tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29242801690050848892024-03-12T19:23:01.315-07:00Sabbatical EpistlesBlogging by an on sabbatical professor of organic chemistry from a BS/MS granting state university. While on sabbatical the author is working in a synthetic organic chemistry laboratory at a PhD granting research university. Topics of the blog include organic chemistry and synthesis, higher education, being a faculty member at a PUI.Thomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.comBlogger177125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-18162009753684267302011-05-19T10:13:00.000-07:002011-05-19T10:17:30.418-07:00Field TripNo, I am not dead, just trying to move an NMR, finish the semesters classes, create an online course for the continuing education college, get three Masters students to thesis, write annual reports for student development grants, and attend all the end of year celebrations, and dire budget meetings on the agenda. Actually writing that fills me with a mixture of exhaustion and panic as I still have much to do.<br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">Those who think I need a break convinced me to go to the <a href="http://www.huntington.org/huntingtonlibrary_02.aspx?id=9062">Huntington Library and Museum</a> yesterday. Being a science book collector I was looking forward to the exhibit on the Regency period in England (1810-1820). I was not let down as they had one case on the science of the period which included one of Davy’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firedamp">coal damp</a> papers and two books by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Accum">Frederic Accum</a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The regency period was one of significant advances in science and industry as it was the beginning of the industrial age. The people’s interest in science was great and the middle classes would read scientific literature of the day. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Out of this period came the practice of public lectures where you could subscribe to lectures on chemistry by Davy himself. It was in such lectures that an apprentice bookbinder named <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Faraday">Michael Faraday</a> came; being gifted the lecture tickets by someone who was not interested in attending after the first couple of lectures in the series. He wrote up the notes he took and bound them, which earned him a meeting with Davy and ultimately a place as a dishwasher in the lab. The rest of this digression is history.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In looking at a case focused on the theater of the period I noticed something interesting in a diary entry for an Anna Mararette Lapent. Apparently she was quite a theater maven and wrote volumes about the plays she attended and books she read. At the bottom of the open page about February 1814 in the case at the Huntington is the following; “During the week read two lectures of Davy’s on agricultural chemistry." There was something written after that which I could not make out.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">If only my students were reading two of Hall’s lectures on organic each week, what new flowering of science might we see.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">T.S. Hall</div>Thomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-65761080674463590992011-04-20T09:26:00.000-07:002011-04-20T09:26:29.550-07:00Watch Out Angry BirdsOne of the things that my students always have trouble with is recognizing that a collection of reagents in a flask will not react with each other. They automatically assume some reaction must occur, and will come up with some crazy product. The thing is, <i>in vivo</i> many functional groups and reagents can coexist. It can be important to the chemist or biochemist to recognize the potential for reactivity or coexistence. <br />
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With this and many other issues in mind I have been trying to think of ways to help my students master organic chemistry. One thought was to have the students make 3x5 cards of solvents, reagents, and molecules with one, two, three, etc. functional groups and families present. The students would then draw from the decks to create collections of contents in a hypothetical flask. They would then have to determine the possible reaction and the products that would be produced. <br />
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Realizing that 3x5 cards are so last century, I wonder if this could be done as an organic chemistry application. Perhaps as T.S.Hall's Organic Reactions slot machine where the flask contents would be on the wheels. Once the student has pulled the lever or pushed the start button, the wheels would turn to a random set of reagents. The student could accrue points by predicting the correct products, using a drawing program.<br />
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Who knows, it might make organic even more fun than it is now!<br />
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T.S. HallThomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-18696187348433852972011-04-07T08:27:00.000-07:002011-04-07T08:27:36.072-07:00Narcisissma is the pride of the faculty(Let's start with an apology to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaWo232QtsQ">Don McLean</a>. Having learned the word narcissism from his song back in my childhood, the concept always reminds me of the song.)<br />
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One of my colleagues has stated at faculty meetings that, "students come and go, but the faculty are always here, so the university should be run for the benefit of the faculty." This way of thinking has always bothered me. Recently my department chair chose to publicize the publications of faculty members and a scholarly activity award for another faculty member. Aside from not mentioning the student co-authors, the chair at the same time completely ignored that one of our seniors earned a NSF Graduate Fellowship, and our students took three of four university awards for scholarship and service. The specifics of these cases are not important but serve as examples of the insidious ways departments shift away from student focus and towards faculty focus.<br />
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It's not that faculty don't care about students. With constantly increasing class sizes, pressure to graduate more students regardless of achievement, budget cuts that reduce the resources for teaching and research, pay that even the state's consultants say is below national averages, and leaders who tell the public that budget cuts will be covered by reduction in the pay and benefits of faculty and staff, faculty can come to feel that no one cares about them. The faculty need to bolster there self esteem by drawing attention to their successes. I can't fault that.<br />
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The thing is, at PUIs and MCUs the faculty must remember that those who control the resources see our main products as educated students. Most of the public don't get the connection between the faculty member's publication or scholarly activity award and what they perceive that they are paying for. The connection must be made through the students.<br />
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Every argument, and the foundation laid for every argument on budget must be based on the quality of education our students receive and the value that quality represents to the community, the taxpayer, and the parent or student who is paying the tuition.<br />
