2008 Institutional Report

Reporting Institution

Simon Fraser University

Representative

Robbie Dunlop, rdunlop@sfu.ca , phone (778) 782-4925

Changes to Programs/Courses

Our Majors program has been changed to include 3 streams:

•  the Geology Stream

•  the Environmental Geoscience Stream

•  the General Earth Sciences Stream

You can read all about it by following this link:

http://www.sfu.ca/earth-sciences/undergraduate/major.html

Our Writing, Breadth and Quantitative courses are listed on the Articulation website under Curriculum Details/Changes. When you follow the FAL/FAN link, check out the sidebar for the For Colleges link that will help you get your courses into good shape for transferring to the W, Q, B designated courses.

Staffing Changes

We currently have 17 faculty full time members and several sessionals.

Cindy Hansen (one of our former students) has been hired as our lab instructor. She has settled in nicely.

Our adjunct faculty has risen to 15 members this year.

Research personnel make up another 5 faculty.

Grad students number 50 .

Undergrads number approximately 69 (Majors 59 and Minors 10 + 4 undeclared) with 10 convocating in June.

Enrolment Trends

Enrolment for lower level Writing (W) and Breadth (B) courses has risen.

Fall 2007 enrolments were:

Physical Geology (EASC 101) – 115 + 21 (evening course) students.

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs (EASC 103) – 70 students

Geohazards: Earth in Turmoil (EASC 104) – 209 students

Spring 2008 enrolments were:

Physical Geology (EASC 101) – 105 students.

Earth Through Time (EASC106) – 144 students

Economic Resources (EASC 107) – 27 students

Summer 2008 enrolments are:

Physical Geology (EASC 101) – 90 students.

Economic Resources (EASC 107) – 107 students

Upper level enrolments have stayed about the same.

New Facilities

My old teaching lab in the Chemistry area has been given over to Biology and we have a new teaching lab in the TASC2 building, where mineralogy, petrology and similar courses will be taught.

Issues/Challenges

All of our vans have been grounded by the University administration due to safety concerns. We managed to make do with our 24 passenger bus, but for a department in which almost all courses are field trip based, this is going to be a continuing problem.