March 1982 Council Minutes

MARCH 1982 COUNCIL MINUTES

The Council met in Delaware Room 1, of the Marriott Hotel on City Avenue, in
Philadelphia, on 16 March 1982, at 7:30 PM.  Members present were S. Armentrout
M. Artin, R.G. Ayoub, P. T. Bateman, F.E. Browder, A.M.Gleason, M. Hochster, L.
Keen, W.E. Kirwin, II,  R.P. Langlands, L. Lorch, O.C. McGehee, R.S. Millman,
J.W. Milnor, M.S. Montgomery, E. Pitcher, M.B. Pour-El, J.B. Robinson, P.J.
Sally, Jr., J. C. Scanlon, and R.G. Swan.  Also present were L.K. Durst, 
R. Hahn, E. Heiser, W.J. LeVeque, and J.L. Selfridge.  Mary Gray was present 
and at one point was granted the privilege of the floor.  President Gleason was
in the chair.

MINUTES

1.1 MINUTES OF 12 JANUARY 1982.  Several corrections to these minutes were 
offered and approved.  At the request of Professor Serge Lang, the words 
"partly with his assistance but partly" were deleted from line 5 of minutes
8.5 titled A-21.  In this connection the Secretary notes that the subject of
the proposed revision of Circular A-21 was introduced by Professor Lang.

At the request of Professor Lang, material titled COMMENTS ON OMB'S PROPOSED
REVISIONS OF CIRCULAR A-21, with its own attachments, which is attached to 
these minutes, is to be considered  as an attachment to the same minute 8.5.

At the suggestion of Professor John Milnor, the motion in the second paragraph
of minute 4.4 titled DUPLICATE PUBLICATION was reworded as follows:

	When almost simultaneous publication by the Society of two versions
**	of essentially the same papers is considered in any systematic sort
	of way, that should be brought to the attention of the Council in
	advance.

When this change was accomplished, it was specifically noted that the word is
"papers" and that the motion does not apply to a single paper.

At the suggestion of Professor Lee Lorch, the last sentence of minute 8.3 
titled U.S. NATIONAL COMMITTEE (BIS) was changed to read:

	The President ruled the issue out of order as having been settled
	in the previous motion.

With these changes the minutes were then approved.

MEETINGS

3.1 COUNCIL IN TORONTO:  Council members were informed that the Council Meeting
in Toronto probably will be changed from 24 August to 22 August.

COMMITTEES AND BOARDS

4.1 TEACHING LOADS AND CLASS SIZE:  Dean Morris L. Marx presented the attached
report from the Committee on Teaching Loads and Class size.  He prefaced his
report with a recommendation that the committee be abolished.  The Council
discharged the committee with thanks.

During the discussion, concern was expressed over the problems of teaching
loads and class size, with the hope that the study of these problems could
continue.  The Council was made aware of a proposal by the Committee on
Employment and Educational Policy for a study, jointly with other
organizations, of teaching loads.

4.2 TRANSLATIONS:  Professor Lawrence Zalcman wrote as follows:

	Last year, Ron Douglas approached the ASL concerning the possibility of
their joining the AMS-IMS Translations Program.  The response was affirmative,
and an ASL Subcommittee on Translations has now been constituted.  Presumably,
the Society will want to formalize the arrangement and rename the Committee
AMS-ASL-IMS Joint Committee on Translations from Russian and Other Foreign
Languages.  I should be grateful if you could bring this to the attention of
the competent person.

The Council passed a motion welcoming the ASL to the joint translations venture
and renaming the Committee. 

4.3 NOMINATIONS: In executive session, the Nominating Committee presented the
attached recommended list of candidates for the ballot of 1982.  After
discussion which is recorded elsewhere, the slate was approved.

