Faculty/Staff and Infrastructure Requirements of the ACS Guidelines

1. American Chemical Society Faculty/Staff and Infrastructure Requirements of the ACS Guidelines Laura Kosbar Cynthia Larive IBM Research UC-Riverside The evolution of the ACS approval process: Moving beyond the 2008 Guidelines ACS Committee on Professional Training April 8, 2013

2. Background • The ACS guidelines are reviewed regularly to ensure that they • Encourage program excellence • Promote the development of competent chemistry professionals • Respond to changes within the field and new educational paradigms • Recognize the needs/requirements of departments of varying size while maintaining program excellence in all departments American Chemical Society

3. Purpose of Faculty/Staff and Infrastructure Requirements • Faculty and Staff Requirements • Departments should • Maintain an energetic and accomplished faculty that covers a range of backgrounds and expertise in the major areas of chemistry • Support faculty development to maintain professional competence • Provide a sustainable and engaging educational environment for students • Infrastructure Requirements • A modern and comprehensive infrastructure is essential for student instruction • Lecture and lab space • Instrumentation • Computational and literature access • Program infrastructure must receive strong institutional support American Chemical Society

4. ACS Faculty and Staff Requirements 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. • Faculty • Minimum number of full-time, permanent faculty • Minimum percent of faculty holding Ph.D.s • Breadth of collective expertise in the major areas of chemistry • Faculty diversity • Adjunct, Temporary, and Part-Time Faculty • Teaching Contact Hours • Professional Development • Support Staff • Student Teaching Assistants American Chemical Society

5. ACS Infrastructure Requirements 4. 4. 4. 4. 4. • Physical Plant • Instrumentation • Computational Capabilities and Software • Chemical Information Resources • Chemical Safety Resources American Chemical Society

6. Faculty and Staff Requirements Minimum Faculty • Current ACS requirement: • Minimum of 4 permanent, full-time faculty, 75% holding a PhD • Collective expertise should reflect the breadth of the major areas of modern chemistry • Concerns with current requirement: • Difficult to achieve appropriate breath with only 4 full-time faculty • Challenging to meet contact hr limits with only 4 full-time faculty • Proposed changes to the guidelines: • Require new programs seeking approval to have 5 full-time faculty • Maintain requirement for 75% of faculty to hold a PhD • Currently approved programs would have until 2025 to increase to 5 full-time faculty American Chemical Society

7. Faculty and Staff RequirementsAdjunct, Temporary, and Part-Time Faculty • Current ACS Requirement: • Full-time, permanent faculty should teach courses leading to student certification • Excessive reliance on temporary, adjunct or part time faculty in approved programs is discouraged • Concerns with current requirement: • Increasing reliance on temporary and part-time faculty • Budgetary and economic influences • Difficult to define/limit “excessive” reliance on non-full time faculty • Proposed changes to the guidelines: • Defining that “lecture courses leading to certification must be taught by full-time, permanent faculty” • Allowing a small percentage of lectures be taught by non-full time/temporary faculty • Should exceptions be counted as % of lecture courses or % of individuals? American Chemical Society

8. Faculty and Staff Requirements Teaching Contact Hours • Current ACS requirement: • Maximum of 15 contact hrs/semester or quarter • Allows up to 2 individuals to have up to 17 contact hrs in one semester/quarter if annual average is at or below 15 • Concerns with current requirement: • Less flexibility than some departments need • Doesn’t address faculty/staff with exclusive/primarily laboratory responsibilities • Proposed changes to the guidelines: • Allow up to 2 individuals to have up to 18 contact hours in one semester/quarter if annual average is at or below 15 • Allow individuals whose primary teaching responsibility is laboratory instruction to have up to 18 contact hours each semester or quarter American Chemical Society

9. Infrastructure Requirements Instrumentation • Current ACS requirement: • Requires an appropriate suite of modern chemical instrumentation and laboratory apparatus • Requires department to own a functioning NMR used by students • Concerns with current requirement: • Requirement to own and maintain an NMR difficult for small departments, may limit ability to obtain as broad a distribution of instruments • Access to NMR analysis of student samples potentially similar for on-site or off-campus instruments • Proposed changes to the guidelines: • Broaden the scope of the student experience to include at least one instrument from each of five categories: • Optical molecular spectroscopy, optical atomic spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, chromatography and separations, and electrochemistry • Require that students must have adequate access to FT-NMR capabilities (on or off site) American Chemical Society

10. Infrastructure RequirementsChemical Information Resources • Previous ACS requirement: • ACS previously required access to Chemical Abstracts • This requirement was removed in January of 2013 • Concerns with previous requirement: • Rapidly changing access to chemical literature and search capabilities make it difficult to define an “acceptable” set of search tools or databases • Previously focused on database access rather than student’s skills at using and searching the literature • Proposed changes to the guidelines: • Replace a requirement for access to specific search tools or databases with greater emphasis on student skills associated with searching the literature • Proposed skills requirement discussed in upcoming presentation American Chemical Society

11. Faculty and Infrastructure Discussion Questions • Faculty • What requirements on faculty are the most critical to maintain an active, diverse, and engaging learning environment for students? • What impacts would be expected from requiring departments to have at least 5 full-time faculty with at least 75% holding PhDs? • What would the impact be of requiring full-time, permanent faculty to teach the bulk of the lecture courses leading to certification, and how should such a requirement be defined (by % of courses, % of faculty teaching lectures, other)? • Should contact hour limits be different for individuals teaching primarily laboratory classes or should ACS define a separate limit for individuals identified as instructors? • Infrastructure • How can the guidelines best promote student access and exposure to a broad range of modern chemical instrumentation during their undergraduate career? • Would allowing use of off-site NMR facilities have a significant negative impact on student learning or institutional support? American Chemical Society

12. Questions for discussion • Group 1: • What requirements on faculty are the most critical to maintain an active, diverse, and engaging learning environment for students? • Should contact hour limits be different for individuals teaching primarily laboratory classes or should ACS define a separate limit for individuals identified as instructors? • Group 2: • What would the impact be of requiring full-time, permanent faculty to teach the bulk of the lecture courses leading to certification, and how should such a requirement be defined (by % of courses, % of faculty teaching lectures, other)? • Would allowing use of off-site NMR facilities have a significant negative impact on student learning or institutional support? • Group 3: • How can the guidelines best promote student access and exposure to a broad range of modern chemical instrumentation during their undergraduate career? • What impacts would be expected from requiring departments to have at least 5 full-time faculty with at least 75% holding PhDs? American Chemical Society