Academic Planning report Department of Chemistry - UNBF - Fall 2015

Section 1 - Quantitative indicators 1.1 Number and name of distinct majors, concentrations, minors... 2 1.2a Total course registrants 2 1.2b Average registrants per section 2 1.3 Number of Program Students 3 1.4 Credit hours and number of courses per degree program 3 1.5a Workload indications for full-time instructional staff (paid within operating budgets) 8 1.5b Workload indicators for full-time Instructor track 9 1.5c Workload indicators for full-time Research Associates 9 1.6 Contract academic instructors (part-time instructors) teaching loads 9 1.7 University’s operating budget & those paid through soft money (research) 10 1.8 Undergraduate student enrolment/faculty ratios 10 1.9 Graduate students per faculty member 11 1.10 Number of graduates from each unit by degree 11 1.11a Total research dollars by year for research-track faculty 11 1.11b Total research dollars by year for research associates, secondment, adjuncts & HRAs 12 1.12 Research participation rate: Number of active research faculty versus total research faculty 12 Section 2 - Qualititative indicators 2.1 How does your unit complement other units, including interdisciplinary collaborations? 13 2.2 How has the field of your discipline(s) changed over the last 10 years, and what are the implications for teaching and research in the unit? 13 2.3 What are considered core programs and core faculty members for your unit? 14 2.4 What are your unit’s opportunities (and vulnerabilities) for growth (or decline) for research and course-based undergraduate students? 14 2.5 What are your unit’s opportunities (and vulnerabilities) for growth (or decline) in research and course-based graduate students? 15 2.6 What experiential learning activities (e.g. internship, co-op, etc.) at the undergraduate and graduate levels does your unit offer and manage? 15 2.7 What are the opportunities (and vulnerabilities) for growth (or decline) in research funding from Tri-Council and other sources? 15 2.8 How does your unit intend to change program contents and delivery, including: 2.8.1 When was the unit’s curricula last reviewed in its entirety? What changes were undertaken? 16 2.8.2 What kinds of new courses have been offered in the last five years? 16 2.8.3 How are graduate students used in undergraduate teaching, both current and planned? 16 2.8.4 How do space considerations affect program design and delivery? 17 2.9 What are your unit plans for the upcoming five years: changes to existing teaching and research programs, new programs, new sources of students, revenue, etc.? 17 2.10 Please explain the nature of the relationship with a comparable unit at UNBSJ 18 2.11 What relationships does your unit have with programs beyond UNB? 18 2.12 Describe collaborations that the unit and unit members have beyond UNB... 18 2.13 Describe academic service and student advising activities of your unit 19 2.14 Discuss other issues relevant to your unit 19 Closing remarks 20 Appendices Appendix 1 Total course registrants for each course, 2009-2014 21 Appendix 2 Departmental response to 2012 Quality Assurance Review report 25 Appendix 3 2015 Canadian Society for Chemistry accreditation report 33

Academic Planning report - Department of Chemistry - UNBF 2

Section 1 - Quantitative indicators 1.1 Number and name of distinct majors, concentrations, minors, and certificate programs Program Chemistry Minor Chemistry Major (BSc) Chemistry Honours (BSc) Medicinal Chemistry Major (BSc) 1 Medicinal Chemistry Honours (BSc) 1 Biology-Chemistry Major (BSc) 2 Biology-Chemistry Honours (BSc) 2 Chemistry-Physics Major (BSc) 2 Chemistry-Physics Honours (BSc) 2 Master of Science (MSc) Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

1 new program since 2009 2 interdepartmental programs 1.2a Total course registrants1 Level 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 5-yr Average2 1000 1,650 1,734 1,915 1,844 1,941 1,817 2000 562 508 684 815 894 693 3000 317 348 332 436 468 380 4000 139 203 232 193 273 208 6000 169 145 119 84 46 113

PRAC 2 2 Total: 2,837 2,938 3,282 3,372 3,624 3,213

1 Total registrants per course statistics can be found in Appendix 1. 2 Comparing the average of the first two reported years (2009-11) to the last two (2012-14), the Chemistry Department saw a 27% increase in undergraduate registrants but a 58% decrease in graduate registrants. 1.2b Average registrants per section Level 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 5-yr Average 1000 117.9 115.6 106.4 102.5 97 107.91 2000 43.2 39 45.6 51 44.7 44.7 3000 22.6 24.8 22 27.2 26 24.5 4000 9.2 12.6 15.5 14.8 19.5 14.3

Total: 192.9 192 189.5 195.5 187.2 191.4

Academic Planning report - Department of Chemistry - UNBF 3 1 The reported number of first year students is very misleading because of multi-section courses. CHEM 1001 and 1012 lecture courses average 386 and 312 students/term, respectively. CHEM 1006 and 1017 chemistry lab courses average 351 and 276 students/term, respectively. 1.3 Number of Program Students Program 2011 2012 2013 2014 Average Core BSC.CHEM 35 27 37 34 33.3 BSC.MEDCH 1 43 62 87 87 69.8 MSC.CHEM 12 9 9 9 9.8 PHD.CHEM 13 11 3 4 7.8 Interdepartmental 2 BSC.BIOCH 24 33 34 53 36 BSC.CH-PH 2 2 1 1.3 Other BABSC.CHEM 3 1 1 BAS.BIOCH 1 1 .25 BCS.BSC.BIOCH 1 1 1 1 1 BCS.BSC.CHEM 1 .25 BCS.BSC.MEDCH 1 1 1 1 1

Total: 135 147 173 191 161.5 1 The Medicinal Chemistry BSc programs (BSC.MEDCH) were introduced in 2009 and have become the most popular programs, surpassing both the Chemistry (BSC.CHEM) and the Biology-Chemistry (BSC.BIOCH) interdepartmental program. 2 Biology-Chemistry (BSC.BIOCH) and Chemistry-Physics (BSC.CH-PH) are both 50:50 interdepartmental programs. As a result, only half the number of these program students is reported here. 1.4 Credit hours and number of courses per degree program (from 2014-15 Academic Calendar) Degree Program Credit Hours Chemistry Major 132 Chemistry Honours 145 Medicinal Chemistry Major 145 Medicinal Chemistry Honours 146 Master of Science N/A Doctorate N/A

Undergraduate Program Minor Program A) Students not requiring Chemistry courses for their majors degree: CHEM 1001, 1006, 1012 and 1017 plus courses in three disciplines chosen by the student. Students are required to take one lecture and one lab course in each of the chosen disciplines.

Academic Planning report - Department of Chemistry - UNBF 4 B) Students requiring Chemistry courses for their majors degree are not eligible to count 1st year Chemistry courses towards a Chemistry minor. Two options are: Students wishing a broad range of topics are required to take six lecture courses in a minimum of four of the disciplines plus one lab course in each of the chosen disciplines. Alternatively, students wishing a specialized set of topics are required to take six lecture courses in two of the disciplines plus four lab courses in the chosen disciplines. First Year CHEM 1001, CHEM 1006, CHEM 1012, CHEM 1017, MATH 1003 or 1053, MATH 1013 or MATH 1063, PHYS 1061 and PHYS 1062 or PHYS 1071 and PHYS 1072, PHYS 1091, PHYS 1092, BIOL 1001, BIOL 1012, plus 6 ch electives. The minimum credit hour requirements beyond first year are: Major: 66 chemistry, 3 biology, 6 mathematics, 18 electives. Honours by Thesis: 79 chemistry, 3 biology, 6 mathematics, 18 electives. Honours by Course: 81 chemistry, 3 biology, 6 mathematics, 18 electives Chemistry Co-op: Please refer to the Science section of this calendar for detailed information. Note: A minimum of 12 ch of the 24 ch of electives must be from the Faculty of Arts. Major Program Second Year CHEM 2002, CHEM 2201, CHEM 2222, CHEM 2237, CHEM 2421, CHEM 2422, CHEM 2416, CHEM 2601, MATH 2003, MATH 2213 or equivalent (approved by the Chemistry department), plus electives. Third Year CHEM 2121, CHEM 2136, CHEM 3621 , CHEM 3637 , CHEM 3122 , CHEM 3137 , CHEM 3201 , CHEM 3222 , CHEM 3236 , CHEM 3421 , CHEM 3422 , CHEM 3622 , plus electives. Fourth Year BIOL 2023 , CHEM 4416 , CHEM 4601 , CHEM 4616 , two of CHEM 4013 , CHEM 4112 , CHEM 4222 , CHEM 4422 , CHEM 4622 , plus electives. Honours Program Entry into the Honours program is allowed after first year provided that a minimum CGPA of 3.0 has been attained for all subjects taken in the degree program. A CGPA of 3.0 must be maintained in subsequent years. The graduating Honours student must achieve a minimum CGPA of 3.7 for First Class Honours standing and a minimum of 3.0 for Honours standing. A student completing all the course requirements for Honours but with a CGPA below 3.0 will be given a Majors degree. Students must notify the Director of Undergraduate Studies of their intent to pursue an Honours Program, for appropriate academic advising. Second Year CHEM 2002, CHEM 2201, CHEM 2222, CHEM 2237, CHEM 2421, CHEM 2422, CHEM 2416, CHEM 2601, MATH 2003, MATH 2213 or equivalent (approved by the Chemistry department), plus electives. Third Year CHEM 2121, CHEM 2136, CHEM 3621, CHEM 3637, CHEM 3122, CHEM 3137, CHEM 3201, CHEM 3222, CHEM 3236, CHEM 3421, CHEM 3422, CHEM 3622, plus electives.

Academic Planning report - Department of Chemistry - UNBF 5 Fourth Year Option 1 (Honours by Thesis) BIOL 2023, CHEM 4416, CHEM 4601, CHEM 4616, CHEM 4000, four of CHEM 4013, CHEM 4112, CHEM 4222, CHEM 4422, CHEM 4622, plus electives. Fourth Year Option 2 (Honours by Course) BIOL 2023 , CHEM 4416 , CHEM 4601 , CHEM 4616 , four of CHEM 4013 , CHEM 4112 , CHEM 4222 , CHEM 4422 , CHEM 4622 , a minimum of eleven credit hours from CHEM 3003 , CHEM 4513 , CHEM 4523 , CHE 5313 , CHE 2501 , CHE 5714 , CHE 5824 , plus electives. Chemistry Co-op Program The UNB Faculty of Science seeks to provide opportunities for students and employers to develop relationships that enhance the learning experience for students and present employers with skilled, motivated employees looking to make a career connection. To achieve this, the Faculty, through the Department of Chemistry and other Science departments and programs, operates a Co-operative education program. Co-op opportunities are available for qualified students, please refer to the Science section of this calendar for detailed information. Medicinal Chemistry Program First Year CHEM 1001, CHEM 1006, CHEM 1012, CHEM 1017, MATH 1003, or MATH 1053, MATH 1013 or MATH 1063, PHYS 1061 and PHYS 1062 or PHYS 1071 and PHYS 1072, PHYS 1091, PHYS 1092, BIOL 1001, BIOL 1012, BIOL 1006, BIOL 1017 The minimum credit hour requirements beyond first year are: Medicinal Chemistry Major: 61 chemistry, 9 biology, 6 mathematics, 18 electives. Medicinal Chemistry Honours by Thesis: 71 chemistry, 15 biology, 6 mathematics, 18 electives. Medicinal Chemistry Honours by Course: 70 chemistry, 15 biology, 6 mathematics, 18 electives. Note: A minimum of twelve (12) ch of the eighteen (18) ch of electives must be from the Faculty of Arts. Medicinal Chemistry Major Program Second Year BIOL 2023, CHEM 2002, CHEM 2201, CHEM 2222, CHEM 2237, CHEM 2416, CHEM 2421, CHEM 2422, CHEM 2601, MATH 2003, MATH 2213 or equivalent (approved by the Chemistry department), plus electives. Third Year BIOL 2251, BIOL 2013, CHEM 2121, CHEM 2136, CHEM 3421, CHEM 3422, CHEM 3621, CHEM 3637, CHEM 4416, CHEM 4523, plus electives. Fourth Year CHEM 3003, CHEM 4513, CHEM 4422, two of CHEM 3137, CHEM 3236, CHEM 4616, one of CHEM 3122, CHEM 3201, CHEM 3222, CHEM 3622, CHEM 4601 plus electives. Medicinal Chemistry Honours Program Second Year BIOL 2023 , CHEM 2002 , CHEM 2201 , CHEM 2222 , CHEM 2237 , CHEM 2416 , CHEM 2421 , CHEM 2422 , CHEM 2601 , MATH 2003 , MATH 2213 or equivalent (pre-approved by the Chemistry department), plus electives.