4.4 INSTRUCTIONS TO THE NOMINATING COMMITTEE: Professor Raymond Ayoub moved
that the Nominating Committee be instructed to search diligently for members of
the black community to serve on the Council in some capacity.  The motion was
passed.  There were two points which arose in the discussion.  The motion was
not amended to say "qualified members", possibly because of the expressed
sentiment that the Nominating Committee would not knowingly advance an
unqualified candidate for any post.  Professor Lorch made the point that the
force of the motion should include candidates for uncontested offices as a way
of showing confidence.

NEW BUSINESS:  

8.1 A-21: (a) Professor Paul J. Sally, Jr. moved "that the Council of the AMS
endorse the statement now referred to as FACULTY PERSPECTIVES contained in a
letter to Mr. Glenn Schleede dated November 16, 1981."  The Council was
informed that the statement was about to be published in the NOTICES.  A
preprint is attached.

The motion was passed unanimously.

Professor Sally then moved that the result of this vote be transmitted to the
appropriate agencies, particularly the Office of Management and Budget, the
American Association of Universities, the Council of Scientific Society
Presidents, and the Committee on Government Relations of the National
Association of College and University Business Officers, and otherwise be given
publicity.  The motion passed.

(b) A resolution from the Yale Mathematics Department, dated 22 January 1982,
is attached, with a request to the Council that the resolution, together with 
the document entitled FACULTY PERSPECTIVES ON CIRCULAR A-21 to which it refers,
be published in the NOTICES.  Arrangements to accomplish the publication had
already been made.

(c) A letter to the Council from Professor Lang, dated 10 February 1982, and
carrying its own attachments, is attached.

(d) The Council had referred to the EC the question of whether and how to 
respond to the opportunity to comment on the proposed revision of Circular
A-21 as published in the Federal Register of 7 January 1982.

The report of the EC consists of the attached letter from President Gleason to
the Office of Management and Budget.  A letter of comment from Professor Lang
was received and is attached.

8.2 PUBLIC CRYPTOGRAPHY:  The Council agreed to receive the attached document
extracted from the Federal Register for March 1, 1982.

8.3 MASSERA: The Council accepted for the agenda the attached proposal from the
Canadian Committee of Scientists and Scholars, which had been submitted to the
Secretary by Professor Israel Halperin.  During the discussion, a motion was
formulated that the Council (speaking in the name of the Society according to
Article IV, Section 8, of the bylaws) endorses the proposal of Israel Halperin
in that the Society agrees to be listed as supporting the International
Campaign-Massera and that matters of further action be referred to the
Committee on Human Rights of Mathematicians.  The motion passed.  However, the
Secretary was instructed to determine that the Committee on Human Rights does
approve the endorsement before proceeding to publicize the action. [The
Secretary was unable to recall whether the Committee had approved the
endorsement.  Subsequent checking uncovered a brief letter in which the
Chairman of the Committee said that he had seen the proposal and
"...suggested[ed] that the Council consider it."  Accordingly, the matter of
Committee approval is being investigated.]

8.4 BIR ZEIT:  The Council accepted for the agenda the following motion:

	The Council of the AMS calls upon the Government of Israel to
	reopen forthwith Bir Zeit University, a Palestinian university
	on the West Bank, which the Government military representatives
	closed on February 16, only a few weeks after it had been reopened
	following a two-month suspension which had begun November 4.  The
	University closing was ordered for the second two-month period in
	the same academic year as collective for student demonstrations 
	and was accompanied by placing under house or town arrest of the 
	University administration, the student council and other members of
	the university community.  Under the closure order faculty members
	(as well as students) are barred from the university so that they
	have no access to research facilities including their own notes in
	their offices, thus threatening normal research activities, 
	mathematical among them, with serious disruption, as is the entire 
	educational program.

Professor Mary Gray was given the privilege of the floor and presented
background material.  The attached papers were distributed.  The council
referred the issue to the Committee on Human Rights with the request that the
Committee report at the next meeting of the Council.

The meeting adjourned at 10:00 P.M. March 16, 1982.

					Everett Pitcher, Secretary