Final Report of the External Review of the Eastern Illinois University Physics Department, April 21 and 22, 2005
Introduction
This report comprises the recommendations of the external review committee, consisting of Beth Cunningham (Bucknell University), and Gubbi Sudhakaran (University of Wisconsin, La Crosse), that reviewed the Eastern Illinois University Department of Physics April 21 and 22, 2005. During this time, the external reviewers met with each Physics Department tenure track faculty member, a group of students consisting of seven physics majors, the associate chair of Biology, the chair of Chemistry, the Dean and Associate Dean of the College of Sciences, and the Provost. We toured the departmental facilities, including research labs, teaching labs, and the machine shop. We socialized with a subset of the faculty during dinner of the first day and during breakfast of the second day we were at Eastern Illinois. We appreciate the openness of the faculty, students, and administration as we collected information during our visit.
The physics faculty consists of 9.5 members (5.5 tenured and 4 temporary), one of whom is disabled but continues to teach part-time. There are currently 4 full professors and 2 associate professors. The department currently has 4 faculty in one-year appointments. The department has just hired an assistant professor in a tenure track line who is currently in a one-year appointment. This new faculty member is a woman and will bring diversity to the department; the national average for women faculty in bachelor-degree-granting physics departments is 11% (1998 data, AIP website).
The committee was impressed with the overall commitment of the physics faculty to teaching. The faculty seem to have a very good rapport with students both in the classroom and out of the classroom in such settings as extra help sessions and one-on-one interactions with undergraduates in research experiences during the semester and the summer. The Physics faculty are well respected as teachers by their colleagues in chemistry and biology. Furthermore, these departments feel that their students are well-served by the Physics [PHY 1151, 1152, 1161, 1162, 1351, 1352, 1361, and 1362] series.
The physics majors are a dynamic group of students. The students enjoy the small class sizes in physics but are also concerned that certain courses are not offered regularly because of the low number of majors. They also understand the benefits of having more students in their upper level classes as peers with which to study. The number of bachelor degree recipients in physics since 1998 at Eastern is 38 (5.4/year), whereas the average nationwide in bachelor-degree-granting physics departments is 3.2 per year (2002 data, AIP “Enrollments and Degrees Report”).
The support of the Physics Department by the administration is generally good. The department budget is good and includes funds for purchasing expensive capital equipment. Furthermore, the college provides support for seeking external funding through their Grants Office. However, the recent loss of tenure track positions and space will need to be addressed by the administration over the next few years.
With regard to the education mission of the University, the Department of Physics offers the following degree options: B.S. in Physics, Applied Physics, Radiation Physics, B.S. in Engineering (Cooperative Degree in collaboration with UIUC or SIUC), Science with Teacher Certification (Specialization in Physics), M.S. in Natural Sciences with a concentration in Physics (for high school teachers). The Department also offers service courses that provide important foundational understanding to students in several majors (chemistry, biology, math, and teacher education programs in the sciences), and several of its introductory courses contribute significantly to the institution’s general education program. Faculty members have encouraged student research and collaborated with physics majors on numerous research projects.
STAKEHOLDER COMMENTS
Discussions with the stakeholders revealed no concerns with the quality of the current physics department offerings. The content level of the courses offered is considered to be appropriate to the needs of the math, biology, chemistry and education programs. Concerns were expressed by the stakeholders that the continued instability in the physics department could lead to a degradation of the department’s curricular offerings.
All of the stakeholders view physics as fundamental to a first-rate science program at Eastern Illinois University and important to the overall development of the students in their programs. A solid background in physics is particularly important to students majoring in chemistry, biology, and math. None of the stakeholders believed that replacing the department with “contract” physics instruction would provide the quality necessary for their programs.
CURRICULUM
We have spent considerable time discussing with the department, physics majors, and the administration curriculum issues and the degree program offered by the department. In general the curriculum is strong and meets the expectations of the degree requirements offered at EIU. Faculty should be complimented because they are genuinely interested in the education received by their physics students and structure the curriculum in such a way that it prepares students for graduate school and also for industry jobs.
