An understanding of geography is integral to an educated persons ability to live and act effectively in todays changing world. A broad range of factors (human and physical, natural and technological) is at work shaping the future of our planet, and it is the mission of the Department of Geography and Land Studies at Central Washington University to prepare its students to be active participants in that rapidly-developing future. To fulfill its mission, the department emphasizes human diversity and student-centered instruction in research, analysis and presentation of both human and physical data. We offer a range of coursework featuring techniques and tools for understanding the processes and results of the Earth-human relationship, and for empowering students to deal with the rapid changes they will face. The department is committed to a liberal education as well as to professional training related to planning and resource management. In meeting those commitments, we offer the geographers way of “seeing” the interrelationships of human life and our habitat. Our students learn to see a holistic Earth and its components--physical and human--along with the processes that shape them. We seek to instill in our students the joy of discovery and the satisfaction gained from the knowledge of how to learn. The department encourages imagination and creativity, while providing our graduates with the skills necessary to deal with issues--at scales ranging from local to global--relating to the planet, its diverse regions and its peoples. We stress the importance of place as a path of research and understanding, and as an arena for positive action--we expect geographers to speak for the land and spirit of places. As an intrinsic characteristic of our discipline, we encourage interdisciplinary teaching, research and public service among our faculty, and a similar orientation in our students--regardless of their ultimate career choices. Our students graduate with real-life experience, gained in contact with other cultures, through field work and internships, and by acquiring skills necessary for coping with our highly dynamic world. Toward these ends, the department maintains a strong commitment to the General Education program as well as the Energy Studies minor, Environmental Studies minor, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) certificate program, and the Resource Management graduate program. We prepare our students for life as active participants in the creation of tomorrow. It is our intention that those who study with us be prepared to evaluate for themselves the consequences of public and private choices which will shape the future of our global society, and the lands and natural resources that sustain us.
The Geography and Land Studies Department is clearly central and essential to the university’s mission as evidenced by the strong parallels between our departmental goals and mission statement and the university’s mission statement. Collectively as well as individually we have long advocated responsible citizenship and environmental stewardship. The content and learning objectives of our geography courses are especially aimed toward achieving the above stated mission of responsible citizenship and stewardship of the earth. Our faculty have a long history of serving the region through our teaching, research, and public service. As broadly trained geographers well versed in resource issues, we are ideally suited to serve as an intellectual resource for the central Washington region, the state, and the entire Pacific Northwest in understanding and solving human and environmental problems. We have made a conscious effort in each of our hires to hire teachers first, whose backgrounds indicate both depth and breadth, and who care deeply about students. Our courses serve the learning objectives of students across campus, as shown by our direct involvement in the General Education, Environmental Studies, Energy Studies, Latin American Studies, Asian Pacific Studies, and Resource Management graduate programs, in addition to our own students majoring in geography. As a holistic discipline, geography is ideally suited to serve the liberal arts needs of the General Education program. At the same time, our faculty have the expertise to teach in a variety of more specialized venues, and many of our upper-division courses - especially those categorized as “resource geography” - are directly responsive to the university’s stated mission of preparing students for “responsible stewardship of the earth.”
Goal 1. Maintain a teaching-learning facility and major program of study that promotes the uniquely integrative, synthesizing view of geography as a discipline. Goal 2. Foster an intellectually and socially diverse community of faculty, staff, and students who care deeply about the earth as human habitat, and who enthusiastically share ideas, information, and responsibility for learning about the interactions of people and environment. Goal 3. Improve the ability of our students to observe the world around them in terms of its physical and cultural landscapes, and to understand the powerful concept of place that is operative at many scales, from the local to the global. Goal 4. Encourage faculty research and public service, and support student involvement in faculty research and civic engagement.
Departmental programs undergo continual and perennial assessment as faculty go about their duties and reflect upon individual successes and shortcomings, or else think about how the department and its culture might be improved upon. Any issues that arise from such critical introspections are brought out and discussed in the public forum of our regularly held faculty meetings. These discussions are for us the main vehicle for effecting change, yet likewise provide a foundation of continuity and tradition in the department. For example, when faculty members retire or leave for greener pastures, there ensues intense debate among those who remain regarding what sort of geographer we wish to bring on board as a replacement. Will it be a person whose interests and research trajectories directly correspond to that person who vacated the position? Or have we collectively and through consensus identified an unmet teaching and research need that was previously unrecognized? In addition, among common topics of discussion at faculty meetings are ongoing courses and instructional effectiveness, leading to adjustments as needed whenever those courses are again offered in subsequent quarters of instruction. Feedback from students is highly valued by our faculty. Students evaluate all courses taught in the department using the standard SEOI forms, and supplemental written comments are especially encouraged when these forms are handed out at the end of every quarter in all of our classes. The results, in terms of both individual student comments and the numerical rankings of standardized questions, are reviewed for both instructional and program concerns. In the context of student performance at the program level, the GEOG 489–Geography Capstone course has been the primary tool for an overall, end-of-studies assessment of our geography majors. This course is under the supervision and facilitation of the department Chair, and is a required course for all graduating seniors. The results of student interviews and other feedback from this course are used as a basis for considering program directional adjustments, as well as formal curricular or other instructional shifts, including responding to any identified need for more offerings of one course or fewer offerings of another.
