Infrastructure
Section 5
A modern and comprehensive infrastructure is essential to a robust undergraduate program. Infrastructure includes physical classrooms and laboratory spaces for teaching and research consistent with state and federal safety guidelines, state of the art instrumentation, access to appropriate information resources including journal access, databases, and computational software. Modern laboratories and infrastructure ensure that students can be properly trained across the spectrum of chemical sciences, and that such training can occur safely and with minimal environmental impact.
Instructional, Lab, & Office Spaces
Essential Components
Classrooms
- Adhere to modern standards for lighting, ventilation, comfort, and accessibility.
- Have proper demonstration and teaching facilities, including projection capabilities, and internet access for faculty and students.
- Include the tools and technology to support online (or remote) teaching.
Laboratories
Additional information regarding laboratory chemical health and safety can be found in Section 3: Creating a Safety Culture.
- Research and instructional laboratories are suitable for their purposes, safe, properly maintained, and meet all applicable government regulations.
- Fume hoods are present and regularly tested/inspected.
- Laboratories provide sufficient space and management for hazardous waste storage and disposal.
- Laboratory facilities must be in compliance with the American Disabilities Act and able to accommodate all students in accordance with federal and state regulations.
- Have a properly maintained chemical stockroom that provides safe storage, handling, and preparation areas and permits easy distribution of chemicals to required areas.
Successful Practices
Classrooms
- Classrooms should be reasonably close to instructional and research laboratories.
- Flexible learning spaces that accommodate new pedagogies are available for instruction.
Laboratories
- Laboratories are designed to provide at least 50 square feet of net space per student, including lab tables and benches.
Full-time faculty offices
- Are configured for instructional and other professional activities.
- Accommodate confidential discussions with students and colleagues.
- Have networked computers that provide access to library resources.
- Are reasonably close to teaching and laboratory facilities and positioned to facilitate student contact.
Adjunct faculty offices
- Adjunct faculty members have comparable offices to full-time faculty.
Aspirational Goals
- Additional staff are available to assist faculty with laboratory management and preparation.
- Research spaces are accessible and available for long term experiments.
- All facilities are accessible to all students
Instrumentation
Essential Components
- There is sufficient equipment for all students in the program, space for the equipment, and personnel to maintain the equipment.
- Programs have certain essential equipment for inorganic, organic, and biochemistry laboratories.
- A plan for maintaining instruments in working order is in place.
Successful Practices
- Programs have a suite of modern chemical instrumentation and specialized laboratory apparatus appropriate for the courses offered, providing hands-on laboratory experiences in synthesis, characterization, and analysis.
Aspirational Goals
- A plan for upgrading the instrumentation suite is used to ensure that students are working on modern instruments.
Computer technology and software
Essential Components
Students and faculty have access to and use
- Laboratory data acquisition and analysis software.
- Interactive simulation programs.
- Computational chemistry programs.
- Software or web applications for scientific word processing and illustration/drawing.
Successful Practices
- Students and faculty have access to and use a statistical analysis program.
Aspirational Goals
- Students and faculty have access to and utilize software that supports instrumentation.
Chemical information resources
Essential Components
- Faculty and students have access to current physical and electronic chemical literature that reflect the course offerings and research, including
- Scientific databases
- Science periodicals
- Peer-reviewed journals
- Reference materials
- The library provides access to journal articles that are not readily available on-site via interlibrary loan, electronic transmission, or document delivery services.
- Instruction regarding the use of information from the chemical literature is equivalent to that in the institutions to which students commonly transfer.
Successful Practices
- Important reference materials, or electronic access to these materials, are readily available to students and faculty and provide the most recent information available.
Aspirational Goals
- Trained science librarians are involved in the design and facilitation of these activities.