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It's the students, stupid! Love yourself a little less, love your students a little more, and the community will view you with higher esteem!<br />
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T.S. HallThomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-9029385285660916112011-04-05T08:45:00.000-07:002011-04-05T08:45:20.177-07:00What we coverWhen the economy is tight and education budgets are being cut, the public generally turns to the idea of higher education as technical training rather and a broad training of the mind wedded to a training in a specific field. As has been noted in this blog on several occasions, this is in line with the interests of many college students who could care less about anything that they think is unimportant to their getting the job they desire. Rather than comment on the value of classes like "Comic Spirit,"it might be useful to turn this discussion toward my favorite class, organic chemistry. <br />
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After the recent ACS National meeting I was discussing "real world" organic chemistry with one of my former students. I had a standard organic text open when my former student arrived. The visitor immediately noted that the chemistry shown on the pages was never really used in modern industrial laboratories, to which I noted that few academic labs would use that particular chemistry. The truth is that much of the chemistry in standard organic texts is not used today. My early career med chemist commented that one of the challenges of the first year in industry was learning all the chemistry that they never encountered in their academic training. <br />
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With the advances of transition metal catalysis over the last couple of decades many of the chemistry's we teach in our organic classes are, form a practical standpoint, only marginally better than teaching students blowpipe analysis. From a pedagogical perspective, these older chemistry's have value in training the mind. My concern is that we must balance the training of the mind with the practical skill training that students need to be successful. <br />
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Some will argue that the practical training is the function of research in the curriculum. The problem is that in the modern funding scheme of higher education, research and small lab classes are being defunded, as they cost the university a considerable amount per student. In many systems research required of faculty and students, receives barely token funding. Faculty and departments are expected to raise the needed funding themselves.<br />
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It may be time to convert those third semester organic classes to "real world organic" courses. There is a need for textbooks written at a junior class level that make the transition from the basic organic course to modern practical organic chemistry. I would be interested in suggestions and ideas on the subject.<br />
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T.S. HallThomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-51285564701849874192011-03-22T09:04:00.000-07:002011-03-22T09:04:38.786-07:00Lab course credit unitsWhile I am sure that this blog has become too higher ed policy wonky for many, some policy issues have more impact on the day-to-day lives of academics than others. Today's issue may be one of those.<br />
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The federal government, in an effort to more evenly assess the value to the level of instruction, academic rigor, and time requirements of course work is pushing toward a clearer standard for the academic unit. The main goal is to define the unit for purposes of financial aid. <br />
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The proposed standard relies on the Carnegie classifications in which the minimum requirement for one unit is defined as an hour of direct faculty instruction and a minimum of two hours of out-of-class student work each week for approximately 15 weeks for one semester or trimester, and adjusting for quarters or differing amounts of time. For labs, internships, practica, etc. and "equivalent amount of work" is required.<br />
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Between my student days and my faculty days I have been associated with six different institutions. Five of those institutions assigned the organic lab courses one unit for a three hour lab. The other university assigned 1.5 units. Under the definition of a unit, assigning one unit to three hours of lab suggests that in terms of time, the minimum for a unit has been met by the in lab activity only in the organic lab course. Those extra minutes preparing prelabs and lab reports represent effort beyond the minimum. When one considers research units and all the lab courses a science major takes, the effort expended to earn a science degree is substantially greater than the minimum.<br />
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Our students often complain about the workload of science degrees. I believe that the workload discourages some students from pursuing STEM degrees. It also makes it more likely that a STEM student will take longer than four years to complete their degree, particularly if that student must work to pay for their education. Additionally, the nerd stereotype, which also discourages STEM focus among students, suggests that our students have no time for social lives. A unit analysis supports the stereotype, if our units require more effort than those of other disciplines.<br />
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I doubt that many of us would suggest lowering the workload to earn a STEM degree. Increasing the number of units would also increase the time to a degree. With the public expectation being that a college degree should be only four years/120 units makes increasing the units for a degree is problematic.<br />
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If we want to improve our STEM recruitment and graduation rates we may need to rethink our approach to educating STEM students. This may require touching third rails of higher education, such as the general education curriculum and our lower level core courses which occupy a large portion of our units.<br />
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T.S. HallThomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-92199865352753271482011-03-16T10:33:00.000-07:002011-03-16T10:33:51.325-07:00Organic Chemistry A & B - Why?I just finished grading my second exam of the semester. Teaching a Chem and Biochem majors organic course has advantages and disadvantages, both of which are clear upon grading an exam. The are a few students who really care and show a clear desire to understanding of the material and go beyond it. There are also a uncomfortably large number of students who make me suspect that they have never heard of general chemistry let alone organic chemistry. (I am not sure how this can be the case in the second semester of organic, but it is.) This later group are only chemistry majors as a stepping stone to pharmacy school or are biochemistry majors who believe that biochemists don't need to know organic chemistry.<br />
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During the bout of mild depression that follows grading I find myself struggling with the balance between a life-of-the-mind approach to education and technical training. In the life-of-the-mind approach I try to teach my students to think like scientists, with an emphasis on applying that thinking to organic chemistry topics. In the technical training approach I try to give the student just those tools they need to move forward in their careers.<br />