Evidence for outstanding performance is clearly shown by the success rate of our graduates in finding gainful employment or in seeking continued educational opportunities. We continue to strive to inspire students, and to encourage their interests in a range of environmental and society-nature topics, and we are heartened to be witnessing what seems to be an apparent increase in the level of such interest among the student body. As a faculty, we continue to encourage each other in our own research efforts, and in sharing those efforts with other members of the department, faculty and student alike. We applaud the increase in research activity among our faculty, and the parallel rise in the products for dissemination and publication of that research. A key line of evidence for the promise of outstanding performance is apparent in the way the local community perceives the department as being one of the finest academic units in the university. This has been shown time and again by the many invitations to speak to local meetings, or in editorial comments preceding a guest column written by a faculty member for the newspaper, and in letters to the editor by local citizens commending our efforts. More tangibly perhaps, our reputation for conducting quality research certainly precedes us, and our noteworthy participation in the planning and research needs of local and regional resource management agencies is well established.
Geography & Land Studies has witnessed many changes over the past five years. Many of the more significant changes involve the composition of our full-time faculty roster. Such personnel alterations represent both challenges and opportunities, as discussed in greater detail below. Overall, the changes have been positive, and have resulted in a vibrant and more dynamic mixture of faculty, with increased diversity in every sense of that word. Our annual departmental Retreat was held November 17, 2006, and during that all-day session the faculty as a whole were able to articulate some of the things that we feel as a department we have done well over the past five years. These include: • An increase in the percentage of faculty (from 30% to 45%) who have obtained grants, contracts, and other instruments of external funding. (see Table 5 on page 51). • An increase in the number of publications authored by faculty. Many of these journal articles, book chapters, and in one case a book, have been highly regarded national and international peer-reviewed outlets. The percentage of department faculty who have published has increased from 20% to 36%. (see Table 5 on page 51). • Adjustments in curricula to address contemporary problems at the global, regional, and local scale. New courses have been developed and existing ones modified. • Continuing to play a starring role in the general education program, and in maintaining supporting roles within a number of interdisciplinary programs across the university. Indeed, we have actually expanded our role in the university-wide general education program, with the addition of a new course (GEOG 273, Geography of Rivers), and the offering of additional sections of geography courses that serve to meet existing required electives in general education. Moreover, GEOG courses have been added as requirements or electives within several new program initiatives across campus. • A continued focus on student-centered learning. From experimental use of the internet as a learning resource, to more hands-on group projects, more and more faculty have begun to leave behind their role as “sage on the stage” to become the more effective “guide on the side.” • Increased dedication to the more applied aspects of our discipline, both in seeking out opportunities for faculty research efforts, and in our attention to helping to fulfill the educational goals and career aspirations of our students. We continue to take pride in the fact that our majors have performed well on the job, and we remain high on the calling list of employers seeking to hire. • A continued commitment to field-based learning. This activity not only has involved conducting day-long excursions into the local landscape to learn geographic concepts and observe phenomena first-hand, but also much more complex and intensive field camps as well as study abroad sessions lasting several weeks. • Increased pursuit and guidance of student internship opportunities. Our commitment in this aspect of our students’ educational experience extends to supporting and providing supervision for any number of students during the summer. • Continued advancement of other summer learning opportunities, from decisively establishing new courses such as Geography of Wine, to taking advantage of serendipitous new research learning opportunities that arise such as the Wenas mammoth excavation. • Increased commitment to the more technical aspects of our discipline. This is perhaps best exemplified by our new Certificate in GIS that has proven a popular and worthwhile educational goal not only for our own majors but for students across campus from other departments. • Amplified presence of our department within the organizational structure of our discipline at the national and regional level. Our faculty are encouraged to attend and present research at the annual meetings of the Association of American Geographers as well as the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, and we have increased our participation rate at these events. We have also maintained involvement in the statewide Association of Washington Geographers and the education-oriented Geographic Alliance for the state.
