Chemistry Department Strategic Planning 2015-2016
Mission Statement
The Chemistry Department’s mission is to provide majors with rigorous training in chemistry, provide
service courses to related disciplines, provide innovated courses to support the GEP, and to facilitate
regional economic development. Modern curricula, state-of-the-art instrumentation, undergraduate
research and industrial internship play a key role in that mission. Faculty in chemistry impart an
understanding and appreciation of chemistry along with the knowledge, safe laboratory skills and
personal integrity necessary for students to be productive members of the larger community of
professional chemist. The department serves as a nexus for pre-professional training and advisement for
students who wish to pursue a career in chemistry, biochemistry, the health profession, bioscience,
chemical education, and environmental science. Outreach programs afford students opportunities to
apply their skills and training.
Vision Statement
The Chemistry Department will offer regionally recognized programs leading to a Bachelor of Science
Degree in chemistry or biochemistry. Graduates of the program will be employed in industry and/or enter
into nationally recognized graduate and professional programs. The departmental faculty and facilities
will be a center for collaborative research leading to regional economic development. Departmental
expertise will include the sub-disciplines of chemistry: physical, organic, analytical, biochemical,
inorganic, chemical education, food chemistry, geochemistry, and environmental chemistry.
Core Values
Those values the department feels must be an integral element in how we
operate. In all our endeavors, these must be taken into consideration.
Safe Working Environment
Sustainability
Experiential Learning
Professional Behavior
Collaborative/Congenial Work Ethics
Cost Effective Programs
Effective Learning/Teaching Strategies
Strategic Goals
These are the long range goals we need to achieve to meet our current mission and vision.
1.
2.
Graduating Majors per Year
Curriculum
3.
Courses Offered
4.
Classes
5.
Advising
6.
7.
Endowment
Retention
8.
Research and Professional Development
9.
Resources
a. Human
b.
c.
Equipment Needs
Additional Facilities
d.
Library Holdings
e.
Scholarships
f.
Budget
Five year average of 15 or more
A nationally recognize program that attracts and retains
majors where 80% or more continue on to graduate programs
as well as producing science graduates to meet regional work
force needs.
Challenging as shown by student outcomes developed by the
department with failure rate less than 25% (See Curriculum
Assessment Plan)
Maximum Class size of 48 for introductory level chemistry
and organic chemistry, 16 for all upper level chemistry
courses Classes will be populated to 90% of maximum course
capacity; students will not have to wait more than one
semester to take required courses
A portfolio based advising plan where students are monitored
for progress. (See Departmental Advising Plan.)
$200,000.00 or more
Over 50% of majors starting Computational Techniques in
Chemistry (CHEM 304) chemistry graduate with a chemistry
degree
All faculty members are performing research in a dedicated
space, working with proper equipment, with departmental
students, presenting their work regionally and nationally..
