*Concerns of Young Mathematicians* Volume 1 Issue 20 November 17, 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 Steve Kennedy kennedy@math.stolaf.edu , editor for the month of November. Next issue: Wednesday, November 24 Editor for December will be Vic Perera (vperera@silver.ucs.indiana.edu). Editor for January will be Kalin Godev (kalin@math.psu.edu). To subscribe: Send mail to Charles Yeomans at cyeomans@s.ms.uky.edu Back issues and other information are available via anonymous FTP to ftp.ms.uky.edu, in pub3/mailing.lists/ymn-list. Editor for August was Kalin Godev (kalin@math.psu.edu). Editor for September was Ed Aboufadel (aboufade@scus1.ctstateu.edu) Editor for October was Curtis Bennett cbennet@andy.bgsu.edu The opinions expressed herein are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of the YMN or the editorial board. Table of Contents Item # Title ------ ----- 1 Editorial: Job Ads in This Newsletter 2 News and Notes 3A Robert Gutschera: Job Ads in Concerns 3B Heidi Burgiel: Job Ads in Concerns 3C Jyotsna Gokhale: Job Ads in Concerns 3D Martin Hildebrand: Job Ads in Concerns 4A David Cruz-Uribe: Hiring Procedures 4B Paul Shick: Hiring Procedures 4C Jyotsna Gokhale: Hiring Procedures 5 Stan Benkoski: 1993 Employment Register Data 6 Ben Lotto: My Life as a Job-Seeking Mathematician 7 Seth F. Oppenheimer: Faculty at Mississipi State 8 Sarah Witherspoon: Jobs Ads in the Chronicle 9 Curtis Bennett: We Need Successful NSF Grant Applications. 10 Edward Aboufadel: Myth Sighting--NY Times 11 Heidi C. Funes-Fonseca: Resources Request 12 Sharon Pedersen: Supportive Graduate Programs 13 Closing Credits _______________________________________________________________ Item #1 Editorial: Job Ads in This Newsletter I received only a handful of responses to my request that you let us know whether you wanted to see job ads in this newsletter (see item #3). Nobody wants to see lots of ads cluttering up this space, but there is a modicum of support (even amongst my colleagues on the editorial board) for short announcements, particularly for jobs of some kind of "special nature". None of the correspondents mentioned what to me is the most important reason not to publish ads. We are all aware that in the past few years certain departments have taken advantage of the horrendous job market by creating what can only be called exploitative positions (extremely high teaching duties, low salaries, no possibility of tenure). How would we police our advertisers to make certain that no such position is advertised here? I think it would be immoral on my part to be complicit in such exploitation, by assisting the recruiting effort. And yet we don't have the resources to investigate each announcement, to make certain that the job advertised meets some ethical standard (which, of course, we would need to define!). For this reason, you will not find any job ads here while I'm editor (just one more week). Future editors may (and probably will) think otherwise. Steve Kennedy St. Olaf College kennedy@math.stolaf.edu ____________________________________________________________________ Item #2 News and Notes a) We did get some volunteers to edit in the upcoming months. Vic Perera (vperera@silver.ucs.indiana.edu) will be editor in December and Kalin Godev (kalin@math.psu.edu) will be editor in January. _____________________________________________________________________ Item #3A Robert Gutschera: Job Ads in Concerns No ads in YMN! It would just clog up the newsletter to no purpose. There's no way YMN can compete with resources like e-math, and having a small selection of e-math postings listed in YMN seems pointless to me. There's my two cents. Robert Gutschera krg@rover.wellesley.edu _____________________________________________________________________ Item #3B Heidi Burgiel: Job Ads in Concerns I think the YMN doesn't want to be swamped with universities looking for cheap instructors, but the idea of putting in 2 or 3 line adds from schools with jobs specifically of interest to new Ph.D.'s is, I think, a good one. The newsletter is getting too big. Have you considered changing it to a mailing list or "digest" (a mailing list that's been machine-compiled, and so can be un-compiled into its components)? Heidi Burgiel burgiel@math.washington.edu ______________________________________________________________________ Item #3C Jyotsna Gokhale: Job Ads in Concerns Perhaps you could make two or three sections of ymn newsletter, A.) One for newsletter as it is, networking and general ideas; B.) One to do with jobs : ads, suggestions for dressing and resume's etc., (helpful hints), announcements from schools about the current situation, and so on; C.) One to do with research and generally mathematics. Not necessarily research articles (although I don't see why not, e-prints is only algebraic geometry so far) but also expose's, questions and queries, short answers, and - especially - announcements of results. How about references? Jyotsna Gokhale jgokhale@mri.ernet.in _______________________________________________________________________ Item #3D Martin Hildebrand: Job Ads in Concerns I am writing this letter in response to the appeal in item #2 of yesterday's YMN newsletter. As to job ads in the concerns of young mathematicians, I feel that for the most part they should not appear here. We already have routine sources for job ads (e.g. e-math, EIMS, etc.); the problem is not so much a lack of knowing where to get information on the academic jobs available; it is a lack of academic jobs compared to the number of people who are applying for them. There may be some exceptions. In particular, pointers to appropriate (or even semi-appropriate) non-academic jobs which do not appear in the usual sources we would consult (e.g., e-math) would really