Executive Summary of the Mathematics Department Review (Winter 2014)
The Mathematics department was reviewed by two external reviewers—both mathematics professors—and one internal reviewer. Together they looked at a number of significant factors related to the department, including learning outcomes, syllabi, enrolment numbers, student surveys and many other things. They also met with every member of the department, a number of mathematics students, the Dean of Science, the Provost, and other relevant party members. Their review was very thorough.
The Reviewers’ report praised the department, noting that faculty have “good relationships and a shared passion” that “complement each other.” The report also noted that “the relationships of the students with faculty are excellent,” and that the “faculty are recognized researchers” who supervise “strong NSERC‐funded undergraduate research.” Moreover, the department is “among the leaders in Christian college mathematics programs” addressing the investigation of mathematics from a reformed perspective. The department is able to offer a breadth of courses via cycling, and the reviewers noted that many graduates from the department did go on to graduate‐level work in a variety of graduate programs.
The report, however, did recommend a few changes, such as creating service courses for biology and health sciences, making changes in recruitment and outreach to change the image of the department in the community in order to increase enrolment, hiring another faculty member to diversify the course offerings and research done in the department, and working closer with the department of Education to help future teachers learn to teach mathematics.
The department’s response to these suggestions was very positive and in fact planned to implement some of these already, especially the suggestions about promoting the department more effectively. Some suggestions, however, such as hiring an additional faculty member or adding a lot of new courses, are not completely feasible at the moment, though there is hope for the future.
