NEW MEXICO INSTITUTE OF MINING AND TECHNOLOGY
   
MEETING OF THE FACULTY SENATE
Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2007
4:00 P.M.
Workman 101
MINUTES

Call to order.  Dr. Dave Westpfahl, Chair, called the meeting to order at 4:04 p.m. by calling for approval of the Faculty Senate Minutes of Nov. 6, 2007.

Approval of the minutes of Nov. 6 meeting.  The minutes were approved following a motion by Dr. Johnson and a second by Dr. Cormack.

Announcements

Committee Reports

Honorary Degree and Awards Committee – Dr. Sharon Sessions stated that the committee has received a nomination from Dr. Van Romero for a Honorary Degree for Steve Torres specifically for his thirty years of service as a New Mexico Tech Regent and his lifelong support of New Mexico Tech    The committee has also received supporting letters from Dr. Larry Lattman, Dr. Stirling Colgate and Dr. Peter Anselmo.    After careful review, the Honorary Degree and Awards Committee agree and ask the Faculty Senate for approval of an Honorary Degree, a PhD in Business Management for Steve Torres.  Dr. Bowman seconded the motion.   The nomination along with supporting materials will be made available in the Academic Affairs.   This motion will be voted on in the February Faculty Senate Meeting.
 
Old Business

New Business

Graduate Council:   Dr. Johnson brought Graduate Council items before the Faculty Senate for approval.    He moved for adoption of changes for Earth and Environmental Science.

Geophysics Courses

New course
GEOP 546, Reflection Seismic Data Interpretation, 3 cr, 2 cl hrs, 2 lab hrs
Prerequisite: ERTH 445 or equivalent, graduate standing or consent of instructor.
Offered alternate years
An overview of the fundamentals of the geologic (both structural and stratigraphic) interpretation of 2D and 3D reflection seismic data. An introduction to seismic acquisition and processing and their effects on interpretation. Techniques covered include: well log to seismic ties, contour maps, fault plane maps, time-to-depth conversion, seismic sequence analysis, and workstation interpretation of 3D data. Designed for students with a range of earth science and engineering backgrounds.  Shares lecture/lab with ERTH 446, but is graded separately and additional graduate-level work is required.

New course
GEOP 557 Reflection Seismic Data Processing, 3 cr, 2 cl hrs, 2 lab hrs
Prerequisite: ERTH 445 or equivalent, graduate standing or consent of instructor.
Offered alternate years
The computer application of digital signal processing to reflection seismic data from environmental, petroleum, and crustal surveys.  Topics covered include: definition of survey geometries, data editing techniques, amplitude recovery, bandpass filtering, deconvolution, velocity analysis, F-K filtering, and migration. Shares lecture/lab with ERTH 457, but is graded separately and additional graduate-level work is required.

Hydrology Courses:

Change in course desription
HYD 508, Flow and Transport in Hydrologic Systems, 3 cr, 3 cl hrs
Prerequisites: ERTH 440 and 510
Offered spring semester
    Principles of flow and transport in groundwater aquifers, the vadose zone, and surface water bodies. Mass, momentum and energy conservation. Storage, compressibility, capillarity, and Darcy’s law in porous media. Single phase, two phase and Richard’s equations approaches to flow in porous media. Flow in fractures and streams. Transport of non-reactive chemical species by advection, diffusion and dispersion in porous and fractured media, and surface water bodies.
    Principles of flow and transport in hydrological systems, including rivers, lakes, aquifers, the vadose zone, glaciers and the lower atmosphere.  Fluid mechanical and thermodynamic properties, fluid statics, fluid dynamics, including mass, momentum and energy conservation, and transport of heat, particles and non-reactive chemicals with fluid flow.  Single and multiphase laminar flow in porous and fractured permeable media.  Turbulence and related topics that are of particular interest to hydrologists.
Change in course desription
HYD 510, Quantitative Methods in Hydrology, 3 cr, 2 cl hrs, 3 lab hrs
Prerequisite: MATH 231; Pre or Corequisite ERTH 440
Offered fall semester
    Introduction to the physics of hydrology, including computational tools, presented in the context of hydrologic problem solving. General orthogonal curvilinear coordinates. Fluid dynamics equations and analytical and numerical solutions. Use of mathematical software to solve problems, test assumptions, and explore sensitivity to parameters. Structured programming.
            Introduction to the methods of mathematical physics used in hydrologic science. Presented in the context of mathematical models of water and energy balances, fluid flow, and heat & solute transport. Application to aquifers, the vadose zone, land-surface runoff, rivers, and the atmospheric boundary layer. Methods span advanced engineering calculus, including numerics and differential equations. Use of software (Matlab, Maple, and COMSOL Multiphysics) for problem solving and solution presentation. Programming with Matlab.

