Minutes prepared by Chad Awtrey

Meeting of Fri Sept 29, 2006.
Faculty present: Anne Gelb, Matthias Kawski, Dieter Armbruster, and Helene Barcelo,
Students present: not available
Topics:

1. the role of the professor (teaching, research, service)
2. the hiring process
3. aspects of promotion and tenure

• Part I: The Role of the Professor.
  • Consists of teaching, research, and service
  • Each professor has a "workload assignment"
  1. Typically (40% teaching , 40% research , 20% service)
  2. Typically 40% teaching translates to 2 courses per semester, though this can be negotiated at the time of hire to a load of 2-1 or 1-1
  3. A reduced teaching load would typically incur higher research expectations
  • Evaluation of Service : The different types of service are
    1. Being a member of a committee (Personnel, Budget, Graduate, Exam, ...)
    2. Organizing a conference
    3. Being an editor of a mathematical journal
    4. Refereeing mathematical papers
  • Evaluation of Research
    1. Every professor is evaluated once a year on research and teaching
    2. Research evaluation consists of looking at
       • number of papers published last year
       • quality of paper published and quality of publishing journal
       • grant activity
       • number of invited , submitted , and seminar talks
  • Evaluation of Teaching consists of
    1. Student evaluations
    2. Sometimes Peer evaluations
    3. Number of graduate students a professor has (this is considered teaching)
• The Tenure Process
  • Every year before receiving tenure, a professor's CV is analyzed
  • At the 3rd year, a committee is formed to analyze the professor's CV and papers
  • At the 5th or 6th year, tenure is decided. A portfolio is collected...Papers are sent to experts in the field, and these experts write a report about their findings (e.g. This paper is not impressive...just a minor calculation" , or "This paper is quite impressive because it launched significant research in the field."
• The Hiring Process
  • Applications are considered - Last year the department had 3 openings, one in computational bioscience, one in statistics and one in algebra. 130 applications for the algebra position were received.
  • Two or Three people are asked to give a talk
  • An offer is given to one person - The candidate has the opportunity to bargain 3 things
    1. salary
    2. teaching load
    3. startup package ( in particular, Dr. Armbruster mentioned that startup packages can range from $40,000 to $100,000 and the money is typically used for anything to get your research program started....moving expenses, computer equipment, graduate students, etc.)