* Department Meeting Reminder: The math dept. faculty are meeting tomorrow, Tuesday, at 12:30 in the lounge.

* Archie Grants: Ken Berenhaut has received money from the Archie fund. Until recently, we have not had access to Archie funds, but in recent years the dean has indicated that this is no longer the case. Ken has successfully tested the waters for us and you should all be aware of this resource in the future. Thanks Ken!

* Departmental Support for Creative Activities: Earlier this year I encouraged everybody to ask for departmental support for research activities. For example, we can often afford to support short term visits by scholars from other institutions. I would also like to encourage all of you to consider creative activities in teaching. If you have an idea that needs some support to become a reality, then please let me know about it so we can make it happen. This could mean buying special equipment for class demonstrations, refreshments to support a class event, or other creative ideas.

* Holiday Party: Susan and I are inviting all of you to our house for a holiday party on Saturday, December 9 starting at 6:00. We will have a variety of appetizers, salads and desserts. You are welcome to contribute one of these if you want to. Directions will be provided soon. RSVP.

Math Department Newsletter, 11/27/06:

* Math Club Talk: Jason Parsley will be giving the talk " The linking, twisting and writhing of curves" this Tuesday, Nov. 28,at 4:00. Please remind your students and point to the flyers.

* Department Meeting Agenda: If you have an agenda item to suggest for our last department meeting of the semester, which will be next week, then please let me know. Currently there are several issues to deal with that were bumped from previous meetings due to time considerations. One item is to decide on how we will use the Sterge funds. A second is to decide on what courses will be worth divisional credit beginning next Fall. On this second issue I have previously suggested that we simply include every course numbered 107 or higher that is worth at least three hours of credit. Other suggestions?

* The University’s Planning Council has posted the results of their work at http://groups.wfu.edu/planning/. I encourage you to read these documents carefully and to send any ideas or suggestions that you might have to Ellen, who is the chair of our department strategic planning committee. Our department committee will be meeting after finals week to start forming a departmental response.

* Use of the lounge this week: My MTH 107 students will be doing poster presentations in the lounge every day of this week, except Teusday, from 10:00-11:00. I apologize for any inconvenience that this might cause. You are more than welcome to come in for coffee or other items. You are also welcome to just come and see what they have done.

* Teaching Evaluations: Please remember to save some time this week to hand out teaching evaluations.

* Campus Financial Briefing: Look for the announcements of a campus-wide financial briefing on November 30. This should be an informative meeting to attend.

* Holiday Party: Susan and I are inviting all of you to our house for a holiday party on Saturday, December 9 starting at 6:00. We will have a variety of appetizers, salads and desserts. You are welcome to contribute one of these if you want to. Directions will be provided soon. RSVP.

Math Department Newsletter, 11/20/06:

* Congratulations to Michelle Sikes! Michelle is a senior mathematical economics major who has just been named as a Rhodes Scholar.

* INVOLVE: Ken Berenhaut has taken another step towards making INVOLVE a big success. Most recently, Maplesoft has signed on as a sponsor. Check it out at http://www.involvemath.org/

* Colloquium Today: Remember that we have a speaker today. Dr. Sarah Mason will give a talk entitled "Decomposing the Schur Functions"

* Remarks From Nancy Suttenfield: Nancy Suttenfield visited with the department chairs last week. She said several things that I think you will be interested to hear. First, she and Matt Cullinan made it one of their first priorities to find savings within the units that they are responsible for. Those savings will be applied to increasing faculty salaries. Second, the budget process will be overhauled over the next year or two to make it more transparent and more standardized. Third, in the future we can expect that some money can be carried over from one year's budget to the next. This will remove the idea that all money must be either spent or lost at the end of the year.

* Campus Financial Briefing: Look for the announcements of a campus-wide financial briefing on November 30. This should be an informative meeting to attend.

* Holiday Party: Susan and I are inviting all of you to our house for a holiday party on Saturday, December 9 starting at 6:00. We will have a variety of appetizers, salads and desserts. You are welcome to contribute one of these if you want to. Directions will be provided soon.