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The technical training approach is very much in vogue today lead primarily by those who appear to believe that we have reached the end of scientific advancement and our graduates will never see anything that is not already known. Obviously, I see this, in its purest form, as a shortsighted and detrimental focus to education. I don't understand how scientists can embrace an approach so antithetical to the idea of the scientific method. This mode of teaching creates good technicians, not good scientists.<br />
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The life-of-the-mind approach is demeaned in our anti-intellectual society as being an ivory tower perspective, which it is, in its purest form. Often I find myself wondering why we are covering some of the outdated and, for practical modern day purposes, useless chemistry we see in organic courses. I can see a rationalization that points toward a training of the mind, although I am suspicious of such arguments. This method creates people who can think-tank a problem, without dealing with the practical realities.<br />
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As I am sure many readers will agree, I think the key to a good educational system is to balance the two views. This leads me to a questions for which I have no answers. In a fundamental sense, what is the balance we trying to convey to students in the two semester organic course? Do our texts and examination methods reflect that balance? <br />
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With the increased reliance on multiple choice exams and larger class sizes I fear that we are moving increasingly toward credentialing to the technical training side. I don't believe that this approach will make either our graduates or our economy competitive in the future.<br />
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I look forward to the thoughts of readers.<br />
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T.S. HallThomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-83530453501018640402011-03-12T07:48:00.000-08:002011-03-12T07:48:41.483-08:00No Compromise AmericaEvery time I have started to write a blog entry over the last few weeks I have found myself drifting back to the same off topic issue, so I am just going to get this off my chest and move on.<br />
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A few weeks ago I was listening to an interview with a member of a state legislature talking about budget issues and how to close a large budget gap. This elected representative stated that the source of budget problems is "compromise". He then went on to argue that there should be no compromise. He suggested that the only solution is to silence all who disagree and have one party (his) make all the rules. No surprising for today's politicians, but increasingly we see evidence of politicians acting to silence all who disagree.<br />
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Being a radical moderate, I don't care and won't tell, which party this person was from. It does not matter. The movement to the extremes is a recipe for destruction. When we refuse to negotiate, when facts don't matter, when we salt the earth of our enemies in a civil war, we have sown the seeds of the end of civil society and at some future time will see revolution in our own land.<br />
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In my life I have see revolutions and genocides. They begin when one group holds power and wealth and dictates to those who think or look differently that they will have no voice or power over their lives. Look at Egypt and Libya, the populace are wage slaves who must suffer in silence as all power and wealth go to a few.<br />
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I was taught in elementary school and have always believed that part of the genius of the founders of the United States of America was that they set up a system requiring that even the minority opinions would have a voice and would be heard in the court of public opinion. When politicians act specifically to pursue a permanent majority by legislating the destruction of any means that those who disagree with them might use to have a voice, they undermine the foundations of the nation.<br />
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I am hopeful that the pendulum has reached the zenith of its swing and more sensible voices will soon speak up, but when I hear leaders like the legislator who is anti-compromise speak without fear of rebuttal or retribution I worry about the our collective future.<br />
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T.S. HallThomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-86637774096711077572011-02-24T12:15:00.000-08:002011-02-24T12:15:14.440-08:00One Semester General Chemistry and the Brain AtticThere is currently a discussion on the <a href="http://www.cur.org/">Council on Undergraduate Research</a> list serve about one semester general chemistry courses designed and targeted to specific degrees and/or careers. One view of the debate is that students should not waste time on anything that is not specifically needed on the job, day one after graduation. The issue is timely for me in that I was involved in a debate this week about transfer credit for organic courses to serve our bio majors. The argument was put forward that we really shouldn't be testing the transferring students competency through an ACS exam, because the ACS exam covers material not needed in biochemistry.<br />
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I am not sure to what extent this attention to minimalist education is a consequence of the current economic and political climate, or something else. Rather than give in to addressing those issues, I will play my traditional role of cautionary observer.<br />
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Many students either don't know or only have a vague idea of what career they hope to enter, or they are deluded as to what career they have a shot at, based on their capabilities. Also, even if a student knows and is able to achieve a specific career, that does not mean that they will be secure in that career over a lifetime. A broader knowledge base might aid them in changing careers. How many articles have been written about how today's students will have multiple careers rather than a single one like their parents or grandparents. Add to all of this the need to be able to work effectively across disciplines that ally with ones chosen career and we really do need to consider if ten different general chemistry courses, each focused to a specific career makes sense.<br />
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In the larger picture, while narrowly focused training may be appropriate for technician based careers, we must consider if it is appropriate for true higher education. I have often thought that as the percentage of American high school graduates going to college has increased the percentage that really want a higher education has remained about the same. The difference is the number of students who really only want and/or need a technical training. We need technicians, so why not offer that minimalist and focused training separate from the bachelors degree. This might address some of the grade inflation pressure educators feel from students who argue that they don't really need to knowledge, just the degree.<br />
