About the Department

The major goal of the department of mathematics is to develop logical reasoning and problem-solving skills among our students, to make them independent learners, to demonstrate the power and beauty of mathematics and to show them the relationship of mathematics to other disciplines.

The department currently offers majors in mathematics and mathematics with teaching credential emphasis. An interdisciplinary major in mathematics-business and a 3-2 program in mathematics/engineering are also offered. We also offer a scientific computing minor, along with a one-year sequence of introductory computer science courses. Many students double-major in mathematics and physics.

Most of the students in the College take at least one course in the department to satisfy COM1 (Quantitative Reasoning ) requirement of their Liberal Education Program. Students from many other disciplines such as business administration and the sciences take additional mathematics courses. The department also participates in the teaching of college-wide courses such as Freshman Writing and Science & Society courses as much as possible.

Department members generally rotate the teaching of various courses. This allows the students in the department to be exposed to different teaching techniques. Due to the small number of majors, most upper-division courses are taught in alternate years.

The department currently has 20 - 25 majors. There have always been about the same number of female and male students. Most of our majors work in the department as tutors and graders and some work as tutors in local high schools.

The department has used technology in the teaching of mathematics since 1989 beginning with the use of Maple for calculus. Currently a number of mathematics courses offered in the department use the power of today's computer technology to simulate real-world situations in the classroom. We use software packages like Maple, Microsoft Excel, SPSS, MatLab, C++ and Java Programming environments, TeX/LaTeX typesetting packages, etc. A Math Lab containing twelve Pentium 4 PCs running Windows XP Pro and 2 classrooms with thirty PCs are used heavily throughout the year.

Graduates with a mathematics degree choose a variety of careers in teaching, banking, high-tech industries, or work as programmers, system analysts, actuaries, or engineers. About 15 percent of our graduates attend graduate school, medical school, or law school.