Alumni Newsletter: Spring '98

The American Mathematical Society follows up the Rochester story

In the December 1997 issue of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society, there is an article by Senior Writer Allyn Jackson entitled "Whatever Happened to Rochester? Two Years Later, Mathematics is Getting Accolades." Because we think that our alumni might be interested in the aftermath of the controversy over the Renaissance Plan (which temporarily canceled the graduate program in math), we decided to review this article in our newsletter.

The article emphasizes the new and improved relations now existing between the Mathematics Department and the University Administration. It is liberally sprinkled with quotes from both the Department and the Administration attesting to a new spirit of admiration and cooperation. The Dean of the College, William Green, calls the new situation "one of the great success stories of higher education." Speaking of the Mathematics Department, the Dean of the Faculty Thomas LeBlanc, said, "This is a group of leaders, strong mathematicians who stepped up. They are intellectual leaders, not political leaders. When you tell people this happened in a year and a half, it seems like we're trying to put a happy face on a bad situation. But that is not the case."

This new spirit is partly explained by the quote from Professor Ravenel who said that when the graduate program was reinstated, "I think that at that moment everybody realized that we were on the same team." But there have been many real accomplishments in undergraduate teaching which go much further to explain the new spirit.

WeBWorK, "homework on the web," the development of which began before the Renaissance Plan, is cited as one of the most important accomplishments. It directly addresses the problems of teaching calculus at an institution where a disproportionately high percentage of students take calculus. As Professor Ravenel stated, WeBWorK makes "direct communication between student and professor...much more specific, much more focused, than student questions are in a traditional course." This is an unforeseen benefit of the immediate "right-wrong" response provided to students by WeBWorK. WeBWorK has been part of a significant response to a problem faced by mathematics departments and universities all over the nation. To quote Ravenel again, "There was a widening gap between what incoming freshmen knew about mathematics and what other departments expected them to know as sophomores, and we were expected to fill this ever-widening gap."

One of the central aspects of the Renaissance Plan was to improve the level of academic excellence in the entering class. The article points out that the Mathematics Department has benefited from this by the fact that enrollment in the very challenging honors calculus has soared. The honors calculus is just one of a series of Quest courses newly developed by the Mathematics Department. These courses have been very successful. Enrollments in math Quest courses far exceed those of any other department.

The new spirit between the Department and the Administration has been buttressed by a greater level of interaction between the Mathematics Department and other departments. There is now a joint appointment with Mechanical Engineering which has contributed to a new amity. Even more important has been the increased level of consultation between the Mathematics Department and science departments. New courses and joint research seminars are just one aspect of this. Ravenel says, "I think that there is a feeling around the university that the math department is very approachable and responsive to the needs of other departments."

The situation at Rochester and its successful resolution continues to influence the thinking of the national mathematics community. In an interview in the same issue of the Notices, the new President of the American Mathematical Society, Arthur Jaffe (who was very involved in resolving the crisis of the Renaissance Plan), said: "Everything I have been doing today is based on principles I learned from Rochester."

We think that all of the above shows that something very remarkable has happened. This is not to say that there are no problems. Math Professor Michael Cranston says that "The size restrictions on the faculty and the graduate program put constraints on our ability to cover the teaching that needs to be done." This was one of the central controversies of the Renaissance Plan. Could the essential teaching of mathematics be done with fewer resources? The Department has had to rely more and more on undergraduate teaching assistants. They have done a wonderful job but their performance is much improved when there are enough experienced faculty and graduate students to supervise and guide them. These are serious problems but, on the whole, the situation looks much, much better than anybody could have predicted.