Mission Statement

The Mission of the Xavier Department of Mathematics is to build a community that champions and promotes the mathematician in everyone.

We guide, teach, and support students of all mathematical abilities and interests. We welcome students into our community of mathematical scholars. We share our ideas, grow in our knowledge, and learn from one another. We discover new mathematics using creativity and ingenuity.

 

• We guide, teach, and support students of all mathematical abilities and interests.

First and foremost, students are at the heart of what we do. We welcome diversity of every type (culture, religion, academic background, personality, or perspectives) and in every arena. We support our differences with trust, understanding, and a community spirit. United by a common goal of cura personalis, we guide and assist our students in their mathematical evolution. Towards that end, we encourage and strongly promote experimentation with innovative teaching and learning methods in our classrooms. We strive to make our students feel successful in their understanding of mathematics, and delight in those moments when our students blossom and evolve in their mathematical ability.

 

The prominence of mathematical study within the Liberal Arts dates to the time of the ancient Greeks, who placed mathematics at the center of their essential education. Furthermore, mathematics is of vital importance within Xavier's deep tradition of the Liberal Arts. Recognizing this, we teach a variety of courses that will expose all Xavier students to new mathematical concepts, perspectives, and ideas. Our courses are an integral part of the core curriculum and compliment many other major programs at our university.

 

• We welcome students into our community of mathematical scholars.

We share and grow our mathematical knowledge within our community of all Xavier students and faculty. We offer majors in both Mathematics and Actuarial Sciences as well as minors in Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, and Statistics. We are the main source for courses in mathematical perspectives and for those bearing the quantitative reasoning flag. We aim to set our students on their professional paths, not just throughout their college careers, but well beyond.

 

• We share our ideas, grow in our knowledge, and learn from one another

We are passionate about teaching, learning, and discovering mathematics. We continually engage in active research and scholarship in our respective fields of interest, both singly and collaboratively. We contribute to the freely exchanged repository of knowledge, both in mathematics and in collaboration with other disciplines, and apply this knowledge in the classroom. Our research focuses upon and elevates our teaching of mathematics.

 

• We discover new mathematics using creativity and ingenuity

Scholarly activities in both pedagogy and disciplinary content allow us to express creativity, gain knowledge, and share and disseminate results to the wider mathematical community. We encourage and advance scholarship with and for our students. We are guides in exploring the beauty of the mathematical world.