The Geography & Land Studies department has continued to face a number of challenges over the past five years. Some of these we can do something about, and some are beyond our control and efforts at amelioration. We have proceeded through a number of new hires, mostly as a result of faculty resigning their position here and taking a position elsewhere. The challenge to find replacements for these positions was a keen one, requiring a lot of time and energy on the part of numerous faculty members in the department. During these searches, we were most pleased to find that our department successfully competed with much larger departments in our quest to recruit quality applicants. In the end, we have been greatly rewarded by our earnest efforts in recruiting and screening applicants for our faculty vacancies, and are most satisfied by the results. Likewise, as more of our regular faculty members obtain external funding and buy out teaching time in their faculty workloads, or have been awarded research leaves and sabbaticals, it has been the department’s responsibility to sustain the level and quality of curricular offerings. This has entailed searching for qualified personnel to assume the role of on-demand lecturer or to fill temporary one-year faculty positions. We have been most fortunate in being able to rely on the trusted services of several long term lecturers, and currently we could not be more pleased with the professional caliber of our two visiting assistant professors. By far the single most critical challenge facing the department over the past five years has been the cramped quarters of our physical space. Our program has grown in terms of both students and faculty, and in terms of both teaching and research, but the allocation of space within our building has actually been diminished by the competing needs of other departments. This has left us at a clear disadvantage in attracting and retaining majors, and this is perhaps reflected in the downturn in those numbers. It is also detrimental to faculty and staff morale, and has resulted overall in a counterproductive teaching and learning environment.
The Geography and Land Studies Department is clearly central and essential to the university’s mission as evidenced by the strong parallels between our departmental goals and mission statement and the university’s mission statement. Collectively as well as individually we have long advocated responsible citizenship and environmental stewardship. The content and learning objectives of our geography courses are especially aimed toward achieving the above stated mission of responsible citizenship and stewardship of the earth. Our faculty have a long history of serving the region through our teaching, research, and public service. As broadly trained geographers well versed in resource issues, we are ideally suited to serve as an intellectual resource for the central Washington region, the state, and the entire Pacific Northwest in understanding and solving human and environmental problems. We have made a conscious effort in each of our hires to hire teachers first, whose backgrounds indicate both depth and breadth, and who care deeply about students. Our courses serve the learning objectives of students across campus, as shown by our direct involvement in the General Education, Environmental Studies, Energy Studies, Latin American Studies, Asian Pacific Studies, and Resource Management graduate programs, in addition to our own students majoring in geography. As a holistic discipline, geography is ideally suited to serve the liberal arts needs of the General Education program. At the same time, our faculty have the expertise to teach in a variety of more specialized venues, and many of our upper-division courses - especially those categorized as “resource geography” - are directly responsive to the university’s stated mission of preparing students for “responsible stewardship of the earth.”
We take pride in being able to offer an unusually wide array of geography courses that seem to interest a broad spectrum of the campus community. We have responded to the needs of students in other majors by fulfilling needed electives within those majors and by regularly offering courses that help students reach their career goals. Of particular interest is our new GIS Certificate program, which is open to students from any major on campus. The Geography major is currently a Bachelor of Arts degree with either a 45-credit or a 60-credit option. We currently have approximately 65 student majors in these programs. Additionally, the department plays a significant role in the Public Policy major as well as the Environmental Studies, Energy Studies, Asian-Pacific Studies, American Indian Studies, and the Latin American Studies minor programs.
Our curricula is a blend of traditional geography along with some of the more contemporary concerns within the geography discipline. Most of the regional, resource, physical, and human geography courses are taught from a traditional “human-environment relationship” perspective that we all agree is the type of geography that we should continue to teach, especially given the increasing emphasis of specialization within the discipline, and a trend among the sciences in general, to move away from holistic views of earth systems and landscapes. Obviously, a certain amount of specialization becomes necessary when treating any geographic topic with some depth, and this is reflected in the discipline’s normal split between physical and human geography. The department follows such a division in organizing our introductory sequence of required courses, as well as our upper division offerings in both human and physical geographies. We are all cognizant, however, of the equivalent need to merge these two perspectives within each of our courses - to try and overcome the largely arbitrary divide between human and physical components of the earth. During the conduct of upper division regional courses in particular, we strive to combine the study of human and physical geographies in the context of certain fixed locations in space, at whatever appropriate scale that should entail. Furthermore, it should be noted that our department is rather unique in exhibiting the great depth of regional coverage that our faculty are able to provide in course offerings.
Department faculty regularly seek out and address ways to improve our program; any weaknesses or omissions in student and programmatic assessment will be discussed in a collaborative manner and an appropriate course of action will be taken. Individual faculty are encouraged to review and reflect on the feedback received as part of the SEOI process for each course of instruction. Changes in course content, modes of delivery, learning outcomes, student assignments, and assessment tools, are all subject to revision as part of this self-reflective engagement. Peer review is also utilized by the Geography department as another way to improve instructional effectiveness. A comprehensive formalized structure of classroom peer review was tried during AY 2006-07, but this proved less than fully effective in that the faculty felt a more flexible approach would be more amenable and useful, and so that has been the guideline in place this year. Individual faculty are encouraged to invite colleagues to visit classes on a mutually agreed upon session. A hard-copy review form was developed by the Chair as a revision to what had been used previously. Alternatively, peer review of syllabi and other course materials is another way faculty seek to achieve improvement in instructional effectiveness.