Academic Planning report - Department of Chemistry - UNBF 6 Third Year BIOL 2251, BIOL 2013, CHEM 2121, CHEM 2136, CHEM 3421, CHEM 3422, CHEM 3621, CHEM 3637, CHEM 4416, CHEM 4523, plus electives. Fourth Year Option 1 (Honours by Thesis) BIOL 2753 , BIOL 2792 , CHEM 3003 , CHEM 4000 , CHEM 4422, CHEM 4513 one of CHEM 3137, CHEM 3236, 4616, two of CHEM 3122, CHEM 3201, CHEM 3222, CHEM 3622, CHEM 4601 plus electives. Fourth Year Option 2 (Honours by Course) BIOL 2753 , BIOL 2792 , CHEM 3003 , CHEM 4422 , CHEM 4513, two of CHEM 3137 , CHEM 3236 , 4616 , twelve credit hours from CHEM 3122 , 3201 , 3222 , 3622 , 4601 , 4112 , 4222 , 4622 , plus electives. Graduate Program The UNB Department of Chemistry has a long history and an outstanding reputation, both nationally and internationally, for accomplishments in research. As such, Masters (M.Sc.) and Doctoral (Ph.D.) programs are offered in a number of research areas: analytical, inorganic, organic, bio-organic and physical chemistry. Graduate students in Chemistry will generally pursue a research program under the direction of a single faculty member, although co-supervision is also possible. These programs emphasize research leading to a thesis, and include supporting course work. A M.Sc. degree typically requires two to three years and a Ph.D requires three to five years of full time study. The overall graduate program of each student is under the direction of a Program Advisory Committee comprised of the student’s supervisor(s) and at least two other faculty members. Details and guidelines concerning the program advisory committee are available. Our graduate degree programs prepare students for careers in a broad range of industries, including healthcare, pharmaceuticals, pulp and paper, and petroleum. Graduating researchers also frequently plan careers in government and university laboratories. Valid Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) certification is required of all chemistry graduate students. WHMIS certification workshops are provided regularly in the Department of Chemistry at UNB. Master of Science (MSc) The Master of Science program is a research-oriented program leading to a thesis, with some course and seminar requirements. The degree typically requires two to three years of full-time study to complete. Students select courses to match their background, interests and research specialization, with direction from their program advisory committee. The minimum course and seminar requirements are outlined below. In some cases, the student’s program advisory committee, in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies, may require additional courses to address specific gaps in the student’s background or that are necessary to support the student’s thesis research. General UNB graduate studies requirements and regulations, including dissertation requirements and final oral examination procedures, are described in the School of Graduate Studies Calendar. Course requirements Specialization in Analytical, Inorganic or Physical Chemistry

Academic Planning report - Department of Chemistry - UNBF 7 i) CHEM 6010 Graduate Seminar I ii) two term courses at the 4000 level or higher (minimum of 3 credit hours each) Specialization in Organic/Bio-organic Chemistry i) CHEM 6010 Graduate Seminar I ii) a single term course at the 4000 level or higher (minimum of 3 credit hours) iii) one of the following: CHEM 6430 Topics in Reaction Mechanisms I CHEM 6470 Topics in Reaction Mechanisms II CHEM 6480 Topics in Reaction Mechanisms III Seminar Requirements i) Graduate students in the M.Sc. program are required to complete the graduate seminar course CHEM 6010 noted above, which requires presentation of a seminar on a topic taken from the current research literature. ii) Graduate students are required to present, near the end of their program, a seminar to the department summarizing their thesis research project. In addition, the Department of Chemistry organizes a diverse series of research seminars by internal and external speakers throughout the year; all graduate students are expected to attend these seminars as part of their graduate program. Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) The Ph.D. program is a research-oriented program leading to a thesis, with a number of course and seminar requirements. The degree typically requires four to five years of full-time study to complete. Students select courses to match their background, interests and research specialization, with direction from their program advisory committee. The minimum course requirements for students entering the Ph.D. program without first completing a M.Sc. degree are outlined below. Where the Ph.D. program follows a M.Sc., the course requirements will be determined by the program advisory committee. In some cases, the student’s program advisory committee, in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies, may require additional courses to address specific gaps in the student’s background or that are necessary to support the student’s thesis research. Course requirements Specialization in Analytical, Inorganic or Physical Chemistry i) CHEM 6010 Graduate Seminar I ii) CHEM 6020 Graduate Seminar II iii) CHEM 6030 Graduate Seminar III iv) three term courses at the 4000 level or higher (minimum of 3 credit hours each) Specialization in Organic/Bio-organic Chemistry i) CHEM 6010 Graduate Seminar I ii) CHEM 6020 Graduate Seminar II iii) CHEM 6030 Graduate Seminar III iv) a single term course at the 4000 level or higher (minimum of 3 credit hours) v) two of the following: CHEM 6430 Topics in Reaction Mechanisms I CHEM 6470 Topics in Reaction Mechanisms II CHEM 6480 Topics in Reaction Mechanisms III Seminar requirements

Academic Planning report - Department of Chemistry - UNBF 8 i) Graduate students in the Ph.D. program are required to complete one graduate seminar course per year (CHEM 6010, 6020 or 6030) for up to three years, as noted above. These courses require presentation of a seminar on a topic taken from the current research literature. ii) Near the end of their program, each Ph.D. student is also required to present a seminar to the department summarizing their thesis research project. In addition, the Department of Chemistry organizes a diverse series of research seminars by internal and external speakers throughout the year; all graduate students are expected to attend these seminars as part of their graduate program. Qualifying Exams PhD students are required to pass a qualifying exam within the first 16 months of starting their program. Further details are available in the Chemistry Graduate Studies Handbook. 1.5a Workload indications for full-time instructional staff (those paid within operating budgets) The workload indications reported here consider only the teaching component of Faculty members’ overall workload. Research and Service workload indicators, although critical to the overall evaluation of workload were not requested as part of the Academic Planning exercise. Preparations are “distinct courses taught” and are calculated based on the number of 3ch lecture or 2ch lab courses taught over the course of the academic year. Graduate courses are counted in the same way. Some 4-5ch courses have a lecture and a lab component, and are counted as two preparations. CHEM 4000 (Honours Project, 9ch) is a two-term course and is counted as two preparations. Workload units is calculated as above but also takes into consideration multi-section courses (e.g. teaching 3 sections of a multi-section course is counted as 3 workload units). CHEM 4000 (Honours Project, 9ch) is a two-term course and is counted as two workload units for each student supervised. Workload Units Preparations

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Adam 4 8 6.5 7 7 4 6 4.5 5 5 Cole1 2 2 1 2 2 1 Deslongchamps2 4 8 5 8 8 4 6 5 6 4 Dyker3 5 9 5 9 8 5 5 5 5 4 Eisler 5 9.5 7 8 9 5 7.5 5 6 5 Ignaszak4 MaGee5 5 8 6 5 6 5 6 6 3 4 Mattar6 2 1 2 2 1 2 McGrady 5 5 6 10 10 5 5 6 4 4 Neville7 4 2 2 4.5 4 2 2 4.5 Thakkar8 3.5 2.5 2.5 3.5 3.5 2.5 2.5 3.5 Villemure9 4 4 3 8 7 4 4 3 6 7

1 Resigned in 2013; 2 Department Chair (July 2014-); 3 Parental leave June 2014 - Feb 2015; 4 Hired Aug. 2015; 5 Dean of Science, admin. leave July 1 2013-June 30 2014; 6 Retired July 2013; 7 Associate Dean, School of Graduate Studies 2010-2013, sabbatical leave 2013-14; 8 Retired July 2014; 9 Department Chair (2010-2014), on sabbatical leave July-Dec. 2012

Academic Planning report - Department of Chemistry - UNBF 9 1.5b Workload indicators for full-time Instructor track Workload Units Preparations

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Kassimi 6.5 6 10 8 8 5.5 6 8 6 6 Reeves 5 6 6 8 9 4 6 6 8 7 Tait 10 10 10 13 14 6 5 5 5 5 Tong1 8 7 5 6

1 Retired July 2012 1.5c Workload indicators for full-time Research Associates Workload Units Preparations

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Calhoun 5 9 3 7 4 5 5 3 4 3 Decken 5 5 5 3 4 5 4 4 2 2

As Senior Research Associates, both Drs. Calhoun and Decken have been teaching several undergraduate courses to help with the Department's teaching load; these assignments were beyond their contractual professional responsibilities. They were both promoted to Associate Professor in July 2015. 1.6 Contract academic instructors (part-time instructors) teaching loads. Include courses taught by CAI, secondments, adjuncts, etc. CAIs (Contract Academic Instructors) Name Course # Course Title Term Enrolment Goodfellow, Alyson CHEM 2601 Physical Chemistry I FA10 47 Granger, Aaron CHEM 1006 General Chemistry Lab I FA13 91

CHEM 1006 General Chemistry Lab I FA13 90 Cetnarowski, Greg CHEM 1006 General Chemistry Lab I FA13 44 CHEM 2111 Analytical Chemistry I FA13 22 CHEM 3621 Physical Chemistry II FA13 109 CHEM 3122 Analytical Chemistry II WI14 154 CHEM 3622 Physical Chemistry III WI14 13 CHEM 1001 General Chemistry I SU14 15 CHEM 1006 General Chemistry Lab I FA14 89 CHEM 2111 Analytical Chemistry I FA14 44 CHEM 3621 Physical Chemistry II FA14 134 CHEM 1017 General Chemistry Lab II WI15 50 CHEM 1987 General Applied Chemistry Lab WI15 44 CHEM 3122 Analytical Chemistry II WI15 27 CHEM 3622 Physical Chemistry III WI15 15

Academic Planning report - Department of Chemistry - UNBF 10 1.7 University’s operating budget & those paid through soft money (research) Faculty members All the Department Faculty members are paid through hard money: Operating Budget (Hard $) Adam, Allan Calhoun, Larry Cole, Jacqueline (resigned 2013) Decken, Andreas1 Deslongchamps, Ghislain Dyker, C. Adam Eisler, Sara Elbakali Kassimi, Noureddin MaGee, David2 Mattar, Saba (retired July 2013) McGrady, Sean (resigned September 2015) Neville, John3 Reeves, Valerie Tait, James Thakkar, Ajit (retired July 2014) Tong, James (retired July 2012) Villemure, Gilles

1 Decken is Assistant Dean from 2013-present (.67 salary in Chemistry) 2 MaGee is Dean of Science (.33 salary in Chemistry) 3 Neville was Associate Dean of Graduate Studies from 2010-2013 (.33 salary in Chemistry) Staff members

Operating Budget (Hard $) Other Funds (Soft $) Coy, Krista Hayes, Ruth (ended Oct. 28, 2015) Fowler, Adam Goodfellow, Ed Green, David (retired October 2014) Vautour, Gilles Albright, Michael (started March 2015)

1.8 Undergraduate student enrolment/faculty ratios Course Level 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 1000 129.5 101.1 111.9 97.2 97.7 2000 45.4 36.5 46.3 47.0 41.3 3000 23.1 25.6 23.5 30.1 24.9 4000 8.5 11.9 16.6 16.1 19.5 Total 47.9 46.6 52.8 52.2 47.4

Academic Planning report - Department of Chemistry - UNBF 11 1.9 Graduate students per faculty member MSc PhD

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Adam 1 1 1 1 1 1 Calhoun 1 1 1 1 1 Deslongchamps 1 2 1 1 1 Dyker 2 2 2 4 3 1 1 1 1 1 Eisler 5 4 2 2 1 MaGee 2 1 2 3 5 3 3 3 2 2 McGrady 5 3 2 1 3 3 3 Neville 1 1 1 Thakkar 3 3 2 1 Villemure 1 1 1

TOTAL: 17 12 10 9 11 15 14 12 5 5 1.10 Number of graduates from each unit by degree B.Sc. programs 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Average CHEM 4 1 5 1 2 2.6 CHEM (honours) 2 5 2 6 4 3.8 MEDCHEM 2 2 3 7 3 3.4 MEDCHEM (honours) 1 10 5 10 13 7.80 BIOCH 2 5 2 2 2 2.6 BIOCH (honours) 12 5 6 6 7 7.2 CHEM,PHYS 1 1 .4 CHEM,PHYS (honours) 1 .2

TOTAL: 25 28 24 32 31 28 MSc/PhD programs 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Average MSc 1 2 3 3 5 2.8 PhD 1 8 1 3 2.6

TOTAL: 1 3 11 4 8 5.4

1.11a Total Research dollars by year for research-track faculty

Year Research $/year 2010 1,357,442 2011 869,417 2012 866,797 2013 1,251,003 2014 520,504

TOTAL: 4,865,163 (average: 973,033 /year)

Academic Planning report - Department of Chemistry - UNBF 12 1.11b Total research dollars by year for research associates, secondment, adjuncts & HRAs

Year Research $/year 2010 63,250 2011 10,000 2012 10,000 2013 2014

TOTAL: 83,250 As Senior Research Associate, Dr. Calhoun, is solely responsible for all the research dollars reported in the above table. He was promoted to Associate Professor in July 2015. 1.12 Research participation rate: Number of active research faculty versus number of total research faculty. Members of the Department of Chemistry active in research include: - every Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor (including VP-Research) - every Professor Emeritus (Passmore, Mattar, Thakkar); they continue to hold NSERC funding - every Senior Research Associate, transferred to Associate Professor stream in 2015 (Calhoun, Decken) Only our three Senior Teaching Instructors (Kassimi, Reeves, Tait) do not participate in research due to extremely heavy workloads. Nevertheless, one of the instructors (Reeves) participates in CHEM 4000 Honours Research supervision. Dr. McGrady moved to SUNY-Binghampton in Sept. 2015 and is now Adjunct Professor at UNB, continuing collaborative research with UNB Chemistry and Prof. Chibante (UNB Chemical Engineering). Adjunct Professor D. Botelho (RPC) currently supervises CHEM 4000 students and is slated to begin collaborative research with UNB Chemistry in late 2015.

Academic Planning report - Department of Chemistry - UNBF 13

Section 2 - Qualitative indicators 2.1 How does your unit complement other units, including interdisciplinary collaborations?

