Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department • Hacker News Board

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#181

Post by wbillingsley » Mon, Oct 12, 2015, 1:46 PM UTC

His lectures are up on Vimeo, eg: https://vimeo.com/140890185

From what I can see, he's a talented lecturer. He's articulate, genuinely interested in his students' understanding, and has some uninhibited dramatic enthusiasm that keeps the audience engaged.

He's doing a start-up centred on teaching skills for lecturers/professors; I wonder if behind the scenes the issue is simply about that?

Not sure how this particular argument will play out (yikes, it's quite public now though) but he's a smart chap and should land on his feet.

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#182

Post by idiot900 » Mon, Oct 12, 2015, 1:47 PM UTC

studentrob wrote: post #171

moron4hire wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not donations. The university will either have to accept the terms or refuse the gift. I've given restricted gifts specifically imposing that the money be used on pizza for the programming team.

Right but presumably some of the money in the existing budget for said thing can be moved around. So, say you donate $10 to Professor X's classroom and his existing budget is $50. You bumped it to $60. They can just take $10 from the existing budget and put it elsewhere. Your $10 still goes to that class, and the total goes back to $50. What you really want to know is whether the budget has increased by the amount yo…

Now at least they can't then decrease his budget to less than $10.

Another way to do it is to provide for a certain percentage of "overhead" costs, as with e.g. NIH grants. So if for every $10 that goes to Professor X, $6 goes to the university to use as they please, they can't then fire Professor X without losing the extra $6 as well. (Naturally this only works with relatively larger amounts of money.)

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#183

Post by j2kun » Mon, Oct 12, 2015, 1:48 PM UTC

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…

Why not just send Coward a check directly?

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#184

Post by lloyd-christmas » Mon, Oct 12, 2015, 1:49 PM UTC

ericjang wrote: post #39

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".

I agree. He really knows how to substantiate his grievances with choice words and data. I don't know any of the players involved in this drama but the letter was so damning that I could not help but look up profiles of Stark, Ogus, Christ, and Evans just to get a picture of their faces. Politically, this was an excellent play - with his popularity among students, the Math department (and in particular, named faculty)…

I tried to be a skeptic reading his commentary, but I definitely drank his kool aid. That being said... as a healthy dose of realism, nobody will care next year. The administration can easily just ignore this.

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#185

Post by agumonkey » Mon, Oct 12, 2015, 1:53 PM UTC

emp_zealoth wrote: post #164

lzr_io wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, hard work is not always effective work. When you embark on a journey of learning, it is your own responsiblity to make sure that you learn effectively. Hard work alone does not justify any merits - you have to make it count.

That is exactly the job of a teacher - to make sure you learn effectively.

How many of your teachers focused on efficient learning ? I can't remember one. Even the handful of teacher that left a deep trace in my memory never mentioned 'learning'. They were just so well aware of their subject, they could be the catalyst to bridge gaps in my view of things, triggering inspiration and desire.

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#186

Post by caskance » Mon, Oct 12, 2015, 1:54 PM UTC

redwood wrote: post #174

solveforall wrote: post #66

If what he Dr. Coward says is true, and I have no reason to doubt him, this makes me sad as a Berkeley alum. I remember taking Math 53 with an awful professor who could barely speak English and refused to cover the material, asking us to just read the material ourselves and ask him questions. This professor had been there for many years despite repeatedly getting in trouble for failing too many students (that he negl…

I wonder if we had the same guy, Russian, with his own formalism and his own textbook published online? I remember thinking it may well have had merit but since most of us in there were applying the subject matter in our respective fields which stuck to the traditional formalism. .. it was a challenge. I think it was a special form of multi variable, forget what he called it. Lecture was in mining. Honestly I went to…

Perelman? He's brilliant, but certainly put off a lot of engineering and other students who were just there to fill recs and expected to be handheld through the course.

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#187

Post by lloyd-christmas » Mon, Oct 12, 2015, 1:56 PM UTC

wbillingsley wrote: post #181

His lectures are up on Vimeo, eg: https://vimeo.com/140890185 From what I can see, he's a talented lecturer. He's articulate, genuinely interested in his students' understanding, and has some uninhibited dramatic enthusiasm that keeps the audience engaged. He's doing a start-up centred on teaching skills for lecturers/professors; I wonder if behind the scenes the issue is simply about that? Not sure how this particul…

For a healthy dose of realism... regardless of the publicity, nobody will care next year. The administration can likely just ignore it if they are actually comfortable with the status quo. If they had already wanted to make a change, this is just a nice springboard for them.

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#188

Post by caskance » Mon, Oct 12, 2015, 1:56 PM UTC

argonaut wrote: post #169

TruePath wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree that the most important thing is convincing the 1 person out of 1,000 to be a math major (or physics or whatever) I'm afraid the university isn't ok with handing everyone else As without mastering a certain minimum skill set. Besides, the math department isn't a free agent in this. Other departments expect students who have passed math 1A to have certain skills. If the math department was free to teach…

There is no evidence to indicate he deviated from the actual required content of the course, only that his lecturing style deviated from what the department wanted. (This is indicated by the department having reviewed and approved his final, among other things). Also, I'll repost what I said earlier: there is no evidence he gave out A's more freely than other professors. The grade distribution for one of Coward's cla…

And that by itself is inconclusive, as all the lazy students looking for easy A's know to sign up for Coward's class.

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#189

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Oct 12, 2015, 1:56 PM UTC

argonaut wrote: post #169

TruePath wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree that the most important thing is convincing the 1 person out of 1,000 to be a math major (or physics or whatever) I'm afraid the university isn't ok with handing everyone else As without mastering a certain minimum skill set. Besides, the math department isn't a free agent in this. Other departments expect students who have passed math 1A to have certain skills. If the math department was free to teach…

There is no evidence to indicate he deviated from the actual required content of the course, only that his lecturing style deviated from what the department wanted. (This is indicated by the department having reviewed and approved his final, among other things). Also, I'll repost what I said earlier: there is no evidence he gave out A's more freely than other professors. The grade distribution for one of Coward's cla…

[deleted]

Re: Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department

#190

Post by caskance » Mon, Oct 12, 2015, 1:59 PM UTC

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…

Student ratings for undergrad math in particular are problematic because courses like 1* and 16* are mostly taken by students majoring in non-math subjects who are only taking the course because they are required to pass it.