Spring 1999
Volume 13 Number 1

FROM THE CHAIR

Once again the spring meeting of the Southeastern Section of the MAA was a truly enjoyable and intellectually invigorating experience. It seems that we always have superb speakers for the plenary sessions, and this year was certainly no exception. The opening talk by Joel Brawley, our distinguished teacher this past year and one of the Haimo National Teaching Award recipients, was captivating. Here we have our own Tom Lehrer with a guitar. Later Friday afternoon the Section Lecturer, Suzanne Lenhart, presented a fascinating talk about Optimal Control Theory and several of its applications. On Saturday morning, Tom Banchoff, the new President of the MAA, shared with us some of the ways he uses e-mail and the Internet to involve students in his courses. In many instances these interactions led to excellent solutions of the original questions and to substantial extensions of these problems. In other cases, the results were not so profound, like the student who assumed that at birth he was 15 inches long and weighed 20 pounds!

Often I find our section meetings to be as enjoyable and beneficial as national meetings. Such splendid occasions do not happen without a tremendous amount of work and thought by many individuals, and I would like to especially thank Tom Barr and Terri Lindquester of Rhodes College for organizing and running an excellent meeting. Thanks also to Joe Wimbish, the Program Chair, for putting together a splendid program.

The recipients of the section's special awards, Ben Klein for Distinguished College Teaching and M. F. Neff for Distinguished Service, are two outstanding individuals who have contributed greatly to making our organization so special. On behalf of the members of the section I congratulate both of you and thank you for all that you have given to us.

At the Rhodes meeting, Hugh Haynsworth completed his term as Chair of the Southeastern Section. His leadership during this time has been exemplary. Hugh introduced the concept of the state committees to assist the State Directors and has successfully implemented this program. While serving as Chair of the Section he also worked extensively on the organization of the 1998 meeting in Charleston. Hugh, we all greatly appreciate your excellent work and guidance for the section; we have benefited much from your endeavors.

Since the continuing vitality of our section depends on utilizing the energy and creativity of our young faculty, we are most fortunate to have a thriving program, Project NExT-SE, that is reaching out to these individuals. David Stone initiated this program three years ago, and, through his guidance, it has become highly successful. Recently John Harris and Greg Rhoads have assumed much of the leadership. So far there have been two groups of NExT-SE fellows, totaling 18 members. Preceding the annual section meeting they have gathered for an extensive series of workshops on topics pertinent to their role as beginning college faculty, such as effective classroom techniques, balancing teaching and research, and promotion and tenure. At these get-togethers there are times for open discussion and social events. Project NExT-SE has provided its fellows with ideas to improve their teaching and to renew their enthusiasm about our profession. A major success has been to develop a cohort of young mathematicians at schools throughout our section who communicate about educational issues and gather socially whenever possible.

At the fall executive committee meeting we will discuss ways to support and enhance this program which is important to the future of our organization. Anyone interested in more information about Project NExT-SE should contact David Stone, John Harris, or Greg Rhoads. In the fall I will write the new faculty members in mathematics departments in our section and invite them to become part of this project and active members in the MAA. I would appreciate your sending me (bob.fray@furman.edu) the names and addresses of your new faculty when you have filled positions. Also, I would welcome any suggestion you have to improve Project NExT-SE. David, John, and Greg have developed a wonderful program that will benefit current faculty as well as our new colleagues.

Mark your calendars now for Mathfest 99 in Providence, RI on July 31-August 2, 1999 and for the 79th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Section at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte on March 10-11, 2000. A rich program has been developed for Mathfest 99. The Hedrick series of lectures will be given by Carl Pomerance and the minicourse "The Curves and Surfaces of the Digital Age" will be presented by Colm Mulcahy and Jeffrey Ehme. In addition, there are many interesting invited lectures and the two-day short course "Recent Developments in the Teaching of Differential Equations."

The Mathematical Association of America is our professional society for the excellence of college teaching and faculty. It is only as strong as we make it, so be active, take advantage of the opportunities, and be enriched.

