Every five years, the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences (CBMS) conducts a survey of four-year and university departments of mathematics and statistics and two-year college programs in mathematics with the first survey in 1965 and the latest survey in 1995. Since 1970 these surveys have been supported by the National Science Foundation. The present survey was conducted in Fall 1995 with a stratified random sample of 649 departments distributed among 30 different strata; two-thirds responded. Projections were made using standard procedures for stratified random samples. The responding units were distributed across the different strata insuring a good confidence level for the results. The survey forms were extensive and generated a plethora of data which are reported in full in the formal report of this survey, Statistical Abstract of Undergraduate Programs in the Mathematical Sciences in the United States, Fall 1995 CBMS Survey by Don O. Loftsgaarden, Donald C. Rung and Ann E. Watkins (1997), published in the MAA Reports 2 (1997), and available from the Mathematics Association of America.

A digest of the important results for four-year college and university departments of mathematics and statistics include enrollment in all courses taught by these departments with special emphasis on first-year calculus data; faculty, including gender and tenure status; and advising practices for departmental majors. A synopsis analyzing the statistics department data appears in a separate article by Loftsgaarden and Watkins appearing in the American Statistician.

The phrase "mathematics department " includes traditional departments of mathematics as well as all multi-titled departments which feature mathematics together with other related disciplines. Statistics departments are separate departments and are almost entirely departments with PhD programs. The data are presented both in summary form and by type of institution as determined by the highest mathematics degree offered by the institution. Thus, a PhD mathematics department is one which offers the PhD degree, an MA mathematics department is one which offers, as its highest degree, a masters degree in mathematics and a BA department of mathematics offers only a bachelors degree. While departments of statistics are classified by the institution's classification, only two of the responding statistics departments in PhD institutions did not offer a PhD in statistics.

Mathematics courses are aggregated by level: remedial, precalculus, calculus and advanced. Statistics course levels are: elementary and upper, while computer science courses levels are: lower, middle and upper. Precalculus level mathematics courses include both traditional precalculus algebra and trigonometry courses along with courses for non-science majors, finite mathematics, non-calculus based business mathematics and mathematics for prospective elementary school teachers. Calculus level course include the traditional calculus sequence through differential equations together with linear/matrix algebra and discrete mathematics. The advanced and upper level course are all undergraduate courses not included in the lower categories. Enrollment for each course is given in Appendix 1 of the report and includes historical data as well. Enrollment includes all students regardless of their status, part-time, full-time, adjunct, graduate, etc.. Instructional faculty are separated into tenured and tenure/eligible, other full-time, part-time and graduate teaching assistants. Other full-time faculty include all full-time faculty not tenured or tenure/eligible. This category includes, then, post-doctoral appointments, fixed term instructors, visitors and so on. Part-time faculty are those with less than full-time appointments within the mathematics-or statistics-department, regardless of whether they have, or do not have, other appointments within the institution.

From Fall 1990 to Fall 1995, enrollment in undergraduate mathematics courses offered by four-year colleges and universities decreased by 150,000, a 9% decline. Specifically, remedial level course enrollment declined 15%; precalculus enrollment increased 4%; calculus level enrollment declined by 18%, and advanced level enrollment declined 19%. Over this same period enrollment in mathematics courses, including statistics, in mathematics programs at two-year colleges increased by 12% and now accounts for 46% of all collegiate mathematics enrollment. The number of bachelors degrees awarded to majors within mathematics (and mathematical sciences departments) and statistics departments in 1994-95 was nearly the same as in 1989-90. However, enrollment in undergraduate statistics courses increased by 39,000, a 23% increase, while enrollment in computer science courses decreased by 80,000, a 44% decline. Overall enrollment for mathematics departments decreased by 191,000, or just under 10%. When enrollment in mathematics courses in four-college and university departments in Fall 1995 is added to the enrollment in mathematics courses in two-year college program the total is 2,856,000, which almost is equal to the same total for Fall 1990. The five-year decrease in the four-year and university mathematics enrollment was matched by the increase in the two-year mathematics enrollment over this same period.