help. It may also be appropriate to discuss certain things (like why a particular advertisement, such as Harvey Keynes', does not get much response. In the particular case of Harvey Keynes', I suspect the reason is because the ad is looking for a very specific kind of experience which isn't widespread among math Ph.D.'s - namely someone who has research experience in educationally related programs.) It may also be appropriate late in the hiring season to publish appeals from places which have late openings and have been unable to sort through who's already been hired. ("Due to unexpected circumstances, we have a ... position available starting in a month. If you applied to us previously and are still available for the position, please send us an e-mail message or call us at ...".) Martin Hildebrand hildebra@ima.umn.edu ____________________________________________________________________ Item #4A David Cruz-Uribe: Hiring Procedures During the course of the job market last year, I ran across one research institution that was exceptionally well organized internally; had they handled their external communications as well they would have been close to ideal. Since I am going to be saying good things, let me identify the department: Texas A&M. Their system, as it was explained to me at an on-campus interview, is the following: applicants are required to state in their cover letter the AMS/MR classification code of their research--for example, mine is 42 for classical harmonic analysis. In the department, every tenured faculty member is required to give a list of AMS/MR codes that they will review based on their interests. Presumably (though I didn't pursue this) any application which comes in with a code no-one is interested in is rejected. Each faculty member scans the applications as they come in and fills out some kind of form on which they put an initial ranking. These are collated, and initial contact is made with the people who were interesting to one or more faculty members. While the faculty complain about the work entailed, this system is reasonably efficient: A&M did initial interviews at the San Antonio meeting and started making offers two weeks later. The only place they fell down is that it took them a while to tell me "no" (even though I heard through the grapevine that I had been passed over). Had they notified me prompty that a) I was summarily rejected or, b) I had been passed over but was a fall-back candidate, I would have found them to be close to ideal in this chaotic job market. I think we should urge other departments, especially those awash in 500 plus applications, to adopt a similar system. David Cruz-Uribe, SFO Purdue University cruz@math.purdue.edu _______________________________________________________________________ Item #4B Paul Shick: Hiring Procedures I'd like to respond to the piece by Charles Mannix on employment procedures. His suggestions might work very well for a larger university, where the field of specialty and list of publications may be the biggest factors in employment decisions. However, it seems to be a rather unuseful device for smaller places like mine. For our needs, we usually need to read letters of reference and statements of philosophy on teaching before we can make even a first cut. Even if we were to hold a weekly meeting of our screening committee to make the quick determinations that he endorses, it would only hasten the decisions, not reduce the workload in any way. While early notification might be nice for applicants, it seems a lot to ask of a screening committee that they give up, say, every Friday afternoon. On the other hand, I have no alternative suggestion that would markedly reduce the work or frustration that the job market now generates. Paul Shick shick@jcvaxa.jcu.edu _______________________________________________________________________ Item #4C Jyotsna Gokhale: Hiring Procedures I like Charles Mannix's idea about the reform of application procedures. My suggestion about that : It may help a good deal if departments would accept preliminary enquiries on e-mail. They could then respond to say `no way, thank you' or `maybe, let us see' or `send the material, we are interested' - via e-mail AND paper (to make sure it arrives). In the third case, paperwork could begin. This will eliminate paper a good deal more, and all the entailing costs too (printing, photocopying, mailing). And the show element will be minimized - hiring committee could either look at e-mail on screen or take printouts if and when they like. Applicants need not worry about trivia such as quality of paper and setup of material. (It sounds silly to worry about those, but when you are first applying you don't really know if it counts. After all proper dressing does count at interviews, even though most of the big guys are just as likely as not to wear denims.) Jyotsna Gokhale jgokhale@mri.ernet.in _______________________________________________________________________ Item #5 Stan Benkoski: 1993 Employment Register Data Mickey McDonald (Item #6, Issue 18) says in his comments on the Employment Register: "Contrary to much of what they said, last year, the ONLY interviews were those where the EMPLOYER picks US!" The data from the 1993 ER indicates that there were in fact 2146 interviews for which the applicant had requested the employer. Since there were 461 applicants, this is 4.7 per applicant. For 710 of these 2146 interviews, the employer had also requested the applicant. This means that there were 1426 interviews for which the applicant had requested the employer but the employer had not requested the applicant. (For the 68 interviewers (61 employers), there were 1224 interviews for which the employer had requested an interview with that applicant. This is 18 per interviewer.) While