*Hiring update: The hiring committee has agreed on a short list of people for phone interviews. Since applications are continuing to arrive we will continue to add to this short list.

* Registration: It has been another interesting registration process. I am really pleased by the number of students who want to take MTH 121 and MTH 113. Currently, 61 students have signed up for linear algebra and 43 have signed up for multivariable calculus. Thanks to Richard for taking on an extra course so that I could arrange for a second section of linear algebra.

* Departmental Discussion: On Thursday, 11/16, at 4:00 we will have our next informal departmental faculty discussion. The topic this time will be "Workload". Attendance at the first two discussions was very good, and I hope that this will continue. Refreshments will be provided as usual. Before the meeting I will distrubute some information from several departments who have a ratings system for measuring workload. Within this discussion I am hoping to address the following questions: How can we recognize the diversity of good work that is being done by people in this department? How can we encourage and support people in their efforts to improve? Will a ratings system of some sort help to answer either of the preceding questions?

*Student News: Michelle Sikes has reached the interview stage for a Rhodes Scholarship.

*Hiring update: The hiring committee will be meeting on Tuesday, 11/14. All tenured and tenure-track faculty are welcome to visit the mathjobs site and leave comments for the committee.

*Search for a New Provost: I encourage each of you to attend one of the forums listed at
http://www.wfu.edu/academics/provostsearch/forums.html .

* Math Club Talks Are A Hit! The attendance at our math club talks has been excellent, and our speakers have been doing an impressive job of presenting topics that are of interest to both students and faculty. Let's keep supporting this important activity.

* Colloquium Talks: If you would like to invite somebody to come and give a colloquium talk, then please let Ken, who is chairing the colloquium committee, know about it so that we can make plans. We have often been reaching the end of the year with colloquium money left over. I would rather run out of this money  before the end of the year and then be forced to find funding from other sources.

* Hiring update: We now have more than 50 applications for our position, and I have marked at least 14 of them as worthy of further consideration. Remember that you are welcome to look through the applications and offer your opinion to the hiring committee. The hiring committee will have its first meeting in two weeks.

* Strategic Planning Update: The department has received two different requests for information about the "strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats" (SWOT) for our programs. One request was from Cecilia Solana and is specifically about our graduate program and the other request comes from Debbie Best and concerns the entire department. This last request asks more than just the SWOT questions. For example, it asks for certain budget projections. Both reports are due in two weeks or less. On a first reading it looks to me as if a thoughtful response to these requests should involve extensive research and discussion followed by a carefully written document. The department chairs are sending a representative to Debbie today to talk about this and ask for clarification. We are hoping that Debbie Best and Nancy Suttenfield will agree to meet with us to provide some clear guidelines. I will keep you informed.

* Reminder: President Hatch will present a report on the state of the University to the faculty at 4 p.m. Nov. 1 in Brendle Recital Hall. Please attend if you can.

* Math Club Talks Are A Hit! The attendance at our math club talks has been excellent, and our speakers have been doing an impressive job of presenting topics that are of interest to both students and faculty. Let's keep supporting this important activity.

* Colloquium Talks: If you would like to invite somebody to come and give a colloquium talk, then please let Ken, who is chairing the colloquium committee, know about it so that we can make plans. We have often been reaching the end of the year with colloquium money left over. I would rather run out of this money  before the end of the year and then be forced to find funding from other sources.

* Hiring update: We now have more than 50 applications for our position, and I have marked at least 14 of them as worthy of further consideration. Remember that you are welcome to look through the applications and offer your opinion to the hiring committee. The hiring committee will have its first meeting in two weeks.

* Strategic Planning Update: The department has received two different requests for information about the "strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats" (SWOT) for our programs. One request was from Cecilia Solana and is specifically about our graduate program and the other request comes from Debbie Best and concerns the entire department. This last request asks more than just the SWOT questions. For example, it asks for certain budget projections. Both reports are due in two weeks or less. On a first reading it looks to me as if a thoughtful response to these requests should involve extensive research and discussion followed by a carefully written document. The department chairs are sending a representative to Debbie today to talk about this and ask for clarification. We are hoping that Debbie Best and Nancy Suttenfield will agree to meet with us to provide some clear guidelines. I will keep you informed.

