Geological Sciences Department and Program courses and
teaching
Department of Geological Sciences courses taught 1975-1996;
and in Program in Geological Sciences 1996-2010.
Faculty in the Geological Sciences who were active in research,
funded, and seeking new research funding, normally taught 3
semester-length 3-credit lecture courses each academic year. Three
courses required preparing/revising and delivering about 120
lectures each year in 50 to 55 minute-long periods 3 times weekly
(MWF), or the equivalent in 90 minute lectures twice weekly (TTH).
Most courses for the Geology major included laboratory sections,
typically 2 hours on one afternoon per week. In most but not all
cases these carried an additional course credit. While teaching
assistants played an essential role in these labs, most Geology
faculty were also present and teaching during these sessions,
amounting to about an additional 20 to 24 hours time commitment
for each such semester-long course.
Two of the courses for majors included all-day field excursions
held on weekend days during the semester; these at some times
carried an additional 1 (exceptionally 2) course credits. Faculty
who instructed these were committed to an addition of from 30
hours (4 trips) to 80 hours (10 trips) per course to their
teaching time loads.
The Field Mapping course taught from 1975 through 2006 by Bill
Kidd was a three-week long, full time commitment; from 1983 held
in August, before the fall semester started, with additional 2
hour weekly lab time in the fall semester. Before 1983, this was a
6-credit summer-session course, but reduced to 4 credits after
that. Reckoning 8 hour days, for 20 days as the time commitment,
this was a significantly larger load than the credits imply.
This issue with the credits assigned to any course including a
laboratory or field experience was a perennial problem with the
courses for the Geology major, and other lab Sciences, because of
the constraint required by the SUNY system that no major could
exceed 36 credits in required courses. With a "combined" minor, an
additional 24 credits in courses was entirely eaten up by required
courses in Physics (2 courses, 8 credits) Chemistry (also 2
courses, 8 credits) and Mathematics (2 calculus courses, also 4
credits each).
One other feature that should be highlighted were the
large-enrollment 3-credit lecture course offerings by Geological
Sciences for the general undergraduate population, fullfilling a
science course requirement in the General Education program. The
longest running of these was Planet Earth, initiated by John
Dewey, and another was Environmental Geology, started by Kevin
Burke. Mostly these were taught in one of the several 210-seat
lecture center halls of the Lecture Center. When the Department
had sufficient faculty (until 1990) at least two of them would be
offered, and in the 1980's three were regularly provided, each
semester. Planet Earth then had overall the largest enrollment of
any science course at the University, with the courses all taught
by tenured or tenure-track faculty. These provided a large FTE to
the benefit of the Program. After 1990, with substantial budget
cuts to the SUNY system and the major effect, the non-replacement of faculty,
these offerings inevitably declined in number, and at least half
of the reduced offerings were taught by non-tenured faculty. So as
the interest in and significance of energy and resource
availability, and of global warming, were increasing, the courses
available at Albany to the general undergraduate population, of
Geological Sciences relevant to these most significant issues,
became significantly reduced. This must be seen, not just as minor
unfortunate or regrettable administrative consequence of budget
cuts, but as the deliberate choice of starvation of the education
provided to undergraduates at Albany, and with consequences of
contributing to ignorance in society about these issues which is
all too evident.
Geological Sciences Department and Program courses and teaching
(tabloid page size pdf files)
undergraduate and graduate courses
offered 1975 - 2011
Faculty course teaching assignments
listed by semester 1975 - 2011; summer session 1975 - 2008
all data in .ods spreadsheet file
scan pdf of pages from each semester Schedule of Classes
semesters f - fall; s - spring; su - summer session
(department files were found incomplete for summer sessions)
1970's: | 75f | 76s | 76f | 77s | 77f | 78s |
78f | 79s |
79f | 80s |
summers:
| 79su
| | 80su |
1980's: | 80f
| 81s | 81f | 82s | 82f | 83s | 83f | 84s | 84f | 85s | 85f | 86s | 86f | 87s | 87f | 88s | 88f | 89s | 89f | 90s |
summers: | 81su
| | 82su |
| 83su
| | 84su |
| 85su
|
| 88su
|
| 90su |
1990's: | 90f
| 91s | 91f | 92s | 92f | 93s | 93f | 94s | 94f | 95s | 95f | 96s | 96f | 97s | 97f | 98s | 98f | 99s | 99f | 20s |
summers: | 91su
| | 92su |
| 93su
|
| 96su |
2000's: | 20f
| 21s | 21f | 22s | 22f | 23s | 23f | 24s | 24f | 25s | 25f | 26s | 26f | 27s | 27f | 28s | 28f | 29s | 29f | 210s | 210f | 211s ||
summers:
| 27su
| | 28su |