Math Department Starts Review Of Intermediate Level Courses

The Mathematics Department has launched an investigation of its intermediate-level courses, because of decreasing enrollment and concern that its curriculum has become unfocused.

A committee of department members charged with reviewing the 100-level courses met for the first time last week to begin discussing possible changes to recommend.

Drift

"We've been teaching the same courses for years and the curriculum has drifted from what it used to be," Department Chairman David Mumford said last week, explaining the decision to initiate the review.

The examination follows a spring overhaul of the department's introductory offerings, Math 1 and 21. Taught in sections, chiefly by graduate students, both courses now have stricter supervision and standards for their instructors.

A significant factor in promoting the current review was a drop in enrollment in 100-level courses over the past decade, department members said.

Danger

One member of the review committee attributed this drop last week to undergraduates' increasing interest in taking graduate courses. "Many undergrads feel they should take graduate courses as soon as possible. This is a danger signal--something is missing in the regular undergraduate program," Wilfried Schmid, professor of Mathematics, said last week.

Committee members said they discussed the review in broad terms at the initial meeting and have not made specific revisions of the curriculum.

One possible change is to make the first half of the Math 213 sequence ("Functions of a Complex Variable") a 100-level course, Mumford said.