Questions and comments about this proposal can be directed to Associate Professor of Economics Emily Marshall at marshaem@dickinson.edu or Professor of Mathematics David Richeson at richesod@dickinson.edu.
Summary of Idea
We are awash in a sea of information. Data touches all aspects of our lives and is increasing in both volume and complexity. “Big data” is at the heart of many of today’s greatest opportunities and most daunting challenges, including climate change, the future of work, globalization, health care, artificial intelligence, and crucial aspects of privacy and security. Data transcends the traditional disciplinary boundaries of the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities, and it pervades a multitude of the postgraduate degrees and careers that our students will undertake. A liberal arts education preparing students for effective communication, a nuanced global perspective, and rational and ethical decision making cannot be complete without the ability to meaningfully comprehend, critique, and construct data-driven arguments. We are proposing a data science initiative that leverages our leadership in the liberal arts to generate a transformative interdisciplinary curricular program that fosters internal and external connections through the analysis of data.
Some components of this initiative are already in place, and a large benefit can be derived by gathering them together under the data science umbrella. But this proposal will require the addition of personnel and financial resources to fully support the following pillars of the data science initiative.
A highly interdisciplinary data analytics (DA) major involving foundational courses in mathematics and computer science; a course in the philosophy and ethics of data; an experiential component such as an internship or an independent research project; and a three-course disciplinary focus in a field that allows students to meaningfully apply their skills in data analysis to a particular subject area.
- A DA minor or a certificate for students in other disciplines who are interested in augmenting their degrees with a training in data analytics.
- A data analytics course with no prerequisite that is accessible to all Dickinson students and is specifically designed for nonmajors.
- An expanded Quantitative Reasoning (QR) Center that is integrated with the data science initiative.
- A culture of collaboration across campus and the creation of regular opportunities for professional development in data science.
This data science initiative will help prepare our students to become the citizen-leaders as envisioned by Benjamin Rush in an increasingly data-centered world.
How does your idea relate to or support the college’s strategic framework?
The data science initiative is a natural extension of our revolutionary past. It will provide students across the college with a useful, innovative, individualized, and interdisciplinary education that will prepare them to lead rich and fulfilling lives as engaged global citizens who are empowered to use data for the common good. The initiative will open new paths for students that will enable them to maximize the benefits of their liberal arts education. It will contribute to or enhance the advantages of a Dickinson education in a number of ways consistent with the commitments laid out in the strategic framework.
- Students who study data science will possess a considerable advantage when seeking an internship or a job after graduation, when applying to graduate school, and when pursuing civic engagement opportunities.
- The data science initiative is innovative, collaborative, and flexible. It will give students an interdisciplinary approach to developing valuable data analysis skills through coursework tailored to their individual interests. It will prepare scholars with intellectual agility and an ethical grounding.
- It is difficult to find an academic field that has not been impacted by the data revolution. Thus, the data science initiative will support current faculty and will attract top faculty in disciplines across all three divisions who generate, analyze, and discuss data in their teaching and scholarship.
- Data-related courses at the college are already in high demand. Funding the data science initiative is a sound strategic investment for the college as it will ensure that Dickinson will be the first choice for many talented, ambitious, and diverse prospective students, and it will produce alumni who are prepared to address the challenges of tomorrow.
- The experiential components of the DA major and the DA certificate will expand opportunities for social innovation and entrepreneurship, encourage connections with alumni in related fields, and facilitate partnerships across the campus, in the community, and beyond. Project-based work as a concurrent application of questions and answers will help students understand the complexity of working with data to make decisions in real-time as opposed to solely retrospective analysis.
- The integrated and expanded QR Center will support student development of high-demand data analytical skills—from the technical skills required to work with data to an enhanced digital literacy to the ability to synthesize multiple sources of information and tackle complex problems.
The data science initiative will contribute directly to each of Dickinson’s strategic commitments. The strategic framework states that “Dickinson has embraced the vision of an ever-evolving education, an education that prepares rising generations for successful, active, informed lives as global citizen leaders, working for the common good.” The data science initiative is a natural and essential evolution for our college’s liberal arts curriculum.
What partnerships, on campus and off campus, do you envision?
As a broadly interdisciplinary major, we envision partnerships with a large segment of the Dickinson community. Because data-oriented courses already exist in many academic departments and there are many faculty members who study data, the data science initiative will positively impact a wide range of departments, students, and faculty members. The DA major will have a collection of preapproved three-course disciplinary focus areas—in fields that may include biology, economics, political science, international business, English, environmental science, psychology, sociology, mathematics, computer science, and more—and students can also propose their own disciplinary focus courses. The DA minor or certificate will allow students in other majors to find a different balance between foundational discipline-specific study and the data analytical skills needed to answer meaningful questions.