Change in course desription
HYD 532, Vadose Zone Dynamics, 1 cr, 1 cl hr
Prerequisite: ERTH 440, ERTH 432, ERTH 442, HYD 510
    Physical processes governing fluid, heat, and gas transport through the vadose zone. Application of the model HYDRUS1D for the evaluation of water flow and contaminant transport through the vadose zone.
    Physical processes governing water and contaminant transport through the vadose zone.  Transient unsaturated flow and transport and plant/water uptake.  Application of the model HYDRUS1D for evaluation of water flow and contaminant transport through the vadose zone.
Prerequisite change
HYD 542, Hillslope Hydrology, 1 cr, 1 cl hr
Prerequisites: ERTH 440, ERTH 442, HYD 510
    Physical processes governing water flow through hillslope systems and into receiving streams.
Prerequisite change
HYD 543, Ecohydrology, 1 cr, 1 cl hr
Prerequisites: ERTH 440, ERTH 443, HYD 510,; Pre- or corequisite HYD 508
    Interactions between terrestrial plants and water, nutrients, and light resources in semiarid environments. Ecohydrological processes, dynamics, and simple numerical models.
The motion was seconded by Dr. Stone.    The  motion passed unanimously.
Dr. Johnson moved for approval to delete courses that are no longer being taught by  Computer Science Department.   The motion was seconded by Dr. Bowman.     
The following courses were introduced by a faculty member who has departed NMT
Delete
CS569-- Embedded Systems Design

Delete
CS570-- Real-Time Systems.

Dr. Sonnenfeld questioned whether deleting them from the curriculum because hiring problems for Computer Science.    Dr. Soliman stated that the department removes them from the catalog to not mislead students that these courses will be offered.    If the department should hire a faculty member to teach these courses, the course can then be developed by the new member and proposed for the catalog at that time.  

The motion passed with one dissenting vote.   
 Dr. Johnson proposed adoption of a new course for Mechanical Engineering.   The motion was seconded by Dr. Borchers. 

New Course
MENG 547 Theory and Application of Pyrotechnic, 3 cr, 3 cl hrs
Prerequisite: MENG 545; or consent of instructor
Fundamentals of basic concepts of pyrotechnic. Thermo-mechanical/chemical aspects of pyrotechnics, formulation and mixing of pyrotechnic mixtures, application of pyrotechnic including illumination, tracers, incendiaries, delays, etc.

The motion passed.

Masters Degree Approval:   Dr. Lorie Liebrock moved to approve a Masters Degree in Computer Science with Information Technology Option for Barry Gavrich who has completed all degree requirements as confirmed by the Graduate Dean, Dr. Dave Johnson.      Dr. Soliman seconded the motion.    Dr. Liebrock stated this Mr. Gavrich will be employed by the Space and Naval Warfare Command ( SPAWAR) which will only accept completion of degree on his diploma before the his employment start date of December 10, 2007.    Questions were raised to whether the Faculty Senate will be voting on degrees all during the year due to new hiring requirements.     Dr. Zeman stated that the Academic Affairs Office has been seeing more and more request from students being employed by the Government, Federal agencies, and the national labs.    Dr. Johnson proposed that the Faculty Senate develop a policy.      Dr. Westpfahl returned to the motion on the floor and ask for approval of the granting of the Masters Degree of Barry Gavrich.    The motion passed.

Dr. Johnson then moved to that the Faculty Senate accommodate recommendations for degrees three times a year as close to the end of the semester as possible. This would be
scheduled the first Tuesday of the first week of classes of the Spring semester, the first week of classes for Fall, and finals week in May. Then Brian commented that this would add an extra FS meeting to the schedule.     Dr. Borchers also stated that this would cause the Registrar’s Office to have additional work, but Ms. Baca-Rivet reported that this would indeed increase the workload but could be accomplished.    Dr. Borchers moved to table the motion for more input from the Vice President and President before voting on the matter.     Dr. Stone seconded the motion.      The motion to table until the February meeting passed.

Adjournment:  Dr. Westpfahl adjourned the meeting at 4:25 p.m.

                                                                        Respectfully submitted,

                                                                        Debby Olguin