Ver 2013-09-17
Annual Program Review Form
Fall 2013
To complete this form you will be “Looking at last year to plan for next year.” The program review website includes
timelines, guidelines, criteria, data, Board priorities, college plans, acronyms to use when referring to priorities and
plans, et cetera: www.ccsf.edu/program_review.
NOTE: We are investigating moving to a new format (Google Forms and PHP) to allow for improved synthesis
and analysis across program reviews, as well as greater uniformity in reporting format. As you draft your program
review please keep in mind that Google Forms does not support special fonts or embedded tables. Use Arial font
size 10 which is the default font in this document. If desired, tables may be incorporated through hyperlinks but
cannot be directly inserted. Be sure to briefly describe any hyperlinked table(s).
Department:
Contact Person:
Date:
Biological Sciences
Hanson, Edward (Simon)
Fall 2013
Please check this box to certify that faculty and staff in your unit discussed the unit’s major planning objectives:
1. Description of Programs and Services and their Locations
The biological sciences department is a singular organizational unit that is diverse and multi-faceted with respect to
student populations served in addition to course offerings and programs.
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Provides lower division credit courses that articulate with CSU/UC and other four-year institutions and
which serve students that intend to major in biological science, pre-veterinary and pre-medical programs
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Offers an AS degree and Certificate in Biological Science
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Offers an AA degree in Environmental Science
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Provides core prerequisite courses for students entering allied health programs and professions such as
nursing and diagnostic medical imaging
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Offers a variety work-experience opportunities, internships and field-based courses in the areas of ecology,
habitat restoration, microbiology, maintenance of animal collections, and laboratory research techniques.
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Maintains community partnerships with organizations in the areas of ecology (Golden Gate National
Recreation Association, National Park Service, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco Recreation
and Park Department’s Natural Areas Program) and allied health (California Pacific Medical Center,
University of California San Francisco, Department of Public Health).
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Houses the Center for Habitat Restoration
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Provides faculty support for the NSF ATE funded Biolink program
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Provides student support services including tutorial services via the Biology Resource Center, LAC and
STEM/APASS center
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Hosts and presents the Biology Seminar series.
Main course/program site: Ocean Campus
Satellite locations: John Adams Campus (2 lecture and 4 lab classes): Mission campus (2 lec/lab classes).
Chinatown North Beach (1 lecture spring 2013)
2. Please provide an analysis of the data trends for your department. If you have additional data that you
would like to provide, please also include that here.
As stated in previous reviews the numbers of students served by the
Biology Dept. continues to be driven by supply, as demand even in
our current environment of decreased college wide enrollment,
continues to exceed Biology instructional capacity in most areas.
2.1) Core biology courses remain impacted and demand for
classes continues to outstrip supply as evidenced by
enrollment and waitlist data. Total FTES served by the
department is limited by the number and capacity of
sections offered. The graph at right shows the long term
departmental FTES from Fall 2009 to projected Spring
2014. The downward trend started in 2012 with administration
mandated cutbacks in offerings, has continued over the past year
due to staffing reductions (see section 3.1), and lack of institutional
support for developing planned classes at the centers. In the
2013 calendar year FTEF, which represents instructional
allocation, has slowly and steadily declined. (See graph at left). In
Spring of 2014 we expect this decline to be even greater
(~14.4% reduction from S13) due to lack of timely responses to
staffing plans initiated in 2011, and no current academic staffing planning process to backfill when
faculty leave the district. The biology department which has historically had ~ 43 faculty members is
expected to enter 2014 with only 31 active teaching faculty (20FT, 11PT). For the past two years the
effects of this decline in instructional capacity has not been
dramatically seen in students served due to a series of short term
part time staffing upgrades and continued policy of maximizing
overtime assignments. It is of note that during this same period of
decreasing FETF, productivity of the department has steadily
increased as currently active faculty continues to try and help the
college by fitting in more students in each class than the capacity
can realistically handle (see figure at right). Labs that were originally
designed to serve 25 students are regularly enrolled to 32. In some
cases hands on activity based labs are trying to accommodate demand by maintaining student
enrollments of over 40 per lab, with no proportionate increase in instructional materials or resources.
