GRADUATE PROGRAM IN MARINE BIOLOGY - College of Charleston

GRADUATE PROGRAM IN

MARINE BIOLOGY

COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON

SELF-STUDY REPORT

SPRING 2014

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. PROGRAM BACKGROUND, PURPOSE, GOALS AND OBJECTIVES ........... 5

A. Background

B. Recent Marine Genomics Initiative

C. Cooperating Units

D. Purpose

E. Goals

F. Objectives

G. Fourth Century Initiative and the College's Strategic Plan

5

5

6

8

8

8

9

II. ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION ................................................................ 10

A.

B.

C.

D.

E.

F.

G.

Organizational Structure

Budgetary Decisions

Curricular Decisions

Faculty Selection Decisions

Nomination and Appointment of the Adjunct Graduate Faculty

Reappointment of Adjunct Faculty

Graduate Program Committees

10

12

13

13

13

15

15

III. SUPPORTING/COOPERATIVE UNITS............................................................. 17

A. Grice Marine Laboratory (College of Charleston)

17

i. New Grice Building

18

ii. The Fort Johnson Environment

18

iii. Dixie Plantation

18

B. Libraries

18

i. The Marine Resources Library (MRL)

18

ii. The Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library

19

iii. The Medical University of South Carolina Library

20

C. Cooperating Institutions

20

i. The Marine Resources Research Institute (MRRI) Division of Natural

Resources, SouthCarolina

20

ii. The Hollings Marine Laboratory (HML)

21

iii. The Citadel

21

iv. The Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research

(CCEHBR)

21

v. Marine Biomedical and Environmental Science Program, MUSC

22

vi. The James M. Waddel Mariculture Research and Development Center 22

vii. The South Carolina Aquarium

22

IV. FACULTY LISTINGS ........................................................................................... 23

A. Faculty list with links to web profiles and email addresses

23

2

B. Faculty breakdown by institution

i. Roster Faculty - College of Charleston

ii. Emeritus Faculty

iii. Adjunct Faculty ¨C The Citadel

iv. Adjunct Faculty ¨C South Carolina Department of Natural Resources

v. Adjunct Faculty ¨C MUSC

vi. Adjunct Faculty - NOAA

vii. Adjunct Faculty ¨C NIST

viii. Adjunct Faculty ¨C Other

C. Recent GPMB Faculty Publications

V.

32

32

33

33

34

34

34

35

35

35

STUDENTS.............................................................................................................. 89

A. Current Admission Criteria

B. Official Summary of GPMB Student Profiles

C. Student Profiles Graphs

D. Current GPMB Students

i. Student Recruitment

ii. Current Students

E. Recent Student Presentations/Awards

i. Presentations

ii. Student Awards

F. Recent GPMB Student Publications

G. Student Financial Support

H. Recent Graduates

89

90

94

101

101

105

110

110

115

121

128

131

VI. CURRICULUM .................................................................................................... 131

A.

B.

C.

D.

Course Work Requirements

Student Marine Biology Research Colloquium

Academic Progress

Course Descriptions

132

132

134

134

VII. PROGRAMMATIC CLIMATE........................................................................ 140

A.

B.

C.

D.

Student Faculty Satisfaction

Quality of Advisement

Time to Completion

Student Community and Outreach

140

141

142

144

VIII. PROGRAM ASSESSMENT¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­..¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­144

A. 2007 External Review and Response

B. New College of Charleston Assessment Plans

C. Reputation and Rankings

144

155

155

3

IX. CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................... 156

X. CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES .......................................................... 158

Appendix 1 ..................................................................................................................... 161

BY-LAWS, GRADUATE PROGRAM IN MARINE BIOLOGY

Appendix 2 ..................................................................................................................... 169

GPMB EXIT INTERVIEW

Appendix 3 ..................................................................................................................... 169

GPMB ASSESSMENT PLAN

Appendix 4 ..................................................................................................................... 169

THESIS ADDITION TO GPMB ASSESSMENT PLAN

4

I.

PROGRAM BACKGROUND, PURPOSE, GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

A.

Background

The College of Charleston offers 19 master¡¯s degrees and 8 certificate graduate

programs, one of which is a cooperative graduate program leading to a Masters of

Science degree in Marine Biology that is now 40 years old. The Graduate Program in

Marine Biology (GPMB) is administratively in the Department of Biology of the School

of Sciences and Mathematics, and housed primarily at the College of Charleston Grice

Marine Lab at the Fort Johnson Marine Science Center on James Island, six miles south

of the main Charleston campus. With four major research facilities and 300+ scientists,

the marine campus is one of the largest and most sophisticated marine research centers on

the east coast.

The Master¡¯s Program in Marine Biology is one of the oldest graduate programs at the

College of Charleston, having been first established in 1973 with the first graduates

completing the program in 1976. The origins of the Marine Biology Graduate Program

were modest with 7 students matriculated for the 1973/74 academic year. The program

grew in student body size, faculty, student funding, and faculty extramural funding with

enrollment of the Marine Biology Graduate Program reaching a plateau in 1990 of about

17 newly matriculated students per year. With a revamped curriculum in the mid 90s,

increased national visibility, and a goal of funding all matriculated students through

graduate assistantships, the program has reached a current enrollment of 50 to 55

students. The director of the program between August 1999 and December 2006 was Dr.

David Owens while Dr. Craig Plante assumed the position of Director in January 2007.

Since 1955, the Grice Marine Laboratory (GML), which was originally ¡°The Fort

Johnson Marine Biological Laboratory¡± and later the ¡°Grice Marine Biological

Laboratory,¡± has served as the core facility in support of the Graduate Program in Marine

Biology (GPMB). Under the directorship of Dr. Robert Podolsky, the lab provides

essential academic support for programs, courses and associated laboratories, laboratory

advising, and research training for about 190 undergraduate majors and 55 graduate

students. The laboratory provides office and research laboratory facilities and clerical,

administrative and technical support for ten Department of Biology faculty who are

integrally involved in the conduct and the administration of the GPMB. Laboratory and

other facilities are provided by GML to both graduate and undergraduate students

involved in marine research. The undergraduate major in Marine Biology is supported

through courses taught at GML, through an NSF-REU sponsored undergraduate summer

research program, and through College of Charleston undergraduate research projects.

Graduate students in the GPMB provide essential academic support to the Department of

Biology through Teaching Assistantship instruction in more than 57 sections of core

freshman-level and limited upper division laboratory courses per semester.

B.

Marine Genomics Initiative

5

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download