The Faculty of the School of Arts and Sciences recently adopted a Quantitative Skills Requirement that will take effect in the fall of 1998 for students matriculating in the College Class of 2002. This requirement is part of a larger effort to ensure that graduates of the College are able to apply quantitative methods to analyze and understand substantive problems and to think critically about quantitative information as encountered in a variety of areas of contemporary life. To this end, the College is committed to supporting faculty interested in expanding the discussion and analysis of quantitative data in their current courses or in developing new courses that emphasize the use of quantitative data.

Support will come from the Collete, but some support may also be available from the Mathematics Across the Curriculum NSF grant to the Math Department. Interested departments or faculty members are encouraged to apply to the Quantitative Skills Committee for a course development grant from both sources. Appropriate types of support include:

- Stipend for a research assistant to develop class presentations or homework assignments that enable students to work actively with the analysis of quantitative data and to develop their quantitative skills.

- Stipends for faculty to spend a substantial amount of time during the summer designing course activities to improve the teaching of quantitative skills.

- Software for manipulating and analyzing quantitative data and displaying it in tabular or graphical form. Possible applications include software for symbolic computation (Maple), statistical analysis (eg Systat), or simulation.

- Other instructional materials.

Proposed innovations will be reviewed by the Quantitative Skills Committee to identify opportunities for coordination across the school. The Quantitative Skills Committee and SAS Computing are also working to increase support for students engaged in quantitative analysis in the residences and other computing facilities accessible to all students in the College.

Grants will be made for development activities only. Departments should be prepared to cover any ongoing instructional expenses from their regular budgets.

Application Procedures

Interested faculty should develop proposals in consultation with their department chair and undergraduate chair. Proposals should include:

a. a description of the innovation;

b. an explanation of how it will serve to engage students actively in the analysis of quantitative data and help them cultivate analytical and critical skills;

c. where applicable, a description of how this innovation could be disseminated to other colleges and universities;

d. a statement of commitment from the department to support the course and offer it regularly if it proves successful;

e. a budget with items annotated so as to make plain their connection to the descriptive prose of the proposal.

Please submit proposals to:

Kent Peterman
Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs
The College of Arts and Sciences
120 Logan Hall
249 South 36th Street/6304

Deadline and review: The Quantitative Skills Committee in consultation with the College Dean will select projects for funding. There is no deadline. Proposals will be considered at the next meeting of the committee after submission.

Report: Each recipient of funding shall prepare a brief report (approximately 1 page) on the progress accomplished at the end of the period for which funding was requested. In addition, any materials suitable for dissemination should be attached to the report.