Chemistry is a central science. The department of Chemistry complements several Science units including the departments of Biology, Physics, and Earth Sciences, as well as the Faculties of Engineering, Kinesiology and Forestry & Environmental Management (ForEM). For well over 25 years, these units have collaborated on both the teaching and research fronts. - The Biology-Chemistry interdepartmental BSc program, which is a 50:50 collaborative initiative between the Chemistry and Biology departments, continues to be one of the most popular programs of study in the Faculty of Science since its inception over 25 years ago. - The Chemistry-Physics interdepartmental BSc program also continues to effectively serve students. - Every year, the Chemistry Department offers large-enrolment service courses (100+ students) for the Biology department as well as for Chemical Engineering, Kinesiology, and ForEM students. - For the last 16 years, Chemistry and Computer Science faculty members (Deslongchamps/Cooper) have co-taught cross-disciplinary courses in “Biocomputing in drug design” for the benefit of Science and Computer Science students. - On the research front, there are important collaborations between Chemistry and Chemical Engineering where chemistry researchers in Materials Science (McGrady) collaborate with chemical engineering researchers in Nanotechnology (Chibante). - Dr. A. Adam is cross-appointed with the Physics Department to facilitate his collaborations with Drs. C. Linton and D. Tokaryk. Together they run a High Resolution Laser Spectroscopy laboratory. Undergraduate and graduate students from both the Chemistry and Physics Departments participate in the research program. - Dr. B. Balcom, Physics Professor and Canada Research Chair, is cross-appointed to the Chemistry department and directs undergraduate and graduate researchers from both sides. - Dr. Y. Ni, Chemical Engineering Professor and Canada Research Chair, is jointly appointed to the departments of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. 2.2 How has the field of your discipline(s) changed over the last 10 years, and what are the implications for teaching and research in the unit? Chemistry is a rapidly evolving science. Many of its disciplines now benefit from advanced computational technology for modeling both fundamental chemical processes as well as macroscopic events. Advanced instrumental methods such as nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and high-resolution laser spectroscopy are opening new avenues for molecular study. - Quantum chemistry is now part of the core 2nd year curriculum for all chemistry BSc students, and is a foundational topic for subsequent physical chemistry courses, an important departure from how physical chemistry was traditionally taught. - Computer-based molecular design has become a key aspect of drug design in the pharmaceutical industry. UNB Chemistry was one of the first North-American departments to offer dedicated courses in this area to undergraduate students. Enrolments have increased every year since the first offering in 2000. - Medicinal chemistry is one of the more important drivers of basic and applied chemistry research in the 21st Century. Many areas such as organic synthesis, catalysis, organometallic chemistry, computational chemistry, and bio-analytical chemistry, are driven by the challenges and demands of the pharmaceutical sector. Since 2009, UNB Chemistry is one of only a few Canadian universities to offer BSc programs in Medicinal Chemistry; these have become UNB’s most popular chemistry programs. - The energy sector has become an important driver or chemistry research. Under the umbrella of materials science, UNB Chemistry researchers are active in developing new battery technologies, new methods of hydrogen storage, and new approaches to energy capture, avenues of research of great potential for technological transfer to the private sector, and other economic spin-offs.

Academic Planning report - Department of Chemistry - UNBF 14 - Newly appointed Dr. A. Ignaszak is developing a research facility that specializes in the synthesis of functional materials such as electro-catalysts, carbon-polymer composites and organic conductive redox-active platforms, as well as the engineering and prototyping of electrode devices like capacitor electrodes or sensing probes for wastewater treatment. These are all highly innovative applications. 2.3 What are considered core programs and core faculty members for your unit? Chemistry BSc (major/honours), Medicinal Chemistry BSc (major/honours), as well Biology-Chemistry BSc (major/honours) are all core programs within the Faculty of Science. Every single Chemistry faculty members participates fully in the teaching of our core programs except for the VP-Academic and Dr. Ni (joint with Chem. Eng.); the VP-Research participates in the supervision of CHEM 4000 Honours projects and postgraduate researchers. As of July 2015 and excluding the VP-Research, we were 10 professors (Adam, Calhoun, Decken, Deslongchamps, Dyker, Eisler, MaGee, McGrady, Neville, Villemure), and 3 senior teaching instructors (Kassimi, Reeves, Tait). Every professor carries a full teaching load; every teaching instructor carries more than a full teaching load. Workload issues have plagued the department since a slew of un-replaced retirements over the years. 2.4 What are your unit’s opportunities (and vulnerabilities) for growth (or decline) for research and course-based undergraduate students? The department has been very proactive in developing and offering BSc programs that are relevant to a modern chemistry workforce. In 2009, the Medicinal Chemistry BSc programs were created to prepare graduates for careers in the pharmaceutical sector, one of the more significant scientific and economic drivers of the new millennium. Today, the vast majority of our Chemistry students have chosen this degree program. A spin-off of our long-standing interdepartmental Biology-Chemistry BSc program, termed “Bio-Chem – pre-health profession”, was created in 2014 for graduates who aspire to enter a professional health program. The resulting number of student enrolments has seriously overwhelmed our teaching capacity. Opportunities for growth of our BSc programs are clearly limited by our teaching complement. For instance, the core of these programs comprises several organic and medicinal chemistry lecture and lab courses (27 ch + 7 ch) that have stretched our teaching resources. One of the new courses developed specifically for the program (CHEM 4003) is no longer offered due to instructor shortfall. Some of the lab courses now have to be offered in 3-5 sections per term, including evening sections, to accommodate the student numbers. Unless additional instructors are hired, enrolment caps may have to be imposed on these otherwise highly successful programs. The large enrolment increases from the Medicinal Chemistry and Biology-Chemistry BSc programs have truly tested our department’s ability to support our students’ 4th year, research-based Honours project, CHEM 4000. This full year, 9ch course is required for all Med. Chem. Honours students and several of the Bio-Chem Honours students. The Department has been overwhelmed by the number of students who require a CHEM 4000 project and supervisor. Several faculty members currently mentor 3 Honours student projects, in addition to juggling their regular research, teaching, and administrative responsibilities. We have, for the first time, involved adjunct professors in the supervision of our CHEM 4000 students. There simply aren’t enough professors to provide the highest quality of research experience for our students. Two other research-based courses have been affected: CHEM 2009 and 3009 (Experience in Chemistry Research I & II). Each of these is a one-semester, 3ch research-based course whereby students work one-on-one with a researcher to complete a project, prepare a report, and a give a presentation. These courses saw huge successes in the past and were recruiting tools for retaining Honours research and graduate students. This year, due to the difficulty in finding enough project supervisors for CHEM 4000, both CHEM 2009 and 3009 were cancelled. With the regular granting of sabbatical, administrative, and parental leaves, the Department is constantly challenged to cover unassigned teaching loads. Some courses, including core program offerings have had

Academic Planning report - Department of Chemistry - UNBF 15 to be cancelled at times due to instructor shortfall. The Department simply does not have the budgetary latitude to hire term instructors and contract academic employees. 2.5 What are your unit’s opportunities (and vulnerabilities) for growth (or decline) in research and course-based graduate students? All the graduate programs in Chemistry are research-based so funding ultimately restricts the number of graduate students that our department can support. Research supervisors currently provide ≈ 60% of the students’ financial support, or about ≈$11,000-$14,000/year/student, in a multi-year commitment of 2 and 4 years of support for MSc and PhD students, respectively. The balance comes from teaching assistantships and some funding from the School of Graduate Studies. The decline in NSERC grants in our department has had a deleterious impact on our ability to support graduate students. We currently have 18 graduate students, less than half the number that we supported a few years ago. This represents a reduction in total 6000-level course registrations from 169 to 46 over the last five years. Opportunities for rebuilding our research capacity rely heavily on the recent hiring of 2 new Assistant Professors (Ignaszak, Handa), and the appointment of an adjunct professor from the Research and Productivity Council this year (Botelho). The NBIF has also provided support for our graduate students through their Research Innovation Fund programs, partly filling the void left behind by NSERC cuts. In addition, two long-standing Senior Research Associates (Calhoun, Decken) were reclassified as Associate Professors in 2015 to better reflect the research and teaching needs of the department. They will now be eligible to apply for tri-council funding and to independently support graduate students, and further participate in graduate teaching. The idea of a course-based MSc program was proposed three years ago, motivated partly by a growing number of international student applicants, and the heavy infrastructure and funding needs that accompany research-based projects. Although the idea will be revisited next year, a course based program would mean an increased teaching load for each faculty member, which would not be possible without increasing the faculty complement. 2.6 What experiential learning activities (e.g. internship, co-op, etc.) at the undergraduate and graduate levels does your unit offer and manage? In a pure and applied science, Chemistry students benefit from extensive experiential learning opportunities. Approximately 40% of our undergraduate curriculum is hands-on. Laboratory courses are mandatory for all degree programs in all of its main branches, namely Organic, Inorganic, Physical, Analytical, Theoretical and Computational chemistry. Undergraduate Research Internships are a significant contribution to experiential learning, mainly in the form of summer research assistantships funded by individual researchers or by NSERC-USRA fellowships. Chemistry students are eligible to participate in Co-op placements in Canada and abroad. Students work for 4-12 month in research labs at UNB, in government labs or private sector industry, as well as in our partner university in Germany. The department relies on a full cohort of graduate student teaching assistants for its hands-on laboratory courses, Therefore our graduate students benefit from teaching assistantships, gaining valuable teaching and learning skills for their future careers, while earning money. 2.7 What are the opportunities (and vulnerabilities) for growth (or decline) in research funding from Tri-Council and other sources? The Chemistry Department is at the most critical stage of its history. Within the last few years, the number of NSERC-funded professors declined from 9 to 3 due to a “perfect storm” of retirements, a resignation, and the fallout from the NSERC Chemistry Evaluation Group’s grant adjudication scheme. Over the last two years alone, three NSERC-funded professors were lost (Mattar, McGrady, Thakkar), including our only professors in theoretical chemistry (Thakkar) and materials science (McGrady), two critical areas of modern chemistry research. We were awarded only two replacements for 2015 (Ignaszak,

Academic Planning report - Department of Chemistry - UNBF 16 Handa). Our first bona fide Assistant Professor in analytical chemistry (Ignaszak) arrived in August and is submitting her first NSERC Discovery Grant and Research Tools & Instruments Grant applications this Fall. With an outstanding research record, we fully expect her to be funded as a first-time NSERC applicant. Her program has much potential for applied and collaborative research that will surely draw the attention of NBIF, CFI, and ACOA. Our new Assistant Professor in materials science (Handa) is slated to arrive this year but is currently held back by Citizenship and Immigration Canada red tape. He comes with unprecedented research credentials, and will launch a most ambitious, creative, and productive research program. He will surely attract important funding from NSERC, CIHR, as well as the other agencies (NBIF/CFI/ACOA); he will bring already established collaborative agreements with Novartis, Sigma-Aldrich, and U. California Santa Barbara. Our former Senior Research Associates (Calhoun, Decken) are now Associate Professors and will be eligible to apply for grants from tri-council, NBIF, CFI, etc. This year, we granted Adjunct Professor status to Dr. Diane Botelho from the Research and Productivity Council. She is currently writing a grant application to MITACS to conduct collaborative research with Dr. Deslongchamps. To promote future success in NSERC applications from all faculty members, the Department encourages the vetting of all grant applications by successfully funded faculty members and individuals who have served on grant selection committees. However, this year’s hires still leaves us short two professors and one lab instructor compared to ten years ago. The department is in dire need of new research-active professors in the areas of theoretical chemistry and biological chemistry; it also needs to replace our analytical chemistry lab instructor who retired in 2012. 2.8 How does your unit intend to change program contents and delivery, including the following:

2.8.1 When was the unit’s curricula last reviewed in its entirety? What changes were undertaken?

The Chemistry department undertook a comprehensive curriculum review over a 3 week period in May, 2015. Every course was put under the microscope and analyzed for strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement. A comprehensive report submitted by a cohort of students in January was also discussed at length. As a result, two new core courses are in the works for deployment in Fall 2017. A second round of curriculum meetings is slated for May 2016, to focus on overall learning objectives as opposed to reviewing individual courses, as was done in the 2015 curriculum review. The Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry BSc programs successfully received re-accreditation from the Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC) in 2015, a process that occurs every five years by our national professional organization. The re-accreditation procedure included the preparation and submission of a 930-page document to the CSC accreditation team as well as a full-day site visit on February 24. However, the 2015 CSC accreditation report (see Appendix 3), as well as the 2010 report identified a severe faculty shortfall that would seriously jeopardize future accreditation if not remedied. 2.8.2 What kinds of new courses have been offered in the last five years?

“Medicinal Chemistry” (CHEM 4523, 3ch), a required course developed for the Medicinal Chemistry BSc programs, was completely revamped in 2011 to better support the Medicinal Chemistry BSc programs. “Experience in Chemistry Research I” (CHEM 2009, 3ch) and “Experience in Chemistry Research II” (CHEM 3009, 3ch) are research-based courses for 2nd and 3rd year students to conduct research projects under the supervision of a chosen faculty member. To better support our Chemistry BSc programs, inorganic chemistry courses need to incorporate more specialized topics relevant to materials science, catalysis, and biochemistry. However, creating new courses is unrealistic with our current teaching complement. Nevertheless, some “bioinorganic

Academic Planning report - Department of Chemistry - UNBF 17

chemistry” topics are being injected into the existing inorganic chemistry courses in 2015 as a stopgap measure. 2.8.3 How are graduate students used in undergraduate teaching, both current and planned?

All eligible graduate students in the Chemistry Department are used as Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs), and GTAs are used in all the undergraduate laboratory courses. Occasionally GTAs from outside of Chemistry are hired for our courses. Currently a full GTA is 120 hours of service, comprising in-lab duties, marking duties, and exam invigilation. In-lab duties include demonstrating new techniques, helping with experiments, answering student questions, running instrumentation, and maintaining a safe environment. GTAs are evaluated by both the undergraduate students and the instructor to help them develop as educators. 2.8.4 How do space considerations affect program design and delivery?

