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Myths in Math Charles E mannix.qxp 4/27/98 11:03 AM Page 875 Myths in Math Charles E. Mannix Jr. and Kenneth A. Ross There are many myths about mathematics. Some the current downturn in full-time tenured employment of people believe that only gifted people can learn new young mathematicians is not likely to be reversed in mathematics, that mathematics is only for boys, the next decade. Even though we are aware of them all in- etc., but this article is concerned with myths in dividually, it may be useful to consider them in totality and mathematics. The December 5, 1994, issue of to ponder their impact on mathematics. Our purpose is to Newsweek included an article titled, “No Ph.D.s state our reasons for our views without claiming to own a Need Apply”. It discusses The Myth, which took crystal ball. hold in the 1980s, that the nation would face a First, the abrupt end of the cold war eliminated many shortage of scientists in the 1990s. Notices read- compelling requirements for advanced R&D along with ers saw several articles in 1994 and a recent the organizations and staff supporting weapons develop- February 1995 editorial on The Myth’s practical ment. Sizable rollbacks now exist at national labs and high- impact on today’s young mathematicians seek- tech aerospace, electronic and design companies which for ing career employment (for the most recent data, decades welcomed and employed many mathematicians, see the Survey article, this issue). engineers, and scientists. Displaced, highly qualified, mid- A related myth in mathematics, which we career individuals are entering the civilian economy on hear every so often, goes something like this: both sides of the (former) iron curtain. For thousands of “Jobs were tight in the early 1970s and then the them, their option will be to compete with new graduates market improved. It’s a cyclic business and the for teaching positions at all educational levels. Overall, market will get better again soon.” Many of us this is a healthy development because mathematics has al- no longer have faith in this myth, for reasons we ways been a worldwide activity that has largely ignored ar- will explain, and we believe that mathematics de- tificial national boundaries, but there is no denying the im- partments should reconsider their missions. In pact on the current and future U.S. job market. particular, they should consider downsizing Our world is increasingly international. Worldwide eco- their graduate programs and should reexamine nomic competition is forcing downsizing on most high-tech the education provided in graduate school so that and even traditional American employers. Much detailed it more closely fits the reality of what our grad- design, which creates new openings for U.S. mathematicians uates will be doing in the future. Some Type I uni- and engineers, has followed manufacturing offshore. More versities, such as UC, Berkeley and the Univer- scientific cooperative efforts, another good thing, also lead sity of Michigan, have already started this to fewer technologists in any one country. The fiscal, po- process. litical, and scientific pressures to collaborate are rising in Many long-term economic, political, acade- areas from space research to high-energy physics. mic, historical, and technical issues indicate that A technological productivity and efficiency revolution is affecting routine mathematical and scientific work just Charles E. Mannix Jr. received the Ph.D. in applied as the industrial revolution affected manual labor. Many mathematics in 1993, searched extensively for acade- common time-consuming analytical tasks, which gave em- mic employment last year, and has established an en- ployment, especially at the entry level, now are accom- gineering math modeling/simulation consulting com- pany with several friends. Kenneth A. Ross started plished using very powerful and efficient utility software graduate school before Sputnik, has taught at the Uni- developed to a mature state. Consider the numerous sym- versity of Oregon since 1965, and is now president of bol manipulators, numerical analysis algorithms, statisti- the MAA. The authors wish to thank the Notices edi- cal data packages, and graphical products on display at the tor, Hugo Rossi, for his support and encouragement. joint San Francisco meeting in January 1995. These greatly AUGUST 1995 NOTICES OF THE AMS 875 mannix.qxp 4/27/98 11:03 AM Page 876 speed lengthy calculations, yet most do not require their Other situations in academia translate to ordinary user to possess unusual mathematical talent. problems for mathematics departments. Within Note too, fewer mathematicians are needed to write and static or shrinking outside income sources, uni- develop classical applications programs from scratch. versities and colleges must foster new disci- Packaged or easily modified codes now exist in fields rang- plines: biotechnology, genetic engineering, ing from orbit mechanics to finite element modeling. This telecommunications, to name a few. Increasing