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Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

alexandercoward.com

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Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#51

Post by ablatner »

VanillaSwirl wrote: post #36

Unpopular opinion, but I think he's being overly dramatic. "My Fall 2013 Math 1A students were tracked into the next course in the sequence, Math 1B, and it was found that their average grade in Math 1B was 0.17 grade points higher than that of those students who took Math 1A with another instructor." 0.17. Not even a whole point. Student evaluations don't really count since those are highly subjective. Students tend…

If you read the whole article you'll see that he's actually lower paid. One of the reasons the department doesn't like him is that he demonstrates that it's possible to teach more students better (even if just slightly) at a lower salary, and that scares them because they're so focused on increasing their budget.

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#52

Post by striking »

Sven7 wrote: post #43
striking wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A software dev team requires far more one-on-one interaction between "faculty members" than teaching does (where faculty are the ones producing the software and the students are the users). And in any case, if someone on a dev team got significantly better numbers by bucking the trends, I would be obligated to try and understand their methods and help them gain greater acceptance. It doesn't make sense to remove some…

Not always. I have seen cases where the most productive/well liked person on the team has got fired cause they made the wrong people look bad. Did that turn out bad for the team? Not really. Life goes on. And sometimes its just a good learning experience for both parties.

That sounds more like a testament to the sociopathic nature of business in practice, rather than the ideal way to carry it out.

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#53

Post by kelukelugames »

I had Ogus at Berkeley! He still looks like a lemming. :)

Keep in mind this is only one side of the story.

Also, if you are going to come out against Berkeley, Klein Perkins, or someone else equally powerful then please make sure you can easily prove every allegation. It's the best way to avoid defamation lawsuits.

My lawyer said "It's not slander if it's true." ;)

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#54

Post by analog31 »

socrates2016 wrote: post #37

Have a Berkeley math degree. Two observations. Student ratings are whack. I had a professor I thought was really good but had an average rating. I had one fellow student state that he hated the professor. I am pretty sure the professor did nothing to him that deserved that hatred. People don't like it when they don't do as well as they expect. Second, it appears that the math department hires based on research becaus…

Conventional wisdom among teachers is that ratings are mainly a function of the grades that students expect to receive in the course. I was in the room when two profs were discussing their grading policies, and one of them flat-out wanted to give easy grades because he was coming up on tenure.

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#55

Post by escherplex »

Curious. Was it ever considered that this may be fallout from the decision to hold classes during the campus AFSCME strike back in late November 2013, justification outlined in an impassioned e-mail sent to students? see: http://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/just-in/2014-... and the collection of heated pro/con responses which followed. Absolutely bizarre. Reminds me of the dismissal of the physicist David Bohm from Princeton in early 1950s orchestrated by then president Harold Dodds, a rabid anticommunist with close ties to the McCarthy era State Department who viewed Bohm as a Marxist unionist. May be what goes around comes around. Does Chancellor Nicholas B. Dirks and a majority in the Math department happen to have close ties to Sacramento and AFSCME? If so the real rationale for proposed dismissal may be that the professor is deemed insufficiently Marxist unionist by the powers that be. Just glad I had the financial resources to eschew that institutional quagmire.

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#56

Post by pg_is_a_butt »

dnautics wrote: post #18
fernly wrote: post #13

I'm a bit puzzled by the statement that he is asking "campus authorities" to "overrule" his firing. Why would he want to continue working there, or, how could he expect to be able to work in a department after indicting it in this fashion? With this document hasn't he pretty thoroughly burned his bridges?

For the pleasure of teaching 400+ students a year who could all benefit from his instruction?

i'm sure the pleasure of taking federally insured loan money from 20,000,000 sheep isn't worth defending at all?

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#58

Post by ablatner »

fernly wrote: post #13

I'm a bit puzzled by the statement that he is asking "campus authorities" to "overrule" his firing. Why would he want to continue working there, or, how could he expect to be able to work in a department after indicting it in this fashion? With this document hasn't he pretty thoroughly burned his bridges?

Because the student body, even those who haven't had him as a lecturer, adore him. He may be burning bridges with others in the department, but he has an incredibly strong bridge with the rest of campus.

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#59

Post by cellar_door »

VanillaSwirl wrote: post #36

Unpopular opinion, but I think he's being overly dramatic. "My Fall 2013 Math 1A students were tracked into the next course in the sequence, Math 1B, and it was found that their average grade in Math 1B was 0.17 grade points higher than that of those students who took Math 1A with another instructor." 0.17. Not even a whole point. Student evaluations don't really count since those are highly subjective. Students tend…

His salary is $67,886. Are you really going to hire somebody to do his job for less money than that?

In regards to your points about research, maybe the math department should consider establishing a "teaching professor" role like the EECS department has done. Most of the lower division introductory CS courses are taught by teaching professors like Paul Hilfinger, John Denero, Dan Garcia, and Josh Hug. Given that math is so important to a variety of majors on campus, why shouldn't we demand that large, lower division math courses be taught by people who are experts in teaching?

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#60

Post by rahimnathwani »

VanillaSwirl wrote: post #36

Unpopular opinion, but I think he's being overly dramatic. "My Fall 2013 Math 1A students were tracked into the next course in the sequence, Math 1B, and it was found that their average grade in Math 1B was 0.17 grade points higher than that of those students who took Math 1A with another instructor." 0.17. Not even a whole point. Student evaluations don't really count since those are highly subjective. Students tend…

"Funny how he left out the last bit. He hasn't published anything since 2013."

The post suggests that he's "full-time lecturer". The grievance says that his job title is "Lecturer". Why would that require him to publish research?

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