Departmental programs undergo continual and perennial assessment as faculty go about their duties and reflect upon individual successes and shortcomings, or else think about how the department and its culture might be improved upon. Any issues that arise from such critical introspections are brought out and discussed in the public forum of our regularly held faculty meetings. The Chair is now considering the development of an annual written report to the department regarding assessment activities, which will constitute one aspect of what is envisioned to become a sort of <state of the department> report. This will ensure that all faculty collectively are made aware of department assessment goals and the above-mentioned ongoing attempts that occur on an individual basis.
Feedback from students is highly valued by our faculty. Students evaluate all courses taught in the department using the standard SEOI forms, and supplemental written comments are especially encouraged when these forms are handed out at the end of every quarter in all of our classes. The results, in terms of both individual student comments and the numerical rankings of standardized questions, are reviewed for both instructional and program concerns. In the context of student performance at the program level, the GEOG 489–Geography Capstone course has been the primary tool for an overall, end-of-studies assessment of our geography majors. This course is under the supervision and facilitation of the department Chair, and is a required course for all graduating seniors. The results of student interviews and other feedback from this course are used as a basis for considering program directional adjustments, as well as formal curricular or other instructional shifts, including responding to any identified need for more offerings of one course or fewer offerings of another. Occasionally, other faculty from the department have attended various capstone presentations and all have had the opportunity to see the completed projects of the majors. Faculty conversations that have stemmed from the results of this course, along with our collective experience in other courses and when advising students, have led to the following curricular changes during the past four years: a. all majors must now earn C or better in each of the courses listed in their major contract (this represents a recent program revision in the university catalog, in that the department agreed that this minimum standard should be raised from its previous level of a grade of C minus); b. internal formalization of advising specializations within the 60-credit option for the geography major; c. development of a Quantitative Methods class (GEOG 409).
As the department’s curriculum has evolved over time, we have taken a leadership role, perhaps to a greater degree than any other single department on this campus, in continuing to offer the needed number of sections of the staple courses that make up the university’s General Education program. Our courses serve the learning objectives of students across campus, as shown by our direct involvement in the General Education, Environmental Studies, Energy Studies, Latin American Studies, Asian Pacific Studies, and Resource Management graduate programs, in addition to our own students majoring in geography. As a holistic discipline, geography is ideally suited to serve the liberal arts needs of the General Education program. Four geography courses fulfill breadth requirements in the General Education Program. These are listed here as follows, with the general education program category enclosed in parentheses: GEOG 101–World Regional Geography (Perspectives on World Cultures category of the Social and Behavioral Sciences); GEOG 108–Introduction to Human Geography |(Foundations of Human Adaptations and Behavior category of the Social and Behavioral Sciences); GEOG 107–Introduction to Physical Geography (Patterns and Connections in the Natural World category of the Natural Sciences); GEOG 273–Geography of Rivers (Applications of Natural Science category of the Natural Sciences). In addition, Geography department faculty also play key roles in team-teaching the following Environmental Studies courses that are also listed as selections within the General Education Program: ENST 301–Earth as an Ecosystem (Patterns and Connections in the Natural World category of the Natural Sciences); ENST 302–Ecosystems, Resources, Populations, and Culture (Applications of Natural Science category of the Natural Sciences). Assessment procedures used involve the normal processes of attempting to achieve student learning outcomes in each of these individual courses. Whether a student is making progress toward relevant general education student learning goals is beyond the purview of individual faculty from this department who are involved in teaching these courses, but obviously depends on a university-wide assessment of the General Education program.
We do not at this time incorporate general education student learning goals into assessment of students in the major.
We are one of the main departments participating in the interdisciplinary Resource Management M.S. degree program. Currently, there are approximately 70 active graduate students in this program, which is simultaneously undergoing a separate and distinct Resource Management Program Review. Most of the geography department faculty are heavily involved in the Resource Management graduate program, either through the teaching of core REM classes or by serving as graduate student advisors (i.e., thesis committee chairs) or thesis committee members. These contributions consume a considerable amount of faculty time, for which each faculty member is only minimally enabled to address and account for within the current method of calculating faculty workloads. Because of its interdisciplinary nature and scope, and especially because of the recent restructuring as a stand-alone placement under the Dean of the College, the mission and goals of this graduate program are described in a separate program assessment (see Resource Management Program).
Note final paragraph in 2.E.1. above.
Note final paragraph in 2.E.1. above.
Several faculty have been involved with internet delivery of course material, not only through structured standard formats such as Blackboard, but also through individual efforts of customized web page design for delivery of syllabi, course assignments, and learning exercises. Two faculty members (Kuhlken and Hultquist) pioneered the use of the world wide web in course development and presentation, well before the university caught on to this technology and adopted Blackboard as a standard. Although several faculty members now make use of Blackboard, at least one of us still retains the mode of customized creation of web materials because of the greater flexibility. The department does not offer DE courses (see 2.F.5. below).