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T.S. HallThomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-9119563964913321812011-02-17T17:06:00.000-08:002011-02-17T17:06:50.293-08:00Left Hand, Meet Right Hand<a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/02/14/BA8V1HMTHI.DTL&feed=rss.news">The California Legislative Analyst has called for guaranteed access for California students to their local California State University campus.</a> This is in response to the increases in campuses declaring themselves impacted, which allows them to ignore local access priority and then pick the best qualified students from anywhere in the state. Setting aside the meritocracy issues, the CLA report says, "We believe that ensuring local access to all eligible students is more important than maintaining equal admissions criteria for all applicants." <br />
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One must keep in mind that admissions are a less-than-zero-sum game in this system, where budget cuts and space limitations have left the system unable to accept all qualified students.<br />
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On the other hand, the system Chancellor of the CSU, Charles Reed, has stated that given the impact of budget cuts, "We can no longer justify offering practically every major at every campus . . ." The targets for program cuts would be based on lower enrollment programs. With state funding cuts for next year predicted to be on the order of eighteen percent, one wonders what the definition of "lower enrollment" might become.<br />
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What happens when both plans come together? If a prospective student lives near a campus where the program they are interested in is cut, but outside the region of the campus where the program survived, should they change career aspirations? Should we put out maps of regions of the state where physics or geology are still studied for parents to move to for the benefit of their children who want to study in those areas? It should be interesting to see how this works out.<br />
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T.S. HallThomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-3284676724367117912011-02-01T10:04:00.000-08:002011-02-01T10:04:00.475-08:00Gainful Employment - Part II<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Last week I <a href="http://sabbaticalepistles.blogspot.com/2011/01/gainful-employment-part-i.html">began this topic</a> by discussing the issue of the potential for "gainful employment" requirements in higher education. These requirements would demand that the incomes of graduates cover the costs of the education students receive. The emphasis so far is on for-profit colleges and universities, but they may well trickle down to those of us in the non-profit education business. As promised, today I will look at some possible ways gainful employment might be measured.<br />
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Option A: Average income of the institution's graduates - The simplest option, this would spread out the highs and lows of degree cost over the entire student population. So long as the average income is acceptable, high cost degrees in the STEM fields would be covered by the lower cost degrees in other fields. This will encourage forming larger institutions where income averages can remain more steady. Of course this will do little to improve smaller individual programs which are shielded from the gainful employment standard by the mass of student outside the program.<br />
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Option B: Global average income per specific degree - This would involve determining the average pay of the newly minted degree holder nationally, regionally, or state and then assessing the cost of the degree at the particular institution. If the tuition/income ratio is acceptable funding would be made available for that program. The advantage would be that schools would be encouraged to get rid of degrees that really don't pay for themselves. Of course, since in some fields boom and bust cycles are common some leeway would be be needed so that programs are not opening and closing with the boom and bust of the economy. <br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Option C: Institutional average income per specific degree - The Option A funding scheme does not allow for assessment of the value added by a specific school's program. If my school's graduates are highly sought after and earn above average salaries post graduation, my tuition/income ratio should not be evaluated based on average income in a specified geographic region. Of course this means that tracking of individual students would have to be accomplished. Those of us involved in student development grants know how difficult this can be. Schools would need to add to their costs by hiring people to track students. The advantage of this option would be that the individual program would reap the rewards of producing a higher valued product.</div><br />
I am sure there are other options, but I think my point is made that the practical issue of "gainful employment" standards is worth considering and discussing before it is imposed on higher education.<br />
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T.S. Hall</div>Thomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-79903936840520257242011-01-28T07:07:00.000-08:002011-01-28T07:07:32.159-08:00Concealed WeaponsThere have been many words dispensed on the issue of campus violence and allowing concealed weapons on campuses. An then yesterday the story broke of a disagreement between faculty members that got really ugly. <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/01/cal-state-northridge-professor-charged-with-allegedly-urinating-on-colleagues-office-door.html">A faculty member at Cal. St. Northridge has been arrested for repeatedly urinating on the door of a fellow faculty member who he disagreed with.</a> <br />
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Really?! That's what we have come to. Getting pissed off and then pissing on one another's doors? <br />
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Certainly it is better than gunplay at faculty meetings, but we should be able to set an example for how people trained in higher order thinking handle their disagreements.<br />
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T.S. HallThomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-8741321528426011522011-01-26T08:30:00.000-08:002011-01-26T08:32:29.328-08:00Gainful Employment - Part IOver the course of the last eighteen months the number of articles questioning the value of a college degree have been increasing. Federal and state governments are suggesting that they might apply some sort of "gainful employment of graduates" test to educational institutions in considering funding levels.<br />
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The idea of a value added assessment for degrees is not anathema to me. I do, however, wonder how such a system might work. There are several options that come immediately to mind. None of them are perfect, but discussing them within the academic community might enable us to become partners in crafting the end result rather than the victims of another poorly thought out funding strategy.<br />
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The advantage of such a policy could be to help curb grade inflation and ensure a quality of product (graduate), since producing lots of poorly educated students with high grades will induce a Yugo Effect where lots of cheap poor quality products is economically unsustainable to the producer.<br />
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Of course this means that colleges and universities will have to do a calculation of the cost of producing a product of value verses the payout they get from the graduates. Degrees with small numbers of students and/or high costs of education will be difficult to sustain. The STEM fields could suffer through one or both of these issues.<br />
