April 1983 Council Minutes
APRIL 1983 COUNCIL MINUTES The Council met in the Gold Ballroom of the New York Statler Hotel on 14 April 1983, at 5:00 PM. Members present were Steve Armentrout, Michael Artin, Felix Browder, W.Wistar Comfort, Peter Fillmore, Andrew Gleason, Melvin Hochster, Alan Hoffman, Meyer Jerison, Linda Keen, Robert Langlands, John Milnor, Walter Neumann, Morris Newman, Everett Pitcher, Julia Robinson, Michael Shub, Elias Stein, Hector Sussmann, and Raymond Wells, Jr. Also present were Lincoln Durst, R. Hahn, E. Heiser, W.J. LeVeque, J. Mesirov, and John Selfridge. President Robinson was in the Chair. MINUTES 1.1 MINUTES OF 4 JANUARY 1983: THESE minutes were circulated by mail. The following addition to minute 4.8 Individual Discounts was offered. President Comfort noted that there were institutions at which individually financed subscriptions are the only vehicle readily available for access to journals. By common consent, the faculty in Mathematics purchase one or two journals each, donating these to the department or to the central library and losing access to them upon retirement or termination of contract. His sentiment was noted, to be conveyed to the Trustees, that the Trustees should consider the announced goal of the Society, namely, "the furtherance of the interests of mathematical scholarship and research", when they draft a policy to tighten up on the abuse of discounted subscriptions. A letter from Professor Comfort is attached. With these additions the minutes were approved. 1.2 ELECTION TO THE EXECUTIVE COMMITEE: The attached minute, recording the election of Melvin Hochster and Elias M. Stein to the EC, was approved. OFFICERS 3.1 NOMINATING COMMITTEE; THE names of the first six candidates for the Nominating Committee chosen by President Robinson were announced. They are: Albert T. Bharucha-Reid Heini Halberstam Alistair H. Lachlan T.Y. Lam Robert P. Langlands Harold M. Stark 3.2 TREASURER'S REPORT; It was noted that the Treasurer's Report would be distributed with these minutes. It is attached. 3.3 PRESIDENT'S REPORT (NOT ON THE AGENDA). President Robinson reported on the state of her efforts to obtain decriminalization for Chandler Davis with respect to his conviction for contempt of Congress. COMMITTEES AND BOARDS 4.1 PUBLICATION PROGRAM: IN its cyclical review of Society activies, the EC of 1982 reviewed the publication program and offered the attached report. Professor Felix Browder objected strongly to the comments in paragraph four on both substantive and procedural grounds. He expressed the opinion that undue weight had been given to a small number of letters objecting to the level of the research expository articles. He subsequently prepared a statement of his position, which is attached. Professor Andrew Gleason responded for the EC. In reply to a question, the Secretary gave a brief account of the history and source of the report. A motion by Professor John Milnor receiving the report without making any judgments about the issues in dispute and thanking the Committee was passed. 4.2 AMS RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS: The Postdoctoral Fellowship Committee at the behest of the EC and BT recommended that the fellowship program be changed from one for recent Ph.D.'s to one for persons in early mid-career. There is an attached draft of a possible announcement, as offered to the Council to clarify details. The Council approved the proposed change, with the understanding that early mid-career shall mean from four to ten years past the Ph.D. degree rather than four to eight. 4.3 PETITION TABLE: Professor Murray Gerstenhaber proposed a resolution to the Committee on Human Rights, which forwarded it to the EC, whose response was to put it on the Council agenda of 4 January 1983. An account of the resolution and its disposition is to be found in minute 8.1 of the minutes of 4 January 1983, which is attached. The Council referred the motion back to the Committee on Human Rights for clarification of procedures and of the degree of supervision to be exercised. The response of the Committee is attached. The motion of Professor Gerstenhaber was again offered to the Council for consideration. It was noted that a petition table had been operated at two recent meetings. A motion was passed to continue to operate in the same manner for another year. [The Secretary interprets this motion to include the following points. First, the table will be installed by or under the direction of the Meetings Department. No one will ask for permission to set it up, but if a host institution objects it will be dismantled. The Associate Secretary will not be concerned with setting it up or supervising it. A sign reading "Petition Table" will be on it. No one will make any judgment whether it is concerned with the human rights of an individual mathematician. Anything that is not a petition (e.g. book ads, resumes) will be removed by the staff. When registration closes, any paper on the table will be discarded.] It was understood that should difficulties develop or after a year of operation, the matter would be brought before the Council again. NEW BUSINESS 8.1 ABSTRACT BY G. ARTHUR MIHRAM. THE attached abstract was offered for the meeting of 30-31 October 1982. It was rejected for a special session and as a ten minute contributed paper. It was then submitted directly to the Secretary with a request for reversal of the previous judgments and for inclusion of the paper on the program of the current meeting. Should the Secretary choose not to do so, (he did not) then the author requested that the matter be referred to the Council. The abstract with the file of supporting documents was referred to the Agenda and Budget Committee, which recommended rejection. The Council rejected the abstract. INFORMATION AND RECORD 2.1 NSF REVIEWERS REPORTS: Professor Serge Lang requested that the Council consider the following resolution: The Council of the AMS finds inappropriate the current policy of the NSF, to send reviewers' reports concerning grant applications automatically to the principal investigators. The Council recommends that the policy revert to the one previously in force, as stated in IMPORTANT NOTICE NO. 59, following a National Science Board Resolution, namely: verbatim copies of reviews, not including the identity of the reviewer, will be made available to the principal investigator/project director upon request. Correspondence from him to Alvin Thaler, Program Director for the NSF, to Paul J. Sally, Jr., and to the Secretary are attached along with the NSF notice. The EC requested that the issue be referred to the Science Policy Committee. The Committee had not reported and this item was presented for information only. 2.2 A-21: Professor Serge Lang requested that the attached material be distributed to the Council for information. It is related to item 7.3 of the minutes of 4 January 1983. He also observed that he made an error of fact in that he stated or implied incorrectly, as in the second paragraph of the letter from him to Sally dated 3 February 1983, that certin persons had refused to serve as reviewers of proposals for the NSF. Everett Pitcher, Secretary April 14, 1983