The Quantitative Requirement at Juniata College

Summary

Curriculum and Program History

Juniata College is a small liberal arts institution with a strong reputation in the sciences, especially biology and chemistry. In fact, about half of each entering class intends to major in one of these two subjects. About 23 percent of Juniata students do complete a major in biology/pre-health. This context has an impact on the institutional understanding of quantitative literacy.

Before 1994, Juniata College had in its curriculum a computer literacy requirement, which was satisfied by the course “Introduction to Computing,” offered by the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science (MACS). This course contained work with Minitab and some spreadsheets, along with some simple programming. In this course, the main focus was on the computer, and any mathematics that was done was driven by the computing.

In 1994, the faculty of Juniata instituted a new curriculum, which included a Quantitative Literacy requirement (the “Q”). This requirement was partly motivated by the preliminary work of the MAA's CUPM Subcommittee on Quantitative Literacy, whose final document, “Quantitative Reasoning for College Graduates: A Complement to the Standards,” provides many important suggestions for such programs. The college formed a four-member committee (two mathematicians, a psychologist, and a musician) to oversee the Q requirement, which is stated in the course catalog as follows: “Students must demonstrate (1) basic competence in statistics, and (2) an understanding of basic mathematical skills.