This increased productivity is not without cost or consequence on existing physical resources, quality of
instruction, and instructor burn out.
2.2) Biology Department supply budget has remained flat while the
equipment repair budget has decreased a few hundred dollars
from the previous fiscal year (see figure at right). It is believed this
lack of change is representative of clear institutional budget
neglect, as the values budgeted for FY 14 were not a clear roll
over’s based status quo budgeting but instead were based on
closeouts of FY 13 expenditures. Under such circumstances the
department, which clearly has great need for equipment repair
has been penalized for not overspending its budget. While in
2011 the college recognized the underfunded status of the
department with a modest increase in supply budget, in the
subsequent year this increase was removed, and the supply and equipment budgets reduced even
further, as part of an across the board percentage decrease in all budgets. The cumulative costs to
microscopes, laboratory equipment and infrastructure that started accumulating well before 2012 has
now come due as the damage and deferred maintenance costs are increasing at an exponential rate.
Note this cost is not represented in the budget figures above.
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3. Please describe any internal or external developments affecting your department since the last program
review.
3.1 Faculty Staffing:
In Fall of 2012 the biology department was down 2 FTE in faculty staffing from normal operating levels due
to previous retirements or staff leaving for employment elsewhere, since that time we have had 2 additional full time
faculty members retire and 4 additional part time faculty leave. In spring of 2014 we expect to have one additional
full time faculty transfer out of the department and one more part time instructor leave. What was a healthy
department of 42 instructors in 2011 is now down to 32. Compounding this issue is our excessive regular
operational use of overtime assignments and temporary part time upgrades to maintain class offerings. In Spring
2013 the department assigned 2.28 FTE in overtime assignments to our 21 full time faculty. We asked one retired
faculty member to return to part time teaching, and had three part time faculty on temporary upgrade status. After
the current semester (Fall 2013) our part time upgrade options will become increasingly limited due to contract
restrictions on frequency of such upgrades.
Over the past three years the Department has consistently advocated that the replacement of any
instructors be through the hiring of full time instructors. Hiring full time makes greater logistical sense due to
complications in load factors associated with the allowable part time assignments associated with the combined
lecture/lab courses we primarily teach. Instead the department has only been recently approved to open a part
time hiring announcement. This may or may not produce suitable candidates to fill next semester’s unstaffed
classes but if we were to fill all deficits with part time help it would require the hiring of over 12 individuals as each
hire could only teach one lecture lab course. Given the current time frame and process restrictions for hiring this is
highly unlikely to occur, and we expect to offer less courses in spring due to these staffing restrictions.
The previous full time hiring’s that were approved in 2011 were progressing at a delayed pace with
postponed start date of Fall 2013 due to a hiring freeze that was imposed after the hiring procedure had been
initiated. Final candidates for these two positions were approved in Fall of 2012 but then retracted and then
reinstated in Spring of 2013. Currently on candidate is still on hold having requested further delays in starting due
to the instability of the college and its accreditation status.
3.2 Classified Staffing:
The department traditionally employs one full time lab manager, one full time TIA, and one part time
secretary on the ocean campus as well as one school term only (STO) TIA at the mission campus. It should be
noted that the mission TIA serves all science labs offered at the Mission Center and the position was originally a full
time TIA position when the Mission Center remodeled to include science labs in 2007. Due to a hiring freeze at the
time the original TIA left the position the Department agreed to accept an STO not a full time position at the mission
center, on the understanding that when the hiring freeze was lifted the position would be returned to full time. This
has not happened and the position has remained STO every since, despite annual requests and assurances a full
time TIA is required.
In this past year all classified positions have had their functional hours reduced as a result of mandatory
furlough hours and changes in expiration accounting of vacation hours. In addition last January our full time Ocean
TIA was transferred 100% to another department, leaving the Biology Dept. severely shorthanded. To compensate
our already overtaxed mission TIA has been asked to work a few days a week on the ocean campus just to
maintain a skeleton crew necessary to keep all courses operational. As a result functional storeroom and
operational hours have been reduced on both campuses.
Much of the operations of the labs are facilitated by classified staff training and managing student lab aids.
