OUTCOMES OF A BUILDING STRONG GEOSCIENCE DEPARTMENTS “VISITING WORKSHOP” AT CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, BAKERSFIELD

Against a backdrop of campus-wide budget cuts and rumors of impending closures of entire departments, the Geology Department at CSU Bakersfield applied to host a Visiting Workshop from the Building Strong Geoscience Departments program. Faculty felt the workshop could aid in capacity-building for the department and to strategically position it during budget cuts and for future better times. The department requested workshop leaders with appropriate expertise, Diane Clemens-Knott from CSU Fullerton for her experience in the CSU system, and Dallas Rhodes from Georgia Southern University for his long-standing work on strengthening geoscience departments.

The one-day workshop in December 2009 was attended by all department faculty. The faculty completed a “SWOT” analysis, outlining the Strengths and Weaknesses of the department, its Opportunities, and the Threats it faces. Faculty reached broad agreement that the department has considerable strengths in scholarship, procurement of external grants, and support from the community. However, they also felt that due to the small number of faculty and their focus on teaching, research, and field work, the department’s accomplishments and its contributions were not adequately communicated to others on the campus and that the department was at a disadvantage due to limited participation in campus-wide committees, governance, and politics.

The Action Plan developed at the end of the workshop called for increased participation in campus-wide committees, better promotion of the department, and surveys of students and alumni to identify areas for improvement. In the eight months since the workshop, the department is now represented on the Program Review Committee and the University Review Committee and is actively publicizing accomplishments to administrators, other faculty, and the community. Surveys of graduating students and alumni were completed. Alumni are very satisfied with the education they received and have successful careers. Students are also generally satisfied with the department. However, they also voiced frustration with large class sizes and limited availability of required classes. Both alumni and students expressed a desire for more field experiences and an interest in proposed certificate programs in GIS and Petroleum Geology.