Apart from concerns about course enrollments, it is a shame that the physics curriculum is not more accessible to EIU students. Physics is a unique discipline, distinctly different from engineering, motivated not by application but rather by the desire to understand how the Universe works. The physics major is an ideal launch pad for careers or advanced studies in basic or applied physics, astronomy, engineering, materials science, and a growing number of emerging fields such as biophysics and nanotechnology. Restructuring the physics curriculum – to attract and allow students to begin during the first, second or third semesters – should be a top priority for the department.
The other issue related to course offerings is the fact that the introductory courses are taught in small sections. Although this does provide an excellent learning environment for students, we wonder if the lecture sections of introductory courses could be larger allowing the credit hours saved to be used to develop other courses in the curriculum as well as expand the undergraduate research opportunities. Students will have a more intimate experience in the laboratories associated with the introductory courses since the labs are taught in smaller sections. We believe that making the lecture sections of introductory courses will not significantly compromise the excellent teaching that the department currently is known for but instead will improve other areas of the curriculum.
The current selection of upper level courses, offered in alternate years, provides a rich and rigorous preparation for advanced study or professional work in science and technology. Because of spotty enrollments, however, these courses are frequently taught by faculty for little teaching credit. Indeed, the faculty have bent over backwards to accommodate the requests of their students for junior and senior level courses, and their students are grateful for these efforts. Nevertheless, teaching upper level courses as tutorials is an inefficient use of faculty resources, and is surely exhausting and demoralizing for the physics faculty. Moreover, it drains energy needed for other important functions, such as scholarship and the design of innovative interdisciplinary courses or tracks. Finally, tutorials enrolling only 1 or 2 students are not ideal teaching vehicles: students enjoy the individual attention and the flexibility of scheduling courses, but they miss out on the collaboration and community involvement in problem-solving found in a well-run classroom.
The other drawback in the curriculum is that it lacks flexibility for students and the variety of options available for students to pursue different career paths. [We should note that the department has taken a good first step by introducing the two new options of Applied Physics and Radiation Physics.] Some specific concerns and recommendations are listed below.
· Many Physics programs in the nation allow their students to enter the major from the algebra-based introductory sequence as well as the calculus-based sequence. Their math skills even out by junior year, and the system allows all potential majors to immediately begin course work in Physics and opens a much larger pool of introductory students to the department’s recruiting efforts.
· The department has not explored all possible avenues to attract new majors by modifying the curriculum to reflect scientific and technological developments, flexibility in the curriculum, and current trends in the job market. Many physics programs in the nation are currently incorporating these new changes to reinvigorate their physics programs.
· In the present curriculum there is a lack of "variety" of options for students to choose from. The department can look into the feasibility of
Introducing emphasis or specialization programs.
Physics major with: Astronomy Emphasis
Computational Physics Emphasis
Optics Emphasis
Biomedical Concentration
Solid State Emphasis
The EIU Physics Department can develop different emphasis programs depending upon the different areas of expertise of their faculty.
Undergraduate research presents tremendous opportunities for students and faculty to perform cutting edge research and to collaborate with scientists at other universities and national labs. Undergraduate research adds an important dimension to student learning. It exposes students to new state of the art equipment, increases student self confidence, allows them to gain problem solving skills, develops mentoring relationships with faculty, and helps students become more “connected” to their institution. In addition, undergraduate research gives students an opportunity to seek and obtain scholarships and grants support, as well as making them more competitive for admission into graduate school and for jobs in industry. From an institutional standpoint, undergraduate research is an excellent vehicle to both recruit and retain students.
Several faculty members in the EIU Physics Department are research active. These faculty use their research projects to enhance the teaching and learning of undergraduate physics majors by involving students in their research. We were pleased with the level of participation of students (physics majors) in undergraduate research. When additional faculty are hired, considerable care must be taken to hire individuals who will engage undergraduates in meaningful research experiences.
EQUIPMENT
The site visitors toured the introductory laboratories and store rooms, the advanced laboratory, and the central store room. We were pleased to see that data acquisition in the introductory laboratories was done by computer.
