Contents:
President
Don Hill
Department of Mathematics
Florida A&M University
Tallahassee, FL 32307
(904) 599-3595
email: dhill@math.fsu.edu
SunCom: 286-3595Past President
Leonard Lipkin
Department of Math & Statistics
University of North Florida
Jacksonville, FL 32224
(904) 646-2467
email: llipkin@unf1vm.bitnet
Fax: (904) 646-2563
SunCom: 861-2468President-Elect
Shiv Aggarwal
Department of Physical Sciences
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Daytona Beach, FL 32114
(904) 226-6706
email: aggarwal@db.erau.edu
Fax: (904) 226-6621Vice-President for Programs
Joe Mott
Department of Mathematics
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306
(904) 644-4419
email: mott@math.fsu.edu
Fax: (904) 644-4053Vice-President-Elect for Programs
Chuck Lindsey
Department of Mathematics
Florida Gulf Coast University
Ft. Meyers, FL 33919
(941) 432-5554
email: clindsey@fgcu.edu
Fax: (941) 432-5599Vice-President for Site Selection
David Kerr
Department of Mathematics
Eckerd College
St. Petersburg, FL 33733
(813) 864-8432
email: kerr@eckerd.edu
Fax: (813) 864-8382Vice-President-Elect for Site Selection
J.C. Campbell
St. Petersburg Junior College
P.O. Box 41223
St. Petersburg, FL 33743
(813) 341-4618
email: campbellj@email.spjc.cc.fl.us
Fax: (813) 341-4770Co-Secretary-Treasurer
Ernest Ross
12229 69th Terrace, North
Seminole, FL 34642
(813) 391-7159
email: errossjr@aol.comJune White
St. Petersburg Junior College
Clearwater, FL 34625
(813) 791-2542
email: whitejune@email.spjc.cc.fl.us
Fax: (813) 791-2601Newsletter Editor
Mark Anderson
Rollins College
Winter Park, FL 32789
(407) 646-2323
email: manderso@rollins.edu
Fax: (407) 646-2479Section Governor
Frederick Hoffman
Department of Mathematics
Florida Atlantic University
Boca Raton, FL 33431
(561) 367-3345
email: hoffman@acc.fau.edu
Fax: (561) 367-2436
SunCom: 238-3345
The national MAA is still going through the disruptions of the switch to new processes, including the outsourcing of many tasks. If members have any difficulties with services, they should make it known. In general, even though there are two 800-numbers now, you should always be able to reach the right office to handle your needs.The financial affairs of the organization are being brought into good shape by a dynamic new financial director, Nancy Baugher. The publications program is in great shape, with MAA On-Line supplementing Focus, and providing great new columns, plus adequate dissemination of the material that used to appear in UME Trends. There will be about three times as many books this year, including classic reprints and other items unique to the MAA.
Project NExT, for new faculty, is ending its third year, and will probably get funding for three more. This wonderful program helps new faculty begin their careers, providing mentoring and networking. Three MAA sections have their own programs, and we should be thinking about joining them.
We need to get more active with our processes for the teaching awards.
MAA is the lead organization in bringing the international Olympiad to the US in 2001. We need to raise a lot of money ($5 m), and a good start has been made. The Liaison program, to replace the old departmental representative program is off to a good start. At the national meetings, Liaisons were identified by little yellow squares on their badges. I'll have those squares available for our meeting.
I look forward to seeing and talking to a lot of you at the meeting in Tally, and I would like to hear from you about your ideas, and concerns regarding MAA. I am enjoying my term as Governor.
There will be two elections conducted at the March 1, 1997 annual business meeting. One is to select officers for the coming year and you will find the slate below. The other will determine whether, in future years, the nomination committee should present at least one candidate per position or at least two per position. If you will not be attending the annual business meeting, you may vote by mail. Below you will find an absentee ballot and on the following pages a statement in support of single-slate elections and one in support of multiple-slate elections.1997 Nominations
President-elect: Mike Mears, Manatee CC Vice President-Elect for Program: Judy Jones, Valencia CC East Vice President-Elect for Site: Ken Pothoven, USF Newsletter Editor-Elect: Mark Anderson Secretary/Treasurer: Ernie Ross & June White, SPJC
[Note: this is not an online ballot. To use this ballot, print out this page and use the hard copy.]VOTE FOR ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:
I FAVOR SINGLE-SLATE ELECTIONS I FAVOR MULTIPLE-SLATE ELECTIONS YOU MAY MAIL YOUR BALLOT TO:
ERNEST ROSS
12229 69th TERRACE, NORTH
SEMINOLE, FL 34642OR BRING IT TO THE ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING ON MARCH 1, 1997.
