Objectives:
1) To provide the departmental faculty with an opportunity to define, collectively, the nature of geography as an academic discipline. This exercise is the necessary preparatory one to item 2).
2) To provide the departmental faculty with an opportunity to identify, collectively, the objectives and expectations it has of those seeking undergraduate and graduate degrees from the department. These objectives will reflect the faculty's definition of geography outlined in 1), and its view of appropriate training expressed both in terms of coursework and expectations beyond the classroom.
3) To establish a mechanism by which students graduating from the department can express their opinion concerning the extent to which their training met the goals established by the department and their own expectations.
4) To establish a mechanism by which the student opinions solicited can be brought before the faculty systematically in order that the faculty may regularly assess them. The purpose of such assessments being to evaluate the extent to which department is meeting its own student training expectations, and to consider any programmatic adjustments that seem appropriate in the light of student input.
The Nature of Geography
Geographers view the world from a distinctive set of locational and/or place-oriented viewpoints. Human geographers emphasize the spatial organization of the built environment as human habitat formed by and influencing human society. Physical geographers emphasize physical processes that explain the natural environment and the interaction between these processes and human activities.
Recent National Science Foundation research proposal guidelines for geography suggest that geographers are concerned with the causes and consequences of the location of economic, social, cultural, and physical phenomena, including resource use and physical geography; patterns and processes of regional growth and decline; locational behavior and locational decision making; cartography, geographic information systems, and remote sensing; research method, and settlement and settlement systems. Central to the discipline is basic research on explanatory process, and on the causes and consequences of interactions among places and regions and interrelationships between human activities and the natural environment.
As a scientific discipline, geography has traditionally dealt with both social and physical (or natural) systems, although this separation has become essentially arbitrary. Today, many geographers bridge the social and physical sciences by focusing directly upon human impacts on the environment. Geographical research also spans political boundaries, focusing on human environmental interactions in foreign settings at local, regional, and global scales.
Because geography is defined largely by perspective rather than by topic, geographers commonly interact with colleagues in cognate disciplines and international studies programs. They contribute to these collaborative efforts a holistic, spatially-integrated view of the form, function, and interactions of physical and human systems. Although some research about spatial processes and patterns is conducted outside the field (by its very nature geography reaches out to cognate disciplines exciting interest there), departments of geography are invariably the principal unit in a university teaching and researching the relationships among people, places, and the environment.
In recent decades, geography has been substantially influenced by 'globalization' as it relates to integration of world economic, environmental, and social concerns. Human and physical geographical research explores the relationships, reshaping the global nexus at multiple scales and time frames. Social theory and diverse methodologies inform our explorations of social practices, spatial patterns, and nature-society relations. Simultaneously, three important interrelated methodological and technological developments have guided research, and modified teaching curricula, in the discipline; these are:
Use of sophisticated, theory-based and often mathematically-based analytical procedures, especially deductive modeling techniques.
Enhancement of measurement technologies including remote sensing and global positioning systems which have rapidly expanded the quantity and types of spatially referenced data about the human habitat and the physical environment.
Development of computer-based Geographical Information Systems (GIB) to ingest, manage, and analyze this plethora of spatially referenced data, to discern spatial processes and patterns, and to display the result of such analyses through computer assisted images and maps.
Mission Statement
The faculty members of the Department of Geography take the preceding statement of the 'Nature of Geography' as the defining framework for their teaching goal of training undergraduate and graduate students in the medium or discipline of modem geography. Furthermore, they view the 'LAS Educational Objectives' (LAS Student Handbook 1998-99 page 13) as the guiding statement for their objectives in undergraduate training, while the 'Guiding Standards for Faculty y Supervision of Graduate Students' (A Handbook for Graduate Students and Advisers, 1999) plays a similar role in graduate training. Within this integrated view of modem geography and educational goals as defined by the overseeing units of the University of Illinois, the department pursues undergraduate and graduate education in the following specific frameworks.
Undergraduate Majors
Students pursuing a major in geography must opt for one of the following four options:
General Geography, Human Geography, Physical Geography, or Environmental Geography. All students, regardless of option (or program) selected, must take 15 or 16 hours of credit from the department's core courses, and are strongly urged to include Geography 373 (Cartography) as part as their coursework, as well as encouraged to take Math 124 or 134 (Introductory Analysis for Social Scientists).
The geography core courses are designed to give students an appropriate introduction at the university level to a selection of the basic thematic topics that concern the majority of modem academic geographers (e.g., the geography of development, social and cultural geography, weather and climate, and landform development). Given the widely recognized subdivision of geography into human and physical specializations, the selection from the core forces the incoming student to experience at least some aspects from both sides of the discipline. Furthermore, the core and recommended techniques courses require undergraduate majors to develop some familiarity with the qualitative, quantitative and cartographic techniques that underpin the methodological approaches of many professional geographers.
