VPA Sez

Notes from UAC

The Undergraduate Affairs Committee (UAC) is a committee chaired by Assoc. Dean Prof. David McKinnon, composed of representatives from programs within the Faculty of Mathematics, VPA of MathSoc, CS Rep from MathSoc, as well as reps from the Registrar's Office, Co-op, etc. The UAC reports to Faculty Council on matters pertaining to undergraduate courses and the Undergraduate Calendar. Arguably the most significant changes introduced earlier this week were for ACTSC, as a result those will be emphasized here. NOTE: All motions discussed in this article are effective 01-SEP-2012 pending Faculty Council and Senate Undergraduate Council approval (unless otherwise indicated).

ACTSC plan and course changes

ENGL 119 will no longer be required for ACTSC students who achieved a "Good" or "Excellent" on their ELPE. Rather, ENGL 119 has been broadened to a list of courses with substantial emphasis on communication. The Math ELPE is currently marked on a pass-fail basis, however, Engineering uses a sliding scale which can easily be adopted. To strengthen the communication skills of students, ACTSC 232 are to include "ELPE passed with Good or Excellent or (Math Faculty Writing skills requirement and ENGL 119)". In addition, MTHEL 131 was approved to be a required ACTSC Major course per explicit suggestions by the UW Advisory Board for Actuarial Science. MTHEL 131 has also been added as a co-requisite for ACTSC 232 in order to derive the most use out of the course**. (**This change is proposed to be effective 01-SEP-2013).

On a separate note, ACTSC 372's prerequisites are to include MATH 237 (or MATH 247). The rationale behind this edition is that the there is a sufficient amount of the material in Markowitz theory that requires multivariate calculus. Important to note here is that MATH 207 is not included as a viable prerequisite for ACTSC 372. The department has been tasked with looking into alternative prerequisite chains for students who are otherwise not required to take Calculus 3 for Honours Mathematics (in particular, Mathematical Studies or BCS).

other miscellaneous changes

• CS 246 to be added as optional course for CS Minor students
• COMM 103 course to be created covering ECON 101 & 102 material for Math/CA students only (to bring Math/CA course requirement from 42 to 41)
• MATH 245 to be [Offered: F, S] rather than [Offered: F] due to increased interest (and co-op stream D)

Bryanne Pashley
Vice President, Academics