THE
FACULTY
SENATE
Senate Document Number 6707S
Date of Senate Approval 05/03/07
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Statement
of Faculty Senate Action:
APC Document 57: Adding
a Minor in Astronomy
Effective Date: Fall 2007
1. Add: On pg. 41, under Optional Minor Fields of
Concentration, add Astronomy after
Art History
Impact:
Students minoring in
Astronomy will directly benefit from active involvement at the research
facilities of the nearby Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI). Such direct hands-on participation by
undergraduates in radio astronomy instrumentation is almost unique among
colleges and universities in the
Rationale:
UNC
Asheville now has a concerted effort underway in Astronomy due in part to our
administrative oversight of Pisgah Astronomical Research and Science Education
Center (PARSEC), substantial Federal funding, the commitment of an endowed
chair (the Glaxo-Wellcome Endowed Chair, Brian
Dennison), and UNC Asheville’s new position as a North Carolina Space Grant
University.
The Federal funding referred to above comes in part from a large
3-year National Science Foundation grant awarded to Brian Dennison in September
2005 to develop a radio interferometer by joining electronically the two large
radio dishes at PARI. This is the largest single grant that UNC Asheville has
received in its history.
The North Carolina Space Grant (NCSG) describes itself as “a
consortium of academic institutions that have gathered together to promote, develop,
and support aeronautics and space-related science, engineering, and technology
education and training in
In Fall 2005, the NCSG
announced a membership expansion program open to all institutions of higher
education in
As a Space Grant member
institution, UNC Asheville receives annual funding of $20,000. From this,
UNC Asheville has established a program of undergraduate research in parallel
with the PARSEC-PARI partnership. This research involves students from
across the sciences and mathematics. Nearly the entire annual budget is
used in support of undergraduate internships and scholarships, consistent with
the goals of the NCSG. In Summer 2006, six paid PARSEC internships were
awarded to UNC Asheville students through a combination of funds from the NCSG,
NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the Glaxo-Wellcome
Endowment at UNC Asheville. The first NCSG-funded scholarship was awarded
to a UNCA freshman that entered in August 2007.
Our institutional
membership in the NC Space Grant also allows students to apply directly to the
Space Grant for scholarships to attend UNC Asheville. In the latest statewide
competition, 4 UNC Asheville students won scholarships from the NC Space Grant.
The UNC Asheville success rate for these scholarships was one of the highest in
our state, even though it was our first time to participate in the scholarship
offerings.
The proposed Minor in
Astronomy will bring undergraduate education, our core mission, directly into
line with all of these efforts mentioned above.
2. Add: On page 70, under Astronomy, after the listing of participating faculty, the
following:
A minor in astronomy
complements related natural sciences and mathematics offerings. The goal of the
astronomy minor is to broaden the student's intellectual perspective through
the application of basic science to the universe. Those students with a
professional interest in astronomy should consider combining the astronomy
minor with a physics major since a thorough grounding in fundamental physics is
required for graduate study in astronomy.
Students in the minor
program will have hands-on access to unique research facilities, such as those
at the nearby Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI). UNC Asheville
serves as the administrative campus for the Pisgah Astronomical Research and
Science Education Center (PARSEC), a UNC-system-wide center dedicated to
promoting student and faculty participation in research and educational
programs at PARI. UNC Asheville is also a member institution in the North
Carolina Space Grant Consortium, which provides funds to support related
educational activities. UNC Asheville students are eligible to apply for North
Carolina Space Grant scholarships.
Minor in
Astronomy
18 hours in Astronomy: ASTR
105, 321, 322, 411, 412, 430, 431. Note the upper level ASTR courses have
prerequisites of MATH 191, MATH 192, MATH 291; PHYS 221, 222.
Impact:
he sequence of the new course offerings
is given in the table below. An analysis of the overall projected commitments
of the Physics Department indicates that the department can allocate sufficient
teaching resources, including half of Brian Dennison's teaching, to meet these
new course needs for the astronomy Minor. The Physics department will be adding
a new tenure-track faculty member (Tim Giblin) in
Fall 2007 which will enable the department to meet its needs as it adds new
courses for the astronomy minor. Dr. Giblin holds a
Ph.D. in Astronomy and will be contributing to the astronomy minor in addition
to Dr. Dennison.
|
|
Fall |
Spring |
|
AY 07-08 |
ASTR 321 |
ASTR 322 |
|
AY 08-09 |
ASTR 411, 430 |
ASTR 412, 431 |
|
AY 09-10 |
ASTR 321 |
ASTR 322 |
|
AY 10-11 |
ASTR 411, 430 |
ASTR 412, 431 |
Most students pursuing the astronomy minor
should have all the prerequisites necessary to begin these courses by the end
of their freshman year. Virtually all should be prepared to take these courses
by the end of their sophomore year. Since the ASTR 321/322 and ASTR 411/430;
412/431 sequences can be taken in either order, all prepared students should
have ample opportunity to take the required courses for the Minor.
Others in the Physics Department are also
qualified to teach the ASTR 321, 322, 430, and 431 three-hour courses. Randy
Booker has a background in Astronomy as well as Physics and taught PHYS 373 Astrophysics
at UNCA as a special topics course during Spring 2000. In Fall 2002, Dr.
Booker taught a special topics course PHYS 273, Exploring Black Holes. He
has also team-taught the ASTR 105 course at UNCA (with Mike Ruiz) since its
inception in 1991. Judy Beck has a Masters degree in Astronomy and could teach
any of these courses for the minor. She has also team-taught the ASTR 105 class
on several occasions over the past 6 years. There are others in the department
who could teach the ASTR 411 and ASTR 412 lab courses. Randy Booker and Judy
Beck have expertise in hands-on optical and radio astronomy and could teach
these courses if necessary. Dr. Mike Castelaz, a UNCA
adjunct professor who also works at PARI full-time, would also be an excellent
resource for these courses. Dr. Giblin, the new
faculty member joining the department in Fall 2007, is an optical astronomer,
has taught astronomy at the
Rationale:
As a discipline that integrates insights from various
fields, astronomy is tied to research programs in academia and government. Since the basic intellectual foundations of
astronomy are built upon physics and mathematics, students should not pursue an
exclusive focus in astronomy until graduate school. Rather, seriously interested undergraduates
are well advised to acquire a strong foundation in physics and mathematics,
complemented by a minor in astronomy. Through the exposure afforded by the
minor, these students can better define their long-term interests, and make
informed decisions about graduate study at the appropriate time. Those who
pursue graduate study in astronomy will be well prepared to address the
inevitable choices of specialization within the field. Those choosing other
directions will have the broad options afforded by a strong background in
physics and mathematics.
The proposed program is
also designed to serve students with a supplementary or exploratory interest in
astronomy. These students are expected to come from a variety of majors, which
in many cases would be well complemented by a minor in astronomy.