Glenville State University revives mathematics degree for nonteachers
Oct. 30—GLENVILLE — Glenville State University is reviving its undergraduate math degree.
The school offers a math education degree but discontinued its nonteaching math program in 1969. David O'Dell, professor of chemistry and chair of the department of science and mathematics, said the school had a lot of students who were interested in mathematics but there was no path for them to pursue a degree in the subject outside of teaching. Instead, they would take a different major and take a minor in math.
"We only had to create four new courses to do a non-teaching math degree," he said. "It was a few years in the making. A lot of it just took until we had a large enough faculty back in the math part of the department to make it happen because it takes staffing to cover the courses. But we're really excited about having that back after 50 some years of not having a plain old mathematics degree."
The degree is built on top of the existing mathematics education program, which is designed for people heading into the classroom. However, it includes four to six additional classes which round out the nonteaching version of the degree.
Previously, students who wanted a math education could take a majority of math courses but not receive a degree in the subject. This also benefits students who don't want to teach but still want to take math.
"Sometimes a student wasn't very successful in the math education program, Wenwen Du, associate professor of Mathematics, said. "They tried to become a math major and we don't have this option, so we lose the student from time to time.
Du said that not having a general math degree was especially challenging for international students, who can't easily transfer to another university due to financial aid or visa reasons.
Du and Assistant Professor of Mathematics Pai Song both are the current leads for the program's design. However, reviving the degree option was a team effort. Paul Peck, a former math professor at the school, initially led the charge between five to 10 years ago and several people have carried it forward since, most recently Du and Song. O'Dell, as chair, oversaw the development of the program.
The program requires students to concentrate on one of four applied areas. However, since the program is designed by two dedicated mathematicians who understand the field and how to best teach it, students receive a sound foundation in all of the fundamentals before they go into the applied portion of the degree. This ensures they understand the math that underpins their chosen concentration.
The available concentrations are Applied Topology, Business, Computer Science and Science/Engineering. Careful consideration went into picking those four areas of study.
"We didn't blindly pick those concentrations, we had to pick them mostly looking forward," O'Dell said. "Three to five years down the road, we'll know which one of them is popular or which ones aren't so popular. We might find that there's something else out there that we overlooked that future employers are interested in and that students want."
Du said math majors have a lot of options after graduation. A lot of people walking down Wall Street have a good mathematics background. Math is an important basis for a lot of fields. O'Dell said the world is described mathematically, the universe operates by physical laws which are just mathematical statements.
Song's background is in computer science.
"When I took math I never thought I needed to do computer science stuff, but they're connected," he said. "You have to do this. If you're a computer science major, you also need to be good at math."
Reach Esteban at efernandez@timeswv.com
