Astronomy/Physics/Physical Science Program Review Presentation April 18, 2012

Program Description We have five full-time physics professors, one full-time astronomy professor, and two adjunct faculty All our courses are transferrable to both UC and CSU One of our courses is part of required coursework for several certificates and AA/AS degrees at ARC An overwhelming majority of our students plan to transfer to a four-year university Brief Description of your program. Who are you? One Slide, 2 minutes

Program Description almost 68% of our students are non-science majors and take our courses to fulfill general education transfer requirements 32% of our students are science majors who will transfer as either physical sciences majors (engineering, chemistry, physics, computer science, etc) or life science majors (pre-med, physical therapy, biology, etc) Brief Description of your program. Who are you? One Slide, 2 minutes

Benchmarks Degrees and Certificates Our department offers two degrees: an AS in Physical Science/Mathematics and an AST in Physics We have awarded 405 AS degrees in Physical Science over the last five years The AST in Physics was just established at the end of last semester so none have been awarded yet

Benchmarks Program Success Rate Our program success rate is at 74% which is slightly higher than the college rate of 70% The success rate for science majors was higher than that of non-science majors

Program -- Challenges We are unable to offer enough sections of some classes, often having full waitlists. This is due to a lack of physical space and the lack of a replacement hire when a member of the department retired at the end of the 2010/2011academic year Maintaining and replacing equipment is an ongoing challenge. Every class we teach uses some equipment and the usage is especially heavy in laboratory courses. Our Astronomy discipline is relatively small for a college of our size and has seen a decline in enrollment numbers. We would like to grow this discipline.

Planning Implications Program Objectives We will continue to maintain and update our laboratory equipment We plan to hire a second full-time astronomy professor and one full-time physics/astronomy professor We are currently in the planning stages of remodeling Room 420 and have a new EMP objective to expand and update the existing Physics building We plan on building an Astronomy Observatory

Planning Implications Resource Allocations We need high prioritization for filling the two full-time professor hires We need allocation of more FTE’s We need funding for our proposed construction and remodeling as well as for keeping laboratory equipment up to date