commentary.qxp 11/16/00 8:26 AM Page 5 From the Editor the Society, who serves ex officio on the editorial board of Multiple Missions the Notices, has a dedicated part of the Notices in which to report Society business. Research, service, teaching: some permutation of these As magazine, the Notices prints a lively variety of three words is a familiar mantra at most American uni- items that include high-level exposition of contemporary versities. Presidents and provosts use the words to define mathematical research, obituaries of especially prominent the mission of the institution; deans and department heads mathematicians, communications about issues of concern base raises and promotions on the perceived contribu- to the profession, and opinion pieces ranging from tions of faculty members to each category; professors editorials to letters to book reviews. A necessary condition strive to fulfill a tripartite role. for publishing a contribution in the magazine part of the Yet research, service, and teaching are not wholly Notices is that the editorial board finds it interesting and separate activities. Supervising a Ph.D. dissertation is both well written. teaching and research; refereeing for a journal is both The three dimensions of the Notices overlap, just as the research and service; developing a new course on financial research, service, and teaching functions of a professor over- mathematics is both service and teaching. Publishing an lap. A report on the award of the Steele Prizes is both of- expository article about recent developments in contem- ficial Society business and news; an obituary is both news porary mathematics falls in the intersection of all three and a magazine article; a retiring presidential address is activities. both a magazine article and Society business. There is one The separateness of research, service, and teaching is case, however, in which the different aspects of the Notices such a widespread myth that some departments even tell are manifestly disjoint: statements of opinion in the mag- faculty members to spend, say, 35 percent of their time on research, 15 percent on service, and 50 percent on teach- azine are, by definition, never official pronouncements of ing. The specificity of such an assignment is an absurdity the Society. based on an illusory view of a professor’s job. The job is Some mathematicians excel at research, others at to be a scholar; learning, teaching, and advancing the pro- teaching, while others have a special dedication to service. fession are inseparable components of the job. A profes- Many mathematicians find that different facets of their sor indeed has multiple missions, but these can no more scholarship shine most brightly at different periods of be understood as individual pieces than can the faces of a their careers. Analogously, readers find that different parts diamond. Research, service, and teaching are all facets of of the Notices are most valuable to them at different times. the jewel of scholarship. The employment advertisements are interesting to recent The Notices too has multiple missions. As the new Ph.D. recipients but useless to retirees; a letter to the editor, I have learned that over the years the Council has editor leaves some readers cold but inflames others; an augmented the mandate of this journal. Originally an article on applications of partial differential equations ephemeral newsletter, the Notices subsequently became intrigues some readers, while others turn to an article also the journal of record for the Society. In 1995 the on number theory. visionary leadership of editor Hugo Rossi added a third We mathematicians choose a career of scholarship dimension to the Notices, that of an exciting scientific because we find the endeavor stimulating and rewarding. magazine, and outstanding efforts over the past three I am similarly excited about editing the Notices. Commu- years by retiring editor Anthony W. Knapp made expository nicating effectively with an inhomogeneous audience is a excellence the hallmark of the new Notices. Newsletter, challenge and an opportunity. The Notices aims to inform, journal of record, magazine: these are the missions of the to interest, and to enlighten. I hope that in pursuing its Notices today. multiple missions, this journal will help to illuminate the As newsletter, the Notices reports notable events in gem of mathematical scholarship. mathematicians’ lives: awards of Ph.D. degrees in American mathematics departments; professional honors, such as —Harold P. Boas major prizes and fellowships; deaths of members of the Editor Society. It also carries announcements of such items as upcoming conferences, professional opportunities, new books, and backlogs of mathematics research journals. As official chronicle for the Society, the Notices publishes such items as reports from the treasurer, registration information for the annual meeting, and materials con- cerning the