Narrative for Proposed Changes to Mathematics: Statistics (MTST)
B.S. Major and Minor
A.
Statement of major focus and objectives of the revised program.
The major focus and objectives of the revised program are the same. I will
address each of these changes with the rationale behind the proposed change.
1) Requiring a computer programming course
This is accomplished by requiring STAT 255 – Data Management Using SAS or a
computer science course number 234 or above. Computer programming has
always been an important skill for a statistician and many of our majors have
taken a CS course as an elective in their major. To work with the increasingly
large databases statisticians are likely to encounter in their work requires that they
have some skill in computer programming and database management to
effectively interact with them. One of the primary database management and
statistical software programs, some would say the industry standard, is SAS thus
we feel that it is important that our students have some exposure to it. We are
beginning to introduce SAS more in our applied statistics courses, however STAT
255 covers specifically the essentials of database management with SAS. The CS
option makes sense as the skills learned in a programming course lend themselves
to working with other database programming environments like Perl. We also use
R, a free statistical programming environment, extensively in our curriculum.
Any programming experience will help a student when it comes to programming
in R which is similar in many respects to C++.
2) Requiring STAT 365 – Experimental Design and Analysis
This course has moved from a short list of electives to a program requirement.
Truth be told, nearly all majors were taking this course anyway so it really isn’t
that much of change. Together with STAT 360 – Regression Analysis these
courses form the “meat and potatoes” of a year long applied statistics sequence.
It was by unanimous vote that the Statistics Group of the Department of
Mathematics & Statistics decided this course should be required of all majors.
3) Require all majors to complete a capstone experience
All students completing a major in statistics will be required to complete a
capstone project. The capstone project will consist of one of the following:

Completion of a large data analysis project under the direction of a
statistics faculty member. One source of such projects would be the WSU
Statistical Consulting Center which will begin operating formally in the
Spring 2008. We also hope to a have physical space for the center when
the Maxwell renovation is complete. Another source would working on
project of importance to the university by using data available from the
Institutional Research and Assessment databases. (STAT 488)
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
Conducting an undergraduate research project under the direction of a
statistics faculty member. This type of project would be less applied and
generally more theoretically focused although application of any results
may also be a goal. Students could also complete this requirement by
participating in a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) at
numerous sites across the country. (STAT 488)

Completion of an internship/practicum experience. Many statistics
majors over the years have had internships at places like the Mayo Clinic,
Benchmark Electronics, TRW, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Hartford Insurance, etc. Recently we have developed
relationships with the Gundersen Lutheran and USGS in LaCrosse as
potential internship sites for our students. (STAT 492)
We believe that completion of a capstone experience will give our students a
competitive edge when it comes to seeking employment or admission into
graduate schools. Furthermore, we believe that the projects themselves serve as a
means of assessment of our program and what are students are able to do as result
of completing a statistics major at Winona State.
4) Changes in course prerequisites
STAT 321 – added STAT 303 to the preferably list for introductory statistics
courses. This was an inadvertent omission from last catalog cycle
and as it is only a preferential statement, does not reflect a real
requirement change.
STAT 350 – dropped MATH 120 as a prerequisite. It was unanimous that this
was not really needed for a student to be successful in the course.
STAT 360 – dropped MATH 120 as a prerequisite. It was unanimous that this
was not really needed for a student to be successful in the course.
We also added STAT 305 to the list of preferable introductory
courses.
STAT 365 – dropped MATH 120 as a prerequisite. It was unanimous that this
was not really needed for a student to be successful in the course.
We also added STAT 305 to the list of preferable introductory
courses.
STAT 450 – replaced MATH 220 with MATH 305. (see Mathematics
Program changes)
STAT 460 - replaced MATH 220 with MATH 305. (see Mathematics
Program changes)
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B.
New Catalog Content
1. All catalog changes are attached, proposed changes in the left column, existing
program is in the right column.
2. There are some changes to the catalog narrative that reflect more course
options available for students interested specifically in biostatistics and some new
titles for the different quality designations from the American Society for Quality
(ASQ). The changes are reflected in the attached catalog copy.
C.
Description of Revisions
1. All changes are attached and placed side-by-side for easy comparison.
2. All changes are in red and complete deletions are stuck through.
3. This was discussed in the narrative above.
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