Minutes

Business Meeting of the LA/MS Section of the MAA, 2023

Opening Comments from the Program Chair

Section Representative’s Report

The Section Representative Leigh Ann Myers shared a power point that was prepared by the National Office. The purpose of this presentation was to share with the section all of the many activities that were going on at the national level. The representative encouraged those in attendance to share the information with their colleagues and to take advantage of the opportunities provided to them as a benefit of their membership.

Proceeding Committee Report
James Reid gave his standard announcement about submitting papers for publication.

Treasurer’s Report

Available upon request

Location and Nomination Committee Report
Everyone who is highlighted in yellow above was nominated and then elected by acclamation.

Outstanding Teacher Committee Report

Laura Sheppardson, The University of Mississippi was award the Outstanding Teacher award for 2023.

Student Papers Committee Report

First Place: Andrew Lott "Computations and Observations on Congruence Covering Systems" Faculty Sponsor: Alex Rice, Millsaps

Second Place: Emerson Statom "Three Colorful Methods for Finding the Chromatic Polynomial" Faculty Sponsor: Galen Turner, LA Tech

Third Place: Kelsten Antoine "Candy Crush Combinatorics" Faculty Sponsor: Nicholas Richardson, Northwestern State

Integration Bee/Student Competition Report

MAA Integration Bee 2023 Winners

First Place: Bobby Jarrell, Mississippi State University

Second Place: Ngoc Bui, McNeese State University

Third Place: Andrew Lott, Millsaps College 

MAA Student Team Competition 2023 Winners

First Place: Mississippi School of Math and Science; Jon Kiesel, J.D. Hagood, Vivek Nagarajan, Landon Tu

Second/Third Place Tied:

Mississippi State University (Team A); Deven Gill, Bobby Jarrell, Ben Wilson

Millsaps College Andrew Lott, Kratik Gupta, Chris Dean, and Raj Agrawal

Necrology
Roger Waggoner spoke at some length about those we had lost.

Closing Comments from the Section Chair
Section Chair, Judith Covington, expressed thanks to the section and particularly to the other officers for all their assistance over the last year. Invited everyone to the upcoming meeting in New Orleans.

 2022 Annual Meeting Minutes

Business Meeting:

  • We elected a new Communications Coordinator

  • We announced the teaching award winner

  • Christy Sue Langley gave the treasurers report and asked for ideas on raising more funds through donation

  • Section NExT provided a report and asked for volunteers to become coordinators and reminded people to nominate new faculty to join Section NExt

  • Meeting site for the next year was announced

  • A presentation of the benefits of being a member of the MAA was given


Executive Meeting:

  • Meeting site for 2024 was discussed

  • A possible candidate for Web Coordinator was discussed and approved

  • We discussed how to increase nominations for Outstanding Teacher awards and possible reasons this is difficult

  • discussed having a separate amount of money for discretionary funds

  • Talked about having a meeting room set aside for students during the conference to allow for a space where students and presenters can have informal conversations

    Also suggested having a designated game room at the meeting

Mathematical Concerns Committee

Mathematical Concerns Committee is currently inactive.

2003 Mathematics Concerns Committee Meeting Minutes

Committee Chairman : Clifton Wingard, Delta State University
Members Present : Stan Chadick, Melinda Gann, Mark Schlatter, Clifton Wingard, Shaochen Yang
Members Absent : Phil Quartararo
Also Present: Connie Campbell, Section Governor, and Ann Watkins, former MAA President

The committee met on February 22, 2003, and began by discussing concerns of the committee members.

The discussion of the committee centered around work issues and the issues of attracting and retaining faculty. Because the national MAA organization has no interest in forming a national accreditation agency, the Concerns Committee recommended the formation of a committee to study the current MAA guidelines concerning teaching load versus research and other activities. The outcome of this study would be the creation of a document containing specific criteria for mathematics departments in this section concerning these issues. The committee would include the section governor and several members representing a range of institutions within this section.

Another possible outcome would be to have individuals designated to communicate with college or university administrators of institutions who are not in compliance with the criteria developed and publish in a written format and electronically (to be posted on the web) a list of those institutions within the section who are in compliance and those who are not in compliance. This would allow possible applicants for positions within these institutions to have this sort of information prior to interviews.