It is easy to envision a wide variety of constituencies having a mutually beneficial relationship with DA students. Beyond the academic departments, any office on campus that collects, archives, and analyzes data—Institutional Effectiveness & Inclusivity; Admissions and Financial Aid; Athletics; ALLARM; the Center for Sustainability Education; the Dickinson College Farm; College Advancement; Library & Information Services; Financial Operations; Dining Services; the Center for Advising, Internships & Lifelong Career Development; Student Life; Global Education; the Registrar’s Office; and so on—could partner with DA students. DA students could have on-campus internships to work with this Dickinson-generated data. For example, athletic coaches might partner with DA students on sports analytics projects that would enhance this cocurricular aspect of the college. DA students will also be involved with the QR Center as tutors, tutees, and QR associates.
Students will also impact the world beyond Dickinson as consultants conducting community-based research in local organizations, and they will be encouraged to undertake internships with business, government, and nonprofit organizations locally, nationally, and internationally.
How will your idea positively affect the education of Dickinson students?
This broad-based, comprehensive, dynamic, and forward-looking data science initiative will provide our students with the knowledge and skills required to meaningfully utilize data and address questions and challenges in a limitless range of areas. The initiative will position Dickinson students to not only collect, compile, and curate data, but also, crucially, to critically analyze, contextualize, visualize, interpret, and humanize data to draw defensible conclusions, solve problems, and communicate meaning. In a world that is increasingly global and expansive with a need for connectivity, students will learn to guide practices and policy to establish cohesiveness and draw meaning from seemingly disjoined areas.
This initiative will offer students opportunities ranging from the depth of a DA major to the breadth of a DA minor or certificate to a single course for nonmajors. Both the major and the certificate will be enriched by a capstone course and an experiential component. The highly interdisciplinary nature of the initiative will ensure that students studying data analytics will impact and inform the entire campus ecosystem. In turn, students in the DA program will benefit from a wide variety of perspectives through their discipline-focused courses, the required course in the philosophy and ethics of data, and the extensive treatment of aspects of data security, privacy, and integrity.
Students are already asking for more data science courses as is evident from the consistent excess demand in the related fields of mathematics; computer science; quantitative economics; international business and management; geographic information systems; and biology and molecular biology. Departments are developing new courses to meet this demand, but the interest keeps rising and shows no signs of abating. Evidently, data science will be attractive to a broad audience of prospective students interested in studying at a liberal arts institution. In terms of distinctiveness, data science programs are being initiated across the spectrum of higher education institutions, but they are still relatively rare at liberal arts colleges. Even more rare are programs like the one we propose that embed the DA major within another discipline and offer non-DA majors an opportunity to explore data analysis through coursework or by earning a DA minor or certificate.
How will your idea positively impact the world beyond Dickinson’s campus?
Data is transforming the world. No part of the human experience is unaffected by the data revolution. Information extracted from data can be used to answer big questions central to issues of global importance, including climate change, sustainable food production, medical research, health disparities, social justice, and education inequality. However, to truly benefit from the information data provides, we need individuals to be objective, creative, and curious data analysts. Curious data analysts must consider an iterative approach to asking questions (that is, ask a question, review the results, discern the next relevant question) and recognize the recursive nature of problem solving with data. We also need responsible citizens with the critical thinking and ethical skills to realize the promises of data while avoiding the pitfalls. This initiative is designed to help students develop the skills to ask big questions about data, find information in large amounts of data, and explain why this information matters. Dickinson students will learn how to approach questions in data analysis from a humanistic viewpoint, ethically and objectively, to promote a deeper understanding of our world so that they can play a significant role in shaping it for the better. With the knowledge acquired through this initiative, our students will also bring new perspectives to the global data environment through their experiences in study abroad programs, as international students returning to their home countries, and as domestic students living and working at home and abroad. In this way, we will be educating the next generation of leaders to positively impact the world beyond Dickinson’s limestone walls.
Do you anticipate resource needs to prepare a detailed proposal if selected as a finalist? If so, please describe.
We anticipate needing $2500 to prepare a detailed proposal. We will bring a data science consultant to campus to meet with the data science initiative working group. This consultant will be selected from undergraduate institutions that have existing programs in data science, private sector data analytics practitioners or end users, members of professional societies such as the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) or the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), institutions with an established graduate program in data science, or directors of QR centers at an institution with a program that currently includes data analytics. We estimate that the consultant will cost $500 per day for a two-day visit plus $1,500 for travel expenses.