Agenda for CSE Department Meeting 1-29-25

Equipment
$40K to upgrade GPU server capabilities. $20K to upgrade sensor network lab capabilities.
Grad Applicants on Slate
8 in Faculty Review at present, 4PhD and 4MS. Please review your share. Ideally I would like 2+ votes on each. In practice I have ended up making some decisions unilaterally and more with just one vote, usually Jun's.
CSE Grader Tutor Budget
I was informed by Provost Jackson that CSE spent more than half its annual budget on student hourly employees last Fall. So we don't have infinity money for hourly graders or sysadmins after all. I think Lorie is helping with hiring a few students, and I am approving grader requests for classes that have enrollments, especially if they lack TA support.
PARs
Your PAR is due soon (Sat. Feb 1, which really means Monday Feb. 3). Get template and example from the VPAA website. Received PAR's from: Suraj, Hamdy, Xuanye
IT Assessment
Previously shared by e-mail. Any comments/suggestions ?
CSE Grad Assessment
Maybe start from our current draft. We use Comments in past reports suggest a stronger assessment metric is needed for research.
From a past year's Grad Assessment (received from MJ, not sure of author):
Most SLO's are focused on skills (which is great to see). While SLO 1 is
focused more on content and is a little compounded, it is acceptable.
The department included a curriculum map which was very beneficial and
informative. It was surprising that there weren't more places in the curriculum
where SLO's were either introduced or reinforced.

Department with several graduate programs (master of science, doctor of
philosophy) should evaluate each of their programs. I believe they can do
this with a single report provided they have at least one SLO that
distinguishes student learn across different degree programs or distinguishes
populations within a SLO (I believe the former is easier to accomplish). The
department has identified the need to develop an assessment plan for its PhD
program - this was mentioned in last year's report. Consequently, the plan
needs to be approved and in place as soon as possible so that it can be
reported on in next year's annual report (particularly since, I suspect, it
will be similar to the dpeartment's current graduate program assessment plan).
I believe the department can reasonably collect data this year so that
findings can be discussed in next year's annual report.
Exit Assessment?
Consider whether we should adopt an assessment instrument for dissertation or thesis defenses. For example, here is a little form to be filled out by committee members.