*Concerns of Young Mathematicians* Volume 2 Issue 25 August 3, 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 Kevin Madigan km9985@math.albany.edu , editor for the month of August. Next issue: Wednesday, August 17 Editor for June: Franklin Mendivil mendivil@math.gatech.edu Editor for July: Franklin Mendivil mendivil@math.gatech.edu Editor for August: Kevin Madigan km9985@math.albany.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. Table of Contents Item # Title ------ ----- 1 Editor's notes 2 Greg Gibson More on letters of recommendation 3 Mike Prophet Project NExT 4 closing credits ______________________________________________________________________________ Item #1 Kevin Madigan Editor's notes It's been a slow two weeks, with only two submissions for this issue of *Concerns*, both of them interesting. I want to use this space to try to stimulate some discussion. - I encourage everyone to read William Duren's piece in the latest *Notices* titled "The Most Urgent Problem for the Mathematics Profession". This is a thought provoking article with some interesting suggestions. Young mathematicians and scholars will be the ones to implement these ideas (if they take hold), and we will certainly be the ones living with any changes that are made. I understand many of the points Prof. Duren makes, but I wonder if the proposed Doctor of Arts and Sciences won't turn into a souped up BA degree. I also wonder if these ideas are motivated more by the employment problems in Arts and Sciences or if they are motivated by a perceived need that the academic community can meet. As one who was sacrificed to temporarily solve problems brought about by declining enrollment I am painfully aware of our need for students (in the public's eye, students are our raison d'etre). As a professor and scholar I am leary of implementing programs which may further deteriorate the scholarly quality of post-secondary education in the United States. I am not saying that professor Duren's suggestions will do this, but simply raising the issue. - I have a question regarding NSF postdocs that may be of general interest. Is it inappropriate to apply for an NSF postdoc if one has previously had an NSF postdoc proposal rejected? I have heard conflicting views on this and wonder what the consensus is. ______________________________________________________________________________ Item #2 Greg Gibson More on letters of recommendation I wrote a letter a few weeks ago concerning letters of recommendation. I have received several good responses to that letter and would like to submit a follow up. My basic concern was that these letters can be an important part of any person's application for a job. Yet, since many faculty seem to find it difficult to write good letters, applicants often may be hurt by these let- ters. Let me emphasize that a good letter is not the same thing as a pos- itive letter. A good letter should convey some sense of who the applicant is as an individual teacher and/or mathematician. For instance, if someone were to write that I have done successful research, even discovering one result on my own, but do not seem to be someone destined to be primarily a researcher, but rather a teacher/applications oriented person -- this sort of statement would be positive, but more importantly would be accurate and helpful to hiring committees. With that in mind I'd like to make the following points. 1) Efforts should be made to see that graduate students are informed about how to get more detailed letters from faculty. ie a) Give a copy of your vita/resume to them. b) Describe the position or type of position that you are applying for. c) Discuss your views of how your background qualifies you for this position. Faculty should feel free to disagree in their letter, but atleast they know what you think is relevant. This should help give them a place to start. (My thanks to C. Roberts and A. Crannell for these suggestions) Having more informative letters circulating would improve the process by helping the hiring committees make more informed decisions. It also might help some graduates land a job. I simply trusted my committee to write detailed letters without realizing how difficult that can be. Thus I ended up with generic letters. I've discussed this with them, tactfully, and will have some more detailed letters for next year's job search. I'm thinking of mentioning this to the Graduate Coordinator here to see if she would be willing to provide the above list of suggestions or a varient of it to graduate students next year as they start to request letters. This may help others here avoid the situation that I ended up in. 2) The confidential nature of these letters must be preserved. I agree with E. Hart's concerns about watered down letters. If these letters are not kept in confidence then we will tend to see less information in them, not more. I gained access to these letters by accident since they were mailed to me when my application was rejected. This same school has now done this a second time. I applied for a lecture position there and received my vita, cover letter, etc. back as well as my letters. I should add that I sent the vita, cover, etc. in one envelope. The department here sent the letters in a seperate envelope specifically to preserve their confidential nature. I'm considering writing the chair of the offending department and asking why they are doing this(tactfully ofcourse). If it becomes widespread, we will see less effective letters as a result. Should someone write a letter to the editor of the notices on this issue? I hope that YMN will continue to provide information on the job search to graduate students. As we all know very well by know, it is a very disorganized process. Since each group of graduates usually leaves the school where they received their degree upon graduating, the next class ends up reinventing the wheel each year as they struggle through this process. I would like to see a compilation of the job search suggestions put forth in YMN made available at some point to graduate students and faculty, particularly graduate program coordinators. I am not sure what the best way to accomplish that would be. Suggestions are welcome. Thanks again to all who responded. ----- Greg Gibson NCSU gagibson@grad08.math.ncsu.edu _____________________________________________________________________________ Item #3 Mike Prophet Project NExT I have a possible long term contribution to YMN that might be of particular interest to grad. students and new Ph.D.s. I will be participating in a year long program called Project NExT ( New Experiences in Teaching ). The primary coordinators of the project are professors T. Christine Stevens and James R.C. Leitzel. New EXperiences in Teaching ( NExT ) is a MAA sponsored year long program designed to inform and assist beginning mathematical sciences faculty in their new professions. The project is partially funded by the Exxon Education Foundation. The 60 Project NExT fellows will attended workshops, short courses and meetings throughout the academic year, focusing on improving the teaching and learning of undergraduate mathematics. An immediate goal of Project NExT is to give participants the opportunity to implement calculus reform, new curricula and alternative techniques in their classrooms. In the long term, the hope is that the program will make a positive, career-long impact on the Fellows' pedagogical styles. I propose writing a workshop summary after each meeting and posting it on the YMN. If nothing else, this will help to make grad students aware of the program and encourage participation ( the number of applications for this first set of fellowships was relatively low ). At best, the summaries will help indicate to people entering the profession the hot issues in teaching and the directions people are trying in pedagogical methods. Mike Prophet PROPMICH@fs.isu.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 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 -- Next week: The Discussion Continues