There are a number of reasons why a slate consisting of a single candidate for each office is advantageous. Let us consider some of them.It is surely desirable that the officers adequately reflect the membership: state university, community college, private institution, as well as female and male. It has been suggested that a slate of at least two for each office will ensure diversity. In fact, it often does just the opposite. On the other hand, a nominating committee can, and does, seek out a diverse slate. The 1996 election, with a slate of one candidate for each office, provided a ticket balanced as to type of institution and gender.
Some apparently feel that the section officers are a closed club with no effort made for inclusion. Nothing could be further from the truth. People become section officers by volunteering for committees. Those who show interest in the work of the section are then considered for office. The nominating committee is always delighted to find individuals who want to participate.
As one who has twice chaired the nominating committee, I can tell you the work is difficult. The nominating committee, elected by the executive committee, first calls for volunteers or for recommendations. Anyone can be suggested, but few names are forthcoming. It then becomes necessary to comb through committee lists and to contact institutional representatives. It is an onerous task to find one person for each office, one who has the time, the talent, and the willingness to serve, and still balance the ticket. The task would be much compounded by requiring two names.
Let us continue the present practice of one candidate for each office, but leave open, at the discretion of the nominating committee, the possibility of one, two, or even more names for each office. It could happen that more than one candidate for an office would present himself or herself. But mandating that there must be two would be a mistake.
There is something fundamentally right about the democratic process of "election." It gives everyone involved in an organization, whether it be a country, an educational institution, or a professional society like the MAA, ownership over process, practices, and future directions. In every sense of the word, free and open elections promote community, diversity, and, above all, communication.Before we begin the main body of this argument it is important for you, the members of the MAA, to know something of our backgrounds. One of us has been extremely active in the Florida Section for years; the other is only a recent affiliate and to tell the truth has let his membership in the MAA lapse more often than not. One of us has served on a variety of committees, including the Student Activities Committee, and has made significant contributions to the strength and vitality of the Florida Section. The others' first entrance into the administration of the MAA occurred 2 years ago with his election to the position of Vice President for Sites.
It can be argued that a "single-slate of officers" will always guarantee diversity because the nominating committee will ensure that all of the various constituents are represented. Regardless of the fact of whether or not you believe that one community college person can speak for all community college people or if one woman speaks for all women, we feel that the process of nominating a single-slate is a little more dynamic than that. With a single-slate, the nomination process ends once a candidate for a particular position is found. A few phone calls are made, a name is paired with a position, and the work is over.
A brief look at the past history of the Florida Section tends to back this up. First off, lots of schools are not represented in any way in a listing of our past officers and those schools that are, tend to repeat themselves over and over again. For example, Eckerd College, to which one of us is very familiar, numbers less than 0.3% of the Florida state membership in the MAA and yet mathematicians from that school have held 5.8% of all the offices (president, or one of two vice presidents) since 1967. If you also want to throw in governorship, the percentage would be even higher.
Overriding all of this however is the fact that there are just a relatively few number of people who have served as officers within the Florida Section. They tend to be appointed from one position to the next and if you couple this with their institution affiliation it is easy to see how a few schools have dominated the section.
We are not being critical, but if the job of the nominating committee is to find people to serve then it would just be human nature to call people that they know, to assert an ethos upon the whole process that individuals "must pay their dues", to compare their own work ethic with that of the candidates to ascertain whether or not they "feel" these people can do the job. In short, to simply look down the hallway to find the next person.
We are advocating a free and open election of officers within the Florida Section of the MAA. We feel that this will open up our section and bring in a variety of different ideas and directions. However, we do not simply wish to put names on a ballot but instead believe that it is the nominating committee's job to come up with a multi-candidate slate and to then ask each of these candidates to submit a statement as to what they have done for the MAA in the past and what their plans are for the future. These statements could be published in the January Newsletter and thereby allow for informed voting at the March meeting. With a process such as this, we could even open up the section to absentee balloting.