The use of Blackboard in courses such as GEOG 101, GEOG 403, and GEOG 404 has been an important component of classroom instruction and multi-tiered communication. It provides an interactive method for all students to be informed and to inform one another throughout a quarter. Providing an overarching structure that is accessible at all times, students are able to review information, stay up to date and on task, and even provide anonymous feedback and communication. In GEOG 101, World Regional Geography, as taught by Lipton, all students are required to become familiar and comfortable with the Blackboard environment. At this introductory level, it immediately ensures that incoming freshmen and transfer students are literate and comfortable with new technologies provided at the University. Within the structure of Blackboard, students may obtain further information about each subject covered in class, links to multi-media or online instructional materials, up-to-date calendars and assignments, and it also provides a forum for classroom communication and participation. Geography is an incredibly visual discipline because of the use of maps and other visual media, therefore the integration of Blackboard also provides a platform for students to interpret, study, and analyze visual materials on their own time. Additional utilization of the Blackboard electronic learning environment takes place in several sections of GEOG 101, where Lipton assigns every student to a group representing each world region. The students are then responsible for individually investigating recent news articles or regionally relevant information and then posting their findings on Blackboard’s Discussion List. These posts are then integrated into classroom discussion and lecture to further engage students in the material being covered in lecture format. The Discussion list serves not only as an efficient means for students to cultivate their own interest in each particular region of the world, but it also serves to develop and link students in the class.
We believe as a department that course delivery via distance education would diminish the educational experience that can only be fully operational in a dynamic, face-to-face environment.
Our department is into its third year of course offerings at two westside centers: CWU‑Lynnwood and CWU‑Des Moines. During the first two years a single course, either GEOG 308, Cultural Geography or GEOG 475, Geography of Asia, was offered at one of these campuses. During Fall Quarter of 2006, both GEOG 308 and GEOG 460, Geography of International Trade, are being offered at CWU‑Des Moines. Despite departmental efforts to offer additional geography coursework throughout the year, the administration has not been able to approve the staffing shifts necessary to carry out this enhanced presence at the Centers, and there are no plans for additional geography offerings on those campuses until summer quarter. The Department of Geography & Land Studies views students at our Centers no differently than those attending classes on the Ellensburg campus, and we see the Centers as integral components of Central Washington University. Yet, offering courses at the westside Centers has been an almost constant battle, in large part because of insufficient funding and somewhat parochial thinking on the Ellensburg campus. We sometimes get the feeling there are those on the main campus who view an instructor teaching at the Centers as a net loss for the university, as if that person is teaching at some other university!
When a student applies to be a geography major, the completed application is forwarded to the Chair, along with that student’s CAPS report, which is their academic transcript currently on record with the Registrar’s office. The department chair then meets with each student in a formal interview setting. At that time, the student’s academic record is examined and any deficiencies discussed with the student. Likewise, the diagnostic essay that is part of their application to the major is read by the Chair, who then discusses with each student what their interests are, and what their future career possibilities might involve. If a student has maintained the currently required GPA of 2.25, and there are no glaring problems in any geography coursework they may have already taken, then they are admitted to the major, and an official faculty advisor is tentatively assigned to that student based on shared interests or other advantages in helping students to charter a chosen career direction. Every faculty member in the department takes advising very seriously, and expects to meet with assigned advisees at least once each quarter. It is during these meetings that we are able to conduct individual assessment of each student’s progress, to address any areas that need improvement in student academic performance, and to take a reading of any changes in career directions expressed by each student as they make their way toward graduation from CWU.
Professional Societies: The department once again maintains an active chapter of Gamma Theta Upsilon (GTU), an international honorary geographical society founded in 1928. Our department initiated the Gamma Tau chapter of GTU in 1965, but activity stagnated after a few years. It was revitalized in 2004, and we initiated 13 members in May, 2005 and another 8 in June, 2006. These GTU members helped put on the 2005 meeting of the Association of Washington Geographer’s spring conference at CWU. Faculty-Led Clubs: The student Geography Club has likewise been reinvigorated after a few years of inactivity. It is not, however, a faculty-led club, although faculty serve as advisors. Student interest in this club seems to go in cycles, but just this fall two undergraduates have begun the necessary moves to reinstate the Geography Club in the CWU student club structure, and they have surpassed the minimum of 5 members required to be reinstated. Geography students are processing the paperwork and intend to start attending the Student Senate in January, after which they are eligible to request funds for travel. Several students are planning to attend the Association of American Geographers meeting in San Francisco, April 17-21, 2007. Activities sponsored by the Geography Club during previous years have included Yakima River cleanups, and judging elementary school students in the Geography Bee. The department (and current advisors, Nancy Hultquist and Craig Revels) are happy to see this renovation of activity.