Many undergraduate physics programs offer a year long sophomore/junior level laboratory course for their majors. The purpose of this laboratory is to expose students to high tech equipment, and to train them in collection, manipulation and interpretation of data. These skills are needed by physics graduates to prepare them for future positions in industry or for graduate school. Currently the EIU physics program offers a three-semester Experimental Physics laboratory course for its majors. The first lab deals with the study of fundamental physical constants and the second semester lab covers the modern physics experiments. During the third semester the students design and develop experiments with guidance from faculty. We are pleased with the diversity of experiments used in the sophomore/junior level lab courses.
RECRUITMENT/RETENTION
For any physics program to be successful, it has to pursue aggressive recruitment and retention efforts. It takes resources, time and effort, and visibility to attract students to the program. The students and their parents must be made aware of the quality of the physics program available at EIU. There are several avenues to reach the targeted audience. The department can come up with a brochure highlighting the uniqueness of the physics program, the different options available for a student to graduate, variety of research opportunities available to the student, easy accessibility to the physics faculty, the weekly seminars, etc.
1. Brochures can be mailed to the surrounding high school counselors and science teachers.
2. Invite local high school students for a physics open house (Physics Day) during Fall or Spring semesters.
3. Give department tours to potential students and their parents.
4. Offer physics shows to the local elementary and middle school students on a regular basis each year.
ASSESSMENT
All academic departments need to develop and implement program assessment procedures that a) develop learning outcome statements appropriate to the program, b) develop a tool to assess student learning relevant to those outcomes, and c) ensure that faculty use assessment results to improve the program. At the time of our visit, we found deficiencies in the number of assessment methods and tools being used by the EIU physics department to evaluate student achievement and performance. The only assessment tool we found that the department is using is a Course Assessment Questionnaire. We were pleased to learn that the department is in the process of developing new assessment tools into the program. We strongly recommend using the Force Concept Inventory (FCI), Force and Motion Concept Evaluation (FMCE), and the conceptual survey of Electricity and Magnetism (CSEM) to evaluate the student learning in the algebra- and calculus-based introductory physics courses. The single most useful resource for assessment of any program has been feedback from students. The Department should solicit feedback via course evaluations, exit interviews of graduating students, and direct requests for feedback from students in graduate programs.
Accomplishments of the Department
· An exceptionally “student oriented” program, emphasizing both formal and informal interactions between students and faculty. The physics majors we interviewed were extremely complimentary of the physics faculty. They cited numerous examples of both personal and professional guidance provided by the faculty. Students appear to be treated more like family members than students. The faculty clearly put their students first.
· The faculty are highly regarded as excellent teachers as evidenced by the number of undergraduate students who enroll in Physics and Astronomy courses to satisfy the general education requirements.
· The faculty want to engage in scholarly pursuits. Importantly, faculty value research for its teaching and learning values. Many students will tell you that they learn as much, if not more, in a laboratory pursuing answers to the questions that are on the cutting edge of their fields rather than in a classroom. This sentiment was expressed by the EIU physics majors we interviewed. The involvement of students in faculty-mentored research is a key element in the positive relationship the faculty have with their students.
· The Physics Department faculty as a whole appear to be willing to “pitch in” to do whatever is required to help make the department successful.
REFLECTIONS
Although our overall assessment of the Physics Department is positive, several important problems must be resolved in the near future to enable the department to improve, or even to maintain at current levels, the quality of the education it offers. The Physics Department is struggling with a low number of majors. We believe that the department needs to address this crisis forthrightly, realistically, and immediately. Additionally, the department has low visibility on campus despite the central role that physics plays in any college curriculum.
The department has new opportunities now. A new observatory has been built, and the teaching and research labs are nicely equipped. Two faculty members have received external funding from DARPA which has provided some cutting-edge equipment for their use and the use of undergraduate students. Furthermore, the department has a new faculty member who is eager to help the department improve and grow. This is a good time to move forward and we feel that the department should take advantage of this situation.
SITE VISITORS RECOMMENDATIONS
Departmental Recommendations
Despite the fact that physics departments all over the country are facing enrollment challenges, we know of no four-year academic institution with a student enrollment of over 1000 that does not have a physics major and a physics department. If Eastern Illinois University is to have a credible science program, it must have a strong physics program. This subject area is the foundation upon which most science and technology fields are built. All of the stakeholders we talked to at EIU clearly indicated that the physics department provided an important foundation for their programs and their students.
