About the Department

Mission Statement

Mathematics and statistics are responses to the fundamental human endeavor to understand the world. Furthermore, modern technological society relies on developments in these disciplines. Consequently, the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at California State University, Long Beach, as in most universities, plays a vital and indispensable role in the lives of the students and faculty.

The Department's mission is two-fold: to assist in integrating students into society by educating them in these fields; secondly, to build and foster an excellent faculty, which contributes to the development of mathematics and statistics and serves as a resource of mathematical expertise for the people of this state. This department aims to fulfill this mission by performing the following major functions:

  1. Provide superior General Education instruction for every student on campus.
  2. Deliver quality instruction via a large collection of service courses to a significant variety of departments and majors.
  3. Sustain a considerable and qualified group of undergraduate majors in the areas of general mathematics, applied mathematics, mathematics education and statistics.
  4. Maintain vibrant graduate programs in the fields of general and applied mathematics, mathematics education and applied statistics. Enrich the intellectual life of the campus and the general mathematical and statistical community by providing expertise and practicing scholarly activity.

In order to fulfill these functions the department should do the following:

  • seek, constantly, ways to improve its teaching methods thereby deepening student understanding, including the use of new technology as a teaching tool, and maintain a diverse and modern curriculum at all levels;
  • convey to all students a sense of the relevancy of mathematics and statistics, and of the importance of analytical and quantitative skills in contemporary society;
  • provide placement and advising tools for students so as to promote a high level of success among the many students taking its courses;
  • make available intervention tools to maintain a high level of success among all its students;
  • schedule appropriate classes at the appropriate times to try to meet the diverse needs of the various communities of students that attend CSULB;
  • maintain communication with the departments whose majors are served by its courses in order to ensure that the courses are providing the knowledge and skills needed, within the constraints of usefulness to all students in those courses and of the maintenance of mathematical integrity;
  • foster an environment for its students in which the excitement and vivacity of mathematical and statistical activity is apparent, and in which students carry that enthusiasm back to their professional lives regardless of whether they are secondary school or community college teachers, applied mathematicians or statisticians in commerce and industry or graduate students pursuing higher degrees;
  • impart appropriate training in mathematics and statistics for graduate students who will use that training professionally as mathematicians, statisticians or as teachers of mathematics while also providing adequate preparation for the students who will pursue doctoral studies;
  • encourage faculty to remain active in their discipline by reading and learning new mathematics or statistics, attending and participating in conferences related to these subjects, sharing the results of successful teaching approaches, writing for appropriate journals or writing textbooks, or developing original mathematics or statistics or their applications.