the state of the employment prospects for mathematicians was, and still remains, a ver poor one, it is important to gather accurate data. Stan Benkoski Vice President, Wagner Associates Chair, Joint Committee on Employment Opportunities Stan@Wagner.com ____________________________________________________________________ Item #6 Ben Lotto: My Life as a Job-Seeking Mathematician Prompted by Curtis Bennett's survey, I decided to write a little history of my life as a job-seeking mathematician and submit it to YMN. I received my PhD from Berkeley in 1988. I got a few nibbles at that time and even a couple of offers---a tenure track job at a research oriented university and a reduced teaching load, 2-3 year postdoc at Michigan State. I accepted the latter. Remember, there was no job crisis in 1988 and doing a postdoc before settling down in your tenure track position was the way things were done at that point. I also got married in the summer of 1988 to another mathematician. She was a still a graduate student, but she came to Michigan with me and worked long distance for the next two years with her advisor from Berkeley. In spring 1990, I applied to various Bay Area schools for one year positions so that my wife could get back to Berkeley and finish her PhD in residence. I got a teaching position at UC Davis---one year with no research expectations. (Davis has a two tiered faculty, with many people hired just to teach. These people are treated pretty poorly---they get hired year to year, aren't paid all that well, and are looked down on by the rest of the department.) I managed to negotiate an office at Berkeley and a 3 day per week, 3-3-0 teaching load at Davis. (David is on quarters. The normal load is 2-2-2.) My wife and I both applied for jobs that year. We didn't advertise our connection in our applications, but we let people know about each other once they called to express interest. She got no offers. I got one offer, a one year, soft money, 100% research postdoc at Washington University in St Louis. After painful discussion, my wife and I decided to live apart for the year with her in Berkeley (putting off graduation for a year) and me in St Louis. While I was at Wash U, I got wind that Berkeley was looking for a leave replacement position for spring 1992. I went after it with everything I had and managed to land it. This was another postdoc position, with a teaching load of one course. My wife and I applied again for jobs that year. She got a postdoc at Rice University in Houston. I got nothing until the spring, when I got wind of a late opening at Lake Forest College in Illinois, which I applied for and got. My wife and I separated again for that year. We applied again last spring. This time we were exceptionally lucky, landing two tenure track jobs at Vassar College. During this time, I thought about quitting mathematics several times. I have no idea why I didn't---any sane person would have. Because of all this, and because I now have time for something other than looking for a job and putting my life in order, I've been thinking of running for the AMS Council on a "Young Mathematicians" platform. I missed the filing deadline for this year, but I am planning on going for it next year. That's my story. There's a lot that I've left out about things that I've learned about the process. I'm happy to talk about these things---job hunting strategies, interview strategies, applying for external funding strategies, etc.---with anyone who's interested. Just drop me a note at BeLotto@vassar.edu. -- Ben Lotto Department of Mathematics/Box 349/Vassar College/Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 914-437-7180 belotto@vassar.edu ___________________________________________________________________ Item #7 Seth F. Oppenheimer: Faculty at Mississipi State I read in the YMN that some departments which will have job openings this year are making a list of their faculty and research areas available via anonymous ftp. I thought that this was a very good idea and so I have creKalin Godev (kalin@math.psu.edu).ated just such a list. For those unfamiliar with ftp, I list the sequence of commands. ftp math.msstate.edu login anonymous password (Use your ident here, the machine will prompt you) ftp cd pub ftp cd misc ftp get Faculty-list I hope that this proves useful to those of you thinking of applying to Mississippi State University for a position starting in the Autumn of 1994. Seth F. Oppenheimer(not on the hiring committee) Department of Mathematics and Statistics Mississippi State University seth@math.msstate.edu ___________________________________________________________________ Item #8 Sarah Witherspoon: Jobs Ads in the Chronicle The following is information which may be useful to some of us on the job market, and I don't think I have seen it in YMN, at least not recently. A friend told me recently that the job ads in the Chronicle of Higher Education are available on-line by typing: gopher chronicle.merit.edu It's very user-friendly. You are given a choice of several things from the Chronicle to view, and can just choose job listings. Then you can search for the word "mathematics" among the job listings, or anything else you want. Sarah Witherspoon sarah@math.uchicago.edu ____________________________________________________________________ Item #9 Curtis Bennett: We need successful NSF grant applications. A month ago I put out a first request for anyone who has written a successful NSF grant proposal to consider sending it in to be available by anonymous ftp to members of the YMN. So far I have yet to receive any proposals. Unfortunately, unlike the NSF Postdoc proposals, I can't start the ball rolling. To anybody who has written a successful NSF grant, please consider allowing others to see what a successful grant