Undergraduate
Goal 1: Recruitment
Recruitment: Increase representation of undergraduates with a wide variety of lived experiences.
Vision of where we want to be in 5 years: Sustained growth in degrees awarded to students with a wide variety of lived experiences.
- Action 1: Targeted outreach to high school students with a wide variety of lived experiences
- Action 2: Ensure social media usage is consistent with department values and priorities and accessible to individuals with a wide variety of lived experiences
- Action 3: Develop or partner with neighbor departments for pre-college workshops & programs (could include reviving GRASP and ASPIRE)
- Action 4: Send physics department members to Columbus State to recruit, and build relationships with faculty there
- Action 5: Participate in events focused on Columbus State students transferring to OSU
- Action 6: Recruit from OSU campus change students
- Action 7: Play a more active role in recruiting undergraduates to OSU
- Action 8: Actively recruit from STEM majors when they’re already on campus
Goal 2: Fair and Transparent
Fair and Transparent: Create a fair and transparent environment in classes and the major/minor.
Vision of where we want to be in 5 years: All students feel welcome and treated fairly in the undergraduate physics programs, and feel appropriately challenged in their courses .
- Action 1: Incorporate evidence-based practices into courses at all levels.
- Action 2: Include professional development on working together in groups and respectful interactions in classes.
- Action 3: Appropriately align and scaffold skills (math, computation, writing, estimation) and physics content throughout the curriculum
- Action 4: Develop well-defined goals and learning outcomes for all classes
- Action 5: Create a culture of continuous improvement in classes
- Action 6: Facilitate graduation from the program in a reasonable amount of time for students with different backgrounds in math
- Action 7: Use special assignments and course redevelopment resources for curriculum updates on a regular basis
- Action 8: Revisit staffing models for courses, and develop formal structures for handoffs of classes among instructors
- Action 9: Have transparent grading criteria, and standardize grading across major courses
- Action 10: Keep a regular schedule of electives
- Action 11: Provide more tutoring/TA support for upper-division classes
- Action 12: Organize an annual networking event; invite other associations, organizations, business owners, alumni, or employers.
- Action 13: Regularly share funding opportunities.
- Action 14: Organize symposiums or conferences inviting physicists with a wide variety of lived experiences.
- Action 15: Make colloquia accessible to undergraduates, with speakers representing a wide variety of lived experiences.
- Action 16: Highlight and recognize contributions to physics from individuals with a wide variety of lived experiences.
Goal 3: Community
Community: Build a welcoming community of physics undergraduates.
Vision of where we want to be in 5 years: Undergraduates feel like they are valued and supported members of the physics community and feel physically and psychologically safe in OSU physics contexts.
- Action 1: Increase community building efforts, including facilitating the creation of other organizations or clubs to support undergraduates with a wide vaiety of lived experiences.
- Action 2: Organize fairs or cultural events including a regular focus on international students.
- Action 3: Work in coordination with SLDS to ensure our faculty accommodates students with disabilities.
- Action 4: Generate/advertise a system to receive periodic, confidential feedback from students, and attend to differences in feedback across lived experiences.
- Action 5: Build/expand formal mentoring programs
- Action 6: Educate about the code of conduct, and invite students into a triannual revision process, with the goal of having students feel physically and psychologically safe
Goal 4: Careers
Careers: Prepare students for a variety of career pathways after graduation, supporting and providing access to outside-of-class professional development opportunities (research, teaching, outreach, service).
Vision of where we want to be in 5 years: Students are well-informed about career paths, and are utilizing resources to prepare them for their chosen path(s).
- Action 1: Create a variety of ways for students to get paid to do physics (in addition to research, consider an LA program, paying students for committee work)
- Action 2: Increase access to research opportunities, to reduce the burden on students to find research groups (can also include help on applying to internships and REU programs)
- Action 3: Provide travel support, including to professional development and community building conferences.
- Action 4: Organize events where we can invite different organizations or other OSU graduate programs to share physics related opportunities or post-graduation opportunities.
- Action 5: Organize and advertise resume workshops.
- Action 6: Advise students about grad/professional/dual degree programs and possible financial assistant for them.
- Action 7: Design a process to assist students in exploring specific graduate programs that include master's and PhD programs in physics but also in other areas considered non-traditional career paths, like Business, Pre-law, and Pre-Med. (Asynchronous seminar courses?)