Lab aid budget was severely cut in the past year with some restoration this semester but not to previous levels of
funding. Work study budget was also reduced from 16K to 6K in the last two years and restored to 7K this year. In
order to establish smooth rotation of students through training maintenance of these budgets has a direct impact on
operations and classified staff time and efficiency.
3.3 Biology Resource Center (BRC):
The BRC is located on the third floor of the science building within the Department of Biological Sciences. The
BRC contains key resources for Biology students such as anatomical models, microscopes and slides, textbooks,
reference materials and computer/printer access. The BRC is staffed with faculty and student volunteers who are
available for tutoring and mentorship of CCSF students. It should be noted that the BRC supports several CCSF
Institutional Learning Outcomes:
 Locate and retrieve information using tools and technology (ILO I)
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Provides opportunities for students to communicate and collaborate with each other, with tutors and with
faculty (ILO II, ILO III)
 Student tutors develop career skills (ILO IV)
Prior to 2011, the BRC was staffed solely with paid faculty members, and models and supplies were provided via
the lab supply budget. In 2011 these funding sources were removed. Continuing to keep this resource open has
been a major challenge for the department. Over the past 4 semesters we have migrated to a model consisting of
student and faculty volunteers supplemented by paid student tutors hired by the Learning Assistance Center.
Faculty volunteers staff the center, clean and organize the learning environment, and frequently pay for the
supplies needed to maintain computer and printing resources.
Student usage of the BRC is captured via AccuTrak and results in apportionment funding to CCSF, but
unfortunately that funding does not return to the center. In order to keep the center viable, we critically need supply
money to purchase new anatomical models, microscope slides and reference manuals. These items are all in very
high demand and the lack of sufficient resources continues to limit the number of students we can serve.
3.4 Facilities:
Any long term strategic, educational or facilities plan should take into account the need to remodel or
rebuild existing facilities at the ocean campus. While new Science labs remain underused at other centers (CNB,
Mission), the ocean campus science building which was build in 1935 is more than showing its age. With the
current back to back scheduling of labs and classes come perennial ongoing investments in time money and
manpower devoted to status quo maintenance of outdated HVAC, Electrical and plumbing systems. Over the past
year many of the basic maintenance investments have gone unattended to leading to even greater maintenance
costs and wear on the facilities. Some Examples of issues that need attention:
 Heating of the building is unpredictable with classrooms that are far too hot next door to
classrooms where the heat doesn't work. Sometimes there is no heat in the building on very cold
days and sweltering temperatures when heat kicks in on warm days. Classes have been canceled
and biological experiments and materials destroyed due to this issue.
 Broken chairs/tables/desks are a safety hazard and require removal and replacement.
 Burned out light bulbs are regularity present in the 3rd floor hallway. Replacement cycle is not
consistent especially where there are issues concerning the fixtures that need repair. The resulting
hallway is very dark - dark enough that it can be difficult to read the emergency signage and
postings on the bulletin boards. Lighting in general needs upgrading as it is far too dark, in the
classrooms, laboratories, and office spaces. This is especially problematic in the large lecture halls
(S100,S136) where bulb replacement is more complex due to ceiling heights.
 Electrical cords in configurable lab spaces run from movable tables to wall sockets leading to
student access hazards.
 Despite the fact that we work with specimens and chemicals, none or few of the ocean labs have
dedicated fixed paper towel holders and soap dispensers.
 Public restroom towel dispensers were removed during the ADA upgrades of 2011 and the
remaining dispensers are frequently broken leading to unhygienic conditions in the restrooms.
These unhygienic conditions breed graffiti and vandalism which are a constant drain on human
resources and morale.
 The use of chalkboards and the resulting chalk dust can be problematic for both instructors and
students and equipment. Biology classrooms and labs which rely on expensive laboratory
equipment that can be effected by dust are far overdue for a conversion to whiteboards, which
would be cleaner, easier to read and allow instructors to use color drawings to communicate
biological concepts.
