| AUGUST 1980 COUNCIL MINUTES The Council met on 19 August 1980 at 4:00 PM in the Vandenberg Room of the Michigan League on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Members present were Raymond Ayoub, Paul Bateman, Frank Birtel, Lenore Blum, Felix Browder, Philip Church, Chandler Davis, James Donaldson, Ronald Douglas, Murray Gerstenhaber, Andrew Gleason, Johan Kemperman, W.E. Kirwin, II, Peter Lax, Lee Lorch, Richard Millman, John Milnor, George Mostow, Jan Mycielski, Robert Phelps, Everett Pitcher, Marian Pour-El, Kenneth Ross, Mary Ellen Rudin David Sanches, Jane Scanlon, Stephen Smale, and Daniel Wagner. Also present were Lincoln Durst, Ruth Hahn, Ellen Heiser, William LeVeque and John Selfridge. The privilege of the floor was granted to Anatole Beck. President Lax was in the chair. MINUTES: 1.1 MINUTES OF 10 APRIL 1980: The minutes of the Council meeting of 10 April 1980 had been distributed by mail and were offered for approval. Professor Lee Lorch noted that his resolution in item 8.1 was incompletely quoted. The correct version is: If it is within the power of the Council to direct the deletion of this sentence, then the passage of this motion shall constitute the issuance of this directive. If the Council has only the power to recommend, then the passage of this motion shall constitute its request that the said sentence be deleted. He requested that words be inserted in the second line of item 8.6 to make it read "abused physically 'BY THE POLICE' in San Antonio." This was done. He durther questioned whether the report of action in item 8.1 was complete. It was agreed that the Secretary would review his informal records in the matter. Subject to that review, the minutes were then approved. The Secretary has, subsequently, conducted the review and affirms that the record is complete in the following sense. Although there were suggestions made and arguments advanced and motions or amendments made, but not seconded which are not recorded, there is no action or agreement by consensus that is not in the record. MEETINGS 3.1 COUNCIL MEETINGS: The Council meeting of April 1981 is to be set by the Secretary, under authority delegated by the EC, as soon as the schedule of scientific meetings for the spring of 1981 is complete. The EC has set Council meetings as follows: AUGUST 18, 1981 TUESDAY, in Pittsburgh JANUARY 12, 1982, TUESDAY in Cincinnati APRIL 1982 at the discretion of the Secretary 3.2 SUMMER MEETING OF 1982. The Budget Committee (BC) proposed and the EC/BT recommended to the Council that there be no Summer Meeting in 1982. Essentially simultaneously, the Executive and Finance Committees and then the Board of Governors of the MAA considered the motion "Subject to the concurrence by the AMS, the Board of Governors cancels the August 1982 meeting of the Association." Although the Council delegated to the EC the power to decide this question for the Society, the EC preferred to leave it to the Council. The reasons presented by the BC were these: (a) the only site available (after extensive exploration) is San Diego State University; fees there would be quite high and the location is wrong for anyone planning to go to the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) in Warsaw. (b) Attendance at the meeting at Brown just prior to the ICM of 1978 was small. (c) The format of Summer Meetings may be reconsidered, particularly if attendance in Ann Arbor is small; the break would facilitate the reconsideration. The motion offered to the Council was as follows: Subject to the concurrence of the MAA, there be no Summer Meeting in 1982. The motion passed. Subsequently, the Board of Governors did not approve the parallel resolution, so that negotiations for a site for the Summer of 1982 continue. COMMITTEES AND BOARDS 4.1 PUBLICATION OF PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETY EVENTS: The EC/BT recommended to the Council that it establish the principle that the Society shall have the right of first refusal on publication of proceedings of events sponsored by the Society. The proposed policy would be promulgated by the Executive Director for grant supported events, by the Associate Secretaries for special sessions, and by any committee which sponsors events. An example in the last category is the short courses currently sponsored by the Committee on Employment and Educational Policy. The Society has in the series CONTEMPORARY MATHEMATICS a vehicle for such publication in addition to the various symposias series. The Council established the principle. 