The strategic plan for the Department of Mathematics is centered on strengthening the department's instructional programs and faculty and broadening the department's outreach. Over the past five years, the department has made notable progress towards its long-standing goal of "excellence in instruction and research," and it has received support from the administration on several issues which critically affect the productivity of its faculty. These include normalization of faculty salaries relative to university and national averages, initiation of a post-doc program which assures a steady flow-through of young researchers, support for technology-based innovations in instruction such as the Mathematical Modeling course and the Calculus Lab, and an agreement on teaching loads which permits flexibility in faculty teaching schedules and protects the department's research environment.

The dawn of the next millennium will be accompanied by several factors which directly impact the department's mission. These include:

1. an increased number of students in core and service mathematics courses,
2. a large number of retirements by senior faculty,
3. a shift in mathematics curriculum needs as students prepare for a changing workplace, and
4. technology-driven changes in mathematical instruction and research.

The department sees these factors as opportunities for improvements in its program. The plan below is broadly divided into external and internal goals. The external goals concern areas where the department will require the support of the administration, if it is to attain its internal goals in transforming itself.

EXTERNAL GOALS

The most crucial issues now facing the department are needs in hiring, the need to maintain the present teaching environment in the face of budgetary and enrollment pressures, and the need to stabilize computer system support.

The department's first priority is hiring. It desperately needs more Ph.D. level faculty to accommodate increased demand for its services. The department is also facing a large number of retirements, including several by faculty with high profiles in teaching and research. At least some retiring senior faculty must be replaced with "rising young stars" at the associate professor level. The department long ago passed the point where it could fulfill the demand for lower division instruction with Ph.D. faculty. Currently, this shortfall is occurring at the level of calculus. It is also clear that the department will face increased demand for upper-division undergraduate courses. As examples of this demand, we mention the "minor in mathematics program" which forms a component of the Regents' quality assurances for USG education of the State's teachers, and the evolving mathematics major with a degree certificate in computer science. We also note increased requests for course offerings from departments such as Agricultural Engineering, MIS, and Biology. These demands for service stand starkly opposite a significant number of projected retirements. Of the 40 tenured and tenure-track faculty, 13 have over 25 years' service and 20 have over 20 years' service. Several of these faculty members have high profiles in research and/or instruction. It will not be possible to maintain the status quo simply by replacing these faculty at the junior level.

Second, the department must prevent degradation in class sizes and faculty teaching loads. This is of key importance to the quality of instruction delivered to students, to faculty research productivity, and to the department's ability to recruit new faculty. It is a special feature of mathematics instruction at the University of Georgia that lower-level courses have historically been taught in small classes. With the support of the College, the department has been able to maintain this feature over several decades, despite national trends and enrollment pressures. For the benefit of students, every effort must be made to preserve this tradition. At the same time the department has a first-rate research faculty. Mathematics research does not require expensive equipment. It does require extended time for uninterrupted thought; indeed, this is the single most important factor in research productivity. To assure this, the College and the department have agreed upon a "contract" setting the total number of courses to be taught by permanent faculty, but allowing flexibility for how this total is achieved. The contract can be expected to be an important factor in recruiting, as it enables the department to define the long-term teaching expectations for new faculty. It also enables faculty members to contribute to the different missions of the department according to their individual strengths. It permits nurturing of junior faculty, and periodic renewal for senior faculty through concentrated research time, in the absence of a University-wide provision for sabbaticals. In the light of enrollment pressures and the desire to preserve smaller class sizes, maintaining the teaching load in the contract will not be easy, but it is essential if the department is to improve its stature in research.

Third, the department must secure adequate computer support personnel. The department is a heavy user of technology, both in research and in undergraduate instruction. It has had a consistent problem obtaining stable systems support, being both understaffed relative to the number of machines served and vulnerable to predatory hires of experienced personnel. The department has a complex computer set-up with over 300 machines, several networks, and a variety of platforms--approximately 1/3 as many machines as UCNS manages campus-wide. The department's instructional use of technology involves web-based instruction, mathematical software for Calculus Labs and locally developed computer testing and tutorials for precalculus, and several networks. This technology serves over 4000 students per semester. Despite this, the department has only one senior and one junior position for computer support, which were obtained by cannibalizing faculty positions. Recent departures by support personnel have threatened a melt-down in instructional technology, affecting thousands of students and causing serious dislocations to faculty. This situation cannot be allowed to continue.

Fourth, the department must prevent degradation of faculty salaries relative to university and national averages. For many years low salaries, particularly in the upper ranks, were damaging to faculty morale and a perennial bone of contention. With the assistance of the administration in connection with the Kunze retirement, and through the support of education by Governor Miller, this situation has largely been rectified. It must not be allowed to become an issue again.

Last, we urge the renovation of the Boyd Graduate Studies Building as a modern facility dedicated to the mathematical sciences, housing the allied departments of mathematics, computer science, and statistics. The redevelopment proposal in the UGA physical master plan furnishes the ideal opportunity to update cramped and outmoded facilities, providing desperately needed classrooms equipped with technology for state-of-the-art instruction, and creating an environment fostering collaboration in research and teaching. Of particular interest to the department is a spacious undergraduate study room, equipped with couches, round tables, blackboards, and computer terminals, to which undergraduates studying mathematics will naturally gravitate for collaborative work.

INTERNAL GOALS

The department will seek to improve its environment for teaching and research, and to raise the quality of its output in both areas. It will attempt to provide proper balance between its missions of teaching and research, and seek ways to sustain faculty productivity at all career stages.

In teaching, the department's major goals include improving courseofferings, mentoring faculty as teachers, increasing the number of mathematics majors (by several means, including incorporating new areas of specialization, such as a degree certificate in Computer Science), improving contacts with Mathematics Education, and establishing a regular program of outreach to Georgia high school teachers and students. The department will increase the rewards and honor given to those who excel at teaching. In making hires, it will emphasize long-term expectations in teaching as well as research, and as part of the mentoring of faculty, it will seek to foster commitment to teaching. It will seek to involve permanent faculty with all phases of the undergraduate instructional program. Finally, it will search for ways to increase the affinity of the faculty, recruited on a national and international stage, with the State of Georgia and with the South.

In research, the department's overall goal is to progress towards the research environment of a first-tier program in mathematics. Major goals include increasing the department's research output and grant
support, increasing the research calibre of the faculty through regular hires of junior faculty and strategic hires of rising stars at the associate professor level, and appropriately focusing the graduate program in an era of change. The department will develop a plan for hiring that balances the obvious need to build on its existing research strengths, while responding to external needs for hires in specific areas. It will also seek to improve the research environment for current faculty by identifying unnecessary time sinks and streamlining the departmental committee structure, by protecting faculty teaching loads, and by assessing and improving the department's program of post-docs, visitors, seminars, and special lecture