At the national level, the MAA has identified a need to get more
graduate students involved in the organization. If graduate
students participate in the MAA as students, it is likely they
will carry on their participation when they become faculty. To
this end, the MAA Committee on Graduate Students has offered
grant support to sections to pilot programs that encourage
graduate student involvement in section activities. Matt
Boelkins (GVSU) applied for and received one of these grants.
Matt and John Clifford (UM-Dearborn) are working on a special
session to highlight graduate students at our annual meeting.
Expect to see some new faces at the section meeting this May.
While we are on the subject of section meetings, locations for our meetings are fixed through May 2006. Of course, in 2004 we will be at Oakland University. In subsequent years the meetings are scheduled for Alma College (2005) and Calvin College (2006). To continue the rotation, we should look for a site on the eastern side of the state for 2007. If you are interested in hosting the section meeting in 2007 or beyond, please let one of the section officers know.
In March, the Michigan Section joined the Michigan Mathematics Teacher Educators (MMTE), the Michigan Council of Teachers of Mathematics (MCTM), and the Michigan Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (MichMATYC) collaborated on the conference Conversations Among Colleagues at GVSU’s DeVos Center in downtown Grand Rapids. The conference was designed to foster communication among the many parties responsible for the mathematics education of teachers—college and university mathematicians and mathematics educators, K–12 mathematics supervisors, curriculum directors, and classroom teachers who mentor teacher interns. Also supporting the conference were the MAA Preparing Mathematicians to Educate Teachers program, Grand Valley State University, the Center for Proficiency in Teaching Mathematics at the University of Michigan, and Michigan State University Division of Science and Mathematics Education.
John Kiltinen and Sujay Datta (both at NMU) organized the MAA Upper Peninsula Regional Fall Meeting, held at Northern Michigan University, November 7 and 8, 2003. John Mooningham (SVSU) and I attended and enjoyed the excellent talks and the chance to get to know our colleagues up north. Next year’s upper peninsula meeting is planned for October at Lake Superior State University. Brian Snyder, Sherilyn Duesing, and George Voutsadakis (all at LSSU) make up the Local Arrangements Committee for the 2004 UP meeting.
Gerard Venema (Calvin C) and the Program Committee have put together what looks like an outstanding program for our annual meeting. You can learn the details in the program contained with this Newsletter or at the Mich-MAA Web site at http://sections.maa.org/michigan/meeting04/. I look forward to seeing you at Oakland University!
Steve Schlicker, Chair