Teaching

Department Chair and Program Directors

 

Programs and Curricular Groups

Programs

Education at Scripps is divided into three programs:

  • Geosciences of the Earth, Oceans, and Planets (GEO)
  • Climate-Ocean-Atmosphere (COAP)
  • Ocean Biosciences Program (OBP)

Each has its own Program Director. Each program is responsible for all graduate educational activities in its area, including teaching, advising, and examining. Prospective PhD students will apply directly to one or more of the academic programs.

Curricular Groups

The graduate program is further divided into either different Curricular Groups:

  • Geosciences (GS)
  • Geophysics (GP)
  • Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry (MCG)
  • Physical Oceanography (PO)
  • Climate Sciences (CS)
  • Applied Ocean Science (AOS)
  • Marine Biology (MB)
  • Biological Oceanography (BO)

Which set the curriculum for graduate students in that group, vote on graduate student admissions, and administer Departmental Exams at the end of the students’ first year. Graduate student work normally will be concentrated in one of the curricular groups within one of the academic programs. Each curricular group has a Coordinator who oversees the admission process and membership of the group. Some groups have an additional Curricular Group Advisor to interface with students and organize the Departmental exam. Contact the Coordinator of the Curricular Group you wish to be a member of (you can be a member of multiple curricular groups.)

Climate-Ocean-Atmosphere (COAP) Curricular Groups

Geosciences of the Earth, Oceans, and Planets (GEO) Curricular Groups

Ocean Biosciences (OBP) Curricular Groups

Teaching Issues (New Class Forms, Scheduling Classes)

Scripps undergraduate and graduate courses and teaching assignments are determined by Program Directors in consultation with Curricular Group coordinators and faculty and teaching staff. Course offerings are organized within a two-year master plan. Planning for each academic year commences in early winter, and course specifics (i.e., meeting days/times, room location) are determined approximately six months before the start of the quarter in which the course will be taught.

Instructional Scheduling Coordinator Carrie Owen schedules courses through the SIO Department Office. Carrie will contact all instructors to finalize details of each course. Courses can be taught at Scripps or on the main campus, based on audience, enrollment size, and technology needs. The Eckart Building at Scripps contains a 70-person lecture hall and 35-person computer lab. These classrooms allow for greater exposure to the Scripps campus for Scripps undergrads and non-Scripps majors and cut down on travel time for faculty, teaching staff, and students based at Scripps.

If you wish to offer a new course, these are the steps you take. You will first need to consult with your Curricular Group coordinator and Program Director to determine how it fits in the curriculum. Then Carrie Owen can provide you with the course approval form and help oversee the UC San Diego approval process. The multi-step approval process goes through the Department Chair, SIO Educational Policy Committee, Registrar’s Office, and Graduate Council. This process requires approximately six months’ lead time. If there is not sufficient time for approval, you should consider offering the course under the SIO Special Topics course listing; this is typically how new courses are “tested” by faculty before they commit to making the course permanent. Once a new course is approved, it receives a distinct course number and is listed in UC San Diego’s Catalog of Courses.

Teaching Evaluation

Teaching is evaluated in a number of different manners. Undergraduate course evaluations are conducted by Course and Professor Evaluations (CAPE). CAPE is a student-run organization that administers a standardized evaluation of UC San Diego’s undergraduate courses and professors, during the ninth week of instruction. Student feedback gauges the caliber of both the University’s curriculum and its faculty. CAPE provides students with the opinions of their peers on any particular course or professor. UC San Diego’s Office of Academic Affairs conducts graduate course evaluations. Graduate Course Evaluations are available for the instructor’s review following the completion of the course.

To access the statistics for your CAPEs, go to cape.ucsd.edu. To access full course evaluation reports with students’ comments, go to https://academicaffairs.ucsd.edu/Modules/Evals/.

In addition, Scripps awards an annual Teaching Excellence Award in recognition of outstanding teaching and mentoring at graduate and undergraduate levels. A committee of student volunteers selects recipients. Recipients are determined based on student feedback and overall strength of their course evaluations. 

Graduate Student Issues

There are a number of different resources for graduate student issues. SIO Department Office is the primary resource on all academic and financial matters. Academic issues can be addressed with Graduate Coordinators, Gilbert Bretado (PhD students), Dana Jimenez, and Josh Reeves (MS students). Financial issues can be addressed with Funding Coordinator, Shelley Weisel. For matters of a sensitive nature (dispute resolution, students not in good standing, mental health, etc.), the Graduate Coordinators will work with the Department Chair and Vice Chair, as well as any other necessary campus resources. Overall, students are encouraged to view the SIO Department Office as a resource with which they can share any question or concern.

