Building Strong Geoscience Departments: A Workshop Report

Building Strong Geoscience Departments: A Workshop Report Cathy Manduca, Carleton College Heather Macdonald, Geoff Feiss, College of William and Mary Randy Richardson, University of Arizona With NSF funding (03-31930)

Supporting individual departments Strengthening the geosciences as a whole • Promoting communication and discussion • Sharing information and resources • Enabling collective action

Establishing interest Starting a discussion Characterizing success • Feb 05 Workshop at William and Mary • Survey of geoscience department chairs • Professional society sessions/town meeting • Advisory Board meeting

First Order Outcomes • Much in common that could learn from one another • Time of challenge and opportunity • Collective action could be very helpful

A part of the institution: being central, effective metrics/reporting, forging strategic partnerships, • Exciting research opportunities: interdisciplinary programs • Teaching students: Program design, curriculum, mentoring, professional development, student research, assessment, accreditation • Beyond the academic program: alumni relations, being part of the community, K-12 outreach • Developing a strong team: leadership development, teamwork, planning, mergers/splits • Recruitment, development, and retention: of students, faculty, and staff Key Themes

Sharing Information • Letter to heads and chairs • Professional society sessions • Website: serc.carleton.edu/departments

http://serc.carleton.edu/departments

A Program for Departments to • Foster discussion and sharing around topics of high interest to geoscience departments. • Collect, develop and disseminate resources that assist departments in addressing the challenges and opportunities they face • Foster improved leadership and team building within geoscience departments and enhance their ability to behave strategically. Advisory Board Recommendations

Advisory Board Recommendations • With Long-term Goals To: • improve leadership capacity of the profession broadly defined • help geoscience departments/units thrive internally and as members of their institutions • promote the ability of geoscience to contribute to society and enhance recognition that geoscience is fundamental to society and academia • develop longitudinal thinking about and approaches to the education of geoscientists

And several program elements • Thematic workshops on topics of high interest • Information gathering via interviews, surveys and sessions • Community viewpoints developed by advisory board • Continued website development • Training of consultants • Collaboration with professional societies Advisory Board Recommendations

Next Steps • Prepare proposal • Continue sharing and discussion • this session and its poster session • website • Build resource collection via contributions • Resources • Department profiles • E-mail discussion list serc.carleton.edu/departments cmanduca@carleton.edu

Dynamic and upwardly mobile, managing change • Degrees are highly valued by students, institution, employers • Student centered with loyal alumni • Know the rules and play by them • Communicate excellence • Balance research, teaching and service • Students meet stated goals • Strong enrollments • Congenial and collaborative • Diverse, balanced, happy faculty and staff Characteristics of Thriving Departments

Building Strong Geoscience Departments: A Workshop Report