Student participants in SOURCE Department of Geography & Land Studies SOURCE (est. 2004) mentors and student participants: 2004-2006. 2006 Anthony Gabriel • David Cordner: Community Places: Mapping Landscape Meaning in the Community of Ellensburg, WA • Daniel Didricksen: Using benthic macroinvertebrates to evaluate stream habitat for steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) reintroduction • Janet Rhodes and Andrew Perkins: Classification and Distribution of Lake Types in Washington State • Matthew Collins: The Effects of Migration Distance on the Energetics, morphology and Reproduction of Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus mykiss) Reintroduction • Luke Swan: Alternative Representations of Stream-Channel Dynamic in the Naches River, WA: Hydraulic Assessment with a Management Focus Gina Bloodworth • Eric Beckley: When Mining ends: a comparative case study of the general mining law of 1872 and the surface mining and control reclamation act of 1977 • Kolten Kosters: Effects of irrigation in the Columbia Basin • Joe Willauer: Urban Growth in the Columbia Basin • Jason McCormick: Washington State Legislative Interconnectivity to Natural Resource Policy • Josh Fitzpatrick: The need for instream flow protection in New Mexico: A comparative analysis of Yakima River Basin farmers with San Juan River Basin farmers • Talitha Smith: Milltown dam removal Robert Kuhlken • Todd Snider: The Conversion of Private Timberlands to Residential Development in Upper Kittitas County, Washington 2005 Allen Sullivan • Amy Vaserano: Recruitment Viability, Habitat Analysis, and Proposed Management Strategies for Margaritifera falcata Populations in the Yakima River Basin, WA (co-mentored with Gina Bloodworth) • Scott Leadingham: Washington Water Law: Is the Prior Appropriations Doctrine Still the Right Choice? Robert Kuhlken • Ian Gray: Land Parcelization and Residential Development in the Kittitas Valley, 1954-2004 • Meghan O’Brien: Persistence and Change in the Cultural Landscapes of Lakeview, Oregon: A Re-photographic Survey Anthony Gabriel • Emily Cartter, David Cordner, Amy Hamlin, and David Parrish: An Interactive Decision Support System for Lake Shoreline Characterization • Amy Hamlin: Restoration and Monitoring of the Wapato Reach, Yakima River, Washington • David Parrish: An ecological characterization of salmon habitat restoration efforts on abandoned gravel pits along the Yakima River, Washington Nancy Hultquist • Caitlin LaBar: Subject not recorded Robert Hickey • Marc Fairbanks: Virtual Environments as a communication tool • Tim Barnhart: Expanding GIS analysis capabilities at CWU • Eli Asher: Regional anthropogenic climate change in the Columbia Basin • Randy Throop: Land Cover Classification of Project CAT Study Area Karl Lillquist • Eli Asher: Resource management at WWII-era Japanese relocation camps 2004 Anthony Gabriel • Emily Cartter, Amy Hamlin, and David Parrish: Inventory Process for Late Shoreline Master Program Updates Karl Lillquist • Lennard Jordan and Tim Barnhart: Nearshore Habitat Impacts of Late Level Drawdowns, Banks Lake, WA • Sarah Nason: A multi-species approach to conservation area planning in the Swauk Creek Watershed, WA. • Paul Blanton and Justin Erickson: title unrecorded • Ryan Karlson: title unrecorded • Kevin Tyler: title unrecorded
We have not formally gathered information about our graduates and their successes other than sending out an annual departmental newsletter, requesting such data. On the other hand, many of our alumni seem to enjoy stopping back for personal visits to Lind Hall, and frequently send in e-mails to be posted on the department’s alumni news website [http://www.cwu.edu/~geograph/alumni.html]. There are no data available from Institutional Research surveys.
The Geography and Land Studies Department at Central Washington University now comprises eleven full-time, tenured or tenure-track faculty, usually supplemented by one or two full-time, non-tenure track faculty, and one or two part-time, non-tenure track faculty; and supported by 1 full-time Senior Secretary and 1 part-time Scientific Instructional Technician. The majority of these department personnel are currently housed in extremely cramped quarters within Lind Hall, and we have been forced to seek office space as well as classrooms in other buildings as program needs have expanded over the past five years.
First of all, there are explicit expectations set forth by the union’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), by the College of the Sciences (COTS) Policy Manual, and by the department’s own formal standards, that each faculty member will maintain active involvement in conducting and presenting research at local, regional, and national conferences, as well as continually act to disseminate the findings of such research through publication outlets. Research collaboration between faculty and student is one of the hallmarks of the Geography and Land Studies department. With more than 70 graduate students in the Resource Management program, many of the geography faculty are often involved with their students in presenting research at conferences or submitting manuscripts to journals and writing up reports for public agencies under contract. The department is one of the preeminent participants in the Symposium On University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE) on campus. It also continues to be a strong tradition for the members of this department to be involved with public service opportunities, and we likewise encourage our students to do the same. We are encouraged to make use of faculty development funds to attend regional and national meetings for our discipline’s organizations: the Association of American Geographers (AAG); the Canadian Association of Geographers (CAG); and the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers (APCG). There exists a mutually supportive culture within this department that entails testing out notions about both teaching and research, and consequently there is testing out notions about both teaching and research, and consequently there is likewise a strong undercurrent of peer pressure among all of us to incorporate students in our research activities. As a result of meeting the expectations of a high demand program, an increasing number of graduate research assistants from the Resource Management program have become available for collaborative research efforts with department faculty.
