Chairs’ Message

Abstract

President Patrick Harker unveiled his new strategic plan for the University called the Path to ProminenceTM. This plan is designed “to engage closely with the critical issues of our day, to increase the global impact of the University, and to raise its prominence in the world.” This issue of Reckonings features several articles that illustrate the Department of Mathematical Sciences’ response to this new strategic vision. Fulfilling, in part, both the University’s “Commitment to Delaware” and the goal of “A Diverse and Stimulating Undergraduate Academic Environment” we continue to develop our Secondary Mathematics Education program. The goal of this program is to prepare students for employment as middle and high school mathematics teachers, an area of critical need in the state. In September 2009 we welcomed a new specialist in this area, Dr. Michelle Cirillo, to the Department. She joins us after a post-doc at Iowa State and, besides teaching in the mathematics education program, she is working on an NSF-funded research project with her colleagues at Michigan State where she is creating professional development materials related to mathematics discourse in secondary classrooms. For more information, an article in this issue by the Director of Mathematics Education and Hollowell Professor, Prof. Alfinio Flores, focuses on mathematics education at Delaware. Both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, the university is workChair’s Message Peter Monk