Preliminary Impact Study of UHCL Going 4 Years on the Division of Computing and Mathematics

11/27/2007

Bun Yue

This preliminary impact study is based on the input of the program chairs of the division of computing and mathematics: Dr. Tom Fox (Mathematics), Dr. Frank Li (Statistics), Dr. Sharon Hall (Computer Science) and Dr. Andrew Yang (Computer Information Systems)

Because of the brief preparation time, the study is preliminary and may change substantially when more information is available. It also focuses only on the increase of course offerings and human resources. Other needed resources, such as classrooms and laboratories, maintenance and operation funding, etc. are not included.

It assumes an initial freshman enrollment of 250 per year. If freshman enrollment increases, additional resources will be needed.

Computer Science (CS) and Computer Information Systems (CIS)

Based on the percentage of undergraduate students majoring in CS and CIS programs, the estimate is around 7 freshmen out of 250 will major in CS/CIS.

Currently, CS and CIS students take Visual Basic, Pascal and C in the lower level. UHCL also offer these courses and the new UHCL CS/CIS freshmen can be absorbed in the current course offerings without any increase in section. The increase in SCH is estimated to be around 7 students x (1 CSCI course per year) x 3 credits = 21 SCH.

If a computer literacy course is required by all other schools and they take the course from the CS/CIS program, it is estimated that six sections of the new course will be needed per year (three per semester). The SCH increase will be 6 sections x 25 average students per section x 3 credits = 450 SCH.

If the computer literacy course is required, a tenured track faculty member is needed to teach some of these courses as well as coordinate the low level CS/CIS course offering.

It is also expected that if UHCL goes four years, some of the existing junior level UHCL courses may migrate to the lower level. The impact will be more chance for students to get exposure to these courses earlier, potentially increasing the number of majors.

Mathematics

The Mathematics program will be significantly impacted as many lower level support courses will be offered. The following table estimates the number of added sections of courses per year.

Course / New? / Additional Sections / Comment
Intermediate Algebra/Finite Math / Y / 6 / Preparation course for College Algebra; Finite Math required by Business
College Algebra / Y / 7 / Required core Math requirement
Pre-Calculus / Y / 2 / Prerequisites for Calculus I/Business Calculus
Calculus I / Y / 2 / Required for most SCE majors
Calculus II / Y / 2 / Required for many SCE majors
Business Calculus / Y / 3 / Required for Business
Math 4331 Calculus III / N / 1 / Required for many SCE majors
Math 3031 Math for EC-4 I / N / 4 / Required for Math teacher certificate program
Math 3038 Computational Stat / N / 2 / Required for many majors
Total / 29

Thus, we estimate that 29 new Math sections per year will be offered initially. There will also be added workload in managing the new lower level courses and the anticipated significantly increased traffic in the MathCenter.

We estimate that the increase in SCH to be 29 sections x 25 average students per section x 3 credits = 2175 SCH.

The estimated new human resources are a tenure-track faculty member (6 courses per year) and two new lecturers (8 courses per year). These three faculty members will teach a total of 22 courses per year. There will also be a need for a new full-time MathCenter director, making the new personnel requirements to be four persons.