Robert Fray

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FROM THE GOVERNOR

No matter the period in which we live, the well-worn phrase "Times have changed" is not only appropriate but accurate. The real challenges are, during any given period, to determine exactly how times have changed, what the implications are for various organizations and institutions, and how to respond to those changes. This year the MAA is formally organizing to accept the challenge of changing times and, perhaps, some changing needs and expectations of the membership. Led by the national office, the MAA is engaging in a major planning exercise to determine if it is "providing the services, publications, meetings, and programs that the members need and cannot get elsewhere." If you have been contemplating some addition or change that might make the organization more responsive to the needs of a significant sector of the membership, share it with the leadership. As a part of his comments during the business meeting in Memphis, President Tom Banchoff reminded the attendees that the MAA serves the mathematics profession not only by serving the needs of its individual members, but also by serving the needs of the departments and the sections. He pointed out that the organization serves the profession, in particular, by monitoring what goes on in Washington, DC as it relates to mathematics. Let us keep this broad view in mind as we contemplate a MAA for the 21st century.

Our thanks go to Rhodes College for a superbly hosted meeting in Memphis, TN during March 12-13, 1999. Professor Tom Barr and his colleagues deserve our gratitude and praise for their expert organization and warm hospitality. It was a meeting rich in content and examples of creative teaching--from the first general session where Professor Joel Brawley uniquely combined mathematics with musical tributes, to the scholarly lecture on Optimal Control Applications by Professor Suzanne Lenhart, to the final general session when President Tom Banchoff demonstrated his creative use of the Web in teaching Linear Algebra. Still the fullness of the program is derived from the many thoughtful presentations given by SE Section members in concurrent sessions, including a generous sprinkling of oral and poster presentations by undergraduates. We congratulate Professor Mary Neff, a former Governor, on her selection for the Service Award, and Professor Ben Klein on his selection for the SE Award for Distinguished Teaching.

It was my pleasure to host the third annual Liaisons' Breakfast for the SE Section at the Memphis meeting. With an attendance of 27, the breakfast provided a forum for the discussion of common concerns and the exchange of innovative ideas. Nationally the liaisons program is gaining in strength, a fact which led to a recent proposal to the Board of Governors that the Committee on Departmental Liaisons become a standing committee of the Association within the Human Resources Council. Information from the MAA comes directly to your department through your liaison, much of it in electronic form which can be forwarded to the faculty. Those in attendance at the breakfast spoke of generating support for state dinner meetings and section meetings, of bringing attention to the Exxon grant, of gathering and disseminating information within the department, and of supporting student mathematics groups in their role as departmental liaisons. If your department does not have a liaison, it is a simple process for the department chair to designate someone each year.

It is time now to begin deciding which one of the many outstanding teachers in your department, state, or region you want to nominate for the Distinguished Teaching Award. This will allow plenty of time to solicit those supporting letters from former students and get responses before the Fall deadline. See the details in the guidelines for nominations.

Sylvia T. Bozeman

John David Neff, 1927-1998
In Memorium

The Southeastern Section of the Mathematical Association of America is saddened by the death of John Neff, Professor Emeritus, Georgia Institute of Technology, on October 11, 1998. John and his wife, M. F., of Emory University, were in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where John was attending a meeting of the Board of Trustees of Coe College, his alma mater. Our lives were enriched by his warmth, humor and commitment to the MAA and to mathematics.

John was born on July 30, 1928, in Cedar Rapids. After serving in the Navy in World War II, John earned his B. A. from Coe (1949), his M. S. from Kansas State University (1951), then worked at Bell Labs before returning to school to obtain his Ph. D. from the University of Florida (1956). He then taught at Case Institute of Technology and moved to Georgia Tech in 1961. He rose through the ranks, served as Director of the School of Mathematics from 1972-78 and retired in January, 1997.

John served for a remarkable eleven-year span as an elected leader of the Southeastern Section: Secretary-Treasurer from 1972-78, Chairman in 1978-79, Governor from 1979-82 and Section Lecturer in 1982-83. He gave many talks, spiced with humor and insight and delivered in overflowing rooms; he compiled a history of the Southeastern Section; in 1989 he instigated the Section's own Distinguished Service Award. At the national level, he served the MAA as Chair of the Committee on Sections and as a member of the MAA Executive Committee and of the Notes Committee. John received the MAA Meritorious Service Award in 1984 and the Southeastern Section Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1994. Not surprisingly, he also received awards from Coe and Georgia Tech in recognition of his outstanding contributions.

