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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
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A letter from Provost Andrews concerning Math
Changes coming your way that will lead to greater student success in Math. Welcome to the fall 2008 semester! Whether you are a returning student or new to Boise State University we want to make sure you are aware of our commitment to your success. Throughout the year you will see a number of improvements to the courses and programs you are enrolled in.
I would like to share with you at this time some of the changes being implemented this semester to increase your success in our lower division mathematics courses; specifically Math 025, 108, 147 and 170. Math provides both fundamental and foundational concepts that all students should possess, regardless of your field of endeavor or career choice. We are aware that some of you have struggled to understand math and/or have math anxiety.
The university recognizes our responsibility to create the conditions for you to be successful in math by creating face-to-face and web-based learning tools, providing tutorials, and preparing instructors for quality teaching. You also have a responsibility to study, use the resources and our Math Learning Center, and complete homework assignments.
We are confident that by working together you will be successful. To fulfill our part, we have made the following changes for this semester in Math 025 and Math 108: Increased contact with instructors: Since time-on-task is crucial to learning math, we will require attendance for class and lab sessions each week. One of the meetings per week will be in a regular classroom setting. The other sessions will take place in the Math Learning Center (MLC). This change will increase the minimum amount of time-on-task activity for you and ensure sufficient formal contact with your instructor.
Added space for Math Learning Center: We have also added to the space available in our Math Learning Center (MLC) to accommodate all of you. The Math Learning Center is located at 1406 Chrisway Drive, a tan building with blue trim, behind the Gateway Center (corner of University and Chrisway) and across the street from the Wellness Center. In addition, we have added a satellite site in MG 115.
Coaching: We have noted fairly good success rates with students who consistently complete their work. Therefore, all students whose homework activity is not current in any given week will be contacted by their instructor, in order to promote regular homework habits.
Instructor training: We have provided training for all instructors who work in the Math Learning Center. In addition, this fall the Math Department began requiring of every student in Math 147 and Math 170 a common homework assignment. The assignment is an assessment of precalculus skills using a computer program called ALEKS. Like any homework assignment, the intent is to measure and improve students’ skills. If an ALEKS score shows a lack of readiness, students have the opportunity to practice using ALEKS tutorials then reassess as often as they want. If needed, students can study from other sources or practice from old texts.
As of this writing, more than 700 students have taken their ALEKS assessments this Fall. Most have comfortably assessed at “perfect readiness.” Of those who did not, several dozen have reassessed successfully, often through the ALEKS learning module. This is exactly what was hoped for, but there have been additional benefits as well. A number of students enrolled in Math 147 have scored well enough to move directly into Math 170.
Most are students whose ACT score from their Junior year of high school did not accurately reflect the math they learned as Seniors. For these cases, and many others, ALEKS has acted as a correction to an outdated placement mechanism. ALEKS is a homework assignment this semester, but it has functioned as a double check on other prerequisite or placement information.
We hope that this extra information can become a permanent feature of assessment and placement for future semesters at Boise State. I wish to thank faculty and staff in Department of Mathematics for initiating these changes. We are confident that they will make a difference for you.
I also wish to thank you in advance for meeting your obligations to achieve success. Together we will create the conditions to ensure that you learn the methods necessary in Math to pursue further study.
You should also know that regardless of the subject you should never hesitate to let your professors, department chairs, deans, or me (provost@boisestate.edu) know if you have any comments or concerns regarding your academic classes at Boise State University. Hope you have a successful Fall semester!
Sona Karentz Andrews, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Boise State University.
Responses concerning the BSU bookstore and the condom coupon removal
Pepperoni and Prophylactics
Betty is a strict vegetarian, so when she found out about the pizza coupons in the booklets being given out at the local college bookstore, she became concerned. The coupons offer fifty percent off the regular price of a pepperoni pizza (or any other single topping pizza).
Betty feels that the coupons unnecessarily perpetuate the idea across campus that everyone is eating meat, and being concerned for the ethical fiber of her classmates, she rallied a group of fellow herbivores together and petitioned to have the coupons removed. Bob, the owner of Pizza Zone, claims that the coupons did not necessarily promote eating meat – that the one topping promised in the coupon could be pepperoni, but it could also be tomato, mushroom or any other vegetable Pizza Zone normally puts on their pies.
Loyal customers of Pizza Zone, Suzie and Johnny, an environmentally responsible couple who decided long ago that they would only eat organic meat, and in moderation, say that the coupons being removed is ridiculous. “We have been coming here for quality pizza for two years and would love to see Pizza Zone thrive.” However, Betty feels that the coupon should be removed, depriving the pizza-eating community, vegetarian and carnivore alike, from easily accessible knowledge of a great deal.
Bob, being a levelheaded and kindhearted businessman, says he will offer the same deal he advertised to anyone who mentions the completely ridiculous waste of time and energy Betty and her moral warriors put into such a trivial crusade.
Joshua Hale is a senior
studying English literature.
The BSU bookstore coupon booklets made head lines in the school news paper and got on the ten o’clock news last week. The news was about the condom coupons that had been removed manually from the booklet after having been there for years. Was BSU right in censoring these coupons? The questions is there to be debated.
I must confess to my personal involvement in this scam.
If you visited the BSU books store during the first two weeks of classes you were probably offered one of these booklets. You might have seen me at the book store, I was one of the people handing them out.
It was a few days after the story came out that I discovered a booklet from spring 2008 in a forgotten corner of the bookstore. I leafed through it until I found the coupon that had caused all this fuss, there it was. It was then that I looked at the back cover and discovered the true scandal. Pizza was up two whole
dollars.
I compared the spring booklet to the one from this fall and found and almost without exception every pizza place in the booklet had raised their coupon price by two dollars. Now there is no doubt that the pizza companies have the right to raise the price, it is a coupon after all.
Even so, I felt more outrage over the pizza than I did over the condoms. I wondered what would happen if you offered college students the choice between a condom coupon or two dollars off his next pizza. Some people would probably take the condom coupon but I think most would opt for the pizza. My conclusion from this is simple, give us cheaper pizza so we can talk about censorship with a full stomach.
Andrew Mckeeth is a freshman
studying communication.