4.2 REVIEW OF SOCIETY ACTIVITIES: The Council of 20 January 1980 charged the EC to "carry out a continuing review and appraisal of the the Society's activities." An AD HOC Committee reported. See the attachment, which has the endorsement of the EC. The report proposed that the survey be conducted in a three year cycle over the categories of: I. Meetings (1981) II. Publications (1982) III. Membership services (1983) The work on category I is to begin at once. It is broken down into: Ia. Summer and Annual Meetings Ib. Regional Meetings Ic. Symposia, Institutes, and Short Courses Id. Alternatives The meeting in Ann Arbor is a testing ground in category Ia. This information was received by the Council, which deemed no action necessary. 4.3 HUMAN RIGHTS: The Council voted by the required two thirds vote to receive the report of the Committee on Human Rights even though it had not been offered in time to be distributed with the agenda. The report was presented by Chandler Davis, a member of the Committee, and is attached, along with a letter from E. Brieskorn on the subject of Berufsverbot. The Secretary noted that the letter and another on the same subject were under consideration for publication in the NOTICES by the Editorial Committee. 4.4 OPPORTUNITIES IN MATHEMATICS FOR DISADVANTAGED GROUPS: The Council voted by the required two thirds vote to receive the report of the Committee on Opportunites in Mathematics for Disadvantaged Groups. The report was presented by James Donaldson, Chairman of the Committee, and is attached. It contains items proposed for action, which are to appear on the agenda of the Annual Meeting of 1981. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 7.1 MAT. SBORNIK: The Council of 22 August 1979 passed the following resolution: The Council of the American Mathematical Society has received reports that MAT. SBORNIK discriminates against Jewish authors. Two pieces of evidence of such a policy are: (i) the very sharp decline in the number of articles by Jewish authors in the past three years, and (ii) The publication of an explicit anti-Semitic attack on N. Jacobson in Uspekhi, vol. 33, 1978. The Council deplores this state of affairs. Since MAT. SBORNIK is translated by the AMS, the Council is eager to receive clarification on this point. The minute states that the resolution "was passed with the understanding that it would be communicated to the Academy of the Sciences of the USSR, but that the reference to Jacobson would be deleted from the passage (ii). President Lax sent the letter requested on 17 December 1979. The following motion was passed at the same Council meeting: If, before the May meeting of the AMS Trustees, no satisfactory clarification of the Council's inquiry to the Soviet Academy of Science has been received, the Council recommends that the AMS seek to renegotiate the contract with VAAP for translation of Russian journals for the purpose of dropping the translation of MAT. SBORNIK. The statement was supplemented in the minutes, by consensus of the 2 January 1980 Council, by the sentence: It is understood that this motion does not bind the Trustees to a timetable, but leaves them free to use their judgment when to start negotiations. The EC/BT of May 1980, deferred action on the Council's motion that the Society seek to regnegotiate the translations contract with VAAP and decided that a second letter concerning the subject should be sent. President Lax did write the second letter, which is attached. There had been no response at the time of the Council meeting. Professor Anatole Beck had stated his intention of introducing a motion to the Business Meeting of 21 August 1980. The text of his reolution, as he presented it to the Council, was as follows: That the following motion be placed upon the calendar of the Business Meeting of the Society for the January 1981 Meeting, and shall be acted upon in case the Society shall not have discontinued the publication of the translated edition of Math. Sbornik prior to the beginning of that Annual Meeting: WHEREAS the Council of the AMS has been unable to elicit an acceptable reply from the Soviet Union concerning the charges of systematic exclusion of Jewish mathematicians from publication of MATH. SBORNIK, and WHEREAS it is the opinion of the overwhelming majority of those American Mathematicians who have looked into this issue that the discrimination complained of does actually exist, and WHEREAS the AMS, by publishing a translated edition of MATH. SBORNIK takes an active part in promoting the interantional status of this journal, and WHEREAS the AMS has both a legal and a moral obligation not to be party to such discrimination, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That it is the urgent will of