Fortunately, the formal lecture teaching spaces in Toole Hall were renovated over the last 4 years (Toole Auditorium, Toole 303). The “Chemistry Society”, our informal learning space (Toole 108) was also renovated last year. In addition, four large undergraduate teaching laboratories were completely gutted and re-done in 2008 (Toole 103, 114, 205, 215). The Department is very proud of its classroom and laboratory teaching space. One important issue remains regarding our computer-based lab courses: CHEM 2002 (Quantum Chemistry), CHEM 3003 (Biocomputing in Drug design I), and CHEM 4003 (Biocomp. II) require a weekly computer lab for various teaching and experiential learning activities. Toole Hall does not have a computer lab for adequately conducting these course activities and has, for many years now, relied on computer labs in other Faculties. The benevolence of the Faculty of Computer Science for lab space in their Information Technology Center has been tested on many occasions and securing a room is a yearly struggle (Drug Design was taught in the French Dept. in 2014…). With the ever-increasing impact of computers in chemistry, it is imperative that a dedicated ≈ 50-seat computer lab be made available to the Faculty of Science.

2.9 What are your unit plans for the upcoming five years: changes to existing programs (teaching and research focus), new programs (teaching and research), new sources of students, new sources of revenue, etc.? Changes to the existing Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry programs will come about as a result of our second curriculum review slated for May 2016. As a result of this year’s curriculum review, two new core program courses are being designed for 2017: “Structure Determination” (Fall term, 2nd year) and “Professional Skills for Chemists” (Winter term, 2nd year). On the research front, newly appointed Assistant Professor Anna Ignaszak is bringing, for the first time, 21st Century analytical chemistry research to the Department. Specializing in the synthesis of functional materials such as electro-catalysts, carbon-polymer composites and organic conductive redox-active platforms, and the engineering of novel electrode devices, she opens a whole new avenue of research and opportunities for collaboration with departmental colleagues. Her track record for attracting research funding at her previous institution (U. Jena, Germany) is very impressive. Dr. Sachin Handa, slated to arrive by the end of this year (immigration pending) will be our new Assistant Professor in materials science. His program in organometallic catalysis will be another research area new to UNB Chemistry. He will bring already established collaborative agreements with Novartis (pharmaceutical multinational), Sigma-Aldrich (world’s largest fine chemical supplier) , and U.C. Santa Barbara. Two of his novel inventions are now manufactured and sold worldwide via Sigma-Aldrich. Both Ignaszak and Handa will attract significant research funding from NSERC, CIHR, NBIF, CFI, ACOA. They were already awarded $120K and $100K, respectively from the NBIF Talent Recruitment Fund, as incentives to come to UNB. They have each been allocated research lab space in Toole Hall that can accommodate at least 10-12 graduate students, post-docs, and other researchers.

Academic Planning report - Department of Chemistry - UNBF 18 The last of two departmental faculty members in theoretical chemistry (Thakkar) retired from UNB in 2014, a key discipline of modern chemistry research and scholarly endeavour. This has severely handicapped the Department's future as a vibrant and research-intensive unit. It is critically important the we hire a theoretical/computational chemist as we cannot currently meet the teaching needs of our core programs, let alone carry out relevant research in this critical area. Our medicinal chemistry BSc programs have become flagship programs of the Department yet we do not have a single bona fide medicinal chemistry researcher in our midst. It is critical that we hire a professor in this area that can foster research collaborations with Biology, and provide necessary support for the Medicinal Chemistry and Biology-Chemistry BSc programs. In 2014-15, the R.F. Langler Chemistry Research Grant Foundation donated $928,000 specifically in support of organic chemistry research at UNB. Prof. Langler was a retired Chemistry Professor (Mount-Allison U.) who had obtained his MSc at UNB. The amount represents the quasi-totality of his estate. Yearly interest will be used primarily to support graduate students and other research expenses. In 2015, the David M. Armstrong Foundation donated $100,000 to the Chemistry Department to leverage a ≈$500K plan to renovate research lab space in Toole Hall. A detailed action plan to renovate Toole Hall labs 226, 227, 228, and 229 will be initiated in early 2016. 2.10 If your unit interacts on a regular basis with a comparable unit at UNBSJ, please explain the nature of the relationship. The bi-campus model between UNBF and UNBSJ Chemistry was never a success. Currently, UNBSJ’s Faculty of Science, Applied Science & Engineering (SASE) offers the first year of the chemistry programs offered at UNBF. They also offer some upper level courses that lead to a chemistry minor. Students who wish to complete a chemistry BSc degree must transfer to UNBF within the first two years of study. Traditionally, there has been little communication between the two units on curriculum matters although a relatively recent renewal of faculty members in SJ promises to change things. A harmonization of 1st and 2nd year course numbers and content would be most helpful for students who wish to complete a Chemistry BSc degree. On the research front, only one UNBSJ Chemistry professor is active in research (Gray); UNBF has always been supportive of his endeavours, providing access to research instrumentation and laboratory space, when required. His students also participate in the graduate seminar program. UNBF Chemistry Faculty and Dr. Gray are regular contributors to each other's graduate advisory committees and thesis examination committees. 2.11 What relationships does your unit have with programs beyond UNB? Discuss the importance of these programs to UNB. The Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, and Biology-Chemistry BSc programs prepare students for a variety of postgraduate learning opportunities. On any given year, our graduates enter MSc/PhD programs in various areas of chemistry across the country. The Medicinal Chemistry, and Biology-Chemistry BSc programs have been popular paths for graduates to enter a professional health program (medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, physiotherapy…). UNBF created a Biology-Chemistry “Pre-Health Profession” BSc stream two year ago to prepare students specifically for these programs. It rapidly emerged as the Faculty of Science’s most popular BSc program. 2.12 Describe collaborations that the unit and unit members have beyond UNB, ranging from the local to the global, from community organizations to international institutions. Members of the Chemistry unit have active collaborations with Agriculture and Agri-food Canada and the Canadian Forest Service, as well as several local companies including Enovex and Mycodev Group Inc. The McGrady group alone has had several collaborations with Atlantic Hydrogen Inc., Hydrogen Storage

Academic Planning report - Department of Chemistry - UNBF 19 Materials Inc., the U.S. Department of National Defence, Knowcharge Inc., NASA, and several other companies and organizations. The Dyker group has an ongoing collaboration with Prof. John Murphy ( U. of Strathclyde, Scotland) that has resulted in a joint publication. UNB Chemistry has had a long-standing relationship with the Chemical Computing Group Inc. (CCG), a world-class drug discovery software developer. Since 2000, the company has provided software licences for the Biocomputing in Drug Design courses as well as for Dr. Deslongchamps’ research activities. Commercial licences of their software are valued at $40,000 per computer per year; CCG currently provides licences for a 45 student class, an in-kind contribution of enormous value to UNB Chemistry. Dr. Deslongchamps is past Vice-Chair (2009) and Chair (2011) of the Gordon Research Conference on “Visualization in Science and Education”, the premier international conference in this research area. 2.13 Describe academic service and student advising activities of your unit. All faculty members are active participants in academic service, and are appointed to specific departmental committees on a yearly basis. Dr. MaGee is currently serving a second term as Dean of Science. Dr. Decken is currently serving a second term as Assistant Dean of Science. Dr. Neville is past Associate Dean of Graduate Studies. Various members serve on University-wide committees as well as on the UNB Senate. Student advising activities are conducted by academic advisors in the Department, including separate advisors for Chemistry and interdepartmental programs. All students who declare a BSc major must meet with one of the advisors and are encouraged to meet with them once a semester. Program progress sheets are continuously updated with each meeting. Topics of discussion during advising also include summer employment, research opportunities, life after the BSc (how to apply to graduate school or professional schools or for jobs), how to access student services such as financial aid, counselling services, medical attention, etc. An open house for first-year students is held each February to give information about the various Chemistry programs and their respective academic advisors. Currently, one of the advisors handles 120 + advising appointments between March break and the end-of-term, in addition to teaching responsibilities! 2.14 Discuss other issues relevant to your unit. In March 2012, a Quality Assurance Review of UNB's Department of Chemistry was carried out by external evaluators. This was the second QAR for UNB Chemistry, the first one having been carried out in 2005. The Department’s response to the 2012 report was submitted to Dr. Secco, VP-Academic (see Appendix 2). The first QAR report stated in 2005 that "The Department is at a critical juncture in its history. Without additional resources and strong leadership, the Department is at risk of losing the critical mass required to maintain a viable PhD program." While the Department addressed many of the recommendations in the 2005 QAR report, the most critical recommendations were left unaddressed, being outside departmental control (e.g. increasing Faculty complement, hiring external Chair, etc.). Fast-forwarding to the 2012 QAR report, it stated that "The review committee assesses the current effective tenured/tenure track faculty count as less than 9 and considers this to be below critical to effectively fulfill the range and level of programs currently on offer." "The consequence is a compromise of the core objectives of the unit." Again, the Department took clear and immediate action on several of the recommendations, as reported in Appendix 2. But once again, the most important recommendations that affect our continuing viability as a nationally and internationally recognized teaching and research-intensive department are outside departmental control, and remain unaddressed. In a similar vein, although the Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry BSc programs successfully received re-accreditation from the Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC) in 2015, the accreditation report (see Appendix 3), as well as the 2010 report both identified a severe faculty shortfall that would seriously jeopardize future accreditation if not remedied.

Academic Planning report - Department of Chemistry - UNBF 20 Closing remarks The Chemistry Department is at the most critical stage of its illustrious history. During the last few years, it witnessed a dramatic decline in tri-council funded professors due to a “perfect storm” of retirements, a resignation, and a new grant adjudication system. The Department has since embarked on an aggressive effort to rebuild its research and teaching capacity, but within an all too challenging university environment. The hiring of two new Assistant Professors this year, combined with fresh and ever popular BSc programs and offerings, brings new and exciting opportunities for the Department. However, the last two Canadian Society for Chemistry accreditation reports and the last two Quality Assurance Reviews clearly indicate that the Department’s teaching and research complement must be increased. The core objectives of the Department have been seriously compromised, and it is at risk of losing the critical mass required to maintain a viable PhD program, one of UNB’s flagship graduate programs since Karel Wiesner and Denny Valenta put UNB on the world map in the early 1960’s.

Academic Planning report - Department of Chemistry - UNBF 21

Appendix 1

Total course registrants for each course, 2009-2014 (as summarized in Section 1.2a) 2013-14 2012-13 2011-12 2010-11 2009-10 CHEM*1001*FR01A 307 375 347 327 344 CHEM*1001*FR01B 42 44 46 61 CHEM*1001*FR02A 95 CHEM*1001*MIE1A 10 CHEM*1006*FR01A 89 90 89 89 74 CHEM*1006*FR02A 84 85 87 84 79 CHEM*1006*FR03A 86 85 83 88 74 CHEM*1006*FR04A 85 85 63 46 59 CHEM*1006*FR05A 36 CHEM*1012*FR01B 346 306 316 298 251 CHEM*1012*FRE1 11 12 24 CHEM*1012*FRE1A 9 CHEM*1012*MIE1B 9 CHEM*1017*FR01B 92 87 90 82 83 CHEM*1017*FR02B 46 49 92 83 70 CHEM*1017*FR03B 43 44 90 83 78 CHEM*1017*FR04B 90 86 90 85 83 CHEM*1017*FR05B 41 26 91 82 72 CHEM*1017*FR06B 6 48 74 73 CHEM*1017*FR07B 60 CHEM*1882*FR01B CHEM*1882*FR02B CHEM*1882*FR03B CHEM*1882*FR04B CHEM*1882*FR05B CHEM*1982*FR01B 252 242 294 243 249 CHEM*1987*FR01B 90 94 CHEM*1987*FR02B 41 43 CHEM*1987*FR03B 44 44 CHEM*1987*FR04B 59 50 CHEM*1xxx TOTAL: 1,941 1,844 1,915 1,734 1,650 CHEM*2002*FR01B 59 45 36 26 26 CHEM*2009*FR01A 1 3 2 CHEM*2009*FR01B 2 4 3 6 CHEM*2111*FR01A 20 30 21 14 11 CHEM*2111*FR02A 19 CHEM*2201*FR01A 97 104 83 53 64 CHEM*2222*FR01B 81 82 61 40 49

Academic Planning report - Department of Chemistry - UNBF 22 CHEM*2237*FR01B 18 30 34 21 18 CHEM*2237*FR02B 18 10 CHEM*2237*FR03B 19 CHEM*2401*FR01A 125 113 129 128 113 CHEM*2416*FR01A 18 26 24 12 23 CHEM*2416*FR02A 22 27 22 23 21 CHEM*2416*FR03A 19 27 24 19 24 CHEM*2416*FR04A 17 5 16 CHEM*2416*FR05A 18 9 CHEM*2416*FR06A 14 CHEM*2421*FR01A 116 116 95 61 85 CHEM*2422*FR01B 105 95 69 59 55 CHEM*2601*FR01A 106 94 76 46 57 CHEM*2xxx TOTAL: 894 815 684 508 562 CHEM*3003*FR01A 17 17 13 CHEM*3009*FR01B 2 1 1 CHEM*3122*FR01B 14 10 7 CHEM*3132*FR01B 9 5 CHEM*3137*FR01B 14 10 CHEM*3137*FR02B 12 CHEM*3137*FR03B 7 CHEM*3201*FR01A 24 20 15 7 13 CHEM*3222*FR01B 16 15 14 12 12 CHEM*3236*FR01A 6 16 9 7 7 CHEM*3421*FR01A 62 50 35 41 32 CHEM*3422*FR01B 32 26 18 18 28 CHEM*3621*FR01A 105 111 78 92 81 CHEM*3622*FR01B 13 8 16 19 13 CHEM*3637*FR01B 31 23 13 14 17 CHEM*3857*FR01B 19 14 12 10 23 CHEM*3857*FR02B 10 10 4 12 CHEM*3886*FR01A 50 49 49 34 CHEM*3886*FR02A 28 CHEM*3886*FR03A 28 CHEM*3897*FR01B 42 49 43 49 27 CS*3003*FR01A 19 12 CHEM*3xxx TOTAL: 468 436 332 348 317 CHEM*4000*FR01X 17 8 17 7 8 CHEM*4000*FR01Y 17 7 17 7 8 CHEM*4003*FR01B 8 1 CHEM*4007*FR01B 4 1 CHEM*4017*FR01B 5 3

