eouproposal [Notes]

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Proposal to EOU: A Revitalized Physics Department for a Revitalized Badgley Science Center

Intro points
- EOU wants to be competitive amongst small liberal arts universities
- Importance of a solid physics department to above goal
  - Quality of the physics department needs to go to the next level
- The current Catch-22 situation for the department
  - Not enough students to justify restructuring and extra resources, but EOU won't attract more physics students without this
  - EOU must take action and make the first move to get out of this situation
- We offer a cost-effective and limited-obligation solution
- Summarize our proposal

Why Us

History
- Prominent EOU alumni
- Strong history of activity at EOU
- Personal attachment to EOU
  - Family and friends who are alums, most of whom still live in the area
PhDs from top universities
Young, fresh, energetic, ambitious
Female faculty member
- Good PR
- Help attract more female students to physics
Strong desire to return to and remain in La Grande area
Small initial investment and limited obligation
- Willing to work for a limited salary on a ?-year contract
- Assessment and option to continue employment at the end of the contract

Selling Points

Bring the Physics Department to a new level and make it a vital part of the university
- Attract more serious physics students to EOU
  - Will also bring more students in contact with other EOU departments
- Start producing larger-scale collaborative research projects
  - Collaboration between students and faculty
  - Collaboration between EOU and other research institutions
  - *PNNL
    - Other universities (esp our PhD alma maters)
Cross-departmental integration
- Math
- Chemistry
- Computer Science
Community outreach
- Regional high school recruiting and demonstrations
- Star parties
  - Get the community involved with the department
  - Focus on children's groups and get them excited about science
- Monthly science lectures open to the community
  - Could generate interest with tie-in to popular culture through films, books, etc.
    - e.g. Successful Apollo 13 public lecture given by former NASA engineer Cline Frasier which was tied-in with a showing of the movie Apollo 13

Projects

Observatory
- Location
- Funding
- Construction
Parallel computation
- Serious computational work using currently installed machines
- Students gain familiarity with parallel concepts
- Low additional maintenance, no additional cost
Recruitment/demonstration roadshow

Academics

Outline goals for department
- Prepare students for graduate school
- Prepare students for general research
- Prepare students for employment
Extend curriculum
- More core physics classes
- Introduce astronomy and astrophysics classes
- Teach a course on GRE survival

Chain of Contact

Dr. Tom: Approach with feasibility/logistics questions
Dr. Tovar: Hopefully move into 3/2-type engineering program
Dr. Cavinato: Info for collaboration with computational chemistry
Administration: Approach with finalized proposal

eouproposal.txt · Last modified: 2008/08/23 10:14 (external edit)

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