To: Christopher Markwood, Provost/Vice
Chancellor/Dean of Faculty
Martha
Einerson, Chair of the Faculty
From: Program Review and Planning Council
Chair, Deb Nordgren
Cc: Chad Scott, Chair, Mathematics and Computer Science
Department
Pamela Bustos, PRPC
George Wright, PRPC
Mary Pulford, PRPC
Maureen Salzer, PRPC
Laura Jacobs, University
Archivist
Date: May 9, 2007
Re: Report on the Review of the Mathematics
and Computer Science Program
Table of Contents
Introduction
Question 1:
What are the department’s purposes?
Question 2:
By what means does the department accomplish its goals?
Question 3:
Is the department accomplishing its goals?
Question 4:
Can the department continue to accomplish its goals?
Question 5:
What new purposes is the department to address in the next five years?
Question 6:
How will the department continue to improve in quality?
Recommendations
Introduction
In spring of 2007, the members of the PRPC began their examination of the
self-study submitted by the faculty of the Computer Science program. Members of the Council, which is chaired by
Deb Nordgren, volunteered to write a review of particular sections of the materials.
Review sections were written by the following members of the Council:
·
Mary Pulford reviewed Question One, on purposes of
the program
·
George Wright review Question Two, on the means it
employs to accomplish its goals;
·
Pamela Bustos reviewed Question Three, on goal
achievement by the program;
·
Maureen Salzer reviewed Question Four, on the
program’s ability to continue to
accomplish
its goals, and
·
Deb Nordgren reviewed Question Five, on the
program’s plans for the next five
years,
and Question Six, on how the program will continue to improve in
quality.
·
The editor for the review was Deb Nordgren.
The Council met with Chad Scott and
Steven Rosenberg on April 4, 2007.
The review was approved by the PRPC on May 17, 2007.
1. What are
the program’s purposes?
The Math and the Computer Science Department has developed and expanded
over the last 36 years to meet the needs of UWS’s students, the university’s
mission as well as the business and community sector. In 1970, five degrees were offered in the
Department between liberal arts and Secondary/Elementary Ed.
Over this 30 year space the department has added: Pre-Engineering and a
Dual Engineering Degree; expanded Liberal Arts courses in preparation for
graduate school; introduced Computer Science and Discrete Applied Mathematics.
The Department is in line with the UWS Liberal Arts’ mission. This department supports the general
education program as well as providing service courses for other departments
and majors such as Teacher Education, Social Work and Business. The department has well defined goals which
adjust to the changes in the academic field as well as changes from all
non-academic stake holders.
2. By what
means does the program accomplish its goals?
The Mathematics Department serves the university through its offerings
both in the General Education curriculum and through courses which specifically
serve other programs.
A. Description of Curriculum
Courses in the General
Education Curriculum
As to the first, all non-remedial courses in mathematics, that is,
excluding MATH 090 and 095, satisfy the three-credit core requirement in
mathematics. The department targets its
General Education offerings at a broad spectrum of student needs and interests.
·
Thus, for mathematics and computer science majors
and minors, as well as those in the sciences and pre-engineering, several
courses are appropriate, including Math 115 (Pre-calculus); Math 240 (Calculus
I); Math 241 (Calculus II), and Math 242 (Calculus III).
·
Math 130 (Statistics) serves the needs of students
in Geographic Information System (GIS), Social Work, Political Science and
Criminal Justice.
·
Math 150 and 151 are appropriate for students in
business majors.
·
Math 230 is appropriate for students in elementary
education majors.
·
For all other students, Math 112 (Introduction to
Contemporary Mathematics) provides a stand-alone course in liberal arts
mathematics. Math 112 is part of no
other sequence and thus serves those students who do not intend to pursue the
traditional algebra/pre-calculus/calculus sequence.
