*Concerns of Young Mathematicians* Volume 2 Issue 12 March 30, 1994 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 Jeff Adams, adams@bright.uoregon.edu , editor for the month of April. Next issue: April 6 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. Table of Contents Item # Title ------ ----- 1 Editor's Notes 2 Shady Employment Practices and the AAUP Blacklist By Curtis Bennett 3 The Customs at a Conference of Economists By Ed Aboufadel 4 Closing Credits _______________________________________________________________ Item #1 Editor's Notes: Greetings for the last time from the March editor for the *Concerns of Young Mathematicians*. I received two submissions during the last week. The first, by Curtis Bennett, gives more specifics on the American Association of University Professors' blacklist of institutions. These institutions have been singled out by the AAUP as having engaged in particularly sinister employment practices and other nefarious academic behavior. This article stems from Kevin Madigan's article in the March 16th CoYM concerning his being abruptly fired from his tenure-track position at Lamar University. The second article, by Ed Aboufadel, details some differences he has observed in the research practices between the mathematics and economics communities. In the article, he discusses some possible changes in our publishing practices which might come about because of the glut of new PhD's and the emergence of electronic journalism. I've got to say that it has been quite an edifying experience to have served as CoYM editor. Reading your articles about the job search and other topics has been eye-opening. Now I have to pass the blue pencil to Jeff Adams who will serve as CoYM editor for the month of April. Send those cards, letters and articles to him at adams@bright.uoregon.edu Many thanks, Matthew Hudelson, March Editor for CoYM hudelson@math.washington.edu _______________________________________________________________ Item #2 Shady Employment Practices and the AAUP Blacklist By Curtis Bennett cbennet@andy.bgsu.edu After Kevin Madigan's post in the most recent CoYM started being thrashed around by the editors, I talked to Dr. Ron Stoner, the president of Bowling Green's faculty association to get the following information on the AAUP blacklist. He told me that it is very hard to get an institution on the AAUP blacklist, and they will only blacklist for a few offenses including: 1) Inappropriate firing of either tenured or tenure track employees. Improper for tenure track means that you can only be fired before your tenure hearing for the same sorts of reasons as tenured faculty. However, a fiscal crisis is acceptable although the university would need to defend that there is such a crisis with no other palatable alternatives. 2) Abridgement of academic freedom I am including the list of AAUP blacklisted institutions with some comments from Dr. Stoner. I hope that in the next month or two I will be able to do some research on why various universities were blacklisted. included message ---------------- Subject: AAUP "Blacklist" The American Association of University Professors maintains and publishes a list of institutions of higher education "that, as evidenced by a past violation, show that they they are not observing the generally recognized principles of academic freedom and tenure endorsed by (AAUP)." Administrations on the list have been officially censured by vote of the AAUP membership. The following institutions appear on the AAUP list of "Censured Administrations" as of the end of 1993. Following each institution is the year it was officially censured. The AAUP Academe says "Members of the Association have often considered it their duty ... to refrain from accepting appointment to an institution ... on the list." A detailed account of the reasons each institution is on this list has been printed in each case in past issues of AAUP Academe. Grove City College (1963) Univ. of the Ozarks (1964) Amarillo College (1968) Frank Phillips College (1969) Univ. of Central Oklahoma (1969) Southern Arkansas Univ. (1971) Camden County College, NJ (1974) Virginia Community College System (1975) Concordia Seminary, MO (1975) Houston Baptist Univ. (1975) Murray State Univ., KY (1976) Blinn College, TX (1976) Marquette Univ., WI (1976) Univ. of Osteopathic Medicine & Health Sci., IA (1977) State University of New York (1978) Univ. of Detroit Mercy (1978) Phillips County Comm. College (19778) U. of Texas of the Permian Basin (1979) Wingate College, NC (1979) Olivet College (1980) Nichols College (1980) Bridgewater State College (1981) Yeshiva Univ. (1982) Auburn Univ. (1983) American International College (1983) Illinois College of Optometry (1984) Metropolitan Community Colleges, MO (1984) Westminster College of Salt Lake (1985) Southwestern Adventist College (1985) Talladega College (1986) Southern Nazerene College (1986) The Catholic Univ. of Puerto Rico (1987) Husson College, ME (1987) Hillsdale College, MI (1988) Univ. of Judaism, CA (1988) Maryland Institute, College of Art (1988) Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (1989) Alabama State Univ. (1989) Concordia Theological Seminary (1989) The Catholic Univ. of America (1990) St. Leo College, FL (1990) New York Univ. (1990) Dean Junior College (1992) Wesley College (1992) Baltimore City Comm. college (1992) Loma Linda Univ., CA (1992) Chowan College (1992) Clarkson College, NE (1993) North Greenville College, SC (1993) Savannah College of Art and Design (1993) Curtis Bennett cbennet@andy.bgsu.edu _______________________________________________________________ Item #3 The Customs at a Conference of Economists By Ed Aboufadel aboufade@scus1.ctstateu.edu This month I traveled to Boston for a meeting of the Eastern Economic Association. There is an area of Economics called Econometrics, which involves trying to mathematically model the behavior of prices in markets. I thought it was interesting to see the differences between an economics meeting and a mathematics meeting. There is more conversation at economics meetings. What I mean by this is the following: before a meeting, any scheduled speaker is supposed to submit a paper to the organizers of the conference. This paper is then given to a reviewer, who presents his review orally *immediately after* a speaker gives a talk. In Boston, I saw speakers give a twenty minute presentation followed by five minutes of commentary by a reviewer. Sometimes the commentary led to further discussion in a session, although it seemed like there was less time for audience questions in Boston than in Cincinnati. These commentaries by reviewers were quite interesting. Often, a reviewer would begin by trying to consider the implications of the work or by trying to put it in context. This was good for both the audience (such as me) and for the presenter, I believe. But then the review would criticize, usually constructively, but once in a while not. There were some definite disagreements. Presenters would bring copies of their paper to their talks. They would never bring enough, though, so there was often a feeding frenzy for copies of the paper. One person joked to me to watch for those jabbing elbows. It seems to me that at mathematics meetings, copies of papers are usually not distributed at all. Also, I found in economics papers that there are often references to "discussion papers" rather than peer-reviewed articles in august journals. You don't see these things in mathematics. Why is there are difference? I imagine that it is related to the fact the economists must PAY A FEE to submit a paper, a fee in the range of $50. (When you review a paper for a journal, you get a stipend in the range of $10.) Since that is the case, it makes sense (economically!) that a second, less formal, system of peer review would have developed. Is this the future of mathematics? If the glut of new PhDs leads to a glut of submitted papers to journals, it is possible that more journals will declare themselves backlogged. This, in turn, may lead to other ways developing for us to communicate with each other. We already have electronic journals on the Internet. Four other non-related points: (1) economists tend to call overhead markers "grease pencils"; (2) someone at the conference said in jest that their email address was unlisted; (3) someone in Boston (I don't know who) is working on a biography of Stephen Smale; (4) I received some rejection letters last week for some summer faculty programs that stated that three times as many applications were received than there were positions. Another symptom of the PhD glut? Edward Aboufadel Southern Connecticut State University aboufade@scus1.ctstateu.edu _______________________________________________________________ Item #4 Closing Credits The Young Mathematicians' Network is administered by: Charles Yeomans cyeomans@s.ms.uky.edu Mark Winstead winstead@euclid.ucsd.edu 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 Frank Arlinghaus frank@math.ysu.edu Matt Hudelson hudelson@math.washington.edu ____________________________________________________________________________ End of Journal