election of officers of the Society. It also prints lists of financial contributors, of reciprocity agreements with other mathematical organizations around the world, and of members of committees of the Society. The secretary of JANUARY 2001 NOTICES OF THE AMS 5 commentary.qxp 11/16/00 8:26 AM Page 6 Letters to the Editor Letters to the Editor when I was appointed, protected me has been evolving since academies from reprisals for expressing my were first organized, but little views, which lately have become very beyond the AAUP’s principles has Post-Tenure Review unpopular with some of my col- been written down. In mathematics A description and panel discussion of leagues, including ones sitting on the the only part in print is the AMS’s post-tenure review at four universi- panel now accusing me. formal Ethical Guidelines, for which ties was held at the Joint Mathematics “And what are the views that have I was in effect the scribe. They should Meetings on January 19, 2000. (For a brought me here? When I was granted help to prevent repetition of the report, see the MAA newsletter Focus tenure, the university prided itself on abuses that led to their formulation. for August/September 2000.) As a the strength of its research in mathe- It will be harder but more important former chair of the AMS Committee matics, and my department was in the to write guidelines preventing abuse on Academic Freedom, Tenure, and forefront. It was willing to accept my of post-tenure review. January’s panel Employment Security (CAFTES), I performance as a teacher because was a start, but if the matter rests, a would like to add some comments. grant money flowed freely and I cap- real case like the hypothetical one Nasty tenure cases generally end in tured my share. Now that stream has above will quickly make it urgent. court, where the heavy fees always all but dried up. The university is try- put the individual teacher at a severe ing to raise money from industry with —Murray Gerstenhaber disadvantage to the institution. Some- its biotechnology licenses and is sac- University of Pennsylvania times the teacher wins only because rificing mathematics research, but it the court is persuaded that the insti- is advertising how great its math (Received September 1, 2000) tution has breached some possibly teaching is in preparing students for unwritten canon of the teaching the dotcom world. My very vocal point Another View of PSSM profession: in courts’ words, the “com- of view, which rattles some of my Joan Ferrini-Mundy offered a de- mon law of the profession”. colleagues, is that research must still scription in the September 2000 issue Tenure may seem like a property come first. Although I try, I’m not a of the Principles and Standards for right, but it is still a contract. It good teacher, but that wasn’t the main School Mathematics (PSSM), the year gives the teacher the right to contin- consideration when I was tenured. 2000 rewrite of the 1989 Curriculum ued employment subject to satisfac- Now it is, and the ‘great teachers’ of and Evaluation Standards of the tory performance of certain duties. my department are trying to oust me. NCTM [National Council of Teachers However, unlike contracts in most The university offered me a ‘second of Mathematics]. Her article concluded ordinary businesses, the terms of chance’ with its program for ‘profes- with “the carefully crafted ideas and tenure contracts have never been sional development’, but I missed responses of the ARG [Association completely clear. To resolve ambigui- some sessions because of manuscript Review Group] members enriched our ties the court may turn to this “com- deadline pressures. Besides, the whole effort immeasurably.” As one of the mon law”. Teachers’ rights can be thing resembles a penal ‘reeducation’ AMS ARG members, I feel, to the con- enlarged by legislation (as in the program. This wasn’t the contract that trary, that our responses did not sig- uncapping of retirement age), but the university tacitly made with me. In nificantly affect the document. generally neither the employer nor fact, the whole process of ‘post-tenure A pretty good summary is given the legislature can withdraw rights review’ of which I am a victim wasn’t by Ferrini-Mundy herself after a dis- already granted, even when they are part of my contract. The university is cussion about circles to which one only an unwritten part of the common now trying unilaterally to change it.” ARG member (not me) had responded law. The problem with “post-tenure The professor has a winning argu- with the criticism, “A definition is review” is that despite any original ment if the judge agrees that the com- not something that can be discovered good intentions it could be used to mon law of the profession protects in a bull session.” The PSSM authors do just that. his or her tenure when there is a revised the discussion to read: The common law of the teaching change in university policy.