Eight full time faculty members, all on tenured track teaching no more
than 27 contact hours per year
Operational NMR, X-ray fluorescence, micro-plate reader
Organic lab, biochemistry lab, food chemistry lab, geochemistry lab
Organic research lab, biochemistry research lab
Access to a wide number of chemical journals and chemical abstract
on-line
Additional 4 student scholarships
An additional $10,000.00 for research
An additional $5,000 for supplies
An additional $5,000 for travel
Department of Chemistry Action Priorities 2015/2016 1. Secure an additional PIN position for the Department (Strategic Goal 1) Due to the difficulty of finding qualified adjuncts in the local area, it is essential to the stability of the Department that a tenure track PIN position is obtained for a seventh member of the department. The department cannot fulfill its teaching obligation with only six positions. As the number of STEM students continues to increase here at FSU so does the demands on the department. 2. Hire 1 FTNTT instructors for spring 2016, hire 1 FTNTT instructor for Fall 16 (Strategic Goal 4 and 9a) Due to the loss of FTNTT Holly Currie and three quarter time adjunct Mary Mumper, the department will need to fill these two positions. The enrolment of students taking chemistry courses continues to increase. To meet this demand, the department has no other alternative. 3. Implement the revised Department’s Assessment Plan (Strategic Goals 2 and 3) The department agreed to the new assessment plan and will now need to implement it. Matthew Crawford will be in charge of maintaining the departmental assessment program and uploading it to Compliant Assist and ensuring students portfolios are reviewed and evaluated. Blair Knouse, the departmental laboratory manager will set‐up a portfolio for each student taking CHEM 305 using Moodle. The students will be introduced to the system when taking CHEM 305. 4. Change the name of the Department from Chemistry to Chemistry and Biochemistry (Strategic Goal 1) This change would hopefully bring in more biochemistry majors to FSU. Currently the number of students wanting to major in biochemistry at FSU is low compared to the national average. By changing the name, perspective students will see up front that FSU does have a biochemistry program. 5. Develop a Departmental recruitment plan to increase total number of majors (Strategic Goal 1) Continue the formation of a Departmental Recruiting Plan. The Department has created a committee to examine our recruiting efforts especially towards graduating local high school students and two year college students. A plan will be developed and submitted to the Department for approval. Ben Norris will continue to chair this committee. 6. Develop a web page that has video showcasing the department (Strategic Goal 1) The Department recognizes the need to improve our on‐line presence for perspective students. We are planning to work with the University Publicity Office Charles Schelle to create videos to place on our web‐page. These videos will highlight our programs, facilities, equipment and faculty. 7. Initiate a fund drive to increase our foundation holdings (Strategic Goals 8, 9b, 9e, and 9f) The Department would like to consult with University Advancement and establish a plan to increase our foundation holdings. The Department would like to establish a plan to increase our foundation holdings to $200,000 over the next few years. This money will be used to purchase expensive equipment ($10,000 to $70,000 range) 8. Populate the new GOB course (Strategic Goal 2) Advertise the new GOB course CHEM 150 and work with other departments to make it part of their required courses as a catalog change. 9. Expand our Experiential Learning Opportunities for our majors (Strategic Goal 8) The Mission of the University now emphasizes experiential learning and the Department feels very strongly that independent projects and undergraduate research for our majors needs to be a pivotal part of our program. The Department will examine this important learning mode to determine how it can be effectively implemented into our curriculum and find the resources necessary to support this objective. We would also like to continue to provide strong support for undergraduate research especially for student presentations at local, regional, and national conferences. 10. The Department redesign of Chem. 201 and monitor CHEM 202 (Strategic Goal 2 and 3) The initial results of the redesign were very encouraging. The Department needs to continue to improve the worksheet assignments and computerize the grading of assignments. The Department is watching closely the impact CHEM 201 is having on CHEM 202 students. It seems students in CHEM 202 are having difficulty adjusting to the rigors of this course being taught in the tradition style. 11. Certification for Chemistry and Biochemistry Programs (Strategic Goal 1 and 2) The requirements for certification by the American Chemical Society have recently changed. The Department wants to determine what these changes are and if we meet the new standards. There is a new crediting agency for biochemistry programs, The American
Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB). Again, the Department wants to determine what the requirements are determine if we meet the standards. In either case, the department is very concern about maintaining its flexibility in developing its curriculum and keeping the additional cost required for accreditation to a reasonable minimum. 12. Operational NMR (Strategic Goal 9) Determine what we are going to do with the department NMR as the purchase of liquid helium becomes become much more difficult. 13. Computational Software in Curriculum (Strategic Goal 2) Examine how the department uses software for computation and data processing across the curriculum. We currently use Microsoft EXCEL, LabVeiw and Spartan in some of our courses but have not agreed upon a graphic or symbolic math programs. 14. Integrated Lecture Worksheet and Textbook (Strategic Goals 2 and 3)
It is now quite clear to the department in order to reach the level of instruction we
desire in our General Chemistry I course, we will need to develop our own online
textbook/worksheets/lecture chemistry program. The three need to be fully integrated
together to effectively negotiate and master the complex world of atoms and
molecules. The platform needs to be interactive so students can fully appreciate the
complexity of the material, overcome gaps in their backgrounds, and develop the selfdiscipline required to understand chemistry.