Academic Planning report - Department of Chemistry - UNBF 23 CHEM*4112*FR01B 7 6 6 5 9 CHEM*4222*FR01B 7 6 6 6 9 CHEM*4416*FR01A 17 19 14 20 9 CHEM*4416*FR02A 17 CHEM*4422*FR01B 29 11 17 9 11 CHEM*4513*FR01A 32 22 32 28 19 CHEM*4523*FR01B 47 34 31 50 CHEM*4601*FR01A 13 10 15 10 11 CHEM*4616*FR01A 9 7 7 6 15 CHEM*4622*FR01B 8 6 14 7 10 CHEM*4886*FR01A 48 29 30 24 CHEM*4886*FR02A 16 CHEM*4886*FR02B 25 CHEM*4886*FR03B 28 CHEM*4909*FR01A 1 CHEM*4909*FR01B 1 CHEM*4909*FR02A 1 CHEM*4919*FR01B CS*4003*FR01B 9 10 CHEM*4222*FR01B 2 3 CHEM*4xxx TOTAL: 273 193 232 203 139 CHEM*6010*FR01X 4 1 6 12 16 CHEM*6010*FR01Y 4 1 6 12 15 CHEM*6020*FR01X CHEM*6020*FR01Y CHEM*6030*FR01X 1 CHEM*6030*FR01Y 1 CHEM*6063*FR01 1 CHEM*6063*FR01A 1 2 CHEM*6063*FR01B 1 CHEM*6063*FR02A CHEM*6063*FR02B 3 CHEM*6063*FR03A CHEM*6063*FR03B 1 CHEM*6063*FR04A CHEM*6063*FR05A CHEM*6063*FR06A CHEM*6122*FR01B CHEM*6222*FR01B 1 CHEM*6240*FR01B CHEM*6280*FR01B 4 8 CHEM*6430*FR01 CHEM*6430*FR02

Academic Planning report - Department of Chemistry - UNBF 24 CHEM*6470*FR01X 1 4 CHEM*6470*FR01Y 1 4 CHEM*6673*FR01B 1 5 CHEM*6997*FR01 6 19 26 27 28 CHEM*6997*FR01A 9 10 13 19 17 CHEM*6997*FR01B 7 7 10 16 18 CHEM*6998*FR01 3 22 28 23 24 CHEM*6998*FR01A 3 11 13 15 14 CHEM*6998*FR01B 4 9 12 14 14 CHEM*6xxx TOTAL: 46 84 119 145 169 CHEM*COOP*FR01 1 CHEM*COOP*FR01A 1

PRAC TOTAL: 2 GRAND TOTAL: 3,622 3,372 3,282 2,938 2,839

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December 17, 2012 TO: Dr. Anthony Secco, VP-Academic FROM: Department of Chemistry CC: David Burns, VP-Research; Dr. Eddy Campbell, President and Vice-Chancellor RE: Chemistry Department Response to 2012 Quality Assurance Review report Dear Dr. Secco, In March 2012, a Quality Assurance Review of UNB's Department of Chemistry was carried out by Profs. Neil Burford (U. Victoria) and Peter Pickup (Memorial). This was the second QAR for UNB Chemistry, the first one having been carried out in 2005. The present document outlines the Chemistry Department's response to the 2012 QAR report. Copies of the 2012 and 2005 QAR reports can be found in Appendices 1 and 2, respectively. Overview UNB's Chemistry Department has an outstanding reputation for its research accomplishments going all the way back to the pioneering efforts of Karel Wiesner and Frank J. Toole in 1948. The Department is also well known for the quality and innovation of its nationally accredited undergraduate degree programs. However, issues such as the loss of personnel due to long-standing budgetary restraints, the increasing difficulty in retaining external research funding, and the overall increase in workload due to many members holding administrative posts, are contributing to a clear and alarming decrease in our research capacity and our ability to maintain quality of service to our students. The Department takes the QAR exercise very seriously. The 2005 QAR report stated that "The Department is at a critical juncture in its history. Without additional resources and strong leadership, the Department is at risk of losing the critical mass required to maintain a viable PhD program." While the Department addressed many of the recommendations in the 2005 QAR report, the most critical recommendations were left unaddressed, being outside departmental control (e.g. increasing Faculty complement, hiring external Chair). Fast-forwarding to the 2012 QAR report, it states "The review committee assesses the current effective tenured/tenure track faculty count as less than 9 and considers this to be below critical to effectively fulfill the range and level of programs currently on offer." "The

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consequence is a compromise of the core objectives of the unit." Again, the Department has taken clear and immediate action on several of the recommendations listed below. But once again, the most important recommendations that affect our continuing viability as a nationally recognized teaching and research-intensive department are outside departmental control, and remain unaddressed by the UNB Administration, going back to the 2005 QAR report. Departmental response details 1. Academic Programs Undergraduate: Recommendation 1: The first year lab program should be carefully managed so that TAs are provided with well defined, consistent guidelines and reliable marking schemes. We somewhat agree. 1st year labs were overhauled a few years ago and we continue to improve student experience. Pre-lab exercises have been put online, and there were zero complaints about marking schemes this semester. Graduate: Recommendation 2: The Department should prepare a document (graduate handbook) that explicitly defines all of the requirements and expectations of graduate students. We strongly agree. The Graduate Affairs Committee is completing a comprehensive Graduate Handbook to be made available in print and online by May 1, 2013. Recommendation 3: The Department should increase the stipend (after fees) for graduate students to at least $14,000 per year to be consistent with minima across Canada. The Department should consider decreasing the normal funding periods to two years for MSc students and four years for PhD students. Completion times should be regularly reviewed. [This recommendation is a recurrence of Recommendation #8 in the report of the Quality Assessment Review of 2005 (Appendix 2).] We strongly agree. The barrier for increasing graduate stipends remains the number and size of our research grants, and the limited support offered by UNB. This is the only true bottleneck for increasing our graduate studies and research capacity. Nevertheless, the minimum stipends for MSc and PhD candidates were raised by $2000 in 2012 to $18K and $19K, respectively, including GRA and GTA components. This recommendation was also in the previous Quality Assurance Review report (2005). Recommendation 4: The Department should engage in recruiting activities that highlight the Department’s strengths and target the specific sub-disciplines in which additional capacity is available. We strongly agree. Departmental funds from the upcoming 2013-14 budget (≈$2K) are being be earmarked for graduate recruitment activities. This will include paying for

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potential graduate students to visit UNB Chemistry at a strategic time, paying for Faculty members to go on recruitment lecture tours, as well as augmenting pre-arranged visiting lectures to include recruitment activities at neighboring institutions. Advertising of graduate scholarship opportunities (K. Wiesner, F.J. Toole, D. Armstrong, …) will also be highlighted via print, online, and face to face modalities. Budgetary restraints are the main barrier to our recruitment initiatives. Recommendation 5: The Department should provide teaching credit for graduate courses and plan offerings to maximize enrolments. This could involve offering courses biennially to capture two cohorts, team teaching of courses that can be taken by students in multiple sub-disciplines, offering courses that can also be taken by undergraduates in place of 4000 level courses, etc. For low enrolment courses (e.g. < 5 students), teaching credit could be prorated. Students should be provided with more information about graduate courses and when they will be offered. We agree. Because of ever-increasing workloads and a depleted faculty complement, offering a wide selection of graduate courses is a huge challenge. The three chemistry research divisions were tasked to examine their current offerings and to develop new courses. Realistically, these will likely involve team-teaching. We are also looking at courses offered by other departments that would be of relevance to our graduate students (chemical engineering, materials science, computer science, molecular biology, etc.). UNB does not count graduate courses as part of the annual teaching assignment, so mandating the creation of such courses is not possible. However, the Department will count graduate teaching in its comprehensive formula for assessing faculty workload. With the availability of a mobile videoconferencing system (see recommendation #12), additional graduate courses will be offered by our UNBSJ counterparts. Recommendation 6: To ensure maintenance and growth of the research profile of the Department of Chemistry it is important for the university to appoint at least two new tenure track faculty members in chemistry. In the interim, the University should provide the Department of Chemistry with a multi-year term appointment to compensate for the loss of three faculty members to full or partial administrative positions. We strongly agree. The Chemistry Department's greatest challenge in maintaining quality of service to its students and maintaining its research capacity is the reduced Faculty complement. The 2005 Quality Assurance Review report strongly urged UNB to hire three new Faculty positions. The 2012 QAR report recommends two new tenure track hires and a term teaching position; it recognizes that our effective tenure-track faculty count is less than 9 in light of various administrative appointments in Chemistry. These include, the VP-Academic, the VP-Research, the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, the Dean of Science and the Chemistry Chair. Notwithstanding these administrative appointments, the Chemistry Department is in dire need of a new Faculty member to launch a research program in analytical chemistry and to overhaul our analytical chemistry courses. Analytical chemistry is a core discipline of chemistry yet UNB has no analytical chemist on Faculty, and our lecture courses are currently taught by one of our physical chemists. Likewise, our Medicinal Chemistry BSc programs have proven to be a boon for the Department but no new courses have been created in support of the program outside of the organic chemistry area. Current Faculty workloads hamper the development of courses in support of our main degree program. We also note that, to cover our our base curriculum, we continue to rely on

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the help of our two Senior Research Associates who have teaching loads that are beyond what is stipulated by the Collective Agreement. 2. Scholarly Activities Recommendation 7: Members of faculty should acquire or continue to grow research funding from sources other than the NSERC Discovery Grants program, and such funding is expected to provide a basis for future success in the NSERC Discovery Grants program. We strongly agree. We will invite a representative from the Office of Research Services to speak to the Department and to outline the various non-NSERC funding opportunities. Chemistry could benefit significantly from targeted applications to CIHR, NBHRF, ACOA... Collaborative initiatives with US academics could be supported by NSF/NIH funding. However, changes in NSERC's grant selection process have had a negative impact on smaller institutions, especially on the training of "Highly Qualified Personnel" component. Five years ago, 100% of UNB Chemistry's Faculty held NSERC funding; it is now down to 50%. Recommendation: 8: The VPR, Dean, or Chair should provide opportunities for Faculty in the Department of Chemistry to meet with representatives of non-NSERC funding agencies, industry groups, and researchers in other disciplines to inform these agencies of the expertise available in chemistry and to facilitate the development of more diverse research programs in the Department. See response to Recommendation #7. This would be best done through our Office of Research Services. 3. Other Faculty Activities Recommendation 9: Senior faculty members should mentor early career faculty members and each other in all aspects of their position and career development. Formal mentoring assignment should be made to each member by the Department chair. We agree. Some faculty members have done this on an ad-hoc basis, but it needs to be formalized and resourced - lowering the teaching load for junior faculty is not the answer. Joint research group meetings, seminars, vetting of pre-submission grant proposals, are all positive measures. The three research divisions are advised to help broker mentor pairings. 4. Administration Recommendation 10: The University should initiate an external search for a new Department Chair in Chemistry at the earliest possible opportunity. We strongly agree. This is essentially the same exact recommendation from the previous QAR (2005) but there was no movement from UNB Administration. Many faculty members recognize that our teaching and research capacity has eroded significantly over the years. The core objectives of Chemistry have been severely compromised, a department that was the flagship of research excellence at UNB since

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the late 1940’s. The internal Chairmanship arrangement impacts one of our remaining faculty’s teaching and research activities. Likewise, to juggle critical and time-consuming administrative responsibilities in difficult times due to yearly budget cutbacks, changes in faculty complement, and new academic programs, demands the constant attention and energy of someone with proven leadership and administration experience and skills. Yet, we appoint our Chairs based on necessity rather than on the basis of the interest and leadership/administrative abilities of the individual to be appointed. We need to hire a passionate individual who can effectively lead and shape the future of our Department over the next few years. Recommendations 11 and 13 are being addressed in a single response: Recommendation 11: The Department should clearly document its teaching capacity and teaching requirements in a way that clarifies the need for more capacity. This should include appropriate recognition of research student supervision and graduate teaching, as indicated by clause 19A.05 of the current AUNBT Collective Agreement. Recommendation 13: The Chair and the Dean should provide a transparent description of the teaching assignments for each year and should enlist the participation of colleagues in the assignment process by appointing an assignment committee. The duties associated with each section of each class should also be incorporated into the determination of the teaching assignments, and the assignments should be balanced to account for research performance/expectations and to accommodate administrative responsibilities of all members. We strongly agree. In the Fall 2012 term, a comprehensive exercise was carried out to develop a quantitative metric for the realistic assignment of workload expectations for lecture and lab courses, while considering class sizes, multi-section labs, etc. Using this metric, the data clearly showed that our senior teaching associates have untenable workloads, not even counting their important departmental service responsibilities (i.e. Director of undergraduate studies, school outreach activities...). This is not surprising as our number of instructors dwindled from five to three since our last QAR. This unacceptable situation led to perennial instructor stress and burnout, which ultimately affects our quality of service to our students. A corollary exercise to quantify the realistic workload stemming from other activities is currently underway. These activities include the supervision of researchers (summer students, Honours theses, post-docs, etc.), various committee work (chair, undergrad. studies, grad. studies, curriculum, etc.), conference organization, contract work, school outreach, summer enrichment programs, and the like. Adding these components to the workload calculation exercise makes it plainly clear that the 40/40/20 teaching/research/service responsibilities of our faculty cannot be met under the current climate. We note also that contract research projects and the workload and responsibilities associated with them need to be recognized by UNB. After all, these initiatives bring valuable overhead and licensing revenue in an era of shrinking funding profiles. Recommendation 12: The University should review the objectives and personnel resources of the Chemistry units at UNBF and UNBSJ with a view to balance the workload/personnel ratio. We agree. However, in light of the administrative structure of UNBF and UNBSJ, there is no formal mechanism for advising on course offerings and program support, let alone for the consequent balancing of personnel between the two campuses. Nevertheless, the Chemistry department at UNBF is committed to maintaining open and regular

