Fwd: Competitive doctoral programs can be supportive of women

[j...@math.columbia.edu]

I should add that this is a matter that each of us implement,
individually. The Columbia administration would have been very unhappy
about auditors who did not pay tuition in their math classes, even
though every faculty member would have said "why not?".

The same goes for just taking an interest in the work others (whose
names may be unfamiliar), taking a chance and sometimes answering
letters that just might be from a crank etc. etc. (I feel less
positive about those repetetive high school math assignments, where
the students are given an assignment to write to a working women
mathematician, to learn one new fact about her personal life.)

Joan



----- Forwarded message from j...@math.columbia.edu -----
Date: Sun, 08 Jul 2012 14:30:54 -0400
From: j...@math.columbia.edu
Subject: Re: Competitive doctoral programs can be supportive of women
To: women...@googlegroups.com

Dear all,

After 8 years in industry and 7 as a mom with (one at a time) 3
children, I was admitted to Courant as a part-time student without
support. Several years later (when I had slowly caught up, done well,
and applied for it) I was offered the support I needed to pay for
daytime help at home, if I could manage the full time program. I
understood then, and have never forgotten, that Courant gave me the
chance, after a 15 year detour, to recoup a career in mathematics. I
needed the extra time as a part-time student to start slowly and work
at my own pace.

Times have changed, and my own needs were unique, and I would not
recommend to anyone to put off grad school, even though no other route
could have worked for me. Later, as a Math Prof, I had a fair number
of non-traditional students who audited my classes, and I always
welcomed them. Some succeeded, some did not. This is not a gender
issue, although women are often the ones who need to do things
differently. A few weeks ago I was very touched when, at a reception
for new members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of
new inductees (in the Physics Dept at Princeton) introduced himself
and asked me whether I remembered him. He explained that he had been
such an auditor, newly arrived as in NY as a young Russian refugee,
and he wanted to thank me for my help in making that transition year a
good one. He said, in particular, that welcoming his participation
and treating him as if he had been paying tuition, was essential.
Well, since he had the interest and ability, why not?

Best,
Joan Birman



Quoting Christina Sormani <sorm...@gmail.com>:

> Geraldine brings up another issue of admitting some students with support
> and some students without support. Some doctoral programs only admit
> students that they can support. Both CUNY and NYU admit more students
> than they have fellowships for, and both programs encourage students with the
> fellowships to progress more rapidly towards their degrees.
> Students without
> fellowships need to work and cannot be expected to progress as quickly as
> those who have research or teaching assistantships. I have not heard anyone
> bring this up as a gender issue. However, if there are concerns
> among anyone
> that this is a gender issue we can certainly discuss this more. I
> have heard
> quite a number of women complaining about competitive programs and qualifiers
> as damaging to women so I do hope some people will give suggestions as to
> how to avoid sexism in the implementation of such eliminating exams.
>
> On Sun, Jul 8, 2012 at 9:08 AM, Dina Taiani <gta...@pace.edu> wrote:
>> Dear Jean and company,
>> Although I do not know how many schools do this, when I was accepted into
>> grad school I chose CUNY over NYU precisely because NYU told me that since I
>> would have my education paid for, they expected me to finish. However, they
>> made it quite clear that many people were accepted in the Courant program
>> just to pay for those they thought talented enough to finish. This quite
>> bothered my 1960's sensibilities. Of course this was many years ago. I
>> have no idea what the policy is now.
>> Dina
>> Geraldine Taiani
>> Chair, Department of Mathematics
>> Pace University, New York
>> (212) 346-1786
>>
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "WomeninMath" group.
> To post to this group, send email to women...@googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> womeninmath...@googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit this group at
> http://groups.google.com/group/womeninmath?hl=en.

----- End forwarded message -----