3.5 Course and Curriculum Development:
While physical resource limitations continue to curtail development of new labs and laboratory activities,
some areas of the department have had ongoing success in reorganizing their courses to better serve articulation
or student needs. Some Highlights:
 Nutrition courses have undergone updating and name changes to clarify target populations and
course content
 The Ecology program has developed new short term field courses in Agroecology and Ecology of
the SF Delta
 The Ecology program also continues a long term goal to update and transfer many of the short
term weekend field courses under the ECOL 80 prefix for clarity in catalog organization
 Bio 31 Environmental Science is now co listed with the Engineering and Earth Sciences
departments
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Development is in the works on a distance education option for Human Biology (Bio 9)
A distance education option for ECOL 10 was just approved for offering in spring 2014
3.6 Scholarships:
It is usual practice for the department to award around half a dozen variously endowed student
scholarships. These scholarships have not been awarded in the past three years due to poor promotion, lack of
accounting oversight and historically low interest rates. Due to the administrative organizational turnover and
disorganization in finances it is currently unclear where the principle backing these awards currently resides.
Biology faculty stepped up by volunteering to lead the academic senate scholarship committee this year in order to
try and assist the college in sorting out the long standing functional deficiencies in these areas. In the meantime
the Department continues to support its fundraising efforts by conducting an annual book sale to supplement these
awards. There is currently over $700 in cash awaiting deposit in the department’s possession until a time at which
the college is better able to track and award these funds through the scholarship office.
3.7 Continued Reliance on Equipment Donations –
In the past year the department has received tens of thousands of dollars in equipment and supply
donations thanks to the personal outreach and advocacy of our faculty and staff. These much needed and
appreciated donations have become a regular operational necessity to offset inadequate supply and equipment
budgets that do not sustain operational costs. However donations don't always match with supply and equipment
needs. Donated old equipment often has greater repair needs and breaks down more often leading to a greater
requirement of a sustainable maintenance budget.
3.8 Contract Education Funding –
In prior years contract education funding has offset departmental operational costs by directly charging
contract groups for specific supplies and equipment such as lab computers and microbiology supplies. These
equipment purchases are then used after the contract educational program is finished in regular CCSF classes.
For example it has been over ten years since the college has purchased a human cadaver for its own anatomy
programs. Instead it has come to rely on periodic contract education agreements with outside groups to fund
regular operational costs associated with offering a cadaver based anatomy program. While we are still actively
pursuing such agreements, the past year has seen a dramatic decrease in interest in such contracts especially in
the areas of the allied health prerequisites that have become dependent upon these funding mechanisms for
regular equipment replacement.
4. Summarize overall departmental/program improvements implemented, in progress, or under
consideration as a result of the assessment of learning, service, and/or administrative unit outcomes.
(Be sure to reference the data/reports that underlie these new directions.)
In 2012 the biology department set a departmental goal of having all courses assessed for at least one
learning objective during the fall semester. The majority of our major courses were already well into the
assessment/ improvement cycle by this time but given the diversity of small and specialized classes offered in the
department it was important to have a clear goal of having all courses included in the evaluation cycle. To facilitate
clear dialogue within the department in the Fall of 2012 each course coordinator was responsible for producing a
report summarizing the status of the course and plans for assessment. These reports were published on the
Department website in August of 2012 and by Spring of 2013 we met our goal of having all courses assessed. Last
summer individual detailed departmental reports were replaced by the larger college wide efforts to standardize
SLO reporting. Links to current course outlines, assessment plans and the changes initiated as a result of these
assessments can still be found on the biology Dept. SLO assessment webpage
(http://www.ccsf.edu/NEW/en/educational-programs/school-and-departments/school-of-science-andmathematics/biology/slo_assessment_biol.html). This webpage continues to function as a clearing house for
current information about our diverse assessment efforts.
As a result of this focus on assessment we have implemented many changes. Approximately 47% of our
course offerings have had their official course outline of record revised or updated in the past year. This updating is
the result of better aligning outcomes, assessments, and required formatting. In a process that started in spring, by
the end of the fall 2013 semester, all courses with outlines older than 1999 will have been reviewed and updated.
We have a goal of having all pre 2004 reviewed and updated by the end of Spring 2014 bringing us closely in
alignment with the college wide goal of having no currently active course outline older than 6 years. In other areas
entire programs, such as our nutrition courses have been revised and realigned as a result of student assessments
to better clarify our offerings, course titles, and descriptions in order to better serve our students and align with
transfer institutions.
