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Resources for Geoscience Heads and Chairs

Workshop Program

Heads and Chairs of Earth and Space Science Departments

Sunday, December 8, 2019, AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA
Location: Intercontinental Hotel, 888 Howard St, San Francisco, CA 94103
Room InterCon A L5

7:30 Sign-in, breakfast available

8:00-8:05 Welcome and Logistics – Pranoti Asher, Higher Education Manager, AGU and AGI Member Society Scholar-in-Residence

8:05-8:15 Introduction – John Gierke, Michigan Technological University, Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences

Morning Session

8:15-10:15 Creating Safe and Inclusive Field Experiences: Responding to Bullying and Harassment - Erika Marin-Spiotta, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Meredith Hastings, Brown University and Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, University of California, Merced

Field research and training create unique environments that can both reinforce and make invisible existing power dynamics, with the potential for abuse. In this interactive session we will discuss and practice strategies to reduce the likelihood of abusive behaviors such as bullying and harassment as well as how to respond when they do occur, with a focus on field environments. For more information visit the ADVANCEGeo resources on field work.

10:15-10:35 Break

10:35-11:40 Improving Geoscience Graduate Student Preparedness for the Future Workforce (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 6.1MB Dec8 19) – Sharon Mosher, University of Texas at Austin and Jeff Ryan, University of South Florida

We will explore what universal skills and competencies should be part of graduate geoscience education for Ph.D. & M.S. students in Earth, Ocean, & Atmospheric Sciences and ways of implementing these into graduate programs. We will provide a brief introduction to the results of this NSF sponsored national initiative along with pre-reads and break out into small groups for discussion.

11:40-11:55 Update from AGI about Workforce Issues (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 3.2MB Dec8 19) – Christopher Keene, American Geosciences Institute

11:55-12:00 Formation of Small Groups for conversations during lunch (based on participant interests, determined from registration forms)

12:00-1:00 Lunch, small group discussions, and business meeting

Overview of AGU Board of Heads and Chairs and election of new members of the Executive Committee of the Board of Heads & Chairs.

Afternoon Session

1:00-4:00 Principled, Preventive Academic Leadership: Survival Skills for Administrators (Acrobat (PDF) 18.5MB Dec10 19) – C. K. Gunsalus, Director, National Center for Professional and Research Ethics, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

How can you foster a supportive work environment and elicit the best from yourself, your faculty, and your staff, even in the most challenging situations? Universities are designed to accommodate a wide range of creative styles and personalities; a person whose conduct exceeds the boundaries of collegial behavior can damage the productivity and morale of others in the environment. This interactive session on survival skills focuses on techniques for handling conflict, and complaints from or about colleagues and then explores the complexity of dealing with difficult people in an academic environment. Explore where the boundaries are—or ought to be—and how to set and enforce those boundaries.

4:00-4:30 Practicing Equitable Admissions through Holistic Review (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 1.7MB Dec8 19) – Julie Posselt, Co-PI on IGEN grant, University of Southern California

This presentation will draw from a decade of research that 1) critically analyzes common systems of admission to doctoral programs and 2) develops a case for holistic review, including caveats about design and implementation. Dr. Posselt will present admissions from decision makers' point of view, including thought-provoking episodes of committees grappling with borderline cases. To promote equity, transparency, and legal safeguards, Posselt shares concrete strategies and places admissions within a system of practices that collectively shape student and program outcomes.

4:30-4:45 Future NAGT and SERC opportunities for faculty and students - Cailin Huyck Orr, Science Education Resource Center (SERC), Carleton College

4:45-5:00 Wrap-up: Closing remarks and workshop evaluation

  • Please take a few minutes to complete the workshop evaluation.
  • Do you have activities, course descriptions, or other resources you would like to share with the group or the broader geoscience community? Consider sharing through Teach the Earth, NAGT's portal for teaching and learning about the Earth.

5:00-6:00 Reception

This workshop is a collaboration between the Building Strong Geoscience Departments project and AGU . The workshop website is supported by NSF under grant DUE-0817353 to the Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College.