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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

#101

Post by Simulacra »

phantom_oracle wrote: post #84

2 things about this fascinate me: 1) The knock-on effect of having this cross-published on HN and reddit will somehow make this story reach some form of news-media -> which in turn will influence UC Berkeleys decision, as they will be under the media-spotlight. 2) I always thought many STEM professors were useless educators who only taught students as a by-the-way while they chased fame/recognition among their peers…

Very good point. A professors job should be foremost to teach. Research and chasing fame should come second. In my opinion, universities have flipped this on its head. They've allowed and in some ways forced professors to relegate teaching to a level of "by the way". Students pay and go to university to learn from teachers, not to subsidize researchers. There's something very wrong when a University places more emphasis on research than in teaching students

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#102

Post by crimsonalucard »

nilkn wrote: post #77
analog31 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I found this snippet from an open letter he wrote to the Mathematics Department in the past: > you instructed me to show a draft of my final to another very eminent member of faculty and former winner of the distinguished teaching award. His comment on a draft that contained 8 questions was that it was already too long and too hard, and should be no longer. I had originally been planning on asking 15 or so questions,…

Too many universities fail to teach and only use unreasonably challenging tests to filter students.

You know you have an exemplary teacher when his students start owning these crazy tests. This is what every educational institution should strive for. Teaching is an art, and this man represents the epitome of the art.

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#103

Post by crimsonalucard »

squirrel wrote: post #90

I was a grad student and teaching assistant in Berkeley maths 1998-99. I observed that the department intentionally admitted many more grad students than it could possibly put through the full PhD, and had a well-tuned system for weeding them out after a year or two - chiefly a "preliminary exam" that was notoriously tough and (in my view and that of many others) unfair. A charitable view would be that the department…

If hard working students fail a test, the failure is on the teacher, not the students.

I highly doubt the majority of students at berkeley would be anything other than hard working.

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#104

Post by Simulacra »

bobhaigler wrote: post #35

I hope they can work it out. It would be a shame to lose someone who loves teaching and who students appreciate. My 1A prof at Cal said openly (and with a dash of humor) that he was being forced to lecture and would rather do his research but that he periodically had to teach a class. I wonder if that was the accepted culture in the department and Coward broke a bit against the status quo.

Mine too!!!! Harbir Lamba at George Mason University called us all spoiled brat's, and said he hated teaching, and would much rather be doing research. There was no humor in his voice whatsoever. He really hated being forced to teach.

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#105

Post by yojo »

ezmuller wrote: post #91

I'll just be over here waiting on the other side of the story...

I have no dog in this fight, but his description lines up with my experience. I showed up at Cal in 2001 as a nerdy kid super-jazzed about math. I took Math 1A my first semester, and the lectures started with the professor turning his back to the class and proceeding to write proofs on the board for 90 minutes in indecipherable handwriting with little to no explanation. People would show up to class with pillows, no joke.

I got a middling grade (B+), but the experience was so bad it was the last math class I took. It took me seven years to fully realize my mistake and get back to working in line with my passions.

Anecdata I know, but at least one case where bad Cal math instruction derailed a trajectory.

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#106

Post by Simulacra »

hendzen wrote: post #69

Not the only skeleton in the UC Berkeley Mathematics closet - see the story of Jenny Harrison [0] for another example. [0] - http://articles.latimes.com/1993-05-02/magazine/tm-30007_1_j...

1993? I see the relevance, but I think that's a bit dated. Even a math department Berkeley has come a considerable amount of ways from 1993. Back then I think she still had gender working against her

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#107

Post by vessenes »

selimthegrim wrote: post #34
vessenes wrote: post #33

What a great and inspiring letter from someone who is clearly under significant public and private pressure; I'm sure he was repeatedly advised not to go public in any way by friends, enemies and lawyers on both sides. My favorite part is where he imagines the Math department is "jolly cross".

No, he's saying the other departments (engineering and physical science) who are supposed to be "served" by the math dept. are "jolly cross" at the mathematicians for shirking their duties. This situation is by no means limited to Berkeley. UCSB did an excellent job but other universities I have worked at I have heard exactly the same complaints.

My bad; I was just so into reading 'jolly cross' in his letter, I forgot just who was cross.

I have a mathematics degree, and I can say that most mathematicians I have known consider the math needed for most physics and engineering undergraduate degrees to be deadly boring. It's a rare math professor who enjoys teaching calculus year after year.

My university did not have this budget-grabbing approach from the theoretical math department; I think I can understand both the appeal of it, and the perils from the perspective of the department. 20 years after the choice is made to grab budget with large freshman calculus seminars, it makes sense to me you'd have a bunch of bad behavior and culture embedded.

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#108

Post by crimsonalucard »

archgoon wrote: post #11
wildboarcharlie wrote: post #5

As a UC Berkeley student who's never taken one of Coward's classes, I've heard great things from every single friend of mine whose taken his class ("I love Coward" is heard a lot). I know students are already rallying to keep him at Cal. However, I think that perhaps the Math Department at Cal doesn't deserve such a great professor if the system is as decrepit as described.

> I think that perhaps the Math Department at Cal doesn't deserve such a great professor if the system is as decrepit as described. At the very least, Coward does not deserve them.

Coward is the Math department. Calling the administrators members of said math department is a disservice to all of education.

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#109

Post by archmikhail »

hendzen wrote: post #69

Not the only skeleton in the UC Berkeley Mathematics closet - see the story of Jenny Harrison [0] for another example. [0] - http://articles.latimes.com/1993-05-02/magazine/tm-30007_1_j...

I had her for a class a few years ago, and like Coward, she was an excellent teacher who didn't care for the norms of the department. She was actually working on a new textbook at the time which was all about teaching the fundamentals of mathematics in a completely different way to give a better foundation for higher level mathematics. At the time, she had just taken a small group of non-STEM majors, and using her book, got them to graduate level math in just 1.5 years. Sadly I haven't seen the book released, but one can only hope the work of these talented individuals will not be hindered by silly politics.

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#110

Post by crimsonalucard »

philip1209 wrote: post #78

I'm not associated with UC Berkeley, but I have been involved in a lot of campus politics in the past. Because I see many alumni commenting here about the effectiveness of this lecturer, I offer a suggestion: Give a restricted gift to the university. Earmark it for something like the salary or research of Dr. Coward. If they want to play politics, you can too and restrict that your donations are tied to his continued…

Correcting injustice by inserting more politics doesn't solve the root of the problem.
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