Subject: Re: new AST statistics course From: Sanford Weisberg Date: 04/15/2014 04:06 PM To: Tom Shield Hi Tom, I have shared the syllabus for this proposed course with my Chair Dennis Cook and the current DGS Galin Jones. All three of us strongly oppose this course as planned, for the following reasons: 1. The syllabus is impossible for a single semester course. 2. The material in the syllabus is included in courses the we currently offer, apart from the application of methods at the end to astronomy. The majority of the statistical content is in Stat 4101-2 or Stat 5101-2, although even these two-semester sequences do not cover all the topics in the syllabus provided. 3. There has been no consultation with us about adding a statistics course to the University curriculum. We are strong believers in statistics courses taught by statisticians and astronomy courses taught by astronomers. I recommend that you urge the astronomy group to withdraw this proposal until they consult with appropriate faculty from Statistics, as I will speak against it that the CC meeting. On Tue, Apr 15, 2014 at 1:35 PM, Tom Shield wrote: Sandy, On the agenda for the next CSE CC meeting, which is here: http://www.aem.umn.edu/~shield/csecc/next_meeting/ is a new Statistical Astrophysics course. Thus we want to be sure to gets Statistics input on this course. If you can't make the meeting Tuesday 4/22 at 2:30, I would appreciate a note about this course from you. thanks, Tom -- Tom Shield Professor Director of Undergraduate Studies Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics University of Minnesota 117A Akerman Hall (612) 626-7793 shield@aem.umn.edu http://www.aem.umn.edu/people/faculty/shield/ "If a thing's worth doing, it is worth doing badly." -- G.K. Chesterton -- Sanford Weisberg, sandy@umn.edu For undergraduate matters: undergrad@stat.umn.edu University of Minnesota, School of Statistics 312 Ford Hall, 224 Church St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455 612-625-8355, FAX 612-624-8868