A report on college requirements for quantitative literacy
prepared in July 1989 for the Committee on the Undergraduate
Program in Mathematics (CUPM) of the Mathematical Association of
America. A summary of a 1979 CUPM report on QL appears at the
end of this memo. The most recent reportfrom the CUPM
Subcommittee on Quantitative Literacy was issued in 1996. (QL
Home Page) Several months ago I wrote to a number of
mathematicians to gather samples from various campuses of
present practice concerning mathematics or quantitative literacy
requirements for all students. This report summarizes highlights
from the responses I received and documents the great variety of
such requirements. Since neither my solicitation nor the
responses are proper random samples of higher education, readers
should be cautious about drawing general inferences from this
data. However, the respondents do include institutions of
sufficient diversity to provide an appropriate portrait of
present practice in higher education. Arithmetic. In t