Administrative Issues
The department is very collegial on the whole and members of the department appear to support one another. Department leadership truly believes that the best interest of the department is kept in mind when making decisions. Furthermore, the faculty seem to enjoy good relationships with the administration and vice versa. Indeed, the administration has been very supportive of the department. Nevertheless, there is room for improvement in this regard so that the department can move forward. Some of these issues are at the department level and some are at the college level. Specifically, we recommend:--
· Better nurturing of new faculty. We learned that a college-wide program for mentoring new faculty does not exist. Such a program would provide mentoring of new faculty by “model” colleagues who are not responsible for their evaluation can provide good advice as new faculty navigate through the tenure process.
· Furthermore, we recommend that the college find ways for new faculty (as well as established faculty) from all disciplines to socialize. New faculty need to learn about the institution, and what better way than from their tenured colleagues at a social gathering. Finally, we recommend that the tenured members of the department, especially the chair, help guide their new faculty on the steps to take in order to be tenured.
· Provide adequate resources for new faculty (salary, space, equipment, computers, undergraduate research student funds, etc).
· Funds for faculty travel to Project Kaleidoscope and CUR conferences, the workshop for new faculty sponsored by AAS, APS, and AAPT, and other conferences focused on innovative teaching. We also recommend that the college provide funds for students to travel to national research conferences and professional society meetings. Students benefit enormously by presenting their research at national conferences, a venue in which they can receive exposure to experts in the field as well as “advertise” their credentials to potential graduate schools and employers.
· Once the department has developed a strategic plan, the administration should try to convert the temporary positions into tenure-track positions.
· Continue to develop a grant writing culture on campus.
· The Provost and Dean need to support the department’s new strategic plan.
Enrollment and Recruitment of Majors
As we have noted earlier, this frequently carries with it a consequence that standard courses in the upper-level physics curriculum are taught as tutorial courses, overburdening the faculty and depriving students of the opportunity of learning from their peers.
The low number of majors and low enrollments in upper-level physics courses were cited by all members of the department as substantial concerns. The department chairs of related departments also expressed concern about the low number of physics majors.
We believe there are ways to increase the number of students considering a major in physics at EIU. If successful, these will also increase the enrollment in upper-level courses. Many of the suggestions listed below arose in discussions with members of the department, and it is clear to us that all members of the department are keenly interested in solving the enrollment problem. This statement extends to your able and engaging physics majors as well.
For that reason, we begin with the suggestion that the department make full use of all its resources, the energetic young faculty members and particularly your current physics students, to advertise the possibilities in physics to prospective students and to first year students.
Another mechanism for bringing physics to the attention of students would be a speakers’ series. It is worth adding that if some of the speakers were women or minority group members, the message might be sent that physics is not solely the province of white males. In both physics and astronomy, there are lecture programs that cost the institution very little, and the department seems ready to use some of its own funds to support an expanded program of physics and astronomy talks. Take advantage of alumni, too.
Suggestions for Program Enhancement
1. The Department needs to develop a “five year strategic plan.” The faculty need to determine where they want the program to be in five years in terms of curriculum, instrumentation in the teaching laboratories, number of students involved in undergraduate research, level of faculty research, and focus of the overall research program. We feel that one of the main obstacles in the advancement of the department is the lack of a strategic plan. As already stated in the 1997 external review, the department needs to consider “a departmental retreat, even one held on campus but away from phone and other interruptions.” It is during such planning that issues such as changing the curriculum, organizing student-faculty social activities and colloquiums, plan purchase of expensive equipment, and developing strategies for improving recruitment and enrollment. Furthermore, if any new tenure-track hires are to be made, the department should have a plan for the research area of this new hire and how this hire will support the curricular needs. The whole department, including the new faculty, needs to be actively engaged in solving these issues.
2. The Department should develop an aggressive recruitment strategy to increase the number of Physics majors. For the last decade the growth in the number of physics majors and the number of graduating physics majors has remained flat. We strongly recommend that the physics faculty visit several highly successful undergraduate physics programs that have been successful in recruiting and retaining large numbers of physics majors.