In closing, open and free elections will give everyone (all 846 state-wide members) a sense of ownership in our section. It is our belief that this will also allow for some untraditional voices to be heard.
Friday February 28 and Saturday March 1, 1997
The Turnbull Center/
Center for Professional Development
Florida State University
Tallahassee
For updated information concerning the meeting, go online to the meeting home
page at:
http://www.math.fsu.edu/~smith/MAAFS97/maafs97.html
Program for Annual Meeting
The program for the meeting is available at the meeting home page.
Meetings will be held in building CPD-30 located in lower right-hand corner of this map.
A paltry $10 Student Conference registration fee brings all the above goodies (as well as registration for the main meeting. Students who do not wish to attend the Conference can pay the usual one dollar fee and register for the main meeting.)
Friday night banquet with Speaker Jack Crow, Director of the National High Magnetic Fields Lab Certificates for presenters and prizes for top undergraduate presenters Saturday Lunch Lakeside dormitory housing for the first 20 students (ten male & ten female) who register as presenters In addition to all of the above, there is something for faculty. Each MAA Rep or advisor who accompanies a student is invited to be a guest at the Student Conference banquet. The subsidized cost for faculty is $10.
Please alert your students to this special event. To get registration forms or for more information contact:
Ben Fusaro
fusaro@math.fsu.edu
(904) 644-9717
or
Pam MacManus
mcmanus@math.fsu.edu
(904) 644-8714
If you would like to present a paper, please send all information to:Joe L. Mott
Department of Mathematics
209 Love Building
Florida State University
email: mott@math.fsu.edu
phone: 904-644-4419
fax: 904-644-4053Please submit a short abstract of your paper (or workshop). Also include the following information: name, address, phone number, email address, whether student or faculty, title of paper (or workshop), length of time required (10, 15 or 30 minutes), preferred session (Friday afternoon or Saturday morning), equipment needed (subject to availability), and a brief description whether emphasis will be on research, technology, history, pedagogy, or other.
Tour the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, a National Science Foundation funded facility for providing high magnetic fields to anyone who needs them.To register send a check, made out to Joe Mott for $15.50 to:
Joe Mott
Department of Mathematics
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306
When making reservations, mention the MAA meeting hosted by the Florida State University Mathematics Department. Rooms will be held at the indicated rates until February. Distances from motels/hotels to the Center for Professional Development are indicated in parentheses.
Capital Inn (1.2 miles)
1302 Apalachee Parkway
(904) 877-3141
$38 + tax includes continental breakfast
Collegiate Village Inn (2.5 miles)
2121 W. Tennessee Street
(904) 576-6121
$40 + tax includes continental breakfast and
evening cocktails. Free rides from airport.Ramada Limited (1.5 miles)
Corner Tennessee and Brevard
(904) 224-7116
$45 + tax includes continental breakfastCabot Lodge (4.0 miles)
2735 North Monroe
(904) 386-8880
$57 + tax includes continental breakfast &
two-hour evening cocktail reception
Radisson Hotel (1.2 miles)
415 North Monroe
(904) 224-6000
$82 + tax
To pre-register for the 1997 Annual Meeting, complete and return this form to Secretary Ernest Ross, 1229 69th Terrace North, Seminole, FL 34642, along with a check made out to the Florida Section-MAA.
Pre-registration for everyone except students is $5, whereas registration at the meeting is $7. There will be no fee for students who pre-register.
You may also prepay for the Annual Luncheon ($8.00) and/or the Saturday morning Governor's Breakfast ($6.95).
First Name Last Name Title Department Institution City State Zip Pre-registration @ $5.00 __________________________
Luncheon @ 8.00 _______________________________
Governor's Breakfast @ $6.95 _____________________
Total ________________________________________
The Joint Policy Board for Mathematics has selected Mathematics and the Internet as the 1997 MAW theme. This theme includes such subjects as computer security and encryption, data mining, network analysis, information theory, and the availability of mathematical information on the world wide web and other technologies.Mathematics Awareness Week materials, including the MAW poster and visuals, will be posted on the MAW web site http://forum.swarthmore.edu/maw/ beginning in December. Additional information can be found and MAW-related activities discussed on MAW-list, the email discussion list. (To join MAW-list, send mail to majordomo@maa.org, with subscribe maw-list in the body of the message.)