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communication channels with UNBSJ, whether it be through face-to-face or online contact. Yearly visits to the respective campuses for discussions and for direct assessment of physical teaching and research capabilities will be implemented. We are looking into the purchase of a mobile videoconferencing system, compatible with the unit recently acquired by UNBSJ Chemistry to enable all levels of collaborative activities. Recommendation 14: The university should develop a means for the Department of Chemistry to employ undergraduate students as TAs in chemistry to enable appropriate instruction for undergraduate students in first and second year lab classes. We strongly agree. The erosion of the Department’s research capacity due to a severe decrease in external funding triggered a sharp decrease in the number of graduate students available for graduate teaching assistant (GTA) positions for our undergraduate lab courses, including several important service lab courses. We now rely heavily on GTAs from non-chemistry departments to fill the gap. Undergraduate enrolments have increased steadily due largely to the success of our Medicinal Chemistry BSc program, exacerbating our GTA demands. We need to hire senior undergraduate teaching assistants (UGTAs), especially for first year laboratory courses. The advantage of UGTAs (compared to GTAs from other departments) is that they will be familiar with the chemistry courses and the requisite laboratory safety practices; this is an important issue of due diligence. However, UNB no longer provides a UGTA budget and we cannot draw from the GTA budget provided by the School of Graduate Studies. We also have a huge service component to lab and lecture teaching that we will not be able to deliver if a UGTA budget is unavailable. For the short-term, the department will draw from precious reserves earmarked for the startup commitment of our next faculty hiring to pay for the necessary UGTAs. For the Winter 2013 semester alone, the estimated UGTA cost is $4K; we will not likely be able to sustain this practice for the 2013-14 budget year. The long-term solution involves petition to the UNB Administration for a UGTA budget, separate from the current budgetary envelope currently allocated to Chemistry. Failure to do so will severely limit the delivery of our undergraduate programs, all of which are under accreditation scrutiny from the Canadian Society for Chemistry. Recommendation 15: The Department should review the Departmental website and the assignment of responsibility for updates and upgrades. The website should contain news items about the Department, seminar speakers and important documents such as Departmental policies, up to date guidelines and instructions for students and the strategic plan. We strongly agree. The Chemistry website is currently undergoing a substantial overhaul, through the assistance of Mr. David Shipley, UNB’s Enterprise Strategy Analyst. The new website will go live by the end of the Winter 2013 term. 5. Other Issues Recommendation 16: The Chair of Chemistry should initiate a strategic planning exercise that is inclusive of all faculty, staff and students. The exercise should address the realistic expectations and limitations of the members of the Department, the Faculty and the University and should define a planning horizon of at least 5

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years. It is recommended that the Department enlists (hires) the advice of a planning expert/facilitator. We strongly agree. The Chemistry department held a half-day retreat in early December to discuss its next strategic planning exercise. Many core issues were brought to the table and preliminary directions were outlined. A final document will be ready in the Winter 2013 term. Recommendation 17: The Department should continue to develop space in Toole Hall to enhance its utility in teaching and research. In particular, space that is underutilized should be consolidated in order to release space for new researchers and new initiatives. A seminar/meeting/social room dedicated to graduate students would have a significant impact. We strongly agree. The Chemistry department is submitting a proposal in January 2013 for the complete renovation of Toole Hall room 108 to be funded by the Faculty of Science’s Farquharson Fund. Currently housing the undergraduate Chemistry Society, the room will be made into a modern and flexible area for informal learning, studying, and collaborative work. The room will be available to all undergraduate and graduate students in Chemistry. Research space can and will be made available for the next hire from the shut down of the Passmore labs, which will be available in early 2013. Recommendation 18: The Department should strive to maintain and upgrade equipment and facilities. Procedures should be documented to ensure that any problems are addressed expediently, especially those with consequences for safety and that there is adequate planning for maintaining and replacing equipment. We somewhat agree. This recommendation stems from a discussion with Graduate Students and their problems at having serious issues related to ventilation addressed in a timely manner, as well as some issues with the solvent purification system. The Departmental Safety Committee is renewing all columns in the solvent purification system and is updating the solvents available on this system to better suit the current needs of the Department. In addition, Adam Fowler (the liaison between the Department and Facilities Management) will copy the Chair of the Safety Committee on all safety-related issues that are reported to Facilities Management, so that follow up can be made if the problems are not dealt with expediently. Recommendation 19: The Department and the University should review its health and safety policies and practices with the Safety Office. We strongly agree. The lack of a Safety Officer at UNB is a serious concern that hampers our efforts to maintain our safety policies and procedures up to standards. Nevertheless, the Departmental Safety Committee is currently undergoing a review of its Safety Orientation procedures as well as its Safety Handbook, and hopes to complete both by summer 2013.

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Chemistry is a core component of any comprehensive university. It is one of the main driving engines of any respectable faculty of science, providing teaching and research capability for its faculty and students, important service courses outside the faculty, and valuable technology transfer and commercialization opportunities to the university, the community, and the Province. The QAR reports covering the last 7 years have been warning UNB that its Department of Chemistry is sub-critical in its ability to sustain excellence in research and teaching and is on a very dangerous path. While it can address some of the QAR recommendations internally, the most critical recommendations related to its sustainability are in the hands of UNB's Administration. We strongly urge you to heed to the message sent by this latest QAR report. Ghislain Deslongchamps, Professor & Acting Chair ghislain@unb.ca http://taxane.chem.unb.ca Allan Adam Larry Calhoun plus all others...

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University of New Brunswick Department of Chemistry Accreditation Review February 2015

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Prepared by: Professors Alison Thompson (Dalhousie University) and Vicki Meli (Mount Allison University)

TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  

Introduction  .....................................................................................................................................  2  

Overview  of  the  Department  ............................................................................................................  4  Facilities  .....................................................................................................................................  4  Library  ........................................................................................................................................  7  Faculty  members  ........................................................................................................................  7  Staff  ...........................................................................................................................................  8  Students  .....................................................................................................................................  9  

Programs  of  Study  ............................................................................................................................  9  

Curriculum  .....................................................................................................................................  10  

Evaluation  for  Accreditation  ...........................................................................................................  11  Core  Requirements  ...................................................................................................................  11  Non-­‐Chemistry  Courses  ............................................................................................................  11  Hours  of  Instruction  ..................................................................................................................  11  

Summary  of  Recommendations  ......................................................................................................  13  Recommendations  to  CSC  .........................................................................................................  13  Departmental  Recommendations  .............................................................................................  13  

Appendix  A.  Itinerary  for  the  On-­‐Site  Review  .................................................................................  15  

Appendix  B:  CSC  Accreditation  Application  prepared  by  the  Department  .......................................  16  Initial  application  letter  provided  by  the  UNB  Department  of  Chemistry  ..................................  16  Initial  application  package  provided  by  the  UNB  Department  of  Chemistry  ..............................  17  Four-­‐page  amendment  provided  on  February  20th  2015  by  the  UNB  Department  of  Chemistry  (prior  to  

site  visit)  .........................................................................................................................................  39  

Appendix  C.  Program  Requirements  from  the  CSC  Accreditation  Guidelines  ...................................  43  

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University of New Brunswick Department of Chemistry Accreditation Review February 2015

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Introduction The Department of Chemistry at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) applied for reaccreditation for the years 2014-2019, by the Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC), for three B.Sc. Honours and three B.Sc. Major programs. The Chemistry Major and Chemistry Honours (by thesis) programs were last reviewed (second cycle) in 2008, and were given accreditation for the period 2009-2014. The Medicinal Chemistry Major and Medicinal Chemistry Honours (by thesis) were reviewed in 2010, soon after they were introduced into the offerings at UNB, and given second cycle approval for the 2011-2014 period. Two programs, both new to the offerings at UNB in 2014-2015, had not previously been reviewed, namely Chemistry Honours (by course) and Medicinal Chemistry Honours (by course) programs.

As it had been 10 years (2 cycles) since the last site visit this application required an on-site evaluation. The consultants for the site visit were Dr. Alison Thompson (Killam Professor of Chemistry, Dalhousie University, and CSC Accreditation Committee Member) and Dr. Vicki Meli (Associate Professor of Chemistry, Mount Allison University). The site visit took place on February 24th, 2015 and was hosted by the Chair of the UNB Chemistry Department, Dr. Ghislain Deslongchamps. During the one-day visit the consultants met with a number of individuals and groups from the Department of Chemistry and the University, and asked questions relevant to the accreditation guidelines, the curriculum, the student experience, and the university support of the programs.

The original application had been made by Professor Gilles Villemure, who served as Chair of the UNB Chemistry Department until June 2014. Drs. Meli and Thompson thank Drs. Villemure, Deslongchamps, and their UNB colleagues for providing information and for facilitating an informative and enjoyable site visit; as well as for their patience (original application for accreditation was made in May 2014; Professor Thompson’s schedule prohibited an earlier site visit). The detailed itinerary is included as Appendix A of this review document. From the Department, we met with:

§ the Chair of the Department, Dr. Ghislain Deslongchamps § faculty members and laboratory instructors, in two groups, Drs.:

o Allan Adam o Greg Cetnarowski (sessional analytical chemistry lecturer) o James Tait (responsible for organic chemistry labs) o Gilles Villemure o Adam Dyker o Andreas Decken (Senior Research Associate, responsible for inorganic chemistry labs) o Sara Eisler o John Neville

§ present and former directors of chemistry undergraduate studies, Drs. o Val Reeves (present director of chemistry undergraduate studies) o Larry Calhoun (former director of chemistry undergraduate studies)

§ Staff members o Adam Fowler (electronics technician) o Ed Goodfellow (science stores manager) o Brian Malcolm (glassblower) o Gilles Vautour (technician for labs preparations, plus Level 1 computer tech support) o Note: the staff member who provides administrative/secretarial support was absent on

sick leave We also met with an engaged group of undergraduate students over a one-hour lunch meeting.

From the University, we met with Dr. David MaGee (Dean of Science and also a Professor of Chemistry) and Judy MacLean (science specialist librarian, acting as liaison for Steve Sloan who is the librarian assigned to chemistry). Importantly, we also had a tour of the Departmental undergraduate

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University of New Brunswick Department of Chemistry Accreditation Review February 2015

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teaching and research facilities, both of which play an integral role in the undergraduate program at UNB. All of the participants were very forthcoming and engaged in useful discussions. Before our site visit, we were given access to the application document (Appendix B), plus an extensive collation of class descriptions, sample exams, and curriculum vitae, all of which allowed us to familiarize ourselves with the Department generally, the Department’s personnel, students, programs, courses and evaluations, and facilities. The on-site visit and related documentation allowed us to fully evaluate the undergraduate programs that are under review for Accreditation.

The evaluation of the six UNB chemistry programs for accreditation was done based on the accreditation criteria of the Canadian Society for Chemistry (presented in brief in Appendix C); the full criteria and procedures are available at: http://www.cheminst.ca/sites/default/files/pdfs/Accreditation/CSC%20Accreditation%20Guidelines.pdf

These full criteria include a list of the areas to be assessed by the site visit team, which are covered in this report and the supporting documentation, specifically Section 2.3:

§ the physical facilities of the department; § the adequacy of the financial support from the university; § the appropriateness of the student:teacher ratios in terms of meeting the stated objectives of the

program; § the general and professional education of the faculty, their teaching loads and administrative

responsibilities; § evidence of an appropriate commitment to research and teaching activity by the university and

its faculty members; § the curriculum of the department; § the presence of an effective and valid assessment system of student performance; § the library, whether separate or within the department, its convenience and accessibility to

students, and the appropriateness of the library holdings in the subject. In keeping with modern usage, web access to journals will be considered adequate for accreditation purposes.

It is important to establish at the outset of this report that the site visit team found that the six undergraduate programs offered by the UNB Department of Chemistry, and which are under consideration for accreditation, are appropriately challenging and provide a quality and comprehensive education (theory) and training (practice) in chemistry. The site visit team was impressed by the dedication and commitment of the staff and faculty members of the Department of Chemistry, as a whole, to the undergraduate teaching mission. We are confident that graduates of these programs, especially the honours programs, are adequately prepared for careers in the chemical industry or research, and for further studies in Chemistry at the graduate level. That is not to say there are not challenges and limitations, or areas for innovation. This report is organized to address the following parameters: overview of the department, programs of study, observations about the curriculum and how they relate to accreditation and the program generally, and evaluation for accreditation (with recommendations), and a summary of recommendations and suggestions to the department/university. Some matters are beyond the accreditation mandate but are provided as expert outsider impressions of the department with the view that the recommendations may lead to healthy discussions on how to improve, strengthen and hopefully grow programs.

