*Concerns of Young Mathematicians* Volume 1 Issue 7 August 18, 1993 An electronically distributed digest for discussions of the issues of concern to mathematicians at the beginning of their careers. PLEASE FORWARD TO ANY POTENTIALLY INTERESTED INDIVIDUALS Please, direct submissions and questions to kalin@math.psu.edu (editor for the month of August) To subscribe: Send mail to Charles Yeomans at cyeomans@s.ms.uky.edu Next issue: Wednesday, August 25 Editor for the month of July was Mark Winstead, (mww8f@virginia.edu). Publication will be weekly for now, and increase when appropriate. A good guess would be biweekly by mid-September and three or more times a week by mid-October or so. Table of Contents Item # Title ------ ----- 1 Two replies to Kevin Madigan's criticism. _______________________________________________________________ From: Curtis Bennett curt@math.ohio-state.edu This is in response to Kevin Madigan's posting concerning YMN and the CoYM. (Volume 1 #6, ##2). First, what are the editors to be doing. Do you wish us to have referees read every submission? I have not yet taken my turn at the monthly editors position, but I don't have the time to read everyone else's postings for errors. None of the editors have tenure, none of us are safe in our job, and in fact several are looking for employment. If anybody feels that they can do a better job with the time they have, please volunteer. We could use more volunteers. Also, let's be realistic. The YMN has just started. Moreover, the months of July and August are traditionally slow months for academics. I am busy moving and taking care of a newborn. I hope by September we will have more postings with constructive ideas on how to accomplish our goals as we begin the fall term. Concerning the proposed panel discussion and meeting in Cincinnati, there is much that we can hope to accomplish. A meeting is a way to get attention from more than a handful of established mathematicians. Also, by January we should have a more certain agenda. As to what can we accomplish, that is less certain. What we might hope to accomplish is to achieve a consensus from the community that the job problem needs to be seriously addressed. Also, we can provide resources for job seekers at the meetings. While I hope we can make some progress on the job situation, nothing will change there until the government starts allocating more money for education and research. The most chilling numbers from the job survey was that new Ph.D.'s outnumbered tenure track jobs by 200+. I assume most of us eventually want a tenure track job, not a string of temporary positions with uncertain benefits. For 3 years the # of new Ph.D.'s looking for jobs in this country has outnumbered tenure track positions by this kind of margin. Even if more grant money goes to younger mathematicians, the lack of tenure track jobs won't change. Personally, I have had my eldest son's medical care cut out for a year twice because of job changes, and being a temporary employee the last year has left me with poor health insurance options. Moreover, this country is not alone in lacking sufficient jobs for math Ph.D.'s. So, I think if the YMN concentrates only on trying to solve the job mess, we are making a mistake. We need to also provide services to those who are looking for jobs. What follows are a few suggestions: 1) Provide copies of successful NSF Postdoc and Summer funding proposals. 2) Provide suggestions on job hunting. 3) Provide a list of what schools expect for tenure -- preferably giving a breakdown on different types of schools. In particular, which of the category III, IV, V, M, and B schools emphasize teaching in tenure decisions and which emphasize research. 4) Discuss how to continue research after obtaining a Ph.D. 5) Publish comments from mathematicians at different schools describing what their school looks for in job candidates. 6) Put young mathematicians on the AMS board so that our interests are more clearly represented at the meetings. 7) Provide a clearinghouse for information about how to obtain industry jobs. None of these will increase the number of jobs out there, but they will help us all understand the system which would be very helpful. The five editors are not the YMN, the readers are. Indeed, we have no official standing except as original volunteers. We receive no benefit from organizing the newsletter except for personal satisfaction if the newsletter does some good. I hope to follow through on my suggestions in mid-September. As of August 17, I will be moving to a new university and do not even have an email address there yet. If anyone wishes to help with these, let me know. In particular, I am looking for faculty at a variety of institutions to write up tenure requirements and what their school looks for in a job candidate. Also, I would like to prepare a list of suggested Do's and Don't's for job applicants. However, if you could wait until I have posted a new email address I would appreciate it. Curtis Bennett PS-- this was proofread, but I am writing via a telephone line with a lot of noise. _______________________________________________________________ When Kevin Madigan offered his comments, [CoYmn Vol.1 Issue 6, ed.] I was at first worried about those who were receiving their first issue of CoYM. Much about such criticism initially worried me. Rather than express this, let me move on. In time I realized that Kevin is probably expressing the views of many, and his concerns should be dealt with properly. I also came to realize that he was expressing the same impatience that those who organized YMN had when we started. Short history lesson: this whole effort started when I suggested to the membership of the Young Scientist Network that subnetworks dealing with specific disciplines. Several responded to me directly in support of the effort, and when it was clear that YSN was going to be slow to adapt the idea, if they ever would, we started an independent effort. At many stages in the development of YMN, we made decisions based mostly on impatience. The stress of the problems facing young mathematicians will make many impatient. I can understand the feeling that there should be answers, and that we should be working actively NOW. But we must have patience. Those running this effort are volunteers, and not even especially trained to the tasks they take on, e.g. the editors are mathematicians, not english or journalism majors. Furthermore, remember the purposes for which we established this: 1) as a support group: this means we all work toward this purpose 2) as an information exchange on issues we face, esp. the job market: again, this is work for all of us. This purpose includes keeping the entire mathematical community informed. 3) as a catalyst for change: by this, I have always thought that this would occur by discussing possible solutions, and then groups of volunteers would work to implement them. In short, if one feels that there is not enough action coming from this effort, it is by choice of the membership. Those of us who started this did so to provide a starting point towards finding solutions, not because we had the solutions. Rather than criticize, why not use CoYM for the purposes it was intended; this is a way to communicate quickly with many in the same situation as you, Kevin. Forgive me if I have rambled. Mark mww8f@virginia.edu _______________________________________________________________ End of Journal Next time: Your comments and submissions.