A Mathematics Awareness Week session will be held at the Joint Mathematics Meeting in San Diego on Friday, January 10 at 9:30 a.m. in room 7B of the San Diego Convention Center. This session will feature case studies of the 1996 MAW theme poster and supporting materials, an overview of mathematics on the Internet, and an online demonstration of the 1997 MAW web site.
Institutions and organizations who are planning MAW activities may wish to post them on MAW-list and on their www sites. Links from and postings to MAW web site may be arranged with Melissa Dershewitz.
To assist in 1997 planning, summaries of the 1996 activities are currently posted on the MAW web site: http://forum.swarthmore.edu/maw/96/participants.html with links to many individual MAW web pages.
General questions about Mathematics Awareness Week can be directed by email to: mawjpbm@deans.umd.edu.
The award shown below was presented to Ernie at the January 1997 Joint MAA/AMS Annual Meeting in San Diego.Every five years each section of the MAA is permitted to nominate one person in the section for the National MAA Certificate of Meritorious Service in recognition of outstanding service at the national or sectional level. Past recipients were Frank Cleaver (USF) in 1987 and Robert Gilmer (FSU) in 1992.
Ernie has been most active in the MAA, both nationally and in Florida, for many years. Nationally, he has served on the Committee on Two Year Colleges, the MAA Science Policy Committee, the Newsletter Editorial Subcommittee, and he chaired the Joint AMATYC/MAA Task Force on Remedial Mathematics. In the Florida section, he has served as President, Vice President, Secretary/Treasurer, and as the section's Articulation Coordinator.
The following is Ernie's response given at the Annual Joint Meeting.
An award? For what? Doing what I enjoy most?
Service to others and especially teaching, I believe, is one of the highest and most meaningful callings a person can have. The rewards alone from it--student interactions and their successes, intellectual stimulation from the mathematics curriculum, and associations with others of like mind-- are more than ample. Receiving recognition fro it from an outstanding group of colleagues goes far beyond that.
But service can never be recognized independent from others. Those who have a share in this include individuals from St. Petersburg Junior College who have consistently helped and supported my efforts in the MAA, colleagues throughout Florida whose cooperation was never lacking, and family at home whose love and understanding were always there. I acknowledge, with thanks, their partnership in this award.
Professor Ernest Ross has a long and distinguished
career as a mathematics instructor in Florida and as a leader of the
Florida Section of the Mathematical Association of America.
After teaching high school mathematics in the midwest and in Florida,
Ernie moved to the Clearwater campus of St. Petersburg Junior College in
1965. During the first ten years of teaching at this new site of the
community college he also found time to obtain his doctorate in 1975.
In late 1981, he answered a call to go to Tallahassee and become
Director of the College Level Academic Skills Test project. The
development of this statewide examination for college students claimed
him full-time for a year and a half.
In the summer of 1983, President Carl M. Kuttler, Jr. named him as
Assistant Vice President of St. Petersburg College and a year later he
became Academic Dean for the St. Petersburg campus. He accepted the same
position on the Clearwater campus in 1989 and retired from there in
1995.
An educator to the bone, Ernie described how it runs in his family:
He is one of five siblings, all of whom taught; his wife Phyllis was a
kindergarten teacher for 20 years; their daughter taught computer
science in high school for several years, and while their son never
taught, he married a girl who teaches autistic children in middle
school.
Ernie has been a tireless worker for the Florida Section of the
Mathematical Association of America. He was Vice President from 1980 to
1981 and President from 1986 to 1987. He has been the
Secretary/Treasurer of the Florida Section since the spring of 1991, a
position that is without doubt a most important on in the section. He
has been the key personality that has made the Florida Section one of
the most successful.
