March 1978 Council Minutes
MINUTES OF THE COUNCIL MEETING DATED MARCH 23, 1978
The Council met on 23 March 1978 in the George Rogers Clark Room of the
Holiday Inn in Columbus, Ohio at 5:10 PM. Members present were R. G. Ayoub,
P. T. Bateman, R. H. Bing, J. Birman, L. Blum, J. Donaldson, D. Eisenbud, M.
Gerstenhaber, R. Graham, E. Pitcher, J. Robinson, L. Rubel, O. Taussky, G.
Weiss. Also present were L. Durst, R. Hahn, W. LeVeque, H. MacDonald, and J.L.
Selfridge. President Bing was in the chair.
1. The President introduced John L. Selfridge, the prospective
Executive Editor of Mathematical Reviews, to the Council. Professor Bateman,
speaking for the Editorial Committee of Mathematical Reviews, spoke of his
qualifications for the position.
2. The minutes of the meeting of January 3, 1978 had been distributed
by mail. The Secretary requested the addition of the following paragraph:
Professor Robion Kirby, who is a member of the Editorial Committee of
the NOTICES, asked for advice from the Council on whether to publish Letters to
the Editor which are REJOINDERS TO BOOK REVIEWS PUBLISHED IN THE BULLETIN.
These do not necessarily come from the author of the work under review. During
the discussion, the same question was posed with respect to reviews in MATHE
MATICAL REVIEWS. It seemed to be agreed that the NOTICES was the place for
such replies, if there was any place at all, rather than the BULLETIN or
MATHEMATICAL REVIEWS. Professor Kirby thought it possible that a rejoinder
should be published if it illuminated a mathematical direction or principle or
philosophy, but that it should not be published if it primarily stated that a
review was "unfair". He thought that one did not wish to publish all rejoinders
because there would be too many. He again asked for advice. The opinion of
Professor Bartle, which seemed to be accepted by the members present, was that
the Editorial Committee should "exercise sound judgment."
The Secretary noted that although no action had taken place, a question
concerning the content of the discussion had arisen. With this amplification,
the minutes were approved.
3. The Treasurer's report was received and is attached.
The attached letter from Professor Rossi was received. It requests that
the Editorial Committee for the Transactions and Memoirs be enlarged by one so
that the successor to Rossi as editor for Complex and Harmonic Analysis may be
a member of the Council. The Council agreed to the request effective January
l, 1979.
4. Professor Murray Gerstenhaber, Chairman of the Committee on
Affirmative Action Procedures, stated that the Committee wished to reprint in
the NOTICES, the attached article by James C. Goodwin, Assistant to the Vice
President, University and Student Relations, at the University of California at
Berkeley, which originally appeared in SCIENCES, the journal of the New York
Academy of Science. He stated that reprinting permission had been secured. The
Committee wished to publish a preface of its own, also attached. There was
considerable debate over whether it contained undocumented material and whether
it could be published as clearly not a Society position. The point was made
that the Editors of the NOTICES could republish the article without Council
authorization but sought guidance. Gerstenhaber noted that the Committee
originally conceived its duty as preparing formal procedures and now regarded
its duty as educational. A motion to substitute a motion to publish a list of
available articles on the related subjects rather than this particular article
was defeated. The requests of the Committee were granted.
5. A Committee on Page Charges, established by the Trustees to report
to the EC/BT, prepared the attached report. The Committee was of the opinion
that publication of its report in the NOTICES would be interesting and useful
to the membership and requested approval of publication. Discussion proceeded
in irregular order. President Bing spoke in favor of publishing the article,
but turned the discussion to the general subject of page charges and reviewing
charges, saying that he intended to propose to the Trustees that these charges
be abolished. Professor Bateman then moved that the report be published and
the motion passed.
It was then moved that the Council advise the President to advise the
Trustees that page charges and reviewing charges should be abolished. Professor
Bateman spoke in favor of page charges and reviewing charges, thinking of the
support of MR. The Secretary objected to consideration of the motion on the
grounds that it was not on the agenda. A procedural motion to put it on the
agenda received the required two-thirds vote. The motion then passed. At his
request, it is recorded that Professor Bateman voted against the motion.
6. When annual dues were raised from $24 or $32 to $36 or $48, there
was a thought that the line of division between the smaller and larger amount
might be raised from $15,000 to $20,000. That point was lost in the discussion
and action on dues by the Council. The Secretary made the following motion:
It is moved that the annual dues of $36 apply to persons with
annual professional income less than $20,000 and that the figure
of $48 apply to persons with annual professional income of $20,000
or more.
He stated his opinion that the Trustees would concur. The motion passed.
7. Professor David Eisenbud wrote as follows:
At the Council meeting in Atlanta, Kirby asked for the Council's
opinion on whether some space in the NOTICES should be given to correspondence
concerning book reviews in the BULLETIN. I believe that the sense of the
Council was that such correspondence should be published, according to its
merit though one would probably not publish all rebuttals. No resolution was
passed since it was felt that the details were best left to the good judgment
of the editors.
In the NOTICES Editorial Meeting it was decided, in ignorance, I
believe, of the Council's position, that no letters concerning specific reviews
would normally be accepted.
I believe that in the interest of fairness to the authors of books and
of clarification of the reviews in general, rebuttals of high quality and, more
generally, interesting correspondence concerning the reviews should be given
space. Such controversy as this might generate would do no harm and might
increase the interest of the NOTICES. Of course, the editors of the NOTICES
should exercise their judgment on the question of how much space should be
allotted and which letters exactly should be published.
