Frank Morgan

Guest post by Nancy Zuber, Professor of Mathematics and Chair, Berkshire Community College

One of the best days of my life was when my engineering students graduated from Berkshire Community College. I had tortured them through five courses over two years with relentless problem sets and exacting two-hour exams. As the students paraded by us faculty after the ceremony, one of my students came right up to me, hugged me, and said, “Thank you.” Then another student came right up to me, hugged me, and said, “Thank you.” Over and over it kept happening, the same thing, the same “Thank you.” After the ninth and last one, I was euphoric; I found myself approaching my husband in tears. The joy lasted for days. And they still come back and see me.

Derek Carroll describes his path toward a PhD in astrophysics.

On crutches after a recent bicycle mishap, I’m getting a sense of what it’s like to be handicapped at college. Everything takes longer, it’s hard to get from one event to another on time, and you have to depend on other people. That last inconvenience, dependence on others, can be a blessing. Here at Berkshire Community College (where I’m spending part of my sabbatical)  I’m finding the kindness of others a source of much comfort and joy. When I arrived the first day on crutches, a student, already late for an appointment, took the time to help me up the banks of stairs from the parking lot and carried all my stuff for me. Security promptly provided me with more convenient handicap parking. My third example is one that few schools could match: as I stood in line at breakfast, wondering how I would get my tray to a table, President Ellen Kennedy appeared on her way to an appointment and carried my tray to my table for me. Continue reading ‘Handicapped at College’ »

Had a great time Saturday (26 July 2014) with my 2014 Geometry Group at the Summer Program for Mathematical Problem Solving at Siena College, a three-week program for 38 mathematical talented middle schools students who go to low income NYC public schools. We presented Soap Bubbles and Mathematics, including a little guessing contest with demonstrations, explanations, and prizes, won by Rashik Ahmed. Photos show in action my students Bryan Christopher Brown, Alyssa Loving, Wyatt Boyer, and Sarah Elizabeth Tammen.

I am excited about spending part of my sabbatical this fall at Berkshire Community College. I’d say that community colleges are where education meets the future. It looks like next year for the first time a majority of US college students will be at community colleges. So far everyone I’ve met loves the college and its President. Here’s an account, “The Good Things,” by one of the math adjuncts and one of my best new friends, Donna Kalinowsky, of some of the reasons she loves the place:

Continue reading ‘Donna Kalinowsky on Berkshire Community College’ »

Friends, mathematicians, scientists, and the public celebrated the 70th birthday of distinguished mathematican Jean Taylor at the Museum of Mathematics in New York City, Saturday evening, September 6, 8-10:30 pm. It was Taylor who proved Plateau’s rules for soap bubbles. I wouldn’t miss it. You can register for $25 (additional donations completely optional and not specifically for Taylor celebration). There was also a little symposium of 5- to 15-minute talks 1 pm Saturday afternoon at the Courant Institute at NYU (photos thanks to Christina Sormani). See comments for well wishes.

Continue reading ‘Jean Taylor’s 70th at MoMath’ »

Just as a a soap bubble minimizes surface area, crystals minimize a more general energy depending on orientation with respect to the underlying crystal lattice, given by integrating some (continuous) norm on the unit normal. (One might drop the usual assumption that a norm is even.) The optimal shape is the unit ball of the dual norm, called the Wulff crystal (see [M2, Chapt. 16]). Continue reading ‘Clusters for General Norms’ »

Enjoying a conference on isoperimetric problems in Pisa. (Click on image to enlarge.)

Continue reading ‘Isoperimetric Problems in Pisa’ »

I’m speaking at a CIME school at the truly Grand Hotel San Michele on the Italian coast, kindly organized by Alberto Farina and Enrico Valdinoci. The path from the hotel to the private beachclub is rather dramatic. It begins with a long descent down the front stairs and another long stairway under the highway.

Continue reading ‘Grand Hotel San Michele’ »

Which quote embodies the best of Williams?

