AGENDA
- Call to Order
- Chair's Remarks
- Announcements
- Communications - Athreya
- PIMS opportunity - Athreya
- Centenary celebration - Pal & Viray
- Committee Reports
- PIMS co-director search - Paternain
- New Business
- Executive Session
- Adjournment
MINUTES
The regular meeting of the faculty of the Department of Mathematics was held in PDL C-38 at 3:30pm PST, February 4, 2025. Max Lieblich, Chair, presided over the meeting. Rose Choi was the recording secretary.
Chair's Remarks
Congratulations to Bobby Wilson for his Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) and to Cynthia Vinzant for her Michael and Sheila Held Prize.
Grad admissions season is underway. We may need to anticipate a smaller incoming class and some short-term adjustments with the goal of long-term changes for the graduate program.
Class A Legislation 176: Defining the Core Elements of Effective Teaching in the Faculty Code was passed at the Senate and approved by President Cauce. The department must re-evaluate our teaching practices around the five core elements now listed in the amended code.
The previous meeting’s minutes were approved by unanimous consent.
Announcements
The Communications Committee has created a Google form for collecting news within the department for publication in our various platforms and to help promote the department as a whole within the University.
PIMS is conducting a search for a new Co-Director Programs. Gabriel Paternain and Jayadev Athreya can answer questions about the position.
Soumik Pal and Bianca Viray are putting together a historical webpage for the department’s centennial in 2026/27. Please send any historical info to the committee including short blurbs on how your own research community has developed at the UW. This page will detail all the ways that our department has contributed to the University and to the Seattle area over the last 100 years. Also, when inviting speakers it would be nice if they had some UW connection so they can be linked to the celebration. Any and all feedback is welcome.
Committee Reports
Gabriel Paternain has been the interim PIMS Co-Director International and they are now searching for someone to take over the position permanently. The deadline for applications is March 31st. If you would like to know more about the position and would like to chat with Gabriel, please feel free to reach out to him directly.
New Business
The Teaching Faculty Committee recommends converting the TA training sessions that are held in the Fall for MATH 124 and 125 into classes to encourage attendance and treat it more as a professional development course and possibly even for credit. A Canvas page can include resources that could benefit new faculty and AAPs in addition to the TAs.
Additionally, the committee is also considering refreshing the grading policy for some of the courses. They’ll put together a proposal for the UPC.
The committee shared some of the valuable ways individual teaching faculty have contributed to the department and the University as a whole, such as Charles Camacho’s work with the STARS program and Andy Loveless’s strategies for handling student accommodations.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting passed into executive session at 4:18pm.