Faculty Meeting September 24, 2004

1
Faculty Meeting September 24, 2004

• Agenda
• News
• Search status for 2004-5
• Graduate program
• Undergraduate program

2
Graduate Student Tuition

• There is still not an announced policy but a
  nearly final draft exists.
• We believe that grants will be required to pay
  tuition for 6 credits at the in-state level
  starting in spring 2005 (3450/year). The
  balance of tuition costs will be waived (the
  remaining 12 credits of registration) and can be
  used for matching against federal programs.
• Grants paying pre-advancement-to-candidacy
  students if they serve as TAs will be exempt from
  charge. Request for exemption by chair to Grad
  School required for this.
• No charges for grad students on grants in
  summer before matriculating. These students will
  be registered as students for INS reasons, and
  tuition waived.
• Expect BNL and CSHL (other external bodies)
  will be required to pay tuition at the same level
  as Stony Brook grants, starting with grants
  submitted at some date in near future.
• Roughly 2/3 of collected funds to be returned
  to department to defray the loss of the stipend
  supplements for TAs that we now get.

3
Graduate student travel

• New policy regarding travel abroad by students
  (and also suggested for postdocs, faculty)
  Advisor provides dates, places visited, reason
  for trip to Chair and Graduate Director. Chair
  informs student in writing to contact
  International Academic Programs to provide info,
  including health, contact info for emergency,
  sign waiver of liability, insurance info.
• I feel this policy is cumbersome, intrusive of
  privacy, and susceptible to misuse. I do not see
  that IAP is in a good position to handle the
  requests, and for the moment am forwarding every
  instance from Dept. to them to help demonstrate
  the unsuitability of the process.
• I welcome any comments, questions on
  implementation, complaints etc. that I will share
  with the administration.
• As written, it seems that faculty, postdocs,
  staff also need to register their foreign travel
  with Int. Academic Programs. For now, I will
  submit these to help inundate the in-boxes let
  me know if you are travelling.
• See materials on Dept info web page
• New fees for VISA applicants (F-1 and J-1).
  Information on the Department information web
  page

4
Department information web pages
General information web page (for faculty,
research, staff and grad students) http//sbhep
1.physics.sunysb.edu/grannis/dept.html special
page for faculty only (e.g. presentations and
documents from faculty meetings) http//sbhep1.
physics.sunysb.edu/grannis/facmtg.html
The master people data base from which e-mail
lists, web lists of people and addresses has been
taken over by Kim Kwee Ng from John Hasstedt.
Diane Siegel is now keeping the primary Excel
list. We are updating the lists need the input
from the groups
5
Department Chair

• My term as chair will expire in summer 2005,
  after 3½ years in the job.
• I do not plan to accept a second term
  appointment
• I want to be able to focus more upon research
• It is useful for us to rotate this job new
  perspectives and priorities
• Allow a wider field to choose from if we think
  of this job as a limited time commitment
• I still plan to retire in the next few years
  (and remain an active member of the department
  and high energy group), opening the possibility
  of future hires of young people
• I have agreed with the Dean that the department
  will propose a search committee for him to
  appoint. I would like to see the search
  committee come to a conclusion by early in the
  spring semester to allow a sensible overlap of
  the old and the new.

6
Long Range Planning
Is it time to do another long range planning
exercise? Several unexpected resignations
since last LRP. We have moved on most (not all)
of the recommended new hires from the last
LRP. It may be helpful to guide a new chair. In
this case, I would suggest having such a
committee operate as soon as we have an internal
choice of new chair, appointed jointly by
outgoing and incoming chair.
7
Faculty searches

• I have requested four searches for this year
  using some extra departmental support for
  start-up funds and some salary sharing as a
  carrot. This plan is viewed as innovative by the
  Dean and is responsible (I think) for our success
  relative to other departments.
• Theoretical or computational astrophysics
• Theoretical nuclear physics (joint with
  BNL/RIKEN)
• Physics of biology (possibly joint with BNL)
• Nanodevice physics

8
Faculty searches
The Provost/Dean have approved us to advertise
for the first two at present. (Without firm
commitment yet that we can proceed to a hire, but
we should be optimistic). Committee for Nuclear
Theory Smith, Drees, Pietralla, Shuryak,
Verbaarschot Committee for Astrophysics Simon,
Brown, Gonzalez-Garcia, Lattimer,
McGrew Advertisements appeared in Sept. Physics
Today. We will close applications in
mid-December and interview beginning in January.
(Actually, the administration messed up the ads,
managing to post only the astrophysics position
in Physics Today the online PT ad does list
nuclear theory as does our own web site.)
Getting the word out is necessary.
9
Faculty searches
The Physics of Biology and Nanodevice Physics
hires were not approved for a search, largely
because of the larger cost of startups. I have
recently been given guarded but somewhat positive
advice to proceed to develop a proposal for a
search in biological physics, providing that we
could frame it as a joint hire with BNL, and
connect to biological physics activities on
campus. The chair of the BNL Physics Dept. and
Assoc. Lab Director for BES had agreed verbally
to search for a joint appointment in an
experimental area. We are exploring the
possibility of a joint theoretical/computational
hire as well. Meeting next week with BNL
Physics, BES, Biology, Material Science to try to
generate a proposal. My original idea was to
search without restriction as to experimental or
theoretical orientation. Seeking a new person
with some connection to existing activities in
our department, with synergy to other programs on
campus or BNL (CSHL) would be desired.
10
Shops
Current rates for on-campus work Machine
shop 37/hour, inclusive of costs for
consumables. supplies Electronics shop
44/hour, inclusive of costs for consumables.
Rates for off campus 52 (Machine shop) 62
(Electronics shop) New policy is that shop income
from research grants is taken by administration
Department only makes money on work done for
other campus administrative units (Physical Plant
etc.) and a portion of off-campus income. Search
for new junior electronics engineer is now in
progress interviews are nearly done hope to
hire in a month or so.
11
Other Business
Graduate program Laszlo Mihaly Undergraduate
program Emilio Mendez