Development of Statistics Educational Programs in the South

• Activity Number: 48
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Sunday, August 3, 2014 : 4:00 PM to 5:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Education
• Author(s): Michael Kutner*+
• Companies: Emory University
• Keywords: Statistics Programs in South ; Visiting Lecture Program ; Committee on Statistics

Abstract

The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), established in 1948, was the first interstate public agency that was made up of 15 member states cooperating to improve education in the South. In 1952, the SREB sponsored a Southern Regional Conference on Statistics with plans to conduct a series of Southern Regional Graduate Summer Sessions. These efforts lead to the formation of the SREB-Committee on Statistics (SREB-COS) whose charge was to provide a means of joint planning by which member institutions can coordinate and supplement their respective educational, research and service programs in statistics to meet more effectively the present needs of the region. Eleven institutions signed the first Memorandum of Agreement in 1955. Statistics programs grew fairly rapidly to include nearly 40 institutions joining the SREB-COS with statistics or biostatistics programs in the South by 1975. Major SREB-COS activities included a variety of cooperative programs including a Visiting Lecture Program, a series of 20 Regional Graduate Summer Sessions and regularly publishing a brochure of Statistics Programs in the South. Many initiatives were sent to the ASA for their adoption.