Study Abroad in ES, What makes OSU Special Bulletin Board?, Job Opportunities for Life Science Students, Internship Opportunities for Life Science Students, Life Science List Serve, Zoology Orientation Meeting and Resources, Pre-Vet Option in Zoology

There is a Distance Environmental Sciences Advising portal in Blackboard - all distance students; new Online orientation for distance students – work with ECampus; new

College of Science Student Engagement Census April, 2007

We routinely notify advisors of learning opportunities (such as Banner classes, Web for Advisor, advising webinars). We also keep advisors informed of important dates, policy changes, registration procedures and schedules

We have just finished a major revision of the undergraduate Geology and Geography sites on our departmental website. (hard to estimate # of students – all majors, plus all prospective majors, )

14. Scholarship, fellowships, banquets, poster sessions

College of Science scholarships – 161 awards (over $200K) given in 2005-06. Awards given at a scholarship dessert in the spring. Parents, donors, and other guests invited as well as departmental members.

Most of the unit level award and scholarship events are noted about in the community-building section.

15. Study Abroad and International Experiences:

Biology has more students study abroad than any other major in the College of Science and more than all other units except the College of Business at OSU.  More students complete the International Degree in Biology than any other major on campus.  Biology is the pilot unit for the Curriculum Integration project which allows our student to take advantage of over 50 options abroad including study abroad at universities, intensive field-based programs and international internships in a variety of settings.

The College of Science administers study abroad exchanges in Lancaster and Nottingham, England’ Bangor, Wales, and Auckland, New Zealand. Student who go on exchange are expected to participate in recruiting and orienting the next class of students when they get back. We hired one previous participant to work in the College office as a Study Abroad Ambassador.

The College has a person whose duties include working with International Programs to broaden opportunities for students to study overseas.