* Reminder: President Hatch will present a report on the state of the University to the faculty at 4 p.m. Nov. 1 in Brendle Recital Hall. Please attend if you can.

Math Department Newsletter, 10/23/06:

* Gentry Lectures: Jeff Rosenthal will be giving the Gentry Lectures on Wed. and Thu. March 7 and 8. Please mark your calendars and plan to attend. Further details will be forthcoming. Thanks to Ken for getting this arranged.

* Math Club Talk: Miaohua will be speaking about "Nine Chapters of Mathematical Arts" on Thursday, October 26 at 4:00. See flyers for details.

* Hiring update: As of this morning there were 34 applications for our position, some of them very impressive.

* Reminder: Please remember to complete your book orders for the spring. Also, any requests for summer school teaching should be turned in soon.

* Dedication of the Waddill Seminar Room: Please join us tomorrow, Tuesday the 10th, at 11:00 outside of Manchester 356.

* Alumni News: While attending an AMS sectional meeting in Salt Lake City I saw Josh Thompson. He reports that he is likely to finish his PhD at the University of Utah this year. He is working in Topology, but I do not recall the name of his advisor. I also saw Matthew Rudd and learned that he has a tenure track position at the University of Idaho. I encourage you to look at their math department website. Their online newsletter has a nice feature on new faculty.

* Hiring update: I sent the necessary paperwork to the dean last Thursday and she replied very promptly. I will be posting electronic advertisements this week, and will get print ads as soon as is possible. I will also be forming the hiring committee this week.

* Department Meeting Reminder for Faculty: Remember that we have a department meeting on Tuesday at 11:00 in the lounge.

* Strategic Planning: The campus-wide strategic planning committee is nearing the end of the first phase of their work. They have been gathering information to create an "environmental scan." Their next step is to use this information to create a list of strategic priorities. The provost spoke to the chairs about this last Tuesday. He is not yet sure of what the priorities will turn out to be, but he mentioned that the following topics were of interest to many people:

1. The teacher-scholar ideal.

2. Diversity.

3. Need for a new financial structure.

4. What is the appropriate peer group for Wake Forest?

Our own strategic planning committee will soon be meeting to begin their work.

* Spring Course Schedule: The spring course schedule has been completed. You will notice that MTH 359 is not on the schedule. The decision to not offer MTH 359 this spring was made in consultation with Jim Norris and Ken Berenhaut. The two year course rotation will be reviewed by the undergraduate committee this year. Also, it is likely that several more sections of calculus will be added to the schedule.

* Mathematical Economics Forum: You are invited to participate in this week's MEF. See attached flyer for details. In particular note that on Wednesday the Department of Mathematics will hold a reception for Jean Mitchell at 4:30 p.m., and her afternoon lecture in Greene Hall will begin at 5:05. This lecture is appropriate for students.

* Summer School: Robin will soon distribute the usual form for those interested in teaching summer school. If you are interested in teaching summer school, then please reply promptly. Also, please keep in mind that I may not be able to provide every person with a class to teach.

* Book Orders: Now that the schedule has been constructed, it is time to think about your textbook(s) for the spring. Robin will distribute the usual form soon.

*Mail Services: I think that most of you received the mail services memo with the list of ways that we can help them to do their job. You do not need to take any particular action in response to that memo. We will be buying an organizer with several slots that will be put where our outgoing mail is always kept. It will have slots labelled "On-Campus Mail", "Off-Campus Mail", and so forth. (I am tempted to draft a return memo with a list of things that they can do to make our work easier.)

*Notes from Math Fest: Ellen reports the following from alums who attended Math Fest:

**Kevin Woods (moved in at Oberlin),

**Doug Chatham (the newsletter editor of his section),

**Mark Renault (on the program),

**Glenn Hurlbert (three talks on the program),

**Mark Kozek (I saw in a session where his joint work with his adviser, Filaseta, was mentioned), **Joe DeMaio (on the program).

