COPFIC Report

The AAPT‐AIP Committee on Physics Faculties in Colleges, whose overall findings are reported elsewhere in this issue, has prepared a description of five college physics departments which are unusually effective in training physics majors. The report, entitled Toward Excellence in Physics—Reports from Five Colleges, is intended to help faculty and administrators to assess their own programs and provide a basis for improving the teaching of physics in four‐year colleges. A composite picture is given of the five unnamed schools with regard to type of institution, salary and benefits, faculty, curriculum, students, and facilities. Also included are case studies of each individual school according to the same categories. The findings of the Committee confirmed the view that there is no fixed pattern for success; there are, however, certain specific characteristics common to the successful institutions which enable them to attract able physicists to their staffs. Copies of the booklet have already been sent to physics department chairmen and the presidents of their institutions; additional copies, while they last, can be obtained by writing to COPFIC, American Institute of Physics, 335 East 45th Street, New York 17, N.Y.