The concerns committee would like to see some sort of initiative within institutions in this section to educate PhD candidates in the application process and in ways of negotiating the teaching contract with the college or university administration. It is believed that the informed job candidate would be more satisfied with the employment package and more easily retained by the hiring institution.

Respectively submitted,

Clifton Wingard, Chair

Mathematics Concerns Committee 2002 Meeting Minutes



Committee Chairman : Clifton Wingard, Delta State University
Present : Clifton Wingard, Melinda Gann, Brian Heck, Shaochen Yang
Members Absent : Tilak de Alwis, Stan Chadick
Also Present: Connie Campbell, Section Governor

The committee met on March 1 and began by discussing concerns of the committee members. Items discussed were:

Concern was expressed over the low and in some cases declining number of mathematics majors in our institutions and also the retention of students in the major. The committee encourages departments to increase their efforts to recruit students into the mathematics programs and study means by which to meet the students' needs in order to retain these students as mathematics majors.

Increasing numbers of students who are under prepared for college level mathematics are being graduated from high schools. The committee encourages institutions to increase their efforts in educating preservice teachers at all levels as well as in providing continuing educational experiences for in-service teachers at all levels.

The committee noted the importance of assessment at the department level and encourages all mathematics departments to increase efforts in assessing all aspects of their programs.

Because of some existing committee members who were appointed recently have left the section prior to rotating off the committee and others having been named to fill the vacated positions, the committee decided the length of the term of the current committee members to achieve the correct rotational balance. The years in which the terms expire for the committee members are as follows:

    2002 - Shaochen Yang, Tilak de Alwis
    2003 - Clifton Wingard, Stan Chadick
    2004 - Melinda Gann, Brian Heck

The committee agreed that Clifton Wingard would continue to chair the committee for the March 2002 - March 2003 term, and he accepted the position.

Mathematics Concerns Committee 2001 Meeting Minutes



Because of some existing committee members who were appointed recently have left the section prior to rotating off the committee and others having been named to fill the vacated positions, the committee decided the length of the term of the current committee members to achieve the correct rotational balance. The years in which the terms expire for the committee members are as follows:

    2002 - Shaochen Yang, Tilak de Alwis
    2003 - Clifton Wingard, Stan Chadick
    2004 - Melinda Gann , Brian Heck

The committee agreed that Clifton Wingard would continue to chair the committee for the March 2002 - March 2003 term, and he accepted the position.

Mathematical Concerns Committee Report Fall 1998

Report from the Mathematical Concerns Committee (Ch. Katherine Lopez)
Recommends that a committee be formed to study the formation of a regional accreditation committee in order to strengthen the case departments make to their administration for program support.
Project NEXT: This section should support this program. Application deadline for this year was March 27. Contact: Judith Covington.
In regards to the quality of students' mathematical preparation in high school: We should increase our communication with local high schools and support faculty and students.
How can we increase upper division enrollment? In what ways can the section support/encourage math clubs? Promote minors in math?
Joe Thrash will serve as chair of this committee next year.

 Mathematics Concerns Committee 1996 Meeting Minutes



Committee Chairman: Connie Campbell, Millsaps College
Members Present: Connie Campbell (97), Vic Scheider (97), Kathleen Lopez (99), Joe Thrash (99), and Judith Covington (98)
Members Absent: John Travis (98), and Rogers Newman (96)

The committee met on March 1st and began by discussing the committee structure. It is composed of 3 representatives from each state. Each year one member from each state rotates off and is replaced. Replacements are chosen by the Executive Committee. The committee also agreed that the chairmanship should alternate between states.

The committee agreed that we would like to commend members of our section for their dedication to teaching college mathematics and to the use of technology in the classroom.

Concerns discussed were:

    How can we get more high schools involved in our section? The committee recommends that the section chair distribute info on the meeting to high school teachers and that the section chair ask local high school faculty for suggestions.
    Graphing calculators: What are we saying to the students when we have rental programs? What are standard exams allowing? What should we as educators allow?
    The committee recommended that there be a panel discussion on these issues at the next meeting.

The committee recommended that future issues discussed should be brought to the attention of the Executive Committee and, if appropriate, panels should be set up to discuss these issues at the regional meetings.

The committee agreed that Vic Schneider should chair the committee for the March '96- March '97 term and he graciously accepted.

In closing, concerns of non-mathematics faculty teaching mathematics classes and of NCAT accreditation standards were briefly discussed and the committee will continue to think on these issues.