Guidance in the Toolkit for Departments Under Threat was sourced from over 50 interviews with administrators and physics faculty representing a wide range of institution types and experiencing varying threat levels. While many thematic patterns emerged, one lesson is that each department represents a unique ecosystem. There is no silver bullet: some departments doing “all the right things” still find themselves under serious threat, and a tactic that has been effective at one department may be ineffective at others. However, while there are circumstances out of a department’s control, we believe there are opportunities to improve one’s standing within the institution and to positively influence any potential decisions.

For the last several years, APS Government Affairs have surveyed physics department chairs at US institutions regarding application/enrollment levels of domestic and international PhD students. I’ll share key survey results and discuss their impact in APS’s advocacy efforts. Additionally, I’ll discuss APS’s work on – and the status of – current legislation that has the potential to reshape the National Science Foundation.

Best practices and experiences for strategic planning and program reviews. After a brief intro, breakout groups by type of institutions will have roundtable discussions. There will also be a session for new chairs.

As part of the APS Effective Practices for Physics Programs (EP3) project, we are piloting Departmental Action Leadership Institutes (DALIs), which support faculty members and their departments in implementing significant changes to their undergraduate programs. The DALIs are designed to help participants support their local change teams in engaging in a change effort, functioning well as a team, and interfacing with stakeholders outside the team. In this session, we will describe the goals, structure, and curriculum of the pilot DALI, present some initial feedback from our participants, and answer questions about how your department can apply to be part of the next DALI.