Offerings for Other
Programs
Curriculum Design in
General Education Curriculum
The department observes the guidelines established by the Committee on
the Undergraduate Program (CUPM) of the Mathematical Association of America and
implements most of its recommendations, offered most recently in 2004. These include offering “suitable courses” and
examining the “effectiveness” of the traditional offering in algebra. In place of that course, the department has
made available such alternative courses as “liberal arts mathematics” (Math
112, Introduction to Contemporary Mathematics) and “introductory statistics”
(Math 130, Elementary Statistics).
Curriculum Design for
Mathematics Majors and Minors
With respect to specific CUPM recommendations for the Mathematics major
and minor, the department has instituted several curricular changes, tailored
to achieve a number of objectives:
B. Human Resources
The department currently employs five tenured or tenure-track faculty
members and four senior lecturers. All
of the former have terminal degrees in the field of Mathematics.
The department also employs a program assistant on a half-time
basis. It lost two full-time professors
and has experienced some personnel turn-over.
Two tenure-track members have been added since 1999.
C. Fiscal Resources: Internal Funding
The department uses S&E funds to support graders and lab assistants
and to purchase supplies and software.
Classroom modernization funds from the Student Technology Fee Committee
have purchased various items of hardware.
External Funding
In 2003, Victor Piotrowski received a grant of $387,603., from the
National Science Foundation as principal investigator research project in
cybersecurity. Steve Rosenberg and Shaun
Lynch were named as Senior Personnel.
This funding source was used to support the cybersecurity program within
the department, with other benefits to the program, including development of
CSCI/Math 437 (Cryptography).
Faculty Development
Since 1999, department members have received at least one faculty
development grant or other professional development funding each year. Prof. Sergei Bezrukov has shown a
particularly high level of productivity in research.
These monies have made it possible for faculty members to travel to
professional meetings to present papers and keep abreast of recent developments
in the field. Students have sometimes
accompanied faculty members to meetings of the Wisconsin Section of the
Mathematical Association of America.
3. Is the
program accomplishing its goals?
A. Meeting concerns of the NCA report
There were no specific NCA recommendations for the Mathematics
Department. Math 112 (Introduction to
Contemporary Mathematics) is offered as a “liberal arts math” course.
B. Student success
The only evaluative measures of students included in the report is a
reference to a departmental goal of grade point average of 2.0 (c) or higher
for students in each course and comparisons of the results of each semester in
each class from year to year.
C. Preparation for the workplace and for post-graduate study
The Mathematics Department has graduated 41 students and included
information on the status of 30 of them in jobs related to their major field of
study. Student feedback was not included
in this study.
D. Promotion of active learning and attention to gender and diversity
issues
The Mathematics Department provided evidence of their efforts to increase
promotion of active learning and attention to gender and diversity issues
through attending workshops and in faculty position searches through giving
preference to female candidates when all other factors are identical. They do note that only one third of
mathematics doctorates are awarded to women.
E. Commitment to scholarship and awareness of current practices
The review contains a listing of faculty publications, a locally
sponsored math seminar (GRATKO) and presentations at professional conferences.
F. Engaging students in mathematics
The Mathematics Department sponsors the Mathematics and Computer Science
Club to provide extended opportunities for of interaction with students and
faculty including guest speakers, student feedback, attendance at conferences
and social events. Faculty members have
also been active in promoting undergraduate research through mentorship of
their majors on projects. An example of
outreach and recruitment effort is serving as host for a “math meet” for area
high schools.
G. Advisement processes
The Mathematics Department follows standard university advisement
procedures. They also assign advisees to
faculty in their major area.
H. University and community service
The department has representation on university committees and in
community service both at the local and regional levels.
Note: The Mathematics Department
review did not provide information on assessment data including student
evaluations, student performance such as PPST scores for mathematics education
majors.
4. Can the program continue to accomplish its goals?
The self study does not specify which areas the program wishes to
develop, although the recent addition of a faculty member in Discrete
Mathematics seems to indicate that this is or is hoped to be a growth area
since other faculty members also have this or similar expertise. PRPC asks
whether the employment prospects in this area are good, given that the program
traditionally places teachers to a greater extent than mathematicians,
according to the self-study.