Department of Chemistry Action Priorities 2014/2015 1. Secure an additional PIN position for the Department (Strategic Goal 9a) Due to the difficulty of finding qualified adjuncts in the local area, it is essential to the stability of the Department that a tenure track PIN position is obtained for a seventh member of the department. The department cannot fulfill its teaching obligation with only six positions. As the number of STEM students continues to increase here at FSU so does the demands on the department. 2. Expand our Experiential Learning Opportunities for our majors (Strategic Goals 2,8, and 9f) The Mission of the University now emphasizes experiential learning and the Department feels very strongly that independent projects and undergraduate research for our majors needs to be a pivotal part of our program. The Department will examine this important learning mode to determine how it can be effectively implemented into our curriculum and find the resources necessary to support this objective. We would also like to continue to provide strong support for undergraduate research especially for student presentations at local, regional, and national conferences. 3. Review and refine the Department’s Assessment Plan (Strategic Goals 2 and 5) The department wants to update its assessment plan with respect to the student portfolios. We need to define what material will be placed in the portfolio and determine a rubric for evaluating it. It also needs to be determined how this material will be stored and who will evaluate it. 4. The Department redesign of Chem. 201. (Strategic Goals 2 and 3) The initial results of the redesign were very encouraging. The Department needs to continue to improve the worksheet assignments and computerize the grading of assignments. The department will also initiate plans to incorporate lessons learned from CHEM 201 redesign into other courses. 5. The Department will examine the requirements for a minor in chemistry. (Strategic Goals 2 and 3) The current requirements for the chemistry minor do not include or allow any experiential learning component. The Department feels strongly experiential learning opportunities for student doing the minor should be allowed. 6. Develop a Departmental recruitment plan to increase total number of majors (Strategic Goal 1) Continue the formation of a Departmental Recruiting Plan. The Department has created a committee to examine our recruiting efforts especially towards graduating local high school students and two year college students. A plan will be developed and submitted to the Department for approval. Ben Norris will continue to chair this committee. As part of this plan the department will expand its webpage. 7. Initiate a fund drive to increase our foundation holdings (Strategic Goal 6) The Department would like to consult with University Advancement and establish a plan to increase our foundation holdings. We would like to initiate a campaign to increase our holding to $200,000 over the next few years. This money will be used to purchase expensive equipment ($10,000 to $70,000 range) 8. Update Catalog descriptions for chemistry courses. (Strategic Goals 2 and 3) There are a number of small discrepancies in the current catalog that need to be corrected. 9. Populate the new GOB course (Strategic Goal 4) Advertise the new GOB course Chem 150 and work with other departments to make it part of their required courses as a catalog change. 10. Operational NMR (Strategic Goal 9) Determine what we are going to do with the department NMR as the purchase of liquid helium becomes become much more difficult. 11. Computational Software in Curriculum (Strategic Goal 2) Examine how the department uses software for computation and data processing across the curriculum. We currently use Microsoft EXCEL, LabVeiw and Spartan in some of our courses but have not agreed upon a graphic or symbolic math programs. 12. Integrated Lecture Worksheet and Textbook (Strategic Goals 2 and 3)
It is now quite clear to the department in order to reach the level of instruction we desire
in our General Chemistry I course, we will need to develop our own online
textbook/worksheets/lecture chemistry program. The three need to be fully integrated
together to effectively negotiate and master the complex world of atoms and molecules.
The platform needs to be interactive so students can fully appreciate the complexity of
the material, overcome gaps in their backgrounds, and develop the self-discipline
required to understand chemistry.