The addendum to the minutes of January 3, 1978, with text presented at the
beginning of these minutes, details the discussion in the Council to which he
refers. The policy adopted by the Editorial Committee of the NOTICES was "that
the NOTICES does not ordinarily publish complaints about reviews of books or
articles." The third paragraph of the letter, slightly edited and amended was
offered as the following motion:
It is moved that in the interest of fairness to the authors of books
and of clarification of the reviews in general, rebuttals of high quality and,
more generally, interesting correspondence concerning the reviews in the
BULLETIN should be given space. Such controversy as this might generate
would do no harm and might increase the interest of the NOTICES. Of course,
the editors of the NOTICES should exercise their judgment on the question of
how much space should be allotted and which letters exactly should be
published.
The motion was passed.
8. Professor Lee Rubel asked that office and home telephone numbers of
members (unless they request otherwise) be included in the Combined Membership
List. His letter and the reply of the Secretary are attached. There was a
motion that the Council recommends to the Trustees consideration of putting
telephone numbers of members in the Combined Membership List. The motion
passed.
9. There was extended discussion, initiated by Professor Lenore Blum
of the question of holding meetings in states that have not ratified the Equal
Rights Amendment. The discussion arose from the expression of sentiment of the
Business Meeting of January 5, 1978 "that the American Mathematical Society try
to hold all future meetings in states which have ratified the Equal Rights
Amendment." There were four meetings in question. It was understood that the
meeting of January 1979 in Biloxi was covered by a contract. It was noted with
respect to the previously scheduled meeting of November 1978 in Charleston,
South Carolina that there is no state in the southeastern section save Kentucky
that has ratified the ERA and that Kentucky may be in the process of rescinding
ratification (which may have no legal force). Consequently, it would be almost
impossible to comply with the sentiment expressed by the Business Meeting in
that section. There is a meeting that had been scheduled for November 12, 1978
in Chicago. Professor Bateman pointed out that he had scheduled that meeting
for a Sunday in response to another request from the Council and that it was
essential that a Sunday meeting in his section be in Chicago. He was
considering moving the meeting out of Illinois, but would be unable both to do
that and to hold a Sunday meeting.
The Joint Committee on Meetings of the AMS and MAA and the Joint
Administrative Committee considered the possibility of moving the meeting of
August 1979 from Blacksburg, Virginia to some unspecified location and decided
against it. It was noted specifically that the meeting in Blacksburg is a
joint AMS-MAA enterprise and that its location is not an exclusive prerogative
of the Society.
There was a motion to open the agenda to a motion concerning the
meeting in Blacksburg. It did not receive the requisite two-thirds vote.
The following motion was proposed:
The Council requests the EC to consider withdrawing the Summer Meeting
of 1979 from Blacksburg, Virginia.
It was passed.
The Council went into Executive Session.
The Secretary informed the Council that Donald J. Lewis was resigning
from the Editorial Committee of Mathematical Reviews on account of poor health.
The Council voted to accept his resignation with thanks.
The Editorial Committee of Mathematical Reviews offered the name of
Carl M. Pearcy to fill out the term vacated by Lewis. The Council elected
Pearcy to fill out the term on the Editorial Committee of Mathematical Reviews.
The Council made the following nominations, following in each case the
recommendations of the Nominating Committee:
Vice President (two candidates for one position)
George D. Mostow (Yale)
Jacob T. Schwartz (NYU)
Member-at-Large (seven of ten candidates for five positions)
Chandler Davis (Toronto)
Raymond L. Johnson (Maryland)
Jack C. Kiefer (Cornell)
Wilfried Schmid (Columbia)
Martha Kathleen Smith (Texas)
Daniel H. Wagner (Wagner Associates)
Karen Uhlenbeck (Chicago Circle)
Secretary
Everett Pitcher (Lehigh)
Treasurer
Franklin P. Peterson (MIT)
Associate Treasurer
Steve Armentrout (Penn. State)
Trustee
Alex Rosenberg (Cornell)
Members of Publication Committees BULLETIN
Isadore M. Singer (Berkeley)
Colloquium
John W. Milnor (IAS)
Mathematical Reviews
Elwyn R. Berlekamp (Berkeley)
Mathematical Surveys
Donald W. Anderson (San Diego)
Mathematics of Computation
Daniel Shanks (NBS)
Proceedings
Lawrence A. Zalcman (Maryland)
Transactions (Three candidates for three positions)
Michael Artin (MIT)
Steven Orey (Minnesota)
R.O. Wells, Jr. (Rice)
Committee to Monitor Problems in Communication
Robert G. Bartle (Illinois
Carl M. Pearcy (Michigan)
The nomination procedure was handled in two parts. First, candidates
for all positions except that of Vice President were nominated. Next, the
Secretary explained that the nominating Committee had suggested Schwartz as one
candidate for Vice President and had suggested two other persons as candidate
for Vice President, both of whom had declined. The Chairman of the Nominating
Committee then advanced the name of Mostow, knowing from the deliberations of
the Nominating Committee that this was their next candidate but having been
unable again to canvass the entire committee. The Council then nominated
Mostow and Schwartz.
The Nominating Committee proposed that the Chairman of the Nominating
Committee and the Secretary be delegated to fill any vacancies that may arise
on the ballot prior to the distribution of the ballots. The Council approved.
Professor Gerstenhaber asked that an item be put on the agenda of the
next meeting requesting the Nominating Committee to make their recommendation
of alternates be part of their formal report. It was agreed that he should
pursue the request, if he chose, through a letter to the Secretary.
Professor Donaldson inquired whether the Committee on Human Rights was
keeping cognizant of the problems in the Federal Republic of Germany related to
the "Berufsverbot." He was assured by Professor Gerstenhaber that this was the
case.
The Council adjourned at 7:30 PM, March 23, 1978.
Everett Pitcher, Secretary
