Suggestions for the Math Department at Oakland University

Suggestions for the Math Department at Oakland University (work in progress)

During these difficult times financially for Oakland University we are suggesting some ideas of how we can improve effectiveness of our teaching, save money, and increase the visibility of the mathematics department.


A quick overview of the Department of Mathematics

The Department of Mathematics employs 25 full time faculty, 20 part-time or special lectures faculty, and 12 graduate students.  For a University of our size these numbers are totally not comparable to other departments in this country.  

Teaching

The mathematics department has had a continuing problem with lower level mathematics courses.  The passing rate in such courses is very low compared to other departments of the university. Most of our faculty who were hired to do research and teach high level courses end up teaching preparatory courses because of the lack of staff and faculty for these courses.

Math Freshman Courses:

• The interaction student - faculty must be increased substantially.  Our students need practice, quizzes, interaction.
• If possible make the Calculus courses 5 credits (3 lecture, 2 discussions). This is the real problem that makes teaching such courses impossible to teach.
• Eliminate all the part-time or special-lectures positions. Replace them with graduate students.

Research

In order to increase the research activity, to be able to get more grants, and to have a very active department we must

• Increase the number of graduate students
• Encourage creation of small research groups
• Involve in the department strategic planning people who are active on research.

Service to the state and the community:

The state needs more people in advanced science and engineering degrees. Moreover, more qualified mathematics teachers are needed. Giving more graduate students the opportunity to attend advanced programs would benefit the state of Michigan.  

Graduate Program:

The graduate program is the bright spot in the department, but this is very much destined to fail if we do not take measures to make it competitive with other departments in the region. We have currently 12 supported graduate students.  We get on average 3 new graduate students per year.  With such numbers it is impossible to build a graduate program.  Furthermore, our graduate courses have on average 5-7 students.  It would cost OU absolutely nothing if we add another 15 graduate students and make such courses with 20-25 students each. Granting 15-20 tuition waivers for the Department of mathematics would have no cost, it would give us the opportunity to hire such graduate students for teaching and would greatly improve the teaching of graduate courses.

Changes suggested:

• Hiring of part-time employees must follow the hiring procedures of the department and go through a regular hiring process if the person is employed for longer than one semester.
• The department gets 20 more tuition waivers for graduate students.
• The department has a strategy of what research groups will build in the future.  The current situation of three groups (continues, discrete, statistics) is not efficient and does not encourage building specialized research groups.
• 
  
  ......................