Quantitative Literacy at Dominican University

Summary

Introduction

At Dominican University, in the context of a complete review of the undergraduate general education requirements, we have been able to add a Quantitative Literacy component to our curriculum. In this paper we will describe what that Qualitative Literacy component is, what it has done to departmental enrollments, our struggles with advising and placement, assessment of our program, and some outstanding problems.

Background Information

Dominican University currently consists of an undergraduate college and four graduate schools (Business, Education, Library and Information Science, and Social Work) with an enrollment of about 2,800 students (1,200 of whom are undergraduates). In 1997, the school changed its name from Rosary College and restructured its administration into a university model. Concurrent with this change was a complete review of the general education requirements of the undergraduate curriculum. The mathematics department proposed increasing the mathematics requirement for graduation from Intermediate Algebra to one course beyond Intermediate Algebra, from a specific list which follows. This list included a new course, Contemporary Mathematics, created as part of the proposal.

The proposal was based on the fact that most comparable universities in our geographical area had higher requirements, many majors already required additional mathematics courses beyond Intermediate Algebra, and a belief that graduates of Dominican University should be able to understand and use mathematics in a more meaningful way than simple algebraic manipulation. To our department's surprise, the proposal was accepted with little opposition.