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Many in the department are proud of this work as it focuses our communal attention on our programs and
students. However, it should be noted that given the incredible diversity of approaches to teaching and of courses
in our catalog, including many short term and special topics courses that target specific student populations and
interests, the work of increased assessment reporting and updating is not accomplished without a significant
amount of time and effort on the part of the faculty. While it has not been a goal of the department to pare down
our offerings or to change the department into a smaller number of less diverse offerings focusing on a one size fits
all courses, the continued application of assessment reporting requirements and external scrutiny provides
incentive to do just that. In this past year of intense scrutiny of our SLO process, we have had one respected
colleague leave the teaching staff in direct response to the increased focus on assessment reporting requirements
and externally imposed oversight.
5. Summarize your department’s progress to date on the major planning objectives identified in the last
program review (excluding progress already cited in #4).
The Biology department’s top priority goal continues to be maintaining the academic quality and integrity of
our educational programs. Maintaining that goal has been increasingly difficult throughout this last year. While the
2012 mission statement and board priorities explicitly stated that “… excellence in teaching… “ was a clear priority
for the college, entering into 2013 no such clear focus on academic quality is present in current board priorities
which focus on operational objectives. Combine this with the fact that all of our requests of last year (even those
that were revenue neutral) went unsupported. And the fact that within the last year, resources have been removed
from the department in areas including but not limited to; salaries, supply and repair budgets, classified hours and
staffing, faculty release time, replacement faculty staffing, facilities maintenance and institutional operational
support, it is hard for many in the department not to wonder if we are being neglected or contracted by design. At
present due to the reductions mentioned, the department is on track to serve significantly less students.
Contraction of the department’s offerings stands in direct opposition to current board priorities of “developing
sound and sustainable governance and finance practices and procedures within an organizational structure
supported by appropriate staffing levels” as even under the current weak enrollment environment Biology Dept.
classes are impacted and our productivity is such that the department by the most conservative financial estimates
brings in millions in positive revenue through current apportionment.
Last year’s review requested three items, increased supply budget, increased repair budget, and
establishing appropriate accounting practices for the centers. Last year’s review did not include staffing requests
as the hiring’s and position requests that were in progress at that time were part of a different planning process.
This year we are renewing out requests from last year and expanding those requests to prioritize faculty and
classified hiring to replace staff that has left the department over the past two years. We are also requesting
increased facilities repair/renewal requests.
6. Assuming a status quo budget for your unit, indicate your department’s major planning objectives for
next year (2014-2015). Include objectives that utilize status quo resources as well as objectives that do not
require new resources.
Continued status quo resources (assuming no faculty or classified replacements or changes in supply and
repair funds) will result in a decreased ability to continue to serve the same number of students next year. As
shown in productivity data and Spring FETS and FTE estimates above, in the past year enrollment trends have
been monitored very closely by the Department Chair and schedule offerings actively adjusted in order to maximize
dwindling instructor resources. This process will continue into the next year; however it cannot be denied that we
have reached the limits of what a belt tightening strategy can produce in terms of maintaining instructional capacity.
Large and expensive equipment such as autoclaves and water purification systems are now at the point of needing
complete replacement. Maintenance of smaller lab equipment such as microscopes and spectrophotometers has
been nonexistent for over two years or longer. Status quo budgeting does not keep up with current inflation and
increases in operating and maintenance costs. If the college continues with a status quo approach to running the
Biology Department it must come to grips with the fact that this becomes an active decision to reduce the number
and diversity of the impacted courses the department has been offering. Under such circumstances the priority of
the department will continue to be maintaining the quality of the programs it can still afford to offer.
7. If your department faced a reduction in your overall departmental budget for next year (2014-2015),
indicate the changes that would be made to the delivery of courses and/or services to adjust to the new
allocation.
See answer to #7 above. Any reductions to existing resources would produce corresponding additional reductions
in instructional offerings.
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8. Use Excel template to respond to question 8 regarding resource allocation requests.
Use Excel template at www.ccsf.edu/program_review
Please see the accompanying spreadsheet for details on the following resource allocation requests.
1. Biology Faculty replacement
2. Biology TIA replacement
3. Increase Department Supply Budget
4. Increase repair and maintenance budget
5. Facilities upkeep
6. Establish 5000 accounts for CNB and Mission Centers
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