Personnel Committee is chosen by all full-time faculty, and consists of either three or five voting members, according to the dictates of the CBA. The make-up of the department personnel committee varies from year to year, depending on who is on research leave and who remains on the active teaching roster. The chair and the personnel committee make separate recommendations to the Dean of the College of the Sciences (COTS) regarding all personnel matters.
Geography & Land Studies faculty are not unreasonable in their desire for a more balanced allocation of workload commitments. We have no desire to totally “buy out” teaching time with grant monies. On the contrast, we keenly desire to maintain a major presence in the classroom (or in the field with students), and to be able to conduct research that will inform and inspire our instruction. Our service performance is well beyond expected performance levels, and it remains a point of pride by all of us for that to continue. It is that healthy mixture of performing in these three categories that will enable our faculty to skillfully conduct themselves as professional geographers and as active participants in the academic community, both locally, in the setting of the CWU campus, and in the greater context of our collective teaching and learning project as members of the universal professorate.
Besides the standard SEOI forms required by the university to be administered at the end of each course prior to final exams, we evaluate the effectiveness of instruction in at least two ways–formal peer evaluation of instruction and informal peer evaluation of instruction. Each faculty is expected to formally evaluate a colleague’s instruction once each quarter. This evaluation may occur as a formal classroom visit or via a review of various teaching materials. On an informal basis, largely because of our constrained physical space, department facilities are well suited for enabling frequent, ad hoc interactions among faculty regarding instructional methods, successes, and failures. Feedback from students is highly valued by our faculty. Students evaluate all courses taught in the department using the standard SEOI forms, and supplemental written comments are especially encouraged when these forms are handed out at the end of every quarter in all of our classes. The results, in terms of both individual student comments and the numerical rankings of standardized questions, are reviewed for both instructional and program concerns. In the context of student performance at the program level, the GEOG 489–Geography Capstone course has been the primary tool for an overall, end-of-studies assessment of our geography majors. This course is under the supervision and facilitation of the department Chair, and is a required course for all graduating seniors. The results of student interviews and other feedback from this course are used as a basis for considering program directional adjustments, as well as formal curricular or other instructional shifts, including responding to any identified need for more offerings of one course or fewer offerings of another. A more formal peer review process takes place for instruction of students, during which we examine each other’s classroom activities as well as instructional materials such as syllabi, lab exercises, and fieldtrip itineraries. The main data used to assess whether our goals are achieved from the student perspective is the successful passage of our graded coursework and the earning of the undergraduate degree in geography or the graduate degree in resource management.
Data provided by Instructional Research and other appropriate offices.
Because of geography’s synthesizing mode and method, department faculty often require access to current literature from many disciplinary sources. Both faculty and student needs are generally met as a result of the university’s increasing support of and subscription to varied databases (e.g., GeoBase, GeoRef, Web of Science) and full text electronic journal and newspaper collections (e.g., JSTOR, ProQuest), as well as full access to rapid interlibrary loans through the SUMMIT regional libraries catalog system. Material not available through SUMMIT can generally be obtained through the ILLiad on-line interlibrary loan request system, although that takes longer and has user fees associated with it. All of these sources are readily available through university computers as well as from off-campus through the university’s internet web page. The CWU library also maintains an extensive map library and government documents depository, as well as helpful links to additional electronic data sources through its website.
Within the natural resources arena and other more applied fields of geography, there is also a critical need to access limited distribution technical reports that are uncommon in library holdings. While some of these can be obtained as government documents, many are difficult to locate. While this “gray literature” is critical to some student and faculty research, it is not typically listed in publicly-available databases, and is instead located mostly via personal communications with pertinent resource agency personnel. In that regard, we do not believe that the CWU library can be expected to assist in this area.
All department faculty are able to maximize use of our classrooms that have been equipped with podium computers and RGB projectors. This facilitates the projection on the front screen of graphical lecture supplements, and this is especially useful for displaying maps at any number of scales. Video segments are also common classroom enhancements, especially in our regional classes where visual material is available to engage in what amounts to a “virtual field trip” to far-flung places otherwise inaccessible. For current events that have a geographical context, we sometimes tune in to the news channel for a few minutes; such was the case with the Indonesian tsunami to document the resultant effect on human settlements along the coasts of several countries.
The departmental governance system consists of a Chair who is elected by all tenured and tenure-track full-time faculty to serve a four-year term of office. A departmental Personnel Committee is likewise chosen by all full-time faculty, and consists of either three or five voting members, according to the dictates of the CBA. The make-up of the department personnel committee varies from year to year, depending on who is on research leave and who remains on the active teaching roster. There are currently eleven full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty in the department, along with several adjunct, non-tenure track faculty teaching either full-time or part-time. There is a single secretary who serves more in the role of an administrative assistant, along with a half-time technical assistant.