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There is also the question of when gainful employment begins. Does postgraduate education count as gainful employment? Again, STEM fields could suffer depending on how "gainful employment" is defined.<br />
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The effect of the cost-benefit analysis might be the closing of many degree programs and, if handled with forethought, the consolidation of some degree types at specific universities. The STEM fields might find themselves consolidated into poly technical colleges and universities where larger numbers of students would make the accounting work. The downside of this is that some regions just don't have enough students to support such programs so technical education could become something geographically distant for many students and therefore unattainable.<br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Another problem of this system of funding is that it will reduce degree flexibility so that the boom and bust cycles seen in some disciplines will be exacerbated. As degree values fluctuate, so can departmental funding, making it difficult to manage programs.</div><br />
A gainful employment policy will also make it increasingly important that educational institutions act as employment agencies. While this in not in itself a bad idea, it will demand increased resources to support the new Dean of Employment infrastructure. This will take resources away from the educational enterprise.<br />
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In Part II of this commentary I will look at ways "Gainful Employment" might be defined.<br />
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T.S. HallThomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-46881261442475254752011-01-10T08:34:00.000-08:002011-01-10T08:34:44.933-08:00Salted Student EvaluationsThe results of the Fall Semester student evaluations should be in mailboxes any day now. Before opening them and starting the Spring Semester in a funk make sure to apply a healthy grain of salt.<br />
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I<a href="http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20101213/NEWS02/12130319/1001/NEWS/Students-stretch-truth-on-teacher-evaluations-UNI-professor-s-study-finds">n a study released by a University of Northern Iowa professor in early December</a>, one-third of students surveyed admit that they stretch the truth in evaluations, including lying on the comments section (20%). As hard as it might be to believe, most often they do so to punish professor's they don't like.<br />
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The evaluation literature is replete with studies that show factors that have nothing to do with education play a significant role in student's evaluations, yet universities continue to place weight on this flawed tool in assessing faculty.<br />
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One of my colleagues from a private institution reported that his school sent a memo to faculty before final exams indicating that students would not be allowed to file the online evaluations for classes until after faculty had submitted grades. No doubt, if asked they will swear that there is no connection between student evaluations and grades.<br />
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I am not saying that we should not have student evaluations, just that we should recognize that they poorly measure faculty competence. In my own case I have found some very useful comments in evaluations. I also find comments stating how unfair it is that I don't give practice exams that contain all the questions likely to be on the exam, that even though the front row is empty students hiding in the back can't read the board well enough, etc.<br />
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If are not yet a tenured full professor print a copy of the UNI study and send a copy anonymously to your Provost or Academic VP.<br />
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T.S. HallThomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-87752450198724699582010-12-01T08:29:00.000-08:002010-12-01T08:29:00.623-08:00Laws of Power - Laws of ProductivityAs happens all too often I recently found myself in the middle of a petty power struggle. The childishness of the actions and comments that were part of the debate made me wonder why anyone bothers to try to do anything for the good of the university, college, department, or the students. <br />
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In talking to someone outside the university about the events and results I was advised to read the "<a href="http://www2.tech.purdue.edu/cg/courses/cgt411/covey/48_laws_of_power.htm">48 Laws of Power</a>" so that I could avoid having my civic spirit crushed in the future, by crushing those that don't agree with me. My advisor suggested that I was being too open, honest, and welcoming of the thoughts of others and that through the Laws of Power I could learn how to bend everyone before me to my will. <br />
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My first thought was that controlling people and crushing those who will not bend is not who I am. On reading the Laws of Power I am sure of this. I am not interested in power, I am interested in productivity. I want my energy to go into making the department as a whole stronger rather than being wasted on positioning myself to keep others down.<br />
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I wonder if the pursuit of power for the sake of having power isn't a large part of the problem in many of the dysfunctional departments I have been associated with. Would be chairs focused on accumulating power and crushing people with other ideas and the faculty members spent too much time counting heads and currying support over minor issues rather than joining together to raise everyone up and improve the entire department. People interested in a department focus rather than the intestine wars within the department can never get traction in leadership votes because they avoid taking sides in the power plays and get crushed by the power players.<br />
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My department, the Statehouse, Washington, etc. It does not matter where we look, power rules over productivity. At least so long as we chose to allow it to. If enough people opt out of the power plays but stay in the decision making process we could all avoid having to take sides in a destructive cold war with our departments. The power players only have the power we give them.<br />
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T.S. HallThomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-61903486233549764942010-11-30T08:29:00.000-08:002010-11-30T08:29:48.485-08:00The end of casual leafingThis morning I received the E-mail from the Organic Division of ACS informing the membership that we will no longer receive the annual Organic Synthesis paperback at part of our membership. I knew it would happen sooner or later, but I still felt a sting.<br />
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No mater how hard we try, keeping up with the literature is always a challenge. Each year when Org. Syn. would arrive I would put it on my "leafing pile". This is a pile of stuff that I leaf through when I have a few moments to kill between meetings or that I take for plane trips. Back in the olden days this pile included paper journals, but my access to those went digital long ago.<br />
