Members of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science are encouraged to teach a variety of subjects, ranging across the various courses in the curriculum. Teaching mathematics and computer science requires enthusiasm for those disciplines, but so does learning. While one does not have to anticipate a career in mathematics or computer science in order to learn these subjects, students need to engage the discipline actively if its power is to manifest itself in their minds. Since students differ widely in their backgrounds and interests, an effective teacher must use a variety of strategies to reach students and stimulate the effort required to learn mathematics and computer science. Appreciation of different perspectives and motivations benefits both students and faculty by broadening one's understanding of the scope of our disciplines.
Teaching takes place in the office and the corridor as well as in the classroom.
It occurs during advising and lecturing, through papers and examinations, in asking and answering questions. An intrinsic part of human culture, the mathematical sciences play an important role in the general education goals of the University. This relationship is manifested not just in a few specific service courses, but in all aspects of the curriculum because the link between the mathematical sciences and other fields is forged not in curricular units but in the minds of students. Effective teaching of the mathematical sciences in a liberal arts university requires not only that appropriate contact be made on matters of substance between the mathematical sciences and other fields of human inquiry, but also that each the mathematical sciences class contribute to the overall goals of liberal education to produce thoughtful, articulate, and sensitive persons. The primary purpose of requiring significant scholarly activity of faculty in a liberal arts institution is to ensure that they remain intellectually alive and active in their field.