While the total number of bachelors degrees awarded to majors in departments of mathematics and statistics during the period July 1, 1989 to June 30, 1990 declined by about 1550 from the total in 1984-85, all of this decline, and then some, was in computer science degrees, which decreased by 2850. Mathematics education degrees (within mathematics departments) increased by 1700, while all other types of mathematics and statistics degrees decreased slightly, by about 400. Over this five year period the number of women graduates decreased by 838. Specifically, computer science women graduates decreased by 1052, and mathematics and statistics women graduates increased by 214. The overall percentage of women graduates decreased slightly during this period.

The number of tenured and tenure-eligible faculty in four-year colleges and universities stayed at the same levels as in 1990, while the number of other full-time and part-time faculty declined. For two-year colleges the number of full-time faculty, permanent and temporary, increased by 7%. The number of full-time women faculty at four-year colleges and universities showed only a slight increase over 1990 levels; for two-year full-time faculty, the number of women increased significantly. Deaths and retirements of tenured and tenure-eligible mathematics faculty numbered 441 at four-year colleges and universities and 33 at university statistics departments. For two-year college program faculty, the number of deaths and retirements was 274.

For the first time in this series of CBMS reports the number of women faculty, both tenured and tenure-eligible, is reported for departments of mathematics, and departments of statistics, at four-year colleges and universities. There are 1830 tenured women mathematics faculty among the 12,779 tenured faculty (14%) while there are 1141 tenure-eligible women out of a total of 3329 tenure-eligible faculty (34%). For statistics departments the corresponding numbers are 40 among 730 (5%) and 38 out of 191 (20%). Women among the full-time faculty at two-year mathematics program are 34% of the total but 46% among faculty less than 35 years of age.

The racial/ethnic composition of both mathematics and statistics faculty at four-year and university departments is little changed over the last five years. In mathematics departments white non-Hispanics account for 87% of the full-time faculty, with Asian/Pacific Islanders are 8% of the total. No other racial/ethnic group is above 1%. In statistics departments white non-Hispanics are 74% of the total full-time faculty, Asian/Pacific Islanders are 18% of the total, Mexican American, Puerto Rican and other Hispanics account for 4% of the total, and all other groups are 1% or less.

While the number of part-time mathematics faculty at four-year colleges and universities declined from 6786 in Fall 1990 to 5289 in Fall 1995, these part-time faculty taught about 20% of the undergraduate mathematics enrollment in Fall 1995. Within two-year mathematics programs, the number of part-time faculty is 14,266 and these faculty taught 38% of the mathematics enrollment. Tenured and tenure-eligible mathematics faculty at four-year colleges and universities taught a little over half of the undergraduate enrollment, while full-time faculty at two-year colleges taught 62% of the sections offered.

At four-year colleges and universities, 73% of the enrollment in mainstream calculus I and II was taught by tenured and tenure-eligible faculty; the two-year figure was 83% of sections. For four-year colleges and universities, the percentage of enrollment in these two courses taught from a "reform" text was 29%, with 35% of the enrollment using graphing calculators, while 65% of the two-year college sections of calculus I and II used graphing calculators. For mainstream Calculus I, large lectures with recitation account for 22% of the course enrollment, regular sections with less than 30 students account for 43% of the enrollment, and sections with at least 30 students account for the remaining 35%. For mainstream Calculus II the correspond percentages are: large lecture/recitation, 22%, sections less than 30 students, 48%, and 30 students and over sections, 30%. For both mainstream Calculus I and II combined the percentages are: large lecture/recitation, 22%, sections less than 30, 45%, and 30 and over sections, 33%. In the non-mainstream Calculus I, large lectures with recitation account for 16.5% of the total course enrollment, sections with less than 30 students account for another 28.5%, with the remaining 55% in sections with 30 or more students.

In four-year colleges and universities, about 60% of the departments assign majors an advisor each year and the same number require at least one meeting a year with the assigned advisor, although the PhD universities had a somewhat lower percentage. Over 90% of the four-year college and university full-time mathematics faculty have a computer or terminal in their office and about the same percentage have access to the Internet. A quarter of these departments have some departmental computer systems support staff.

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