software maturity results in completion of complex designs overhead costs (i.e., support staff, pensions, and like the Boeing 777 with a smaller but more efficient tech- insurance) encourage the trend to hire postdocs nical workforce. This touches another myth, namely, that and part-timers. Costs for repairs, materials, business and industry can absorb unlimited excess Ph.D. and labor to maintain the operation and upkeep production. While there is much mathematics to be done of the physical plant at publicly supported in- out there, industry traditionally hires people from other stitutions are accelerating faster than the tax disciplines to do this mathematics. Until we educate large base and state support. A rising percentage of numbers of mathematics students appropriately (as sci- every dollar allocated to colleges goes to worth- entists, and not just thinkers) for R&D positions in indus- while compliance costs for accounting to fund- try, those hiring patterns will not change. ing agencies, enforcing equal rights laws, en- State college systems are largely built according to op- abling the Americans with Disabilities Act, safety timistic expansion plans of the 1960s and 1970s. Thus, few laws, etc. It is no wonder tuition fees, room and or no new sites or major expansions at old campuses can board, and other student expenses are rising be expected. Worse, the equivalent of corporate downsiz- much faster than inflation, which traditionally ing is occurring in academia. Budget cutbacks to state col- outpaces middle-income family earnings. As lege systems have removed fat; ongoing annual reduc- these attendance costs spiral upward, an in- tions are having a serious impact on vital programs. In many creasingly larger part of our population will be places, present faculty and staff positions are more likely denied access to a traditional four-year college to be cut, not replaced, when vacated. Another aspect is a education, especially if the government cuts growing backlog of campuswide deferred projects that back on student support. The trend will be to- will need funding when, and if, budgets ever increase. wards ever smaller departmental enrollments These are all arguments for a long lag before any substantial and not for substantial numbers of new tenure- hiring occurs in mathematics departments. track entry-level positions. Most tenured faculty today are in midcareer or older, The unemployment situation facing young but not eager to retire. It is unlikely that they will transfer people in mathematics is far worse than dismal elsewhere and leave vacancies which ripple down to cre- unemployment statistics for any single year’s ate tenure-track slots for new Ph.D.s. It has been suggested class suggest. Consider the invisible “unem- that their anticipated retirements will create a wave of ployed”. There is already the equivalent of sev- new positions adequate to eliminate unemployment if only eral years’ annual Ph.D. production embedded we wait. We agree that the projected retirements will have in the woodwork of U.S. colleges and universi- some influence, but it will fall far short of a one-for-one ties as postdocs, part-time faculty, adjunct fac- replacement of a tenured retiree with a tenure-track hire. ulty, and, of course, the actively unemployed. Present and projected numbers of undergraduates annu- This accumulation vigorously competes with ally obtaining mathematics diplomas are substantially any current year’s graduates for the annual pool below the plateaus established two or three decades ago. of available full-time tenure-track openings. At Since large numbers of math majors and first-year gradu- current hiring levels, it would take some years ate students help in justifying math department staffing to absorb this backlog even if all Ph.D. produc- levels, there will be fewer actual tenure-track openings tion suddenly ceased. created than some people expect. Another myth is that the situation could be None of this is helped by the shrinking percentage of dramatically improved if national attitudes and the American student body that elects to take upper-divi- government priorities quickly changed. The feel- sion majors in the analytical disciplines. Related to this is ing that “science helped win World War II” trans- the trend to reduce analytical course work requirements ferred to the public the notion that science would in nonmath degree programs. Many academic scientists and help win the cold war too and help the country engineers feel that advanced mathematics is best learned in other ways. Now, the average citizen no longer in the context of their discipline; thus much of what was ranks pure mathematical research as a top na- traditionally provided by mathematics departments has tional concern. Not only that, a diploma in a gravitated to those disciplines. Where other degree pro- technical field, as we understand the term, is grams do need math, more mathematics is being taught viewed by fewer American families as a com- within those programs.
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