UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES COMMITTEE MINUTES
2002:Feb 5, Mar 5, Apr 2, Sept 23
30 October 2002
Members Present: Hensley, Larson (chair), Lowe, Mogilevsky, Stecher, Straube
Members Absent: Allen, Pilant
Special Guest: David Manuel
The meeting began at 2:00 p.m. There were ten topics put up for discussion: Departmental Honors Program, Recruiting trip to North Harris College, Aggieland Saturday Report, Calclab Scholarship funds, High School registration form on web, High School Math Contest and Sigma Xi Conference, Math "Areas of Emphasis" plans, Spring Career Fair, VIGRE presentations, and Other Business. Below is a summary of each.
Departmental Honors Program. Dr. Larson announced Dr. Pilant's plan to launch a departmental honors program consisting of a battery of freshman and sophomore level courses. At the senior level, senior students would be required to do a senior thesis. A subcommittee was selected to work on this project. Members of the subcommittee are: Mike Stecher, Bruce Lowe and Mila Mogilevsky. The subcommittee's goal is to have the program in place for Fall 2003.
Recruiting trip to North Harris College. Dr. Bruce Lowe reported that he spoke at the Harris Community College Math Club on October 16th on the topic of Option Pricing. Dr. Lowe received the names and e-mail addresses of ~ 15 students. He was invited back to speak again in the spring and we will advertise this to Houston-area high schools.
Aggieland Saturday Report. Mike Stecher reported that the booth at Aggieland Saturday on October, 19th was a success. We acquired the names and e-mail addresses of ~ 140 students who visited the booth. The College of Science gave two presentations during the fair and both were very well attended.
Calclab Scholarship funds. Currently the Calclab scholarship funds are administered by the University Development Foundation. Dr. Stecher made the committee aware that the Math Department has a fund called the Smith Fund. This fund is used for the Putnam Contest and Freshman/Sophomore Math contest awards. Dr. Stecher suggested the committee look into moving the Calclab scholarship funds into a tax-free account to avoid the 5% fee that the Development Foundation charges. Dr. Stecher will look into the legalities of setting up this type of account and if it is possible to have Calclab funds deposited into the Smith Fund and yet remain separate. Dr. Stecher also suggested that for every $10,000 received into the Calclab funds, $1,000 should be earmarked for an endowment.
High School registration form on web. John Zuckerman designed a webpage for high school students to register their name, address and e-mail address and most importantly, request that information about the Mathematics Department be sent to them. The URL is:
www.math.tamu.edu/teaching/undergrad/high_school_registration/
Donna Hoffman will add the link to this registration page on the main Undergraduate Program webpage. After the page is set up, a statement will need to be added to clarify that the student is aware that he is agreeing to receiving correspondence via e -mail.
High School Math Contest and Sigma Xi Conference. The High School Math Contest will be on Saturday, November 16th in the Zachary Building. Dr. Stecher reported that new to the contest this year is a Student Information Form that will allow us to receive every entrants name, address, e-mail address, school name, and grade. With the student's approval we can then correspond with students via e-mail to let them know of upcoming events, etc. This should help in our recruiting efforts. The Sigma Xi Student Research Conference will also be held on Saturday, November 16th at the Moody Gardens Hotel in Galveston, TX. Dr. Larson will attend and take three students with him, two of which are giving presentations. This will also be a good opportunity to recruit high school students and promote our undergraduate program. Dr. Larson plans to take informational material.
Math "Areas of Emphasis" plans. Dr. Larson discussed the desire to make our degree plans more flexible by adding areas of emphasis. The "option" route requires extensive background research, but the "area of emphasis" can serve as an alternative. Areas of emphasis do not require any further approval outside the department level. On the down side, a completion of an Area of Emphasis does not appear on a students transcript, so a certificate would need to be developed for graduates. Dr. Boggess is still looking into whether the paperwork was filed years ago to establish our Statistics, Actuarial and Mathematics Options. After a discussion, it was decided to pursue making the Actuarial and Mathematics Options a true option, rather than an Area of Emphasis. Subcommittee members for this endeavor are: Dr. Larson and Bruce Lowe.
Spring Career Fair. After a brief discussion, the committee decided that next spring's career fair should be held on a weekday to better facilitate speakers from industry. Booths will be set up earlier in the day and presentations beginning around 4:00 pm. Donna Hoffman will research which date in early April is best and report to the committee next month.
VIGRE Presentations. Committee members were encouraged to announce the VIGRE presentations on Tuesday, November 5th at 6:00 pm in Blocker 158 to their classes.
Other Business. Committee vacancy. With the appointment of Dr. Boggess to Department Head, and Dr. Pilant to Associate Head, a vacancy in the Undergraduate Studies Committee has come open. The Executive Committee will decide on a replacement. Dr. Larson will suggest Dr. Philip Yasskin as a possible candidate. Math 416H in Spring 2003. Dr. Sue Geller is interested in teaching Math 416H next spring and asked the committee for their support in her efforts. Her plan is to run both regular and honors in the same classroom by having the non-honors students take the class as a Math 485. After a brief discussion, the committee agreed unanimously to support her efforts to teach a honors section of Math 416 in Spring 2003.
The meeting adjourned at 3:25 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Donna L. Hoffman