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University of New Brunswick Department of Chemistry Accreditation Review February 2015

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Overview of the Department

Facilities The UNB Chemistry Department is located in Toole Hall. This building contains two lecture theatres used extensively for chemistry classes, and both had been renovated recently and thus now comfortably provide lecture materials such as white boards, projectors and even several chalk-boards, the latter point demonstrating fruitful relationships between Chemistry and Facilities teams as regards to an understanding of chemists’ needs in the lecture-based environment. Furthermore, the undergraduate students constitute a key part of the highly qualified personnel (HQP) component of the research mission in Chemistry at UNB, and therefore these students utilize much research space throughout their B.Sc. career. While Toole Hall is showing its age, the university has invested in some upgrades over the last 10 years, including the lecture halls (as detailed above) and the recent renovation of first-year laboratory facilities to provide excellent multi-faceted spaces. In general, group sizes in laboratories were kept small. This was sometimes achieved through offering evening labs, as well as employing other ways to fit large numbers of students into relatively small laboratory spaces without compromising safety, educational standards and practical/hands-on opportunities. To some extent this had been made possible by the good nature and flexible working schedules of laboratory instructors, although the site visit team did wonder whether this was sustainable and whether union/other contracts were silent on such matters. Several of the research laboratories had undergone renovation, presumably using a combination of UNB and outside funds, but others remain in a poor state by modern standards. The site visit team heard of plans to perhaps upgrade and modernize more of the research laboratories, and encourage these plans to be cemented given the valuable role that research facilities play in the provision of quality undergraduate chemistry education.

1. Departmental Recommendation: the Department/Faculty and University are encouraged to cement plans to upgrade and modernize more of the research laboratories, given the valuable role that research facilities play in the provision of quality undergraduate chemistry education at UNB.

Some concern was expressed regarding office and meeting space (e.g. general upkeep, heating), and the site visit team did wonder whether all labs/spaces/facilities had undergone hazards assessments as regards to egress given that there were many corridors and corners within the aged building, as well as “rooms within rooms” (e.g. first-year laboratory storage room, offices at the back of other offices as in the Chair’s office that we saw).

2. Departmental Recommendation: the Department/Faculty and University are encouraged to verify egress requirements for all Chemistry offices and labs.

The Department of Chemistry has had to deal with budget cutbacks, as have many units. Given these constraints the Faculty/University have made strong commitments to Chemistry. Nevertheless, some areas are definitely in need. For example, the site visit team noticed that provisions for IR, UV-vis and NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry (MS), gas chromatography (GC), GC-MS and HPLC should be augmented both in undergraduate laboratories and for undergraduate research purposes. Although perhaps one instrument of these types was available for undergraduate laboratory use, the provision was insufficient to ensure hand-on access for multiple students groups in multiple labs. In particular, the department does not have a mass spectrometer even though a capable mass spectrometry staff member is employed (following decommission of an instrument in recent times, this staff member now provides Level 1 computer/technical support and helps to prepare chemicals/solution for laboratories). Provisions of small instruments like GC, HPLC etc. seemed to be in short supply in the

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University of New Brunswick Department of Chemistry Accreditation Review February 2015

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undergraduate laboratories, thus potentially leading to lack of hands-on access for students. Competence using these types of instruments is a required lab skill of any professional chemist. The site visit team heard of small budgets being assigned to instructors for the provision of chemicals and small equipment to run the labs, but significant concern was expressed as regards to the lack of reasonably-sized funds with which to purchase instruments for undergraduate labs.

3. Departmental Recommendation: the Department/Faculty and University must find ways to provide base funds to provide medium-cost instrumentation in undergraduate laboratories.

4. Departmental Recommendation: the Department/Faculty and University must develop a long-term plan for routine and significant equipment maintenance and replacement. Doing so only as the emergency situation arises (equipment failures) will ultimately lead to significant gaps in the educational components of the programs being offered. A policy must identify and prioritize teaching instrument repair/upgrade/replacement needs. In addition, the Department needs a realistic budget line item for teaching instrumentation maintenance.

UNB Chemistry undergraduates are highly involved in the research mission, with many research groups running at capacity in terms of accommodating/hosting Honours project students. With so many undergraduate students wishing to pursue Honours chemistry degrees, it is clear that the UNB Department of Chemistry does a fine job in attracting, teaching and mentoring high-quality students. As such, undergraduate students benefit from very good exposure to other modern equipment, attracted largely through NSERC, CFI, etc. for the research mission, but shared and integrated into the undergraduate curriculum via research courses. Indeed, this approach of integrating research into the undergraduate program has helped to ensure that UNB’s undergraduate training is recognized at/by other institutions, as UNB’s students are routinely recruited to large research-intensive graduate programs.

However, given recent losses in faculty numbers in Chemistry at UNB, due to retirements not being replaced (as has been practice for several years now), the number of research groups available to host undergraduate research projects has seen worrisome decline in recent years. With an increasing enrolment in chemistry degrees, particularly in the Medicinal Chemistry programs, this has placed significant strain as regards to hosting students for research experiences. The site visit team heard various accounts of how and where students are placed for research projects, whereby almost every member of the teaching staff (faculty, instructors) has been asked to host a research student (with several hosting multiple undergraduate research trainees). Concern was voiced for faculty members and instructors who carry very heavy contact-time teaching loads, who could not safely agree to mentor research students and concurrently teach safe-working practices and essential/proper techniques to a researcher if they were already occupied teaching a lab session, for example, at that time. It was clear to the site visit team that the present situation is close to breaking point. The Department has sought ways to alleviate such strains, for example by introducing the “by course” flavour of Honours degree in Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry. However, with an appreciation that chemistry is a hands-on subject whereby experience transferring and manipulating chemicals, using analytical equipment, hands-on computational chemistry and trouble-shooting instrumentation are essential skills for the practicing chemist more research opportunities need to be made available. The obvious way of providing this is to increase the faculty complement in Chemistry at UNB, thus providing more research groups and thus more opportunities for undergraduates to be involved in research. Students expressed a desire to be involved in a group with graduate students and a rich research culture.

5. Departmental Recommendation: the Department/Faculty and University must find ways to increase the complement of research-active faculty members.

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With changes in NSERC DG and Research Tools programs, alongside the loss of major grants within Chemistry at UNB, it is uncertain if faculty members will continue to be able and willing to contribute novel and appropriate research experiences in the future. Substantial sums of money for the introduction/replacement/maintenance of modern research equipment is also becoming increasingly difficult to obtain. So far, many faculty members have been successful at attracting additional/alternative sources of operating revenue, and this is to be encouraged and celebrated. However, deterioration in the discovery and equipment funding base has the potential to adversely affect the quality of the undergraduate program and thus accreditation in the future. This is largely because of the commitment to provide undergraduates with significant research experience and hands-on use of the types of equipment used in industry and research laboratories. As undergraduates are a vital human resource in the research mission, this is a critical cycle: to maintain research contributions and HQP success, students must be integrated into the research mission. Furthermore, the decreasing number of research-active groups means that there are fewer Chemistry graduate students available to perform as teaching assistants. This means that graduate students from other departments are routinely hired, thus spending Faculty of Graduate Studies teaching assistantships. Alternatively undergraduate students are hired as teaching assistants, despite the fact that they are unable to bring the years of experience to the role that graduate students can. The latter scenario comes at cost to the Department, although benefits such as providing mentoring and leadership opportunities to undergraduates are recognized. Combining these factors and consequences, it is evident that a long-term strategy for supporting research infrastructure in this Department needs to be developed. As well as bolstering the number of research-active faculty members (see other recommendation), strategies for improving success rates in external granting competitions should be sought. This may include bringing workshops and one-on-one personalized consultations to departmental members, as well as engaging support staff members from other units across campus, e.g. Research Services, colleagues who currently serve on tricouncil granting agency committees.

6. Departmental Recommendation: the Department/Faculty and University must find ways to maintain/support the important research mission, which is an integral component of the accredited undergraduate programs at UNB.

A general observation made by the site visit team was the tidiness (organization and labeling), from a safety perspective in the teaching and prep labs, and common chemical stores/solvent spaces. We were encouraged to hear of Department-level and University-level safety oversight. Presumably, according to provincial law and university regulations, research-active faculty members are responsible for their own labs, subject to inspection by the Department and University Safety Committees, as applicable. The site visit team noted a variety of safety and house-keeping standards across research labs, and recommend developing a strategy by which to improve and maintain the safety standards in these spaces. Such a suggestion fits with the accreditation mandate as these safety practices and standards are implemented in industry and other research institutions, and thus constitute training in Chemistry.

7. Department Recommendation: Department/Faculty and University must identify strategies, resources and education to ensure that research space and practices meet and maintain required Legislative standards.

The site visit team visited an impressive student space, the "Chemistry Society", that is much utilized for study and collaboration. The University, Faculty and Department are to be congratulated for providing this quality area and for maintaining modern learning and teaching equipment, e.g. the imminent provision of a screen and projector.

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Library The site visit team met with Judy MacLean (acting on behalf of Steve Sloan who was pulled away on the day of the site visit). Judy and Steve both oversee the provision of chemistry literature. The library is reached through an underground tunnel from Toole Hall, and thus provides easy access to chemists. A pleasant working area (silence!), as well as collaborative work-spaces were provided in/around the library. The extent of Chemistry holdings was discussed with Judy, including print and electronic journal subscriptions as well as space. Steve had provided a detailed list of holdings and usage. The Chemistry library holdings and access at UNB are reasonably good, i.e. access to many of the top journals in the field through the Canadian Research Knowledge Network, online. Those not readily accessible are available from interlibrary loans. Access to Scifinder Scholar and Web of Science is available, and this should be commended and maintained as these resources demonstrate commitment to a modern chemistry education, as well as provide students with access to the resources they need in order to complete relevant and meaningful research-based and class-based assignments and learning. Despite the costs, these two resources must be maintained. The library provides an excellent web page portal specific for chemistry that provides easy links to available resources.

8. Department Recommendation: the Department/Faculty and University must find ways to ensure that access to modern databases such as Scifinder Scholar and Web of Science is maintained.

The library resource appears to be underutilized by the Department. The library personnel seem eager and willing to get involved in a more formal way in the undergraduate curriculum, by providing training sessions with undergraduate students on using the library, databases and online subscriptions, approaches to literature searching, proper use of source materials, plagiarism, professional skills, etc. UNB policy states that every science student is now required to complete a first-year class (SCI1001) that touches on such topics. Nevertheless the site visit team felt that library staff, as well as careers councillors, project management experts, database/spreadsheet experts, etc., had much that could be offered to students in advanced years of study. Planning and implementation of such opportunities could form the basis of a capstone course for UNB chemists, particularly those undergraduate students who complete the “by course” Honours degrees and thus do not necessarily gain exposure to the professional skills that are available via inclusion in a research group.

9. Department Recommendation: the Department should work with library and other personnel across campus to integrate in-class resource training formally at each level (year-one through year-four) of programs. This will require consultation and planning, but has been an effective resource for students at other institutions where it is implemented.

Faculty members Teaching capacity is severely strained, both in labs and in lectures. If there are any faculty members on a reduced teaching load (as is the case now for three members of the Department who also serve in University-level administrative roles) or on a leave, then it is difficult to cover the required courses and offer adequate advanced courses without implementing short-term contracts. Indeed, this has shown to be impossible as a sessional faculty member has been hired to cover all analytical chemistry classes this academic year. While in many departments the physical/analytical chemists can sometimes be grouped together and often find it easier to cover each other in terms of course content, the fact that there is currently no-one permanent to cover analytical chemistry is worrisome. News of the imminent hiring of an analytical chemist was welcomed with relief by the site visit team, yet concerns will still be present in other areas.

Given such a streamlined (aka strained) complement, the ability to cover unexpected leaves or sabbaticals is problematic, especially if more than one person takes a leave at the same time. This issue

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can likely be handled for sabbaticals by implementing a policy where the leaves are staggered over several years. However, any additional leaves would need to be filled with short-term hires. More than one such replacement in a given year would lead to difficulties in maintaining the consistency and level of instruction throughout the program. Faculty members have covered each other during sabbatical/other leaves, sometimes by teaching outside of their sub-discipline and/or teaching many new-to-them courses within a short time-frame: such strategies to cover the undergraduate teaching load concomitantly endanger other commitments, such as those needed to maintain strong and valued research programs, as well as subjects undergraduate programming to inconsistencies. Additional teaching resources in the way of permanent faculty members would strengthen the flexibility and richness of the program, especially if research-active chemists with external funding were secured. These individuals (next hires) should be selected to be able to provide resources to cross-pollinate disciplines to allow for more effective coverage, and to enable innovative course design and evolution. Particular needs were noted in biophysical chemistry, bioinformatics and/or bioinorganic chemistry, especially given the extremely popular Medicinal Chemistry programs and the limited coverage of biomolecular modelling (one faculty member) and inorganic chemistry (two faculty members but one on parental leave).

Another serious need lies with analytical and physical chemistry labs, whereby one instructor (whom the site visit team did not meet) oversees all labs within these areas. Since the last accreditation cycle, an analytical chemistry instructor had retired and not been replaced. Although an analytical chemist will be hired very shortly at the faculty level, the site visit team noted needs in the labs too so as to ensure the most modern of experiences for students: an experienced analytical chemistry instructor would serve as a much needed resource to offer analytical chemistry lab experiences, as well as to perhaps provide a mechanism to cover some of the many lab sessions at the first-year level. Some first-year labs are currently covered by faculty members, taking them away from the integral research mandate at UNB and also rendering a somewhat patchwork approach to first-year labs, thus potentially affecting the quality of the undergraduate experience. Certainly if the enrolment in UNB Chemistry undergraduate programs continue at the level projected by the current trajectory, additional permanent human resources will be required.