The notion of a fundamental familiarity with the breadth of modem geography and the research techniques employed that is fostered by the core courses is matched by an opportunity for the undergraduate student to develop greater depth of knowledge in a particular portion of modem geography. The four options available to undergraduates take cognizance of modem academic geography and the limitations of disciplinary coverage placed on the department by faculty size. Many students seeking a liberal arts education wish to pursue geography at large (General Geography). Others, with particular jobs or graduate school in mind, prefer to opt for one of the two major divisions in academic geography (Human or Physical Geography). Finally, those entering the university with a predetermined interest in environmental management or research will find the Environmental Geography option provides a rigorous exposure to appropriate topics and techniques for many entry-level positions in the working world of environmental management, or indeed for graduate programs in the same area.
The department attempts to foster professional undergraduate education outside the classroom in a number of ways. The leading formal undertaking is by faculty-led sponsorship of a chapter of the national geography fraternity Gamma Theta Epsilon (GTE). This group undertakes a broad array of professional and social activities incorporating regular luncheon meetings with and without guest speakers, field trips of many different kinds, and sponsorship of the campus effort to support National Geography Awareness Week. While strictly a coursework undertaking, the department's field offerings provide much more than a strict addition to credit hours; such courses have been conducted throughout much of the southern United States as well as central and southern America in recent years. These trips provide many students with 'lifetime' experiences.
In summary the faculty aspires to expose undergraduate majors to a broad selection of modem geographic themes and techniques, while simultaneously fostering analytical thought, and clear oral and textual exposition using academic geography as the medium. The faculty recognizes that geographic techniques such as cartography and GIS lead directly to opportunities in the modem working world; however, it does not aspire to provide direct job training in the strict sense.
Graduate Students
By admitting a student to the department's graduate program, the faculty indicates that it believes that an individual has an adequate background in geography, or other relevant discipline, to pursue either masters or doctoral work in geography. When admission incorporates remedial requirements, the faculty intends to indicate that the required coursework or other steps reflect inadequate preparation on the part of the student to pursue graduate work and that the remedial work must be completed successfully as specified.
The founding concept of the department's graduate program is that students entering it wish to be prepared to pursue careers as professional geographers. Consequently, the standards that the faculty members apply are consistent with the prevailing standards in geography at research institutions of the first order. While the masters and doctoral programs are separate, masters students should appreciate that the faculty has the goal of seeing all masters students terminate their degree program as acceptable candidates for the doctoral program. A determination of whether a masters student has actually met that standard is a required part of the final examination of masters students. This judgement is separate from, and in addition to, the decision to award a masters degree. Masters students who are judged to have produced an acceptable masters degree, but have failed to exhibit appropriate achievements to pen-nit entry into the department's doctoral program may be terminated.
Given limited faculty size and a desire to pursue high standards, the department accepts students into three areas of geography identified as its Graduate Programs; these are: Economic Geography/Regional Science Environmental Studies in Physical Geography, and The Geography of Urban and Rural Development. Graduate Students should recognize that pursuit of a degree within the department is heavily dependent upon their research interests matching those of the department's programs and the individual interests of at least one faculty member.
While coursework training is an important foundational element of graduate training, the department requires much more of its graduate students than successful completion of coursework. Foremost among the additional requirements is an ability to formulate, independently, a research agenda that both recognizes and resonates with the forefront of professional, academic, geographical research in the area selected by the student, and then to execute the same agenda using appropriate methodologies and techniques. Production of high quality research that is conceptually sound, and technically robust is the touchstone of successful graduate training. As such this forms the essential standard upon which the evaluation of research papers, theses and dissertations is founded.
The faculty expects graduate students to exhibit strong analytical skills, as well as strength in textual and oral presentation. One important way in which integration of these attributes is both learned and demonstrated is in classroom teaching. While there is no formal examination in teaching, the faculty does regard mastery of teaching skills as an integral part of graduate training.
In addition to taking class work, producing research, and teaching, a professional academic is required to perform many other related tasks. Among the more obvious are: oral presentations at meetings, publication of research papers, and adherence to appropriate academic and ethical standards. The faculty expects to imbue its graduate students with appropriate training in these areas not only by conventional supervision but also by joint endeavors.
Students entering the department's graduate program should expect to be held to the standards outlined; concomitantly they are entitled to expect the faculty to provide adequate opportunity for fulfillment of these expectations. Inspection of the 'Guiding Standards for Faculty Supervision of Graduate Students' provides a sound review of the standards and expectations that the department's faculty expects to meet.