A related question is whether the department will be able to sustain its
mathematics education major without a dedicated tenure-track or tenured faculty
member in this area. Clearly, academic staff members do not have iron-clad
long-term commitments from the administration regardless of their performance
and would suffer first if staffing were to be reduced. Further, academic staff
members do not normally serve on department or university committees, including
committees in the area of Teacher Education, and therefore the department is
not represented by a faculty member in this area.
PRPC does not find a need for additional staffing in CIS beyond what has
been promised by the Provost subsequent to the writing of the self-study.
The number of majors is small, the courses for the major have small
enrollments, and they are taught by senior faculty. On the other hand,
mathematics provides one of the core general education requirements which is
taught primarily by academic staff and has high enrollments, leading to the
department’s high credit-hour production numbers.
No student evaluation information was provided. PRPC requests that this
information be submitted.
Like many departments and programs on campus, mathematics needs more S
& E funding, in particular to sustain faculty development. Mathematics
faculty members are highly productive in research and scholarship in comparison
with other programs on campus (see paragraph on teaching loads, above) and are
fully entitled to the same allocation as any other program or department.
The self study notes that the current physical space in Sundquist is
damaged and inadequate.
5. What new
purposes is the department to address in the next five years?
With recent faculty hires and existing expertise, the Department expects
to become a center for Discrete Mathematics in the upper
The Department does not address if there is a need for additional
resources to move forward on this direction.
It may be inferred that the work would be done within existing faculty
and staff resources and that conferences would be conducted on a cost-recovery
basis.
With the elimination of the CIS major and the move of the CIS faculty to
the Math & Computer Science Department, the Department has conducted an
analysis on the integration of the CIS program.
The analysis indicates there will be a need for additional instructional
(.7) and support staff.
How will the department continue to improve in
quality?
The Department expects that converting existing ad-hoc instructional
staff to tenure-track faculty will allow them to move forward with planning for
the Department. This would be especially
important for stabilizing the mathematics secondary education program. Approval has not been sought or received from
the Administration for this conversion.
The Self-Study does not address program or student assessment as a means
to improve quality.
Recognition
The PRPC notes the Department’s accomplishments:
Recommendations
1. To sustain the
important secondary education mathematics major, PRPC strongly recommends that
the full-time senior lectureship position held by Marilyn Toscano be made more
permanent and be compensated at a higher than normal rate because Ms. Toscano
currently fulfills the function of a tenure-track faculty member through her
acceptance of responsibility for the secondary education major, through her
extra-contractual service on the Teacher Education Advisory Council, and
through her advisement of secondary education majors.
2. PRPC recommends the Department
continue to discuss the analysis of the integration of the CIS program. The goals would be to provide a program to
attract new students as well as meet the needs of the region. The PRPC supports the retention of existing tenured
and tenure-track faculty. The PRPC
expects to be notified of the decision of the Department on the alternative chosen
and the fiscal impact.
3. PRPC recommends the Department work with the
campus institutional researcher to develop a formal assessment of the program
and graduates of the program.
4. PRPC recommends that the program seek to sustain and
enlarge its number of majors so that all faculty and teaching academic staff
members in the Department teach similar numbers of students each semester/year,
creating an equitable load distribution within the department.
5. Regarding the program
assistant’s position being increased to fulltime from halftime, PRPC requests a
comparison with other departments on campus for: numbers of faculty and
academic staff members, numbers of ad hocs, numbers of majors, allocations of
work study funding, etc. At present we cannot make a recommendation in this
area without comparative data.
6. PRPC recommends that all
departments that endure the conditions in Sundquist receive some facilities
improvement that would acknowledge the substandard working conditions in
Sundquist in comparison with other campus buildings such as Holden Fine Arts,
Erlanson, Old Main, and
7. PRPC strongly recommends that
the Provost, the Budget Review Council
and Faculty create and sustain an equitable, campus-wide faculty development
funding formula that treats all faculty equally by providing equal amounts of
faculty development monies to all faculty members in all departments.
8. PRPC recommends the development of a plan to attract and retain more tenure-track women and minority students into the Department. Competitive salaries based on market conditions need to be a part of the plan.