UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES COMMITTEE MINUTES
2002:Feb 5, Mar 5, Apr 2, Sept 23, Oct 30, Dec 4
2003: Feb 19, Mar 26, Apr 23, Sept 17, Oct 22
2004: Feb 10, Mar 9, Apr 13, Oct 12
9 November 2004
Members Present: Allen (chair), Geller, Lewis, Mogilevsky, Pilant, Sivakumar, Stecher
Special Guests: Ben Aurispa, David Manuel
The meeting began at 10:00 a.m. There were thirteen topics put up for discussion: Math Camp with Engineering, Maple Program, Great Texas Math Talent Search, Majors Online Survey, Scholarship Committee Report, Math Contest Status, Honors Deliberations, MAES Event Report, Majors News, Math 436, Topology – New Course, Format of Career Fair, Undergraduate Math Journal as W Course, Area of Emphasis and Options on Transcripts. Below is a summary of each.
Math Camp with Engineering. The Department of Engineering is putting forward to fund a summer camp for incoming engineering majors. It's purpose is to aid retention of the engineering regents scholars. Since math plays a major role in the retention of the engineering students, development of good diagnostic tests is vital, along with placing in the proper math course. The good students coming out of this program should be encouraged to pursue math minors. Other opportunities for math to be involved in this camp will be discussed as the plan develops.
Maple Program. This semester, Dr. Phil Yasskin is experimenting with using Maplets in Math 151. This is an effort to decide between staying with Maple or switching to Matlab. The first surveys have been given to students to rate the effectiveness of the Maplets. The survey is an attempt to gather data on how effective our technology is in Calculus I.
Great Texas Math Talent Search. Dr. Peter Kuchment has agreed to direct the Talent Search in its initial year. Plans are for the problems to go online next next fall and be in full swing by the following spring. Patterned after programs at Duke, Wisconsin, and Maine, the Great Texas Math Talent Search will be used statewide to challenge the brightest high school and middle school students with math problems.
Majors Online Survey. The online survey form that has been in the works is almost ready to go. An email will be sent to the majors after the survey is tested in house. This should occur in the next week. The online survey will assist in the tracking of our majors for possible scholarship and awards nominations. The online form will request information about the student, their existing scholarships/awards, research/internship experiences, and career plans, etc. The link to the survey is:
http://www.math.tamu.edu/ugs/ugrad_survey.html
Scholarship Committee Report. Mike Stecher, chair of the scholarship committee, dispersed copies of the Scholarship Committee Recommendations to each member. Please click “here” for a link to the full report.
Math Contest Status. This year's contest will be held on Saturday, November 20th. Registration at this point is down some from last year, but ~200 have signed up. Next year the contest may be moved to better accommodate the schools.
Honors Deliberations. Dr. Geller reported that the Honors committee will meet next week to discuss what to propose for our Honors Program. The first task is to figure out how the program should 'look' before courses are offered. Discussion ensued on about a gameplan on how to handle honors students when the honors classes do not make. Several ideas were discussed and most agreed that it is preferable to run a lite course than have honors contracts.
MAES Event Report. David Manuel reported on the November 5th MAES College Day event. The students were predominately from the Dallas area and about 100 attended each of the 3 sessions. Each department in the college was given about 10-15 minutes to talk about their programs and opportunities upon graduation, etc. This is just one of several recruiting efforts that the department in which the department participates. David spoke of our involvement in the VIP visits (minority recruitment), the summer honors invitational, the honors online chat program, and the Lechner Overnight Express.
Majors News. David Manuel reported that the q-drop rate is lower this year than last year in Math 171. Overall drop rate is 24% and math majors rate is 15%.
Math 436, Topology – New Course. The course syllabus and New Course Request Form for reinstating Math 436 have been prepared and submitted for approval. Dr. Boggess expressed concern over the prerequisite of Math 409 and asked that the committee discuss this issue. Several options were presented, including Math 220 as a prerequisite. The committee was unclear as to the 'goal' of the course, so a decision was made to discuss with Thomas Schlumprecht and the author, Paulo Limo-Filho and report back at the next meeting.
Format of Career Fair. Tabled until next meeting.
Undergraduate Math Journal as W Course. Harold Boas was suggested as a good candidate for editor-in-chief of the Math Journal. Further discussion was tabled until next meeting.
Options and Areas of Emphasis on Transcripts. Dan Lewis to report on this topic at next meeting.
The meeting adjourned at 11:10 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Donna L. Hoffman