The chair and the personnel committee make separate recommendations to the Dean of the College of the Sciences (COTS) regarding all personnel matters. On all other departmental issues, all full-time faculty have an equal vote, although consensus is the preferred method of arriving at conclusions.
In the realm of personnel, we would require that the two full-time non-tenure track positions currently filled by visiting assistant professors be converted to tenure-track lines. We have reached the point now where there are enough of us pursuing research opportunities, grant buyouts, and sabbatical rounds to support this action needed to maintain our own course offerings as well as the supportive role we play in the various interdisciplinary programs and in offering those geography courses required for other major
Currently available within the department are a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) computer laboratory, a small physical geography laboratory, a handful of graduate assistant offices, and an extensive map and air photo collection. Other than the so-called “Banana Room” shared with other departments in the building, the department has no meeting space or seminar room to call its own. The faculty office hallway for the department is crammed with the large cabinets that hold our map and air photo collection, and the miniscule amount of that hallway devoted to our common work area / mailroom / fax-and-copier space is utterly unacceptable for an academic department this size. The GIS (Geographic Information Systems) room holds a 21-seat computer lab, with an adjacent overflow laboratory housing an additional 7 work stations, located centrally on the first floor of Lind Hall. The physical geography laboratory is limited to a small analysis space at the back of a second-floor classroom and a small storage room. The analysis space consists of a sink, countertops, two soil drying ovens, and a storage locker. This is clearly inadequate for physical geography, but should be much improved by the proposed move to Dean Hall, which will include several physical and human geography research labs, as well as several teaching labs. In addition, three storage lockers are used to store field research and field camp equipment. To meet the challenge of shrinking work space, the university has granted us access to a corridor suite of offices in another building, Black Hall, where several faculty maintain offices along with dozens of our graduate students, typically assigned three to an office. Ultimately, we look forward to our relocation in a remodeled Dean Hall, the old chemistry and biology building that has perched empty and vacant for nearly a decade.
The Geography department has assembled, over time, an assortment of field and classroom devices and equipment for facilitating student learning and for conducting research. These may be listed under the following categories: Field surveying equipment: 20 Garmin Etrex GPS units 5 Trimble GPS units 1 total station theodolites 5 laser rangefinders Assorted slope-a-scopes, Brunton pocket transits with tripods, Silva Ranger compasses, altimeters, range poles, reel tapes, pin flags, and other, mostly outdated optical surveying equipment. Several of the reel tapes need to be replaced. Hydrology equipment: 3 research boats and trailers 6 flow meters 2 turbidity meters 3 DO (dissolved oxygen) meters 1 conductivity meter 1 water quality monitoring kit 2 Secchi disks Along with sediment sampler tube, Imhof cone, dredges (Ponar, Petereson, and Ekman), pH meters, thermographs, light extinction meter, waders. Equipment is largely adequate for current teaching and research needs. Climatology and biogeography equipment: Various thermometers, max-min thermometers, sling psychrometers, wind meters, increment borers, DBH tapes. Equipment is largely adequate for current teaching and research needs. Air photo and GIS laboratory equipment: 40 pocket stereoscopes 10 mirror stereoscopes 28 computers large format HP color plotter laser printer color laser printer 2 desktop scanners 2 large format digitizers The computers for GIS need to be replaced every three years to avoid obsolescence for their rapidly evolving software. Soil and sediment laboratory equipment: pocket penetrometer soil sampling kit bucket augers and extensions geological sieves roto-tap sieve shaker large settling tubes 3 triple beam balances 2 soil drying ovens (1 functional), and other glassware. While each of these is adequate, there are significant gaps in equipment for this work. Additional equipment, such as a muffle oven for organic analysis, will be requested as part of the anticipated move to Dean Hall.
Technology available to the department is limited to the standard equipment and facilities provided through the computers, phones, and network capabilities that are generally made available across the university. Specialized technology, such as GIS equipment and software, have been maintained by the department as best we can afford. Faculty members have in some cases successfully sought external funds to help alleviate the burden of these costs. The GIS (Geographic Information Systems) room holds a 21-seat computer lab, with an adjacent smaller laboratory housing an additional 7 work stations, with several peripheral scanners and digitizers. In addition, the Geography department is also affiliated with, and houses, the Center for Spatial Information (CSI), which was established in 1999 to coordinate and enhance the application of existing and emerging technologies used to create, manage and analyze spatial information. One of the primary goals of CSI is to evaluate emerging geospatial technologies, and to develop methods to use geospatial data to solve real problems on the ground.
In terms of developing adequate facilities, the department has been working for the past several years with the administration on securing space in the currently abandoned Dean Hall, which is the old Chemistry and Biology building that has been sitting vacant now for almost a decade. We currently look forward to relocating during the fall of 2008 into that building, which will also then house the Anthropology and Museum Studies Department, along with the shared Resource Management graduate program.