** A governor from U of Akron told me that they had enjoyed having Arran Hamm at their REU.

*Planning Survey: Last week you should have received an email from Provost Gordon with a link to the online planning survey. Please take some time to fill out this survey. Your opinions are an important part of the planning process. On a similar note, I have talked to the other chairs and we do not yet have specific guidelines for departmental planning. The provost and/or the dean should be meeting with the chairs in September, and we should have more details at that time.

*Calculus Registration Info.: We currently have 13 sections of MTH 111 with room for nearly 400 freshmen, 7 sections of MTH 112 with room for nearly 200 freshmen, and one section of MTH 113 with room for about 10 freshmen. Depending on which course has the longest waiting lists we might add one section of calculus. I will be watching MTH 113 particularly closely, because 90 incoming freshman received credit for MTH 112 via the AP exam.

*Committee Assignments: I have heard from just about everybody in the department about their committee preferences, so I will have the assignments completed in the next day or so.

Reminders from last week:

*Syllabi: If you have not already done so, then now is a good time to complete a syllabus for each of your courses. Please submit a copy of your syllabus to me and to Steven. (Electronic submission preferred.) It is important that we get syllabi for each of our courses.

*Pandemic Plans: While you are looking at your syllabus, give some serious thought to how you would conduct your course in the event of a pandemic as described in the email note from the dean's office on August 9. Please submit your plans and/or augmented syllabus to me (electronic submission is preferred.) I will make a folder of these plans available to everybody so that we can all borrow each other's good ideas. I have no template to offer in this regard, but I will be putting something together this week and will share what I come up with.

*300 and 600 level courses: If you are teaching a cross-listed course this fall, then please remember that you need to be clear about how graduate students are treated differently than undergraduates. This difference may be a topic of discussion for the graduate committee this year. One bit of information that will help the committee is for each instructor to compare their syllabus with those at other universities. How does your course compare to undergraduate or graduate level courses at other universities?

*Preparing for Jean Taylor's visit: There are several things that you can do to help with Jean Taylor's visit. Please let me know if you are willing to do any of the following: Airport pickup on the evening of Tuesday September 12(6:47pm), airport drop off on the morning of Friday September 15 (11:00am), host a departmental dessert/reception on Wed. September 13 or Thursday September 14(7:00-9:00pm roughly), dinner on either the 13th or the 14th. I am planning to take care of some of these myself but would welcome your help.

Math Department Newsletter, 08/14/06:

*Syllabi: If you have not already done so, then now is a good time to complete a syllabus for each of your courses. Please submit a copy of your syllabus to me and to Steven. (Electronic submission preferred.) It is important that we get syllabi for each of our courses.

*Pandemic Plans: While you are looking at your syllabus, give some serious thought to how you would conduct your course in the event of a pandemic as described in the email note from the dean's office on August 9. Please submit your plans and/or augmented syllabus to me (electronic submission is preferred.) I will make a folder of these plans available to everybody so that we can all borrow each other's good ideas. I have no template to offer in this regard, but I will be putting something together this week and will share what I come up with.

*300 and 600 level courses: If you are teaching a cross-listed course this fall, then please remember that you need to be clear about how graduate students are treated differently than undergraduates. This difference may be a topic of discussion for the graduate committee this year. One bit of information that will help the committee is for each instructor to compare their syllabus with those at other universities. How does your course compare to undergraduate or graduate level courses at other universities?

*Committee Preferences: Please report your committee preferences to me by the end of the week. If you need another copy of the form, then just let me know.

*INVOLVE: Ken has been working hard throughout the summer to create a new journal that highlights student/faculty research projects. I encourage you to visit the website http://www.involvemath.org/ to learn more about this project.

*Preparing for Jean Taylor's visit: There are several things that you can do to help with Jean Taylor's visit. Please let me know if you are willing to do any of the following: Airport pickup on the evening of Tuesday September 12(6:47pm), airport drop off on the morning of Friday September 15 (11:00am), host a departmental dessert/reception on Wed. September 13 or Thursday September 14(7:00-9:00pm roughly), dinner on either the 13th or the 14th. I am planning to take care of some of these myself but would welcome your help.