MAT 200 - Numbers in the Support of Democracy (SYS) (1)

As recent events in the United States have shown, democracy is a more fragile form of government than many had had expected. While the United States was imperfectly formed on the principles of fairness and equality, how do citizens in the United States understand if the country is moving towards more fairness and equality or away? This course uses elementary mathematics and statistical ideas to try to better understand the concepts of fairness and equality by examining issues like voting, drawing political boundaries for state and federal offices, the Electoral College, protests, and social justice. The course will also investigate the impact on democracy when executive, legislative and judicial decision-makers ignore mathematical and statistical arguments because they think these arguments are too hard to comprehend. Only open to sophomores.
(Sophomore Year Seminar (SYS))