The department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG) has offered a MA in Mathematics for more than 50 years and a PhD in Computational Mathematics since 2008. The success of the graduates of these programs is testament to the success of the program. See our page of departmental successes, which lists accomplishments of the department since the creation of the Ph.D. progam and our list of our alumni, which lists their employment after graduation from UNCG.
The department offers undergraduate B.A. and B.S. programs and teaches more than 2000 undergraduate students in services courses each semester in general education mathematics and statistics courses.
The department has an excellent research record bringing in over $1.3 million in external research funding in 2023.
All of the above are tightly interlinked, with the graduate programs attracting excellent faculty and graduate students who are innovators in both teaching and research. Both faculty and graduate students teach the lower level courses for undergraduate students. These courses are tightly coordinated by faculty members designed following best practices in mathematics education.
Nevertheless, the UNCG administration has decided to discontinue graduate programs in mathematics with the primary goal of improving undergraduate education. We believe this approach will not achieve this goal.
The financial situation of UNCG is also given as a reason for eliminating programs. According to our analysis UNCG discontinuing the mathematics graduate programs will incur additional costs rather than savings.
On January 16, 2024, Chancellor Gilliam announced the recommendation by the Deans to discontinue our MA in Mathematics.
On January 22, 2024, Provost Storrs announced the recommendation to discontinue our PhD in Computational Mathematics.
On January 22, 2024, Chancellor Gilliam added our PhD in Computational Mathematics to the programs recommended for discontinuation. While for all other programs the number of students is given, it is not mentioned for the PhD program in Computational Mathematics. There are currently 24 students in our PhD program.
On February 1, 2024, Chancellor Gilliam announced that our MA in Mathematics and our PhD in Computational Mathematics would be discontinued. On February 2, 2024, before we had told anybody ourside the university, the mathematics faculty started receiving emails from concerned colleagues at other institutions with offers of support.
Request for pause in admissions by tenured Mathematics and Statistics Professors with the reply from the interim Provost, August 2024
Effects on Undergraduate Education by Mathematics and Statistics Professors.
Response to Recommendation to Discontinue M.A. and Ph.D. Programs, January 30, 2024.
This response included the letters of support and further material, such as statements from students.
Public statement on APR recommendations by interim head Professor Steve Tate, January 23, 2024.
Academic Portfolio Review Contextual Statement for the Master of Arts in Mathematics, January 10, 2024
This was requested by Dean Kiss of the College of Arts and Sciences, although the APR process score of our M.A. was 'meets expectations'.
Budget Analysis of Mathematics Graduate Program Elimination (PDF). This report sent to the UNCG Board of Trustees analyses the financial consequences of eliminating the graduate programs in Mathematics using the year 2022 as a case study. We expect that the discontinuation of the mathematic graduate programs will result in a net loss.
Letter from the AMS, January 26, 2024
News from the AMS: AMS Opposes UNCG Ending Computational Mathematics PhD Program , January 30. 2024
Task Force to Support Mathematics Degree Programs. This task force is a response to a trend set at West Virginia University and continued at UNCG.
Also see our collection of Letters of support for our graduate programs from UNCG and Mathematicians all over the world.
The discontinuation of the mathematics graduate programs at UNCG followed an Academic Portfolio Review similar to that conducted at the University of West Virginia in 2023, resulting in the discontinuation of mathematics graduate programs.
Documentation of the academic portfolio review at UNCG can be found on the page Academic Data Dashboards and Administrative Services Review.
There are doubts about the integrity of the Academic Portfolio Review (APR) process.
I believe that the pending recommendations at UNCG to discontinue the BA program in Anthropology, the graduate programs in Mathematics, and the foreign language minors and courses are equally heavy-handed and capricious, decisions made by one individual in an unfair, nontransparent, and uncollaborative way
-- Chuck Bolton, Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (who resigned in protest over these decisions)
Associate dean, department head resigns in protest of program eliminations at UNCG at NC Newsline
UNCG’s Associate Dean in College of Arts and Sciences resigns amidst ongoing controversial program cuts in Triad City Beat
Updated: UNCG associate dean resigns in protest as university eyes academic cuts in the Greensboro News & Record.
Disclaimer: These pages are not part of the web site of the Univerisity of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG) or the web site of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at UNCG.