In addition, Scripps has two faculty who serve as Resource Liaisons. The Resource Liaisons can provide general advice and guidance on a variety of issues, as well as information and referrals to other campus services. Some students may feel more comfortable first addressing their questions or concerns with one of the Scripps Resource Liaisons before addressing the issue with the SIO Department Office or seeking formal resolution. The Liaisons serve not only students, but also staff and faculty. Although SIO Resource Liaisons fulfill a role similar to that of UCSD Ombuds, SIO Resource Liaisons are not confidential resources and therefore must adhere to the reporting duties of a responsible employee. For further information or assistance, contact the Scripps Resource Liaisons Paul Jensen or Jennifer MacKinnon. The UC San Diego Office of the Ombuds can be contacted at 858-534-0777. As of Fall 2019, confidential appointments with UCSD Ombuds are available on the Scripps Campus.

Finally, all registered students have access to Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS). CAPS schedules appointments and accepts walk-ins, Monday through Friday 8:00-4:30pm. After Hours can be accessed by phone at 858-534-3755. If a student in crisis needs help contacting CAPS or would like to be escorted to CAPS, please come to the Department Office, Second Floor of the Eckart Building, or contact the Graduate Coordinators, Gilbert Bretado and Dana Jimenez. 

Bridge Support for Graduate Students

Student financial support is coordinated through the SIO Department Office. Shelley Weisel is the department’s funding coordinator and primary contact for student funding questions. All PhD students receive a five-year financial guarantee, provided that they are in good academic standing. Good academic standing is determined by a satisfactory annual faculty advisory committee evaluation, a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or above, no more than 8 combined units of F or U, advancement to candidacy by the end of year three, and campus support limits.

Faculty are responsible for advising and finding financial support for PhD students. If your student is in good academic standing and in need of department bridge support, an official request must be submitted to Shelley Weisel. Bridge support requests can be made for part or all of the upcoming year. Advisors are first asked to comment on their student’s funding in the student’s annual Spring Evaluation and indicate in the Spring Evaluation if the advisor anticipates the need for bridge support. Official requests are due in early summer so that the Department can forecast the total overall need and begin strategizing on how to best allocate resources. However, the Department will accept requests throughout the academic year, in the case of unexpected funding shortfalls. Please contact Shelley Weisel for the appropriate form in order to submit the request.

Please note that it is the advisor’s responsibility to submit any bridge support requests and to work with the department to address any funding shortfalls. Although students are often very aware of their funding situation, please do not ask your student to talk to the Department about bridge support or to submit a bridge support request on your behalf.

Student Peer Mentoring

Scripps Peer Mentor Program is a graduate peer mentorship program designed to match up each incoming PhD and MS student with a more experienced student. Thanks to a generous grant from UC San Diego Graduate Division, the program has been expanded and extended. The program has four main goals.

To increase student retention: Scripps Peers was first conceived as an initiative to increase the passing rate of first-year departmental exams, but an ongoing mentor-mentee relationship is beneficial to both parties throughout their careers here. Fostering more student connections is a positive end in and of itself.   To reinforce the student safety net: The peer mentor can serve as another point of interaction for graduate students who have social networks of widely varying sizes and strengths. This can help ensure that no student “falls through the cracks.”

First-year mentees will be matched with mentors prior to the beginning of the fall quarter and should expect to hear from them before arriving at SIO unless they are starting very early. In addition to informal meetings, mentors and their mentees will be invited to social events and special seminars during the academic year. After the end of the spring quarter and the departmental exams, mentors, and mentees will have the opportunity to reflect on their experiences. Mentors will need to attend an initial training session during the summer as well as a supplemental training once per quarter. Mentors will be able to draw from a small fund for incidental expenses (e.g., coffee, lunch) to facilitate meetings with their mentees.

  • To create a network of engaged students: A formalized peer mentorship program can help keep students engaged and connected to Scripps and to the University. This helps our first-year students build a connection to the Department and creates a strong network of student leaders in our mentors.
  • To develop mentoring skills: Training our mentors and giving them practical experience is useful not only for their personal growth and development as future principal investigators and research leaders but also fosters a culture of mentorship throughout the Department.
Mentoring Resources

Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Mentoring Handbook.

Undergraduate and Masters Programs

UC San Diego has over 30,000 undergraduates, and Scripps is very involved in undergraduate education. We currently offer three undergraduate majors: Earth Science, Marine Biology, and as of 2017, a new Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences major. Scripps is also the administrative home for the Environmental Systems major, a cross-departmental program with several distinct tracks. There is an undergraduate research opportunity portal where you can post opportunities and find undergraduates from across campus willing to help you as volunteer researchers.

In addition to its PhD programs, Scripps offers Masters degrees, for which, unlike the PhD program, students are expected to pay most of the cost. Scripps offers one-year interdisciplinary Masters of Advanced Studies (MAS) degrees in two areas: Marine Biodiversity and Conservation (MBC) and Climate Science and Policy (CSP). These are interdisciplinary programs that bridge the gap between science and public policy. In addition, Scripps offers research-based Master of Science (MS) degrees, which typically take 1.5 to 2 years to complete, and involve both coursework and a research project with a thesis advisor. Finally, Scripps offers two contiguous BS/MS degrees. Finally, Scripps offers two contiguous BS/MS degrees. These degrees are open to Scripps undergraduate majors and typically take a combined five years to complete.