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Faculty Meeting

Tuesday, April 4, 2023 - 3:30pm
Zoom

AGENDA

  1. Call to Order
  2. Chair's Remarks
  3. Announcements
  4. Committee Reports
    • Graduate Program - Lieblich
    • Appointments - Viray
  5. New Business
  6. Executive Session
  7. Adjournment

MINUTES

The regular meeting of the faculty of the Department of Mathematics was held virtually via Zoom at 3:30pm PST, April 4, 2023. John Palmieri, Chair, presided at the meeting. Rose Choi was recording secretary. 

The meeting began with approval of the previous meeting’s minutes.

Chair's Remarks

We are still evaluating our staffing needs to figure out what type of position we’ll pursue to fill Alice’s former role. In the meantime, we have employed a temporary student worker to handle the front desk of the Advising office.

If you have not already done so, please turn in your annual faculty updates as the committee is preparing to review the files any day now.

Committee Reports

The Graduate Program Committee (Lieblich, Athreya (A), Novik (AW), Pevtsova (WS), R Liu, Wilson, Zhu; Helms, K Liu) invites discussion about the following potential changes to exams, courses, and advising:

  • Eliminate prelims as of Autumn 2023. Core course instructors will generate reports on the students instead.
  • Move general exams earlier in the program (expected by their third year) and structure it as an area exam rather than a research presentation. This will be  accompanied by reports from various faculty who have worked with the student in an advisory capacity.
  • Revise core course structure and requirements to a fully modular core or partial modularity. Alternatively, we can leave it “as is.”
  • Increase student/faculty advising contact by  expecting full or partial committees to be assembled by year three.

A detailed email will be sent out to the department with a form to supply feedback. Feedback is requested by May 1st with a discussion to follow at the May faculty meeting. The final proposal will incorporate this feedback and be presented at the June faculty meeting.

The Appointments Committee (Viray, Athreya (A), Drusvyatskiy, Pevtsova (WS), Rohde (WS), Rothvoss, Shokrieh) drew up nine axes for assessing candidates:

  • Group 1: Publication quality, Community recognition of research, Research mentorship & leadership
  • Group 2: Research independence or innovation
  • Group 3: Breadth of research interests, Alignment with the hiring plan
  • Group 4: Collegiality/Service, Diversity, Classroom teaching

In the first round (Group 1), every faculty member can advance candidates to round 0. Candidates who are not a fit for the mathematics department will be excluded. Other candidates will be advanced based on a review of CV and textbox responses. Initial assessment will be made without regards to letters of recommendation (unless under constrained situations).

ADJOURNMENT

There being no new business, the meeting passed into executive session at 4:22pm.

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