Program Review comes around every five years for each department at Boise State and 2001-2002 was the Mathematics Department's turn. In the fall we worked together as a department to examine every facet of departmental life including our majors, our instructional service to the university at large through core courses, our research mission, and our outreach to the community and recorded our findings in a self study.

At the time we wrote the self study, we identified our faculty and our students as our major strengths: the faculty which is committed to excellence in teaching and high academic standards, and carrying out an acceptable quantity of high quality research, and the cadre of competent, conscientious students who populate our upper division classes. Simultaneously, faculty and students are also our biggest worry; we do not have enough of either one.

In the spring, we were visited by a committee of outside reviewers-Dr. Terry Crites, formerly chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Northern Arizona University and Dr. Joe Guthrie, chair of the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Texas at El Paso. Drs. Crites and Guthrie spent an intensive two days on campus and their report validates and extends our own self study.

With regard to our majors, they found that ``(t)he instructional program of the department appears to be of high quality and the courses and degree requirements are consistent in content and rigor with those at comparable insitutions nationally.'' They urged us to develop a Math Club for students from across the university interested in mathematics and to explore opportunities to offer undergraduate research experiences. We take those suggestions seriously and have built them into our action plan for the next few years.

They noted that ``(b)y targeted hiring in concentrated research areas and the awarding of reduced teaching assignments for research-active faculty, the department is striving to increase its research profile'' even though ``the (research) record of this department is unusually strong when compared to similar departments.''

All in all, the program review was a demanding and thorough process. But we feel validated about the growth that has occurred in the department over the last five years and we also have a sharper idea of where we are headed for the next five.