Dear Colleague:

The tenth meeting of the Astronomy Department Chairs, organized biennially by the AAS, will be held at the usual venue: the Hilton Hotel at Chicago O'Hare airport on Saturday November 5, 2016. All chairs are encouraged to attend, or to send a representative. You will have to cover your own travel, lodging costs, and a $50 registration fee (towards the cost of the meeting room and refreshments).

We have reserved a block of rooms at the O'Hare Hilton at a rate of $109/night plus tax, the rate will be held until Friday, October 14. You can make your own reservation at our Hilton website or you can call: 877-865-5322, mention code "AAS" to get block rate.

Attendees should pre-register with Jeri Cochran at jcochran@illinois.edu so she knows how many will be attending and can order food. Please also provide your name and institution so she can make you a badge.

The registration fee of $50 can be paid to the AAS at: their website. Please contact Sherrie Brown or Diane Frendak at membership@aas.org if you need a registration receipt.

Agenda

• 8:00 - 9:00 Breakfast
• 9:00 - 9:15 Introduction
• 9:15 - 10:15 Paul Hertz (NASA astrophysics)

• 10:15 - 10:30 coffee

• 10:30 - 11:30 Jim Ulvestad (NSF astronomy)
• 11:30 - 12:00 Christine Jones (AAS President)

• 12:00 - 1:00 lunch, with Joel Parriot (AAS staff) speaking about the Washington scene and the impending transition

• 1:00 - 1:45 survey of use of GRE and discussion, Shardha Jogee (UT Austin)
• 1:45 - 2:30 other graduate education discussion:
  • successes (and not) in building welcoming and inclusive departments
  • maintaining connections with graduates outside of academia
  • size of graduate programs

• 2:30 - 2:45 coffee

• 2:45 - 5:00 further discussion. Issues that have been raised include:
  • AAS-AIP survey to track underrepresented groups over time
  • undergraduate education and connecting with the large majority of undergraduates who do not go to graduate school
  • mentoring junior faculty members
  • strategies for maintaining senior faculty engagement
  • (successful) strategies for gaining or maintaining faculty lines
  • should we specifically invite physics chairs next time?

Suggestions of further agenda items should be sent to Steve Zepf.

The Astronomy Chair's meeting is scheduled in conjunction with the annual MidWest Physics Chair's meeting, which will be held Sunday, Nov 6, 2016 at the same location as the Astronomy Chairs meeting. The MidWest Physics chairs meeting is open to all Astronomy Chairs, and is independently organized by Earl Scime at West Virginia University. Many Chairs will arrive Friday night and leave Sunday afternoon, allowing them to attend both the Saturday Astronomy Chairs meeting and the Sunday MidWest Physics Chairs meeting. Details regarding the Nov 6 Physics Chairs meeting can be obtained from Earl Scime.

Meeting logistics are organized by the AAS, with local help from Jeri Cochran. The e-mail list and this website are maintained by Jerry Sellwood.