proposal looks like. On a related topic, Robert Molzon, a former program director with the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the NSF has agreed to write an article on how the NSF awards grants. He tells me the article should appear in the next month or two. I am hopeful that by next years NSF grant proposal deadlines we will have some good information available for everyone. Curtis Bennett cbennet@andy.bgsu.edu ____________________________________________________________________ Item #10 Edward Aboufadel: Myth Sighting--NY Times Last week, through a few different sources, I heard about an article in the Friday, November 5th New York Times. I got this by email: From "Public Schools are Failing Brightest Students,..." A23, New York Times, Nov.5 '93 by Lynda Richardson, who excerpts from the latest U.S. Dept. of Education report "National Excellence: A Case for Developing America's Talent" "The U.S. shortage of graduate students in mathematics and science forces many large companies -- such as Texas Instruments, Bell Laboratories, and I.B.M. -- to fill jobs, particularly in research, with people educated outside the United States." In disgust, I went to read the whole article. It had to do mostly with gifted and talented students in elementary, middle, and high school. Nevertheless, I was motivated to write a letter to the Editor of the New York Times, which I present below. I don't know if they will print it, but I have my fingers crossed. Edward Aboufadel aboufade@scus1.ctstateu.edu **************** Edward F. Aboufadel Department of Mathematics Southern Connecticut State University New Haven, CT 06515 November 10, 1993 Editor The New York Times 224 W. 43rd Street New York, NY 10036 To the Editor: An article in the November 5th edition of your newspaper repeats a widely held myth about graduate education in this country. The article concerns a new report from the Department of Education. The report, National Excellence: A Case for Developing America's Talent, refers to "the U.S. shortage of graduate students in mathematics and science." As a recent graduate of a doctoral program in Mathematics, let me assure you: there is no shortage. Nor will there be a shortage in the near future. A new survey of recent doctorates in Mathematics, published in the November issue of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society, reports the following information: U. S. universities gave out 1197 doctorates in Mathematics during the 1992-93 academic year, 526 of which went to U. S. citizens. This is a 14 percent increase from last year, and a more than 50 percent increase from the academic year 1986-87, when these numbers were 739 and 362. The critical statistic, however, has to do with jobs. Among those new doctorates whose employment status was known in September, 12.4 percent were unemployed! Mathematics is not the only scientific discipline faced with this problem. Young physicsts are so upset that they were able to get two of their own elected to the board of the American Physical Society. Using the Internet, groups such as the Young Mathematicians' Network are forming to find ways to dispel this shortage myth. The truth is that there is no shortage of scientists, or graduate students, for that matter. Rather, there is a shortage of jobs! Truly Yours, Edward F. Aboufadel ____________________________________________________________________ Item #11 Heidi C. Funes-Fonseca: Resources Request I am working on a Doctoral Program in Organizational Management. I am a Mathematics Teacher as well. For my Educational Reform class, I am required to write a paper about a reform, including historical background, how is it to work -in theory- and what will be the implications for the future. I've chosen the topic of the California Mathematics Framework, and I have followed it since the 1985 publication. I would like to request possible sources from our readers. For instance, I am also studying the Technical Report on Eisenhower $$ and its impact in Mathematics Education in California. Any help will be appreciated. THANKS! Heidi C. Funes-Fonseca hfunesf@eis.calstate.edu ____________________________________________________________________ Item #12 Sharon Pedersen: Supportive Graduate Programs Can YMN readers offer advice on graduate programs? I'd like to find out about supportive, structured Ph.D. programs in pure math. This will help me to better advise seniors planning to go to graduate school. By "supportive" I mean both * financially--there are enough teaching assistantships for all the students. * emotionally--the department tries to educate and train all its students, rather than neglecting them and supporting only the stars. By "structured" I mean, for example, that the department offers a clear progression of courses designed to prepare students for passing the qualifying exams and beginning thesis work. Please reply directly to me; I will summarize to YMN. (If you prefer not to be quoted and/or attributed in a summary, let me know.) Sharon Pedersen pedersen@polar.bowdoin.edu Department of Mathematics, Adams Hall Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine 04011 ____________________________________________________________________ Item #13 Closing Credits The Young Mathematicians' Network is administered by: Charles Yeomans cyeomans@s.ms.uky.edu Mark Winstead winstead@ml.kva.se Vic Perera vperera@silver.ucs.indiana.edu Franklin Mendivil mendivil@math.gatech.edu Stephen Kennedy kennedy@stolaf.edu Kalin Godev kalin@math.psu.edu Neil Calkin calkin@math.gatech.edu Curtis Bennett cbennet@andy.bgsu.edu Jeff Adams adams@bright.uoregon.edu Edward Aboufadel aboufade@scus1.ctstateu.edu ____________________________________________________________________ End of Journal -- Next week: The Discussion Continues