Academic Program (University Catalog)

The Data Studies Program is an interdisciplinary program located within the Division of University Studies and is steered by faculty from a wide range of departments and programs. These faculty, who draw on their expertise and their discipline's best practices for working with data, teach students to integrate subject matter knowledge with data to develop new insights about the world.

Colgate's Data Studies minor prepares students to navigate and shape a data-driven world, going beyond technical computation to explore the social, ethical, and relational aspects of data science. This interdisciplinary minor investigates the grounded and relational aspects of data science by considering how we gather, organize, and analyze both qualitative and quantitative data to explain and predict global phenomena.

This minor focuses on powerful intellectual methods that can be applied across various contexts.

By completing the Data Studies minor, students develop critical thinking skills, enhance their ability to collect, investigate, and interpret data, while gaining proficiency in data-driven problem-solving. Graduates are well-prepared to:

• Integrate knowledge by combining field-specific expertise with data fluency to translate between diverse stakeholders and contribute to responsible knowledge creation.
• Navigate complex moral issues and ethical considerations, including those related to how fairness and bias can impact individuals and communities.
• Communicate results effectively through clear writing and impactful visualization.

The minor begins with an introductory statistics course to help students build a common quantitative literacy. Students then take courses that focus on ethical and moral responsibility or on clear and transparent communication, and critically engage with diverse forms of data—quantitative or qualitative, scholarly literature, case studies, or visual media—in the context of geographic, political, environmental, and cultural issues. These courses should be chosen in consultation with each student's adviser(s).

Through this experience, students learn to ask questions that data scientists can answer —which questions we think to ask and how we pose them — and examine the ethical considerations inherent in data-driven work by learning to identify and address the costs and benefits of such work for individuals, communities, and society as a whole.

Transfer Credit

Students may count one transfer course toward Data Studies minor requirements.

Courses

Use the minor link below to find courses that count toward the DATA requirements. 

Courses

• DATA 201 - Ethical Issues in Data Practice
• DATA 400 - Data in Action