The Foothill Senate passed the Math 105 graduation requirement. It is now considering options on how students can meet the new requirement. Two alternatives to meet the Math 105 requirement have been proposed.

One option is for students to take Math 103 (Essentials of Algebra 1). A second option is for students to take Math 103 and Math 104 (Essentials of Intermediate Algebra) in two quarters as the equivalent of 105.

“I have been impressed with the way that Foothill dealt with the issue,” Cynthia Kaufman, De Anza philosophy and women’s studies instructor said.

English Instructor Jean Miller said that she thinks there should be as many options as possible for students to get training in a certain level of math.

She says that doesn’t necessarily have to mean exactly the same topics being covered.

“I certainly hope that the math department at De Anza will consider these options and begin to work on something similar, along with working very hard to revise our developmental math program — Math 200, Math 101, and Math 105 — so that it becomes a program which has excellent outcomes for students of all racial and ethnic backgrounds, both genders and all categories of ability and disability,” Miller said.

De Anza is doing something similar to Foothill, according to math instructor Barbara Illowsky. She said that Foothill’s Math 103 is for vocational/technology students, and that De Anza’s math department is asking for a vote to issue an A.S. degree.

She said Math 103 would be useful for many of the vocational programs.

Kaufman said that the math department worked hard to build consensus around its proposal, and developed creative ways to deal with people’s concerns.

“I suspect that Foothill will end up developing ways to ensure that the increase in requirements will not leave any group of students behind,” Kaufman said.

In the A.S. degree, Math 105 is not required. Instead, there is the option of Math 105, or a Math class or a class that would be developed with the Math department for the major, that would have applied Mathematics in it.

The difference between Foothill’s Math 103 and what De Anza is planning, is that if Foothill students take Math 103, they will still need to take another three unit course before they could take finite math, statistics, or trigonometry at De Anza.

“At De Anza, we want to make the developed course a course that could directly lead into statistics or finite math … The teachers here did not want to have extra courses for their students,” Illowsky said.

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How De Anza voted

Math:

The requirement for graduating with an AA/AS degree was raised from Math 101 to Math 105 after a faculty vote of 135 to 109.

Physical Education:

Faculty voted 161 to 83 for a two unit PE requirement for an AA/AS degree.

Vote counters included instructors Marcia Peterson, Mike Holler and Gary Fisher.