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Leafing is a great education. I would catch chemistries that helped in my research or gave me new research ideas. It helped me recognize new conceptual and experimental trends in the science which I would then make a point to read about. To the extent that I keep my knowledge of the latest organic science fresh I attribute a good bit to leafing through journals and looking at papers that I would never have looked at based on a title or graphical abstract.<br />
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I guess I need to find new ways to keep up and watch for trends. Thankfully, in the mean time my annual copy of Annual Reports in Medicinal Chemistry arrived last week from the ACS Med. Chem. Division.<br />
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T.S. HallThomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-82135048063586642612010-11-25T11:09:00.000-08:002010-11-25T11:09:00.537-08:00Research on a BudgetIn addition to my unexplainable curiosity about mechano-chemistry (which includes sonochemistry and grinding or ball-mill reactions, none of which I do), papers that key on low cost research tend to catch my eye. I suppose it's because my group runs on a shoestring. With this in mind, I will draw attention to a <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6THS-519DF26-1&_user=521382&_coverDate=12%2F22%2F2010&_rdoc=9&_fmt=high&_orig=browse&_origin=browse&_zone=rslt_list_item&_srch=doc-info(%23toc%235290%232010%23999489948%232660738%23FLA%23display%23Volume)&_cdi=5290&_sort=d&_docanchor=&_ct=29&_acct=C000059561&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=521382&md5=da103f0cfaef7419575c5ba74e8a1ee5&searchtype=a">recent Tetrahedron Letters paper</a> on the use of animal bone meal (ABM) as a catalyst of the crossed-aldol condensation. This is actually the second paper from this group, but I don't have access to <a href="http://www.bentham.org/loc/">Letters in Organic Chemistry</a> papers, so I missed the original report.<br />
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In the recent paper, the authors did not go into the conceptual leap that inspired this research area, which I am curious about. But, I do love how the mostly Moroccan authors spent no dollars, or dirham, with Aldrich or Acros for their catalyst. They invest some column inches on how to prepare ABM and Na/ABM from animal bones "collected from nearby butcher shops." (Na/ABM is ABM impregnated with sodium nitrite.) Now, that's research on a shoestring!<br />
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So, as you gaze upon the carcass of the once golden Tom Turkey upon your table give Thanks that the catalyst of a new research venture lies before you. I can see the series of papers now; Turkey Bone Meal catalyzed . . ., Free Range Turkey Bone Meal catalyzed . . ., Wild Turkey catalyzed blog writing in organic chemistry, etc.<br />
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Happy Thanksgiving!<br />
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T.S. HallThomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-59375578846738711862010-11-24T10:56:00.000-08:002010-11-24T10:56:55.782-08:00On-line Scandal to ComeI am currently working on creating an on-line Introduction to Regulatory Affairs course for our College of Continuing Education. Aside from the course material itself, which I will go into at a later date, I have been assigned a minder to "help" ensure that all the university on-line content rules are followed. In the course of my initial meeting with the continuing education folks a conversation on ensuring the security of courses ensued.<br />
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There are people who will take on-line courses for students and/or will take on-line examinations for the student. With the increasing push toward on-line education educators need to get ahead of the future scandal when this issue comes before the public. A widely publicized incident where a public figure or a group of pseudo-public figures are caught which unearned on-line credentials will cause a backlash that will have the public throwing out baby and bathwater. This endangers what promise on-line education has. <br />
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One potential solution to the problem of credentialing the on-line student is to enforce identity checks in on-line testing. This could be done through a little cooperation between institutions. In a state like California where you can't spit without hitting a community college, Cal. State or Univ. of Cal campus there could be testing centers where the on-line student can come with their ID to take tests. If we add in public libraries and public high schools this type of cooperative sharing of resources could actually facilitate the development of on-line education in a form where the credential actually has some value.<br />
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For those in the physical sphere of education, it should be pointed out that similar checks might be appropriate in your courses too. As class sizes have grown, how many of us really know all our students. I am reminded of a case from over a decade ago where a colleague discovered at the last exam of the semester that one student taking his organic course, and earning an A, was not in fact the student of record, but a family friend dentist who had been in the classroom and taking tests all semester. <br />
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I also have a colleague in the business college who checks photo ID at every exam.<br />
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I have stated it before; As the internet makes content freely available the job of institutions of higher education will increasingly become one of credentialing and training in technique where on-line learning is not sufficient.<br />
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T.S. HallThomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-63117876051778832262010-11-08T07:23:00.000-08:002010-11-08T07:23:41.570-08:00The George MoleculeMy undergraduate organic instructor and research mentor loved the nonstandard names given for organic molecules, including George, Housane, Pagodane, etc. They bring a little whimsy into the subject. In those days common nomenclature was the primary type of naming used in the course. In the intervening decades IUPAC nomenclature appears to have taken the drivers seat in most texts.<br />
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This semester I have been teaching for the first time from the organic text by Jones and Fleming. While the students really like the writing style, I have found that the use of common nomenclature is driving me to distraction. IUPAC nomenclature is brought in, but common nomenclature is used the vast majority of the time. One bit of irony for me is that the authors write about "bling" in talking about diamond, but still use amyl and appear to think that the name ethylene is IUPAC nomenclature.<br />
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While common nomenclature is necessary as it is still used, systematic nomenclature offers the opportunity to train the student's mind to build a body of rules that can be applied to systems they have yet to see. It fits well into the idea of building the capability to predicting the products of reactions between reagents one has never seen.<br />
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One problem in the use of IUPAC nomenclature in text is that most of us don't know all the basic rules, so many text include errors in their IUPAC naming. Taking a page from days gone by when there were texts on organic nomenclature, perhaps we need a primer on IUPAC nomenclature for organic faculty. Something like a Oxford primer soft cover book. <br />
