COSAM News Articles 2018 October Message from Dean Giordano - October 2018

Message from Dean Giordano - October 2018

Published: 10/01/2018

The Fall 2018 semester is now well underway and our sleepy summer campus has become very busy. Another large freshman class has arrived and settled in to their classes, many of which are in the College of Sciences and Mathematics (COSAM). The total enrollment at Auburn University has now passed 30,000; this milestone confirms that prospective students and their parents continue to see great value in an Auburn degree, something that I certainly agree with. The continued growth in our enrollment will be a major point of discussion as Auburn develops a new strategic plan in the next few months.

A large freshman class means continued high demand for core courses in science and mathematics. While this demand has been a challenge for all COSAM departments, we continue to meet this challenge. We are committed to making sure that the courses in science and mathematics are available when our students want and need them. This is our promise to all Auburn students.

This past summer we offered a program for incoming freshmen called Plainsman Prep. This is an intensive, one week math review/preparation course whose goal is help students be ready for the first math course. This summer we had 82 students in the program, and our goal is to eventually serve 10 percent of the freshman class (as a reminder, our freshman class this year totaled about 4,800 students). Of the 82 students who attended this year, 44 percent did well enough to improve their math proficiency enough to be placed into the calculus course required for their major, thus helping them get off to a fast start in their curriculum. This is just one of the new programs that COSAM is developing to help Auburn students be successful.