UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES COMMITTEE MINUTES

26 October 2005

Members Present: Allen (chair), Geller, Mogilevsky, Pilant, K. Smith, Stecher

Ex-Officio Members Present: Bergstresser, DeBlassie

Members Absent: Lewis, Rojas

The meeting began at 1:30p.m. There were four announcements and seven topics put up for discussion: Announcements – Career Fair Report, High School Math Contest Report, Scholarship Committee Report, Lunch with a Prof Program Report Topics – Biological Sciences Area of Emphasis, Landberg's Proposed Course, Recruiters in the Classroom, Math 281 Proposed Course, Courses Eligible for Math Minor, Degree Requirements- Math 410, STAT courses, and number of hours, Operation Rescue – Should we Implement?, and Other Business. Below is a summary of each.

Announcements-

Career Fair Report. The Career Fair was moved to the fall semester to benefit both the students looking for jobs and the companies looking to recruit our majors. This fall's fair was held on Tuesday, October 11^th from noon – 4:30pm in Blocker 156 and adjoining hallways. Approximately 30 students visited the company booths, but very few attended the panel discussions. Among the new booths this year was Accelerate Online, and AIG Insurance Company. A possible reason for low attendance at the panel discussion was the time it was held, so future times will be more in line with class times, etc.

High School Math Contest Report. This years High School Math Contest was held on Saturday, October 22^nd in the Wehner Building on West Campus. Approximately 22 schools attended, bringing ~215 students for the subject exams and 190 for the best open and closed exams. Even though attendance was down from previous years the event was deemed a success based up on comments from coaches. This new location will most likely be used for future contests.

Scholarship Committee Report. The scholarship committee met this fall to consider 15 essays for the Freshman Calclab (Departmental) Scholarships. A total of 8 scholarships were awarded ranging from $200 – 800. These are one-time-only awards.

Lunch with a Prof Program. There has been two lunches thus far, the first with Catherine Yan, Maurice Rojas, and Dr. Boggess and the second with Dr. Janie Schielack, Dr. Allen, and Jenn Whitfield. Response from faculty has been that the students asked good questions and seemed to enjoy the opportunity to get to know the faculty members. The next lunch is slated for Thursday, November 10^th with Dr. Joel Zinn and Dan Jupiter.

Topics -

Biological Sciences Area of Emphasis. Dr. Jay Walton devised a new area of emphasis in Bilogical Sciences for the BS APMS degree. Copies of the degree plan were passed out to committee members for review. To see the current version, click Undergraduate Biology and Mathematics. After reviewing the degree plan, the committee noted several items that need to be discussed with Dr. Walton before approving. The primary issue is the proposal to add too many new courses, and the ommission of Math 220W, which is the only W course currently offered and a requirement for graduation. A recommendation was made to make the following changes:

*Change Math 3xx (Discrete Math for Biology) to Math 220, special section emphasizing Math Biology

*Change Math 4xx (Math Biology I ) to Math 442, special section emphasizing Math Biology Modeling

*Change Math 4xx (Math Biology II) to to Math 489, Special Topics in Math Biology II

With these modifications, the committee would approve the area of emphasis. It was also noted that this area of emphasis does not have to be printed in the catalog in order for students to be in the program, Dr. Stecher would substitute the necessary courses to complete the area of emphasis requirements.

Joseph Landberg's Proposed Course. The committee reviewed the proposed course document and found only issues with the prerequisites. To see the current version, click here. Some members noted a concern for students needing more mathematical maturity than would be gained with the current prerequisites of Math 221, 251, 253 or equivalent. Suggested prerequisites are: Math 222, and 308, or approval of instructor. This course is already slated to run next spring as a Math 489 and with this slight change in prerequisites, the committee feels the application for the new course should go forward. Dr. Allen will discuss these prerequisites with Landberg.

Recruiters in the Classroom. At a recent meeting with one of our major recruiters, the idea was brought up to allow recruiters to come and speak to our upper level math classes. Some guidelines presented by Dr. Allen are: NO actual solicitation during the class time, but a presentation on what type of math they do in their business, MUST be approved by the instructor, and for limited time period. These classroom visits could possibly be scheduled during the same week as the Career Fair. Dr. Allen will talk to Dr. Boggess about the appropriateness of this idea. Dr. Pilant mentioned that Dr. Newton and the College of Science Development Foundation would be an excellent source to help our senior students in areas such as interview skills, and could possibly make appearances in the classroom or at the Career Fair.

Math 281 Proposed Course. Math 281/Biology 281 Seminar in Mathematics was not initially approved as submitted by the College. The reason being that the course description was not broad enough for the title of the course, Seminar in Mathematics. Since Dr. Jay Walton requested the course, he will be consulted on the re-writing of the syllabus and course description and it will be reviewed by the committee at the December meeting.

Courses Eligible for the Math Minor. Dr. Stecher proposed accepting both Math 222 and 220 as acceptable substitutions for upper level (300-400) math courses for our math minor. Committee members approved this recommendation. Dr. Stecher also the opinion of the committee on allowing Math 37x course for the minor, that are currently not allowed. Before making a final decision, Dr. Stecher will report back at the December meeting on the course content of the Math 37x courses.

Degree Requirements – Math 410, STAT courses, and number of hours. Math 410 is a required course for two of our degree plans, the BS Math and the BS APMS. The question posed to the committee is whether Math 410 should be a set requirement or if other equivalent courses should be accepted as a substitute. For instance, Math 446 is often substituted for Math 410. A subcommittee consisting of Drs. DeBlassie and K. Smith was formed to look at the course content of Math 433, which is often taken instead of Math 415. Another issue brought up by Dr. Allen is the absence of STAT class requirements in our BS degree plans. A subcommittee consisting of Drs. Allen, Stecher and Mogilevsky was formed to study this issue of STAT requirements. Both subcommittees will report back at the December meeting. Finally, the University is pressing for departments to lower their total number of hours required for graduation from the current 128 to as low as 120. It was noted that all of our degree plans have a minimum of 12 hours of free electives and that is the area that would be cut if made to reduce to 120. This is not something that has been mandated yet, only discussed, so no action is being taken at this time.

Operation Rescue – Should we Implement? Dr. Allen reported that Karen Watson, from Engineering, has implemented a new program to try and meet with all students who wanted to leave Engineering for another department. Dr. Allen posed to the committee that such a meeting would be good to retain our own math majors. The main problem with this is that we do not always know of the students intention to leave until the paperwork is received from the new department. Dr. Allen also reported on a summer camp program that Engineering has to attract females to Engineering. He proposed that we run such a camp in Math, perhaps focusing on the new Math Biology with female instructors. This topic will be discussed in more detail at the December meeting.

Other Business. Dr. Allen reported that the Physics Department offers its own GRE Prep course program, and suggested the possibility of us offering one as a Math 489 Special Topics course in the future. Dana Bergstresser, our student representative agreed that is would be beneficial to majors applying to graduate school.

The meeting adjourned at 2:40 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Donna L. Hoffman