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T.S. HallThomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-71506591775636620632010-11-07T11:36:00.000-08:002010-11-07T11:36:29.435-08:00Stop the Slaughter! Please! I'm begging here!Perhaps I should not have given an exam the Friday before Halloween. The students were in a particularly blood thirsty mood. The wanton destruction put me in mind of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timur">Timur</a> (Tamerlane) standing on a pile of the heads of his 100,000 captives during the conquest of Delhi. It made no difference (to the students, not Timur) what Lewis acid was on the oxygen, the carbon-oxygen bond was almost always broken. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgowPvRdM-xXsTKO2DNNl2VrrjXIldQzrMD0KnzxDB5kGBr_n1wKvtVMmUqfZ8dnzwoch87dr5kxcT5tEQlRsP3X6BCY1JPUg0ejQQhWkpgrayqUfx4Bx8tAPUZ9BOByIdCnOOtmyLYPkk/s1600/untitled.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgowPvRdM-xXsTKO2DNNl2VrrjXIldQzrMD0KnzxDB5kGBr_n1wKvtVMmUqfZ8dnzwoch87dr5kxcT5tEQlRsP3X6BCY1JPUg0ejQQhWkpgrayqUfx4Bx8tAPUZ9BOByIdCnOOtmyLYPkk/s1600/untitled.gif" /></a></div><br />
I warned the class several times about decapitation of alcohols and alkoxides, to no avail. Appeals to consider electronegativity differences did not sway this group of students. When asked, they remembered the picture of the decapitated alcohol, which they thought was funny. To bad that they did not remember the concept behind it. <br />
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I often try to bring in analogies that will make them laugh to help them remember concepts, particularly those that they commonly trip up on. The lesson, I suppose, is that being entertaining is not the same thing as educating.<br />
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So, back to the drawing board.<br />
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T.S. HallThomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-1042983088596230482010-10-31T20:49:00.000-07:002010-10-31T20:49:06.329-07:00Hold your noseThank God the elections will be over in a couple of days. If the campaigns have demonstrated anything, they have demonstrated that the nation is full of people who are diametrically opposed to working with anyone other than their clones. This does not bode well for our future.<br />
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Similar kinds of self destructive things happen in our departments. For instance, my department is currently discussing the prospects of writing a grant to replace our research NMR. This will require all our NMR users to work together in the effort. Some are withholding any activity toward the grant until the university promises to hire an NMR technician. Do we need an NMR technician? Perhaps, but holding up any progress toward resolving our NMR needs problem, which is real, does not serve the faculty members withholding their effort or the department.<br />
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A department needs to be a community working together for a common good. Even with budget problems and administrators who care more about six year graduation rates than education and the careers of our graduates. The department faculty need to work together to use with the budget they have and educate administrators and students alike. Stamping our feet and saying, "It's our way or no way!" is never appropriate in an academic department or a state house or congress. Our students deserve better, colleagues deserve better, our state deserves better, and our nation deserves better.<br />
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T.S. HallThomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-8279824803874882102010-10-29T06:58:00.000-07:002010-10-29T06:58:31.167-07:00Celebrating ChemistryIn case you did not notice, last week was National Chemistry Week, and last Saturday was Mole Day. If it slipped by without you contributing to the festivities don't worry, next year is the <a href="http://www.chemistry2011.org/">International Year of Chemistry</a>. The goals of the International Year are to spread the good news of chemistry to the citizenry. Now is the time to start thinking about how you will contribute.<br />
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While I am thinking about how to celebrate chemistry I am also thinking about the all important Department Halloween Party. <br />
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I am thinking that this year I will really terrify and go as an Organic Exam. Baby blue sheet enblazened with the text normally found on a Blue Book including the bar code on the back lower corner. Make sure to fill in the student name and the all important course info. You could have the family go as labware, but DO NOT suggest that your spouse go as a pear flask. (You will get no treats.) I recommend suggesting a stirring rod complete with a nice rubber policeman hat. Better yet, a white sheet can become the organic exam questions. Put questions on the front and back.<br />
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Just remember that celebrating is about having fun. <br />
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T.S. HallThomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-56881759395685663722010-10-18T20:19:00.000-07:002010-10-18T20:19:55.222-07:00Our Ailing InfrastructureMy father and mother lived in a homeowners association once the chicks had left the nest. One of the interesting things about homeowners association living is that while they are non-profit, associations they set up a "reserves account" to cover those non-annual costs. Things like resealing the parking lot or replacing roofing. The carried over reserve funds are not considered profit. They are a sensible mode of covering costs that are not regular annual costs. The association adds a basic level of funding to build the account each month.<br />
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What does this have to do with chemistry? Repair or replacement of instruments has become an impossibility given the lean years we have faced and see into the future. Immediate needs get covered in lean times and infrastructure can go to hell in the mean time. Just look at the nations bridges. <br />
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Our institutions generally don't have anything resembling a reserve account for our infrastructure. My department has not had a state funded operating account in years, so adding money to an infrastructure reserve is out of the quesiton.<br />
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Looking for another option, I have brought this issue up in our development committee only to meet with the response that donations for repair and replacement of infrastructure is not something people will donate to. Scholarships, yes, instrumentation, no. Is this a problem of not making a strong enough case? Without the resources to train the students with modern functioning equipment, scholarships only support training graduate for jobs in the last century. Hardly a value added degree.<br />
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And what of our institutions and our statehouses. If we are supposed to be training the high tech employees of the future, how are we supposed to do it without of date and nonfunctioning equipment. Yes, it will mean that the increase in costs of education will outstrip the rate of inflation. But should we expect that the up-to-date technology will cost nothing. This is how we get into an infrastructure hole that you can't get out of.<br />
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T.S.HallThomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-52820595151859315272010-10-12T19:39:00.000-07:002010-10-12T19:39:47.864-07:00Billable HourIn a few weeks the 2010 elections will be over, and the advertising for the 2012 elections will begin. As part of the anti-intellectualism of today's political candidates, the faculty at institutions of higher education will be identified as welfare queens who only work 12 hours a week. It's annoying and to the extent that it effects the resources we have to do our jobs, not to mention feed our families, it aggravating.<br />