1. “We are so fortunate and proud to be part of this exceptional group of brilliant and interesting faculty and students, the likes of which you’ll find nowhere else.”

2. “As a result of what we have been lucky enough to discover here, we are humbly eager to expand our boundaries and to respect, learn from, and share with everyone.”

It has to be number 2. What we learn from our colleagues and students makes us appreciate other people and other institutions more, not less.

Inclusiveness is the motto of my own department (MathStats). Our students go out and do everything, only a few go on in mathematics, and we’re equally proud of all of them including students who have never taken a math class, but maybe come to a friend’s math colloquium or meet one of us at a Neighborhood event.

Williams does have “elite” associations like Phi Beta Kappa. But the purpose is not to honor the members; it is to include the whole community in the love of learning.

Spencer Flohr ’14 has an excellent post at http://WilliamsAlternative.com on “The Echo Chamber of Elitism,” in which he eloquently describes some of the dangers of elitism:

…The process of acculturation, of becoming a right-thinking elite at one of a few anointed institutions crowds out incipient unorthodox voices in the continuing dialogue of decision-making. Heterodoxy can be nipped in the bud, because it is never given a chance to compete on equal ground with the orthodoxy to which it is opposed.
And yet another unfortunate unintended consequence may result from such concentration of influence: talented people, rather than trying to develop their unique skills to the fullest and thus producing the greatest benefit to society, will instead expend their energies jumping through the hoops which have become the de facto means of becoming successful .

Even George W. Bush and Al Gore, despite egregious errors in practice, agreed on humility in theory in their presidential debates http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics-july-dec00-for-policy_10-12/:

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: If we re an arrogant nation, they ll resent us; if we re a humble nation, but strong, they ll welcome us. And our nation stands alone right now in the world in terms of power, and that s why we ve got to be humble…

VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE: I think that one of the problems that we have faced in the world is that we are so much more powerful than any single nation has been in relationship to the rest of the world than at any time in history, that I know about anyway, that there is some resentment of U.S. power. So I think that the idea of humility is an important one.

When I was making my decision to come to Williams in 1987, I particularly liked it that the students did not take themselves too seriously. We love Williams, but thank goodness we haven’t lost our sense of humor.

I say, let’s think less of ourselves as a tight community of highly intelligent, highly talented people leading the world and more of ourselves as a community welcoming, including, and respecting all within and without as equals.

Originally posted at WilliamsAlternative.com

This letter of mine appeared in the Williams Record May 7, 2014.

The April 16 Faculty meeting dealt with two important concerns of mine: the growth in administrative staff at Williams and student advising. During the short discussion periods, I had a chance to comment on the first but not on the second, though my first comment had been preparation for the second. In the senior administration, responsibilities have passed from the academic posts of Provost and Dean of the College, occupied by faculty, to new Vice-Presidents. The consequential challenge is to stay focused on academics as our top priority through an inclusive and democratic process. I think that such recent processes as the closing of dining halls and plans for dormitory renovations have paid too little attention to academic concerns through a more corporate decision process. My Opinion piece on “Decisions and Priorities” (May 5, 2010) elaborated on this point. On the other hand, I would like to commend Doug Schiazza, Director of Student Life, for his inclusive and open-minded work with his new student-faculty-staff Upperclass Residential Life Advisory Committee. The new CEP report on “Students Curricular Choices,” presented at the Faculty meeting, recommends “initiating a broader conversation about the value of the liberal arts” and proposes several mechanisms. I wanted to suggest a more natural and organic approach. My favorite sentence in the report says: “Is there something about a small liberal arts college that could encourage a more intimate and social space for learning that actually takes advantage of its uniqueness?” My answer is yes, the opportunities within the dining and residential systems, many such opportunities recently missed, but many more still ahead, if we vigilantly watch for them with academics always our first priority. That’s what I wanted to say but didn’t have a chance.