10. Departmental Recommendation: the Department/Faculty and University must work together to find ways to augment stable and high-quality teaching provision in areas of need for undergraduate programs.

Staff Aside from employees who teach lectures and labs, four full-time staff members routinely support the undergraduate program through (in no particular order) glassblowing, electronics design/building/repair, chemical/equipment preparation for lab experiments, and the operation of chemistry stores. Other expertise is available through the Faculty and other units. The four individuals have a direct impact on outcomes of UNB chemistry degree programs, as they are directly involved in student training via the development of new integrated laboratory experiences. For example, experiments have been designed in concert with technical staff so as to ensure safe laboratory-based experiments using modern guidelines and equipment to enhance learning. One staff member had recently retired, and this was noted as a loss since this highly experienced individual maintained large instrumentation such as the two aged NMR spectrometers. As noted previously, there is need for hands-on mass spectrometry to be a part of the undergraduate program yet the department does not have a mass spectrometer despite having an expert in mass spectrometry on staff.

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Students The SVT had an excellent meeting with an engaged group of undergraduate students across programs (Hons/Major; Chemistry/Medicinal Chemistry). Students were highly enthusiastic about their degree programs and the chemistry education that they are receiving, and were equally forthcoming with concerns and suggestions for improvement. They noted that they have a very active chemistry club, but when asked about involvement with the CSC they noted that they knew very little about the CSC and its purpose.

Recommendation to CSC 1: involve the Local Sections/Student Chapter liaisons in communication of the role and purpose of the CSC, including how individuals can be involved as undergraduates and beyond. Recommendation to CSC 2: ensure that UNB Chemistry graduates receive certificates upon graduation.

Students commented on the apparent overlap of material between courses, sometimes within courses at the same level, and sometimes between courses at progressing levels (e.g. similar/same material covered in years 2 and 3 in a particular division). While there are many reasons for apparent overlap of material, students’ concerns in this respect should be addressed and material presented in such a way that overlaps are clear and intended. Students described a very successful recent meeting with Dr. Deslongchamps, whereby students’ concerns were heard. Dr. Deslongchamps told the site visit team that a curriculum review would take place in late spring/early summer, as a consequence of the feedback provided by students. This success story should be celebrated, and used to build trust and to strengthen undergraduate Chemistry programming and outcomes at UNB. Students commented about an apparent lack of complementarity between the lecture and laboratory components of some courses and expressed a desire for greater emphasis on practical laboratory skills.

11. Departmental Recommendation: the Department should use the recent meeting with students to establish an annual consultation and listening session with undergraduates at each level to get feedback on courses/labs/teaching that can be used in course development and planning.

12. Departmental Recommendation: the Department should formalize a mechanism (like in curriculum review) for laboratory experiment renewal and development, with personnel responsible for labs working in concert with personnel teaching/lecturing the course. Resources must be allocated to this initiative, giving personnel time to assemble data, to reflect and to act.

Programs of Study The Department of Chemistry at UNB offers six B.Sc. programs: three B.Sc. Honours and three B.Sc. Major programs.

§ Chemistry Major – currently 11 students in Year II, 16 students in Year III, and 3 students in Year IV

§ Chemistry Honours (by thesis) – currently 3 students in Year IV, but note that Majors/Honours are not declared until Year IV and so the Chemistry Majors numbers detailed above include future Honours students

§ Chemistry Honours (by course) – new program § Medicinal Chemistry Major – currently 37 students in Year II, 38 students in Year III,

and 5 students in Year IV

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§ Medicinal Chemistry Honours (by thesis) – currently 17 students in Year IV, but note that Majors/Honours are not declared until Year IV and so the Medicinal Chemistry Majors numbers detailed above include future Honours students

§ Medicinal Chemistry Honours (by course) – new program

The popularity of the programs varies from year to year, with enrolment generally rising overall. The Medicinal Chemistry programs were becoming increasing popular due to students’ perceptions that these programs seemed relevant to industrial/pharmaceutical chemistry careers as well as professional school entrance. Enrolment is certainly healthy given the size of the department and the diminishingly competitive resources. These numbers, and the department’s commitment to have more sections in the higher enrolment general year-one chemistry classes, ensures excellent instructor:student ratio. Year-three classes generally see no more than 15 students, and year-four see less than 10.

The increased enrolment in Medicinal Chemistry points to a trajectory to significantly increase the cohort in the Major and Honours in coming years. Certainly growing the program is desirable. The program requirements across both the Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry curricula have a great degree of overlap until Year 3 and 4 and this is commendable as it helps to maintain strong coverage by both programs. Increasing enrolment in chemistry will translate to increased lab course sizes in year-two and year-three. Additionally, the capstone of the program is the year-four research experience – the department capacity for this course is unclear, but is presumably related to research funding of faculty members (see earlier section). Importantly, efforts should be made to ensure the research experiences for Medicinal Chemistry students are indeed related to medicinal chemistry.

13. Departmental Recommendation: continue to evaluate the class size and the division of students between the Major and Honours programs. Work towards an enrolment in Year IV that is near or at the capacity to offer the “by thesis” research project to every qualified student who wishes to perform research.

Curriculum Overall, the curriculum is constructed to be compatible with the available teaching complement. The offered courses are centered around a chemistry core covering the four major disciplines required for a quality undergraduate degree in Chemistry. Given the limited number of faculty it is difficult, if not impossible, to offer specialty courses in emerging disciplines (such as materials chemistry, nanoscience, or other areas of research strength in the Department), although this would be possible with creative Year IV classes, if complement/hiring were matched with increases in enrolment, perhaps including courses that involve more than one instructor, possibly teaming up with instructors from the faculty of engineering, biology or physics. With the new provision of “Honours by course” chemistry degrees, a capstone experience for these graduates should be strongly considered.

14. Departmental Recommendation: look to attract the best students in science, introduce some “what chemists do” awareness initiatives/courses into the programs, and find ways to provide capstone experiences to all Honours graduates.

The material covered and level of evaluation is as expected and the students generally receive a thorough coverage in both breadth and depth of the core disciplines in chemistry. Modernization is important, particularly as regards hands-on access to instrumentation and research experiences. A critical issue is that much of the equipment in the teaching labs is becoming out-dated and thus does not represent the equipment/skills seen in industry or research labs, e.g. hands-on/routine access to NMR,

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University of New Brunswick Department of Chemistry Accreditation Review February 2015

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HPLC, GC, MS, etc. Given the increasing chemistry class size (enrolment), these challenges would seem to be also increasing as resources are stretched thin.

A long-standing strength of the program at UNB has been the strong involvement of undergraduates in the research mission of the department. UNB Chemistry graduates have always been seen as strong recruits for graduate programs because of the core chemistry education and the research laboratory experience. It is here that the site visit team sees the greatest risk to the program but also the most opportunities for evolution. The risk has already been articulated within this review: with decreasing research grants and the associate opportunities for infrastructure renewal, the loss of this experience will severely impede the learning outcomes and milestones for accreditation. This aspect of the department and the B.Sc. program must be preserved and nurtured.

Evaluation for Accreditation

Core Requirements The six programs seeking accreditation are considered by the site visit team to fall under the more traditional chemistry programs. To assess criteria against required courses, the site visit team used the amended documentation provided on February 20th 2015 (see Appendix B, pages 38-41), as well as the UNB Calendar. Note that UNB classifies courses in terms of “credit hours”, with most three-hour-per-week one-term lecture-based courses being classified as three credit hours (3 ch). Most three-hour-per-week one-term laboratory-based courses are classified as two credit hours (2 ch), despite the fact that laboratory commitments may constitute more than two hours per week. Topic-match lecture-based courses and lab-based courses are typically taken concurrently, and so the site visit team looked for such combinations when assessing against the criteria. For the traditional chemistry programs the core requirements are as follows: “For pure chemistry programs, at least 0.5 credits in each of the five sub-disciplines is required.” The five sub-disciplines are: organic, inorganic, physical/theoretical, analytical and biochemistry. As regards to core requirements, all six programs exceed the criteria.

Non-Chemistry Courses The requirements are “at least 2.5 credits in two or more of mathematics (algebra, calculus, statistics), physics, computer science and biology. In the case of more traditional chemistry programs, at least 1 credit in each of calculus and physics will be required.” As regards to non-chemistry requirements, all six programs exceed the criteria.

Hours of Instruction The requirements are “The Committee shall expect a program to involve a total of about 1000 hours of laboratory and classroom work in chemistry, with the minimum hours of each being about 400.” Based on the course calendar and supporting documentation (February 20th, 2015, see Appendix B, pages 38-41) the site visit has determined that all six programs exceed the requirements, including the fact that less than 50% of the lab hours come from the year-four thesis research experience (for Honours by thesis). The initial documentation submitted for consideration for accreditation contained a number of inconsistencies, but these were rectified through the material submitted to the site visit team on February 20th, 2015. The site visit team were convinced, through discussions with faculty members/instructors/students, that the lecture- and lab-hours stated in the provided documentation generally match the hours required/committed of/by students for these courses, and thereby place all six programs in good standing as regards to hours of instruction in chemistry. Thus, as regards to hours of instruction in chemistry all six programs exceed the criteria.

Additionally, the CSC encourages breadth and exposure to disciplines outside of chemistry. All programs promote this idea and require 24 credit hours from the Faculty of Arts or other studies.

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CSC Recommendation 3: the SVT recommends to the CSC Board that the following Chemistry programs at the University of New Brunswick be approved for accreditation:

§ Chemistry Major § Chemistry Honours (by thesis) § Chemistry Honours (by course) § Medicinal Chemistry Major § Medicinal Chemistry Honours (by thesis) § Medicinal Chemistry Honours (by course)

 

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Summary of Recommendations

Recommendations to CSC Recommendation to CSC 1: involve the Local Sections/Student Chapter liaisons in communication of the role and purpose of the CSC, including how individuals can be involved as undergraduates and beyond. Recommendation to CSC 2: ensure that UNB Chemistry graduates receive certificates upon graduation. Recommendation to CSC 3: the SVT recommends to the CSC Board that the following Chemistry programs at the University of New Brunswick be approved for accreditation:

§ Chemistry Major § Chemistry Honours (by thesis) § Chemistry Honours (by course) § Medicinal Chemistry Major § Medicinal Chemistry Honours (by thesis) § Medicinal Chemistry Honours (by course)

A notice that these programs meet the guidelines for CSC Accreditation will be provided to the department on approval of this recommendation. It is hoped that the department will post this announcement permanently in a location that will be noticeable to the students so that they can be made aware that they are studying in a CSC Accredited program. In addition, yearly the department should submit a list of those students graduating from their programs to the Chair of the Accreditation committee and to the CSC national office (Accreditation coordinator) so that certificates for each of the students can be prepared so that they can be presented to the students at their convocation.

Departmental Recommendations

1. Departmental Recommendation: the Department/Faculty and University are encouraged to cement plans to upgrade and modernize more of the research laboratories, given the valuable role that research facilities play in the provision of quality undergraduate chemistry education at UNB.

2. Departmental Recommendation: the Department/Faculty and University are encouraged to verify egress requirements for all Chemistry offices and labs.

3. Departmental Recommendation: the Department/Faculty and University must find ways to provide base funds to provide medium-cost instrumentation in undergraduate laboratories.

4. Departmental Recommendation: the Department/Faculty and University must develop a long-term plan for routine and significant equipment maintenance and replacement. Doing so only as the emergency situation arises (equipment failures) will ultimately lead to significant gaps in the educational components of the programs being offered. A policy must identify and prioritize teaching instrument repair/upgrade/replacement needs. In addition, the Department needs a realistic budget line item for teaching instrumentation maintenance.

5. Departmental Recommendation: the Department/Faculty and University must find ways to increase the complement of research-active faculty members.

6. Departmental Recommendation: the Department/Faculty and University must find ways to maintain/support the important research mission, which is an integral component of the accredited undergraduate programs.

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7. Department Recommendation: the Department/Faculty and University must identify short-term resources and education to ensure that research space and practices meet and maintain required legislative standards.

8. Department Recommendation: the Department/Faculty and University must find ways to ensure that access to modern databases such as Scifinder Scholar and Web of Science is maintained.

9. Department Recommendation: the Department should work with library and other personnel across campus to integrate in-class resource training formally at each level (year-one through year-four) of programs. This will require consultation and planning, but has been an effective resource for students at other institutions where it is implemented.

10. Departmental Recommendation: the Department/Faculty and University must work together to find ways to augment stable teaching provision in areas of need for undergraduate programs.

11. Departmental Recommendation: the Department should use the recent meeting with students to establish an annual consultation and listening session with undergraduates at each level to get feedback on courses/labs/teaching that can be used in course development and planning.

12. Departmental Recommendation: the Department should formalize a mechanism (like in curriculum review) for laboratory experiment renewal and development, with personnel responsible for labs working in concert with personnel teaching/lecturing the course. Resources must be allocated to this initiative, giving personnel time to assemble data, reflect and act.

13. Departmental Recommendation: continue to evaluate the class size and the division of students between the Major and Honours programs. Work towards an enrolment in Year IV that is near or at the capacity to offer the capstone research project.

14. Departmental Recommendation: look to attract the best students in science, introduce some “what chemists do” awareness initiatives/courses into the programs, and find ways to provide capstone experiences to all graduates.

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