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To address the issue and head off the politicos I suggest that we academics declare a "billable hours week". The week of the elections would be good. We can use technology to remind us every hour to assign the work of the previous hour to "accounts" that reflect our duties.<br />
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The accounts list might include the following.<br />
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In class work: teaching, class preparation, preparing assessment activities, grading assessment activities, office hours, E-mail and other student communication<br />
Scholarly activities: grant writing, grant administration, supervision of students, writing papers, communicating with collaborators, your own lab work<br />
Service: departmental meetings, college meetings, university meetings, meeting prep, servicing university facilities, reviewing grants and papers, department and student development<br />
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If the exercise does nothing else, it should help us individually determine where the hours go. I know I have been wondering.<br />
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T.S. HallThomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-71373534578236858552010-09-13T22:11:00.000-07:002010-09-13T22:11:54.310-07:00What to do when your magnet quenchesYup, it happens!<br />
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My department's research NMR was installed in 1993 and the magnet has not be overhauled in all the years since. Well, even borrowed time runs out. For us this happened some time between Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. The magnet quenched and this morning when I came in the top and bottom of the instrument were covered in frost ice. After seeing if the magnet was gone I called the company that helps me with service. Since I could not find this info on the web I offer this list of things to do if your magnet quenches if it is going to be a while until you can come up with the scratch to bring it back up. (California still doesn't have a budget when the year started July 1.)<br />
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1. Shut down the console.<br />
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2. Pull the probe from the magnet if you can. If it is frozen in place, don't force it. <br />
One thing I should have thought about is that it would be freezing cold. I darn near frozen my hand to the side of the probe when pulling it.<br />
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3. Pull the shim stack from the magnet. <br />
I have pulled it before to clean the spin assembly. There is a ring clamp that holds it at the bottom and three long screws that hold it from the top. It has generally been pretty snug and required some pressure to pull it down. Well, with everything frozen the bottom clamp does not hold it. It almost dropped to the floor when I took out the three screws at the top of the magnet. Fortunately I had someone there "just in case".<br />
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4. Last, I removed the upper stack.<br />
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Now, I need to find the money to replace the seals and bring back the magnet.<br />
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T.S. HallThomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924280169005084889.post-71717835231646630042010-09-06T07:12:00.000-07:002010-09-06T07:12:39.938-07:00Education for allIn the first week of the semester a substantial part of my non-teaching time was spent in meetings and dealing with the overflow of students trying to get into one of my classes.<br />
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</div><div>With the California budget over two months overdue the university based its fiscal planning for the fall semester on last year's budget. Without the pay furloughs (there was no work furlough) we experienced last year the number of sections was cut as lecturers were let go. Class sizes went up to the limit of the size of the room for this semester. </div><div><br />
</div><div>On day-one of the semester my 8:00 AM organic lecture was already five percent oversubscribed since the classroom had that many more chairs than the course was designed for. When I got to the classroom there were numerous students standing in the back and on the sides of the room. If all students wanting to take the class were admitted the class would swell to one-third over the original design size.</div><div><br />
</div><div>In discussing the issue with my Chair and Associate Dean I was told that I needed to take the graduate students who need remediation since they would be held up in their graduate careers by not being able to remediate their deficiency. I must take the transfer students since they might get off track to degrees if they have to wait until next semester to take the class. I must take the second and third repeaters since they are already behind and holding them up further would slow their progress to a degree further. (<a href="http://sabbaticalepistles.blogspot.com/2010/08/things-to-come.html">The university has set a priority on increasing the six-year graduation rate.</a>) Only I noted that increasing the class size by one-third would necessitate a change in my pedagogical plans for the semester as I am in the process of teaching. Also, increasing the workload without additional resources is unfair to both me and to the students. More students should necessitate more office hours to support the students, and I can't offer more office hours without shortchanging my other duties. It took five days, but by week's end I was assigned a new room that will hold the larger size class and got no other resources to support the student's education or my work.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Routinely, when we complain about class sizes it is pointed out that at RO1s class sizes can be 500 students, as it to imply that we faculty are slackers. We don't have classroom that will hold half that number on our campus, and one 500 student class many actually be the entire load of that RO1 faculty member. We must remember though that the RO1s on this area have 500 student classes and a score of discussion sections run by graduate students. The students get the opportunity to ask questions and get face time with an instructor in a small group setting. Since my graduate students are taking the class for remediation that would be difficult here. Also, the RO1s take the cream of the student population. The public comprehensives and PUI's take the second tier students who are more likely to benefit from more one-on-one education. This is why large classrooms were not built on our campuses.</div><div><br />
</div><div>I like teaching, but like most people I want a fair shot at being successful at what I do. Without resources and with impossible demands a career that might be fulfilling becomes a life of futility leading to burnout. I believe that this has a lot to do with the low retention rates in K-12 teaching and the frustrations and burnout of many PUI and MCU faculty trying to compete in laboratory research.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Anyway, got to go reorganize the pedagogy of my course. Happy Labor Day!</div><div><br />
</div><div>T.S. Hall</div><div></div>Thomas Sutton Hallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247764754273658885noreply@blogger.com2