DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICAL AND COMPUTER SCIENCES
UW-WHITEWATER
Minutes of the General Departmental Faculty Meeting
December 6, 2005 11 AM UC 219
Present: Ahmadi, Baica, Bryan, Chen, Drucker, Evangelista, Felcyn, Gunawardena,
Harris, Kane, Letellier, Ley, Ma, Nam, Nguyen, Rao, Samaranayake, G., Samaranayake,
S., Sheth, Siemann, Stamm
The meeting was called to order at 11:04 AM.
The minutes of the meeting of December 1, 2005 were approved on a motion of G.
Samaranayake/Bryan.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
There will be a holiday party the evening of December 17 at the home of Geetha and
Sobitha Samaranayake. Details will be circulated by e-mail in the near future.
Faculty are reminded that they are required to meet each of their classes during the
allotted final examination period for the class and to carry out some substantive course
activity which could include giving a final examination but could instead include another
educational activity such as going over a final examination that was administered earlier.
TEXTBOOK FOR MODELING AND STATISTICS:
Leon Arriola has recommended adopting a new textbook for the Modeling and Statistics
course, MATH 359. The book he is recommending discusses modeling applications in
biology. Drucker/Letellier moved to adopt the book suggested by Dr. Arriola.
Discussion centered around two issues 1) should we adopt a book which specializes in
applications to just one subject area, and 2) should the department be given the chance to
look at and evaluate several books?
Some of the faculty spoke about the book’s concentration on modeling applications in
biology. The main concern was that students might not get a full picture of how
mathematical models are applied if their text only presents applications in biology. This
would not be as much of a problem if the instructor also presented examples of how
modeling tools were applied in other disciplines as Dr. Arriola plans to do. Also, the
department has ordered the UMAP series of modeling applications which Dr. Arriola
hopes to integrate into the course. Ahmadi/Ley moved to refer this textbook selection
decision to the Mathematics Education subject area committee. Some worried that this
would prevent Dr. Arriola from changing textbooks for spring semester 2006. The
motion failed.
Dr. Harris suggested that by using the textbook with biology applications, we could
attract students from the biology major who now do not take many mathematics courses.
Biology has many students, and it would be an advantage to us to attract some of them to
our courses. This could be a stepping stone toward developing a course specifically
aimed at those majors. If the textbook does not work out, there is precedence for
allowing the department to change texts again. Also, the department could retain copies
of the old text for possible use by students. The motion to adopt the new book for
MATH 359 passed.
DEPARTMENT BY-LAWS:
Ahmadi/Kane moved to bring to the floor the motion to adopt the new department bylaws which was tabled at a previous meeting. The motion passed.
The faculty discussed how textbook adoption decisions should be made. Article VI
section o) leaves this task to the Subject Area Committees listing one of their tasks as
“Reviewing and recommending textbook selections.” Ahmadi/Evangelista moved to
change the wording to “Reviewing and selecting textbooks.” There was some concern
that a small number of department members could select a new textbook without input
from other interested faculty. Drucker/Ahmadi moved to amend the wording change to
read “Reviewing and selecting textbooks following consultation with the entire
department.” The amendment and the original motion to reword Article VI passed.
Ahmadi/Biaca moved to make some editorial changes to Article VII. The motion passed.
The motion to approve the department by-laws passed unanimously. The by-laws will
need to be approved again at the next department meeting to be adopted.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:56 on a motion of Ahmadi/Letellier.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jonathan Kane