the membership of the AMS as manifested through the Business Meeting that the Trustees of the Society forthwith do everything necessary and sufficient to discontiunue the publication of the translated edition of MATH. SBORNIK. At the behest of the Committee on the Agenda, the following motion was offered to the Council: In the event that the Council of 21 August 1980 passes the enabling resolution proposed by Anatole Beck, there shall be a panel discussion on the substantive motion at the Annual Meeting of the Society in January 1981 prior to the Business Meeting. The discussion had several aspects. One concerned broadening the scope of the panel discussion to other problems of human rights. Another proposed the holding of the panel discussion without reference to the fate of Professor Beck's procedural motion. Still another considered the degree to which scientific policy was involved, with the attendant problems of jurisdiction between the Council and Trustees. In the course of the discussion, a substitute motion was imperfectly formulated and Messrs. Beck and Gleason were asked to prepare a revision. At a later point in the meeting, they returned with the following draft of a substitute motion: The Program Committee is requested to organize a panel discussion on the subject of what actions are appropriate on the part of the Society in response to well established attacks on the itegrity of the mathematical community with particular reference to the issue of the translation of MATH. SBORNIK. This discussion should take place at the San Francisco meeting in January 1981 prior to the Business Meeting. However, the draft was not acted upon formally. Instead, there was a substitute motion by Professor Smale as follows: The Council asks the Program Committee to organize a panel discussion on the question odf the AMS discontinuing the translation of MATH. SBORNIK, to be held prior to the Business Meeting of January 1981. The motion to substitute was passed and then the substituted motion was passed. [The motion of Professor Beck was presented to the Business Meeting of 2l August 1980, where it did not pass.] NEW BUSINESS 8.1 'THIRD WORLD' Professor Raymond Ayoub wrote to the Secretary as follows: You may know that Jim Eells has, for the past 10 years, been running a conference in Trieste for "THIRD WORLD" mathematicians. It meets every summer and has been very successful. But a lot needs to be done. It would be of mutual benefit if the Society were to become involved in the needs of the "Third World". It should like to propose that the EC/BT consider bringing to the Council a recommendation that the AMS appoint a committee whose charge will be to bring in recommendations of ways and means by which the Society might be of service to "Third World" mathematicians and the development of mathematics in "Third World" countries. Inasmuch as his letter arrived after the most recent EC/BT meeting, it was brought directly to the Council. There was discussion over the meaning and the implications of use of the term "Third World." Professor Ayoub modified the motion to read: The Council approves the appointment of a committee by the President whose task is to bring in recommendations of ways and means by which the Society might be of service to mathematicians in developing countries. In that form, the motion was passed. 8.2 NOTICES POLICY ON CIRCULATION OF LETTERS; LETTERS FROM THE COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS. Professor Lee Lorch requested that two items, namely 2.1 and 2.2 of the meeting of 10 April 1980 be discussed. The Council of 10 April had taken cognizance of these items and chosen then not to discuss them. The minute on each stated that the item was noted. See item 8.3 for a comment by the Secretary. No action was requested and the Council declined to discuss when there was no motion on the agenda. 8.3 FORM OF THE AGENDA: Professor Lee Lorch proposed the following motion: That the standard item on the Council agenda now called "Information and Record," be renamed to be "Information, Record and Discussion." The Secretary observed that he has been instructed by the EC and repeatedly by Presidents to segregate items of information and record and to put them at the end of the agenda (accounting for the fact that the sections are not listed in numerical order) for the declared purpose that they not generate discussion and thereby use time that should be put on major items of business. When they used to be at the beginning of the agenda, their presence there sometimes made it almost impossible to cover the agenda. Following the urging by Professor Lorch that discussion take place, the motion was defeated. 