UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES COMMITTEE MINUTES
05 February 2002
Members Present: Boggess, Hensley, Larson (chair), Mogilevsky, Pilant, Stecher, Straube
Members Absent: Allen, Lowe
The meeting began at 2:15 pm. There were seven topics put up for discussion: Spring Career Fair, NSF Scholarship Proposal, Student Academic Leadership Proposal, APMS Options, Math Major meeting, Math Camp, Recruiting Subcommitee Report. Below is a summary of each.
Spring Career Fair. The first annual Mathematics Career Fair will be held on April 6, 2002 in Rudder 601. Lodging has been reserved and budget is being discussed. Committee discussed who the target audience should be and it was suggested to include math majors, math minors and even local high school students. The fair will be promoted at the Math Major meeting on February 26, through contacts in Engineering, and via campus media. Committee members will contact their personal acquaintenances in government and industry to invite them to give a presentation on their company or agency. Length of the fair and presentations will be based upon tþe number of participants.
NSF Scholarship Proposal. Dr. Larson reported on a $400,000 NSF scholarship proposal that he, Thomas Schlumprecht, Jay Walton, Mike Stecher and Make McDermott from Mechanical Engineering are writing. The $400,000 is dispersed in $100,000 increments over a 4 year period, with a student receiving a maximum of $3,000 per year. There are 125 such awards given by NSF each year, so Dr. Larson reported that chances are good that the department would be selected. If selected, 20% goes to Mechanical Engineering and 80% to the Math Department, with the option to apply for a supplement the following year. Dr. Hensley suggested that winners of the Freshman and Sophomore Math Contest might be good candidates to receive these scholarships. Each year NSF designates 10% of its total funding to go to "innovative" projects. Dr. Larson asked committee members to be thinking of possible proposals that would fit into this category.
Student Academic Leadership Proposal. The Association of Former Students is offering $35,000 in scholarships for Student Academic Leadership. Drs. Larson and Boggess are working on this proposal that would allow the department to fund student travel expenses. Students often have the opportunity to present posters and talks regarding their research and these scholarships would enable even more students this opportunity. These funds could also be used to enhance the VIGRE program.
APMS Options. Dr. Larson met with Dr. Bart Childs in the Computer Science Department to discuss the possibility of a Scientific Computation option. Dr. Childs indicated the past restrictions on our majors taking upper-level computer science courses can be worked out. A meeting of the APMS Option Development Subcommitee will be called in the near future to discuss the progress of adding new options.
Math Major Meeting. Dr. Larson informed the committee that the Spring Math Major Meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 26. Dr. Larson will announce the Career Fair at the meeting and Dr. Schielack will talk about Math Education. Dr. Larson encouraged all members to attend if possible.
Math Camp. Dr. Philip Yasskin has agreed to run a 2-week math camp for middle school aged children from the local and surrounding areas. Dr. Larson will look into the possibility of outreach funds to cover costs (hiring student workers, supplies) for the camp. He also asked for volunteers to assist Dr. Yasskin and suggested the possibility of some of our math students being involved as well.
Recruiting Subcommittee Report. In Dr. Lowe's absence, Dr. Larson reported that Dr. Lowe sent out letters to the High School Math Contest coaches in December. The letter thanked them for their participation and mentioned spring recruiting visits to their schools. To begin the visitation process, Dr. Lowe e-mailed eleven of the closest schools to get a feel for how a visit from our department would be received. Four positive responses have been received to date. No visits have been formally scheduled, so Dr. Larson suggested that committee members alternate making these trips. Dr. Boggess stressed to the committee the importance of recruiting good high school math students as the number of majors enrolled in math classes has dropped 40-50% over the last 4-5 years. Dr. Boggess also suggested developing a short, eyecatching PowerPoint presentation to use for recruiting both during visitations and during the annual High School Math Contest.
The meeting adjourned at 3:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Donna L. Hoffman