Effective this fall, incoming freshmen must score a 27 or higher on the mathematics portion of the ACT to satisfy the core requirement for math. Before the faculty meeting on April 4, the requirement was a 24 minimum score.
Provost David Whalen said the 24 score requirement has been in place since before he arrived at Hillsdale College, at least 18 years ago. Whalen was not sure why the requirement was first set at 24.
Whalen said mathematics has, for a long time, been kind of a marginal component of the core curriculum. For reasons “of intellectual development and commitments implicit in the liberal arts tradition,” he said the mathematics department and others believe students should have a more robust math familiarity.
“The change to 27 has been seen as a modest step in that direction, not a dramatic one,” Whalen said.
Whalen said the increase will only affect about 10 percent of the incoming freshman class, or 30 to 40 students.
of our peer institutions have anything remotely resembling an ACT requirement for math proficiency,” Webster said.
Webster said that a 24 score on the ACT does not compare to any of the math classes taught at Hillsdale College.
“All of our math classes are much more substantial than the ACT requirement,” he said. “We are more or less trying to bring the two in line with each other.”
Whalen reiterated Webster’s sentiment.
“The 24 ACT score was something like ‘presumed high school algebra 2 level,’ which isn’t acceptable,” Whalen said.
Webster and Whalen said 27 will allow the math department to accommodate the extra students with the resources it currently has. Webster said the department will not add new sections but will increase the class sizes of Math 105: Math and Deductive Reasoning; Math 112, which is first in the Integrated Calculus sequence; and Math 120, which is standard Calculus I.
Not all faculty members felt this change was a wise idea for the coming school year.
“There were no concerns about the value, importance, and centrality of mathematics in a liberal education and for our students in particular. No one made that argument,” Whalen said.
Whalen said the “prudential and procedural reservations” faculty members had about the change stemmed from concerns about compounding the core revisions already set to occur this fall.
“I believe there were some concerns that since we’re in the process of implementing big core changes that were approved two years ago and this is a change somewhat related to core, that maybe too many changes are being implemented at once,” Webster said. “Some would have preferred, I believe, just to let the core changes that have been approved be implemented first before we do anything else.”
Webster said the change is a step in the right direction of creating a well-rounded liberal arts math student.
“Ideally, math would be treated no differently than any other discipline that makes up our core,” Webster said. “No other core classes can be opted out of by achieving a certain ACT score. But this particular step is quite modest and will affect relatively few students.”
Junior Emily Whitmer is a music major from Gladstone, Mich. She was able to opt out of taking a mathematics class at Hillsdale, but would not have been able to if her class was affected by the ACT requirement increase.
While many humanities major might be breathing sighs of relief at having avoided a mathematics class, Whitmer said she wouldn’t have minded taking the extra course.
“I enjoyed calculus and algebra in high school so I wouldn’t have minded taking math here, as nerdy as it sounds,” she said.
“It’s a recognition of a change in college clientele. It doesn’t lead a change so much as follow a change,” Whalen said. “If only 10 percent of the freshman class will have to take a class that before they didn’t, you can’t say this is a prominent change for expectations for freshmen. They’re kind of already there.”
The average ACT score for the incoming class of fall 2012 was a 29. Whalen said the past few years’ incoming freshmen classes have maintained a 28 to 29 average.
Associate Professor of Mathematics Samuel Webster said there were a few reasons for deciding on the number 27, or approximately a 660 on the SAT. The math department had been discussing the change for almost a year and a half before presenting to the educational policies committee and then the rest of the faculty.
“One reason is that the 24 threshold is very low: none