The department trains graduate students to high standards in modem geography; it does not aspire per se to provide job training. Nevertheless, it would be inappropriate not to recognize that the implicit 'default position' is that of training to be an academic geographer. Where individuals have other specific career goals it is usually possible to orient training appropriately, however. students should recognize that the department provides appropriate academic training for masters and doctoral students - and not specific professional career training.
Survey Instruments & Their Use
The department proposes to assess its success in attaining its stated teaching and training goals by using a series of customized survey instruments. It is intended that each instrument be Web-based and administered through the Office of Instructional Research. However, it cannot be claimed that use of ON will guarantee anonymity because of the relatively small number of students, particularly graduate students, entering and leaving the department each year. Each instrument is described briefly below.
1) An Undergraduate Entry Survey. Administered upon selection of geography as a major. This instrument will be used to determine: student academic preparation up to the time of entry, academic objectives in selecting geography, specific career goals (if known). This will be a required admission step.
2) An Undergraduate Exit Survey . Administered to graduating majors at the time of graduation. This instrument will be used to determine student satisfaction with geography training vis-A-vis expectations and stated department goals, the student's 'geography experience' with that of UIUC in general, immediate career plans, the ease or difficulty with which employment was found.
3) A One- Year Post-Graduation Survey for Undergraduates. The purpose of this survey will be to repeat essential elements of the exit survey in the light of a year's experience in the 'working world'. Specific objectives will be to determine: the relevance of the student's geographic training to their current employment, available courses not taken by the student -but now considered desirable, courses not available that should be added to the curriculum.
4) A Three-Year Post-graduation Survey for Undergraduates. The assumption underpinning this survey is that the student is likely to be in a stable career position at this time. In addition, it is assumed that thereafter it will become increasingly difficult to maintain a representative cohort sample. The survey will, in essence, be a direct repetition of 3).
5) A Graduate Entry Survey Administered upon the student's arrival on campus to begin the masters or doctoral program. This instrument will be used to determine student academic preparation up to the time of entry, as well as the academic objectives in selecting the department, and the perceived advantages of the department over other opportunities.
6) A Graduate Exit Survey Administered to graduating masters and doctoral students at the time of graduation. This instrument will be used to determine: student satisfaction with geography training, the nature of the 'geography experience' with that of LJIUC in general, identify immediate career plans, ease or difficulty with which employment was found. A small 'Inducement' will be offered to those completing this instrument.
7) A One- Year Post- Graduation Survey for Graduate Students. The purpose of th is survey will be to repeat essential elements of the exit survey in the light of a year's experience in the 'working world'. Specific objectives will be to determine the relevance of the student's geographic training to their current employment, available courses not taken by the student but now considered desirable, courses not available that should be added to the curriculum.
8) A Three-Year Post-graduation Survey for Graduate Students. The assumption underpinning this survey is that the student is likely to be in a stable career position at this time. The survey in essence, will be a direct repetition of 7).
Record Keeping & Operation alization Procedures
The Department proposes to use the services of CTE in instrument development and maintenance. Materials collected by CTE will be delivered annually to the department for further compilation and analysis. The department will add the new record keeping tasks to those already undertaken by the secretary presently maintaining the existing undergraduate records, and make a similar additional assignment to the secretary presently maintaining the graduate records.
The department proposes to make the new record keeping tasks the foundation of expanding its present alumni records. The department already distributes an alumni newsletter to graduates of the graduate program and circulation will be expanded to include future bachelor degree students. Departmental fund raising has been successful in the past and it. is hoped that better communication with alumni of all categories will ultimately improve fund raising even further.
The Head of Department and the Graduate Advisor will conduct an annual review of the survey results with the office staff members supervising each record. Substantive matters stemming from these discussions will be brought to the Advisory Committee on an annual basis. The department already conducts an annual faculty retreat and the Head of Department will circulate a comprehensive summary of survey results to the entire faculty every other year prior to the faculty retreat. Faculty discussion of the results will be a required topic at the faculty retreat at this time, or at any other time when, in the opinion of the Head of Department, the Undergraduate Advisor, and/or the Graduate Advisor, it is deemed necessary.
Feedback through those with administrative responsibility in the department and the faculty at-large is intended to provide a continuous, yet streamlined, flow of information to the entire department on the effectiveness of its programs. Clearly, the purpose of the information gathering is to provide the faculty with appropriate information to adjust its programs in a timely manner. If the information appears to reflect issues centered upon individual faculty performance, the Head will discuss such information with the individual concerned privately and not in the open forum.