3. A 3 – 2 program in physics and engineering needs to be developed by the EIU physics department in collaboration with UIUC and SIUC. The Department must aggressively publicize and market the 3 - 2 program and make it more student-friendly by fine tuning the current curriculum. Such programs at other institutions have played a significant role in building the number of students in the department. With a 3 - 2 program, aggressive marketing of the programs, and continued work on developing a “community” sense among the departments students and faculty, we believe that in five years time, the number of students in the program could reach 50 students.
4. The Department needs to enhance its visibility on the campus and change the public perception that it is a service department. The Department has to pay attention to publicizing its programs within the university. This, we believe, will help the department attract additional majors.
5. Building a sense of “community” and “family” among the physics majors is important in both recruiting and retaining students in the program. Successful programs have worked very hard to develop close student-student and student-faculty relationships. Our sense is that the EIU physics program is working to achieve these kinds of relationships in the department. When we asked the physics majors if they all had personal desks somewhere in the physics space, the response we obtained was that they did not. We recommend that the department provide its majors with this kind of personal space. Personal attention like this is a very strong attractor for students. The lack of social space for the majors is connected to the general loss of departmental space over the last decade.
6. The department has lost both faculty office space and research space over the last decade. This will become an issue especially if new tenure-track faculty members are hired. Faculty need office space that is separate from research and general laboratory space, especially when dealing with student advising, exam preparation, etc. Additionally, any new tenure-track faculty member will need research space whether they are experimentalists with equipment or theorists with computers.
7. The Department needs to develop a year-long, advanced laboratory for its majors. Institutional support will be needed to replace antiquated equipment to bring instrumentation up to today’s standards and expectations.
8. Institutional support will also be needed to replace the aging equipment in the introductory laboratories. It is difficult to obtain external support to simply replace equipment.
9. The continued development of a strong undergraduate research program must be a departmental priority. This must be a central concern associated with any new faculty hires and it is especially critical when a new chair is hired. Although undergraduate research is available as an elective for the major, the Department should look at building undergraduate research into the actual major. Furthermore, undergraduate research should be an expectation for faculty, especially as the department expands.
10. Funding to support the department’s research and undergraduate research programs will be important. When the temporary faculty members are placed in tenure-track positions, there should be an expectation that they will seek external grant support. (Our personal experience suggests that there is little likelihood that faculty who are in temporary positions will receive serious funding consideration from private or federal sources.) If at all possible, the faculty should be given some re-assigned time by the department to help them develop these proposals.
11. We strongly recommend that the Department continue to aggressively develop and implement an assessment plan to monitor and improve its curriculum. We also recommend that the department solicit feedback from students (via course evaluations, exit interviews of graduating students, and direct requests for feedback from students in graduate programs) and review placement data, length of time to degree, job and graduate school placement data as part of the overall assessment plan. Furthermore, the department needs to develop an assessment plan to assess each course and each program offered by the department. Having a successful assessment plan will allow the department to find out which courses and programs work and which ones don’t. The department should use end of the semester evaluation forms to assess each class. In addition, each major should have an exit interview. The department should ask employers about the quality of the EIU graduates and also send questionnaires to alumni. The department should seek help from their colleagues in Chemistry, which we were told have model assessment plans. Furthermore, the department could seek help from their Assessment Office.
CONCLUSION
The Department of Physics at Eastern Illinois University offers students a fine education that is properly appreciated by majors and that is well-received by other departments. In this report we have tried to offer suggestions both about how a good program can be improved further and about how a program can do more to attract potential majors. The suggestions that we give provide starting points for the department in what we hope will be discussions over the next few months, leading to ways to improve the curriculum as well as enhance recruitment and enrollment. The faculty are impressively dedicated and seemingly poised to take the department to a higher level. We appreciate the willingness of the department to make changes. We also recognize the need for the administration to provide support in order for the department to make these changes. We are convinced that both the department and the administration must act collaboratively in order to assure the health of the department and the centrally important role of physics at Eastern.
Beth Cunningham
Bucknell University
Gubbi Sudhakaran
University of Wisconsin, La Crosse