8.4 FORM OF THE AGENDA (BIS): Professor Lee Lorch proposed the following motion: That a standing item be inserted in the agenda of each Council meeting, immediately after the item providing for the adoption of the minutes of the previous meeting, entitled "Business arising from the minutes," to provide opportunity to inquire about and act upon unclear or incomplete matters, etc. The Secretary commented that an item of business arising from the minutes could be introduced into the agenda for the next meeting by a letter to the Secretary there being a long interval between the distribution of the minutes of a meeting and the preparation of the agenda for the next meeting. The motion WAS DEFEATED. 8.5 PROCEDURES FOR REPORT OF ELECTIONS: Professor Lee Lorch proposed the following motion: That the results, including the number of votes received by each candidate, of the AMS elections be reported annually, as appears to have been the case normally with the exception of 1980, to the January meeting of the Council. The Secretary observed that the motion was unnecessary. It duplicates a motion of the Council of January 1979. The fact that the tabulation was not reported in January 1980 was a failure on the part of the Secretary to follow the instruction of the Council of January 1979. By mistake, the report was made to the EC as was proposed to the Council initially. It was agreed that the report of the election of 1979 would be distributed to the Council in confidence and that the report of subsequent elections would be made to the Council in executive session as mandated. INFORMATION AND RECORD 2.1 MINUTES OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AND BOARD OF TRUSTEES: Minutes of the EC/BT dated 2-3 MAY 1980 were distributed under separate cover in advance of the Council meeting and are attached. 2.2 BERUFSVERBOT: Dr. Daniel H. Wagner asked that the attached letter summarizing a view of Professor Dietrich Kolzow concerning Berusverbot, be circulated to the Council. 2.3 PAGE CHARGES: Attention of the Council was invited to item 6.7 of the EC/BT minutes of 2-3 May 1980 as a matter of information. 2.4 NOMINTING COMMITTEE: There were no candidates proposed by petition for the Nominating Committee. Accordingly, President Lax brought the slate for 1980 up to eight by naming: Meyer Jerison Guido L. Weiss 2.5 TIME AND EFFORT REPORTS: The attached article concerning OMB Circular A-21 was prepared by Saunders MacLane and was presented for information. 2.6 TIME AND EFFORT REPORTS (BIS). An exchange of letters between Truman Botts, Executive Director of the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences on the one side, and James McIntyre, Director of the Office of Management and Budget and John Lordan, Chief of the Financial Management Branch of OMB on the other, is attached for information. 2.7 SOPKA: Professor Murray Gerstenhaber, formerly Chairman of the Committee on Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Employment Security, offered the attached letter for information only. 2.8 'THE SITUATION IN SOVIET MATHEMATICS': Professor Lee Lorch requested that the two attached items be circulated. (1) A letter dated July 17, 1978 from Richard Staples, representing the corporate attorneys, to Lincoln Durst, concerning the problems posted by the then contemplated Letter to the Editor quoting an article titled "The Situation in Soviet Mathematics." See the NOTICES for November 1978, pp. 495-7. (One must realize that the comments of Mr. Staples refer to an earlier draft of the article, of which there were several. However, they do not refer to a similar handout at the Helsinki Congress.) (2) A letter dated August 16, 1978 from Lee Lorch to Ed Dubinsky, a member of the NOTICES Editorial Committee, concerning other problems with respect to the same article. Professor Lorch proposed that the Secretary add other items. There is a mountain of paper on the subject, so the Secretary added: (3) The minute of the Editorial Committee of August 10, 1978. (The communication with MR was in fact between a member of the MR Editorial Committee and a member of the BT.) (4) The minutes of the BT dated 20 September 1978. 2.9 PAUL ALTHAUS SMITH: The Council noted with sorrow the death of Althaus Smith. The President instructed the Secretary to write the appropriate letters. 2.10 KAZIMIERZ KURATOWSKI: The Council noted with sorrow the death of Kazimierz Kuratowski. The President instructed the Secretary to write the appropriate letters. The meeting adjourned at 6:10 PM. Everett Pitcher, Secretary August 19, 1980 | |
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