The Florida Section of the Mathematical Association of America honors
Professor Ernest Ross's many years of dedication to excellence in
undergraduate education and valuable service to the Florida Section by
granting him the MAA Certificate of Meritorious Service. |
Each math department in the section is asked to submit departmental news once a year. The schedule is shown below. If your school is not listed, you should appoint a liaison for your department and inform Jane Heckler (jheckler@maa.org) of your choice.
| St. Leo College K. Charlwood |
Barry University M. Jagadish |
Rollins College G. Child |
| USF G.McColm |
Palm Beach Atlantic K. Swick |
Central Florida CC M. Holton |
| Jacksonville Univ. M. Foskey |
Lynn University G. Cox |
Pontifical Cath. U-PR L. Perez |
| Univ. of Turabo A. Rivera |
Univ. of West Indies L. Henry |
| St. Johns River CC M. Keller |
Tallahassee CC M. Karsteter |
Hillsborough CC P. Wing |
| Polk CC B. Conner |
FAU F. Hoffman |
FIU S. Gupta |
| Manatee CC W.G. Stallard |
Jones College A. McNiel |
Inter Amer. U-Barran. D. Morales |
| SPJC-Clearwater E. Vollrath |
U. of PR-Humacao W. Torres |
| SPJC-St. Pete J. Rutledge |
UCF L. Armstrong |
UF B. Edwards |
| Santa Fe CC G. Smith |
Ed Waters College J. Han |
Florida College C. Goodall |
| Miami Dade CC M.Andreoli |
U of PR-Mayaguez R. Beldin |
Inter Amer. U-Aguadilla R. Gonzalez |
| Chipola CC L. Cleveland |
Faculty News:
Jerry Junevicus gave a talk at the Suncoast Regional Meeting of the Florida Section of the MAA which was held at Manatee Community College on December 6. The title of his talk was Baseball and Mathematica.David Kerr conducted two 3-hour training evolutions on Mathematics and the Environment at the annual Student Conference of the National Consortium of Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science, and Technology. This year, the NCSSSMST conference was hosted by the Center for Advanced Technologies at Lakewood High School, and Eckerd College.
Bill Maddox served as Resident Director of our London Study Centre throughout the Fall Semester.
Student News:
On October 28, Ron Ford, Tracy Perella, and Amanda Planson (together with David Kerr) attended the Educators Luncheon at the annual meeting of the Society of Actuaries at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel. Says Ron after talking with both the outgoing and incoming Presidents of the Society: "I now have a new profession."Paul Coles, Ron Ford, and Eric Lehr attended the Suncoast Regional Meeting of the Florida Section of the MAA at Manatee Community College.
Dr. Enrique Villamor is the new chairman of the department. He took over the position from Dr. Steven Hudson in August, 1996.Dr. George Kafkoulis, Dr. Phillippe Ruukimbira and Dr. William J. Sweet were tenured and promoted to Associate Professors in 1996.
Three new faculty have been hired to tenure track positions. Dr. Kaushal Ajitabh joined our department in August 1996. He completed his Ph.D. from MIT. Then he joined University of Texas, Austin as an Assistant Professor for two years before joining us. His research interests are algebra and non commutative geometry. Dr. Daniella Bekiranov joined our department in August, 1996, coming to us from University of California, Santa Barbara where she completed her Ph.D. She works in P.D.E. Dr. Shamita Dutta Gupta joined our department in August, 1996. She got her Ph.D. from Brown University in 1995 and was an Assistant Professor at the Pennsylvania State University for one year before joining us. Her research interests are number theory and automorphic forms.
Dr. Richard Rubin and Dr. James Slifker are on sabbatical leave.
The 1995-96 Teaching Incentive Program awards were given to Ms. Diana McCoy, Mr. Richard Nadel, Dr. Anthony Shershin and Dr. Enrique Villamor. In the faculty convocation and awards ceremony 1996 Dr. Gerardo Aladro and Dr. Anthony Shershin received university-wide award for excellence in teaching.
The Mathematics Department has a home page on the net (compiled by Dr. William Calbeck) at http://www.fiu.edu/~math/. The FIU Math Gazette is edited by Dr. Taje Ramsamujh. The Mathematics Department also has a Computer Lab where we offer computer assisted courses in single and multi-variable calculus. Dr. George Kafkoulis is currently the Administrative Director of the laboratory.