John's interest in mathematics extended to all levels. He became interested in K-12 mathematics education and served as President of the Georgia Council of Teachers of Mathematics and received GCTM's Service Award. He was one of the founders of the state mathematics coalition in Georgia. He gave dozens of talks to high school students and encouraged many teachers in a myriad of ways. In every role he filled, John made a difference. As Director of Tech's School of Mathematics, he strengthened the research program while maintaining a strong emphasis on the teaching of undergraduate mathematics. As Program Chair of the GCTM annual meeting, he scheduled talks and activities to help teachers grow mathematically. In the AP Calculus program, he became Chief Reader and Chief Examiner. As a teacher, he was memorable. As an adviser to students, he aided, abetted, encouraged, prodded and empathized.

John was legendary as a story teller extraordinaire. He had a knack for seeing usual things in unusual ways and the ability to see humor in almost any situation. He was a leading proponent of using graphing calculators in appropriate ways to enrich the teaching and learning of mathematics. John carried out all of his activities with ease and grace. He was as relaxed and comfortable with a friend he had just met as with a colleague of many years.

John's most enduring legacy is as a mentor. He encouraged many young faculty to be active in the community and introduced them to professional responsibility -- his memory will live on in the Southeastern Section and the MAA in the activities of many, many mathematicians. We are indeed proud and honored to have been his friends and colleagues.

Barrett Lectures

You are invited to participate in the annual Barrett Lectures hosted by the Department of Mathematics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, June 1-5, 1999. The focus of this year's conference is Successful Strategies for the Use of Technology in the Teaching of Mathematics.

Principal speakers include William C. Bauldry, John Harvey, Kathleen Heid, Charles Vonder Embse and Frank Wattenberg. In addition, there will be a number of workshops, presentations and demonstrations. The talks of the principal speakers and the Tennessee Showcase will be televised using interactive television to other sites in the state including Walters State Community College, University of Tennessee, Martin, and the University of Tennessee Space Institute.

The workshops include the T3 ACE-I Workshop sponsored by Texas Instruments for teachers of pre-algebra and algebra I, various other calculator and computer workshops and a variety of workshops on putting interactive mathematics on the web.

There are no registration fees or workshop fees. For more details about workshops, schedule, housing and registration, check out the website http://archives.math.utk.edu/barrett/ or contact Larry Husch (423-974-4162 or email husch@math.utk.edu).

M. F. Neff Receives
Award For Distinguished Service

At the conclusion of the afternoon general session of the 78th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Section on Friday, March 12, Hugh Haynsworth presented the Section's award for distinguished service to M. F. Neff of Emory University . The following is the text of Dr. Haynsworth's remarks.

The Mathematical Association of America Southeastern Section Distinguished Service Award, created by the Section in 1989, is given to a member of the Section who has made outstanding contributions at the Section level.

It is my pleasure to announce that the winner of the 1999 MAA Southeastern Section Distinguished Service Award is Mary Frances Neff of Emory University. For over 30 years, the mathematics community of the Southeast has benefitted from her service.

Professor Mary Neff, widely known as M F, served as Section Chair and hosted the annual section meeting at Emory University in 1982. Subsequently, she served as Section Lecturer in 1987 and as Section Governor from 1991 through 1994.

As Section Chair, she discovered the shortcomings of being chair for a single year and helped to institute the current multiple year structure.

Professor Neff's presentation as Section Lecturer is only one of many entertaining talks she has given over the years representing the MAA. Many Section colleges have fond reminiscences of her visits to their campuses and talks to students and faculty. Not only did she present mathematics in a captivating way but she took time to meet students and to encourage them to become active members of the mathematical community.

Professor Neff led lively and productive sessions with MAA departmental liaisons during her term as Governor, generating ideas for Section and department activities, especially those involving students. One colleague recalls that M F shamelessly promoted the student-oriented MAA publication, Math Horizons, resulting in a large increase in our Section subscription numbers. She was also responsible for the genesis and funding of the Trevor Evans Award for outstanding writing in Math Horizons.

M F's service to mathematics includes her direction of an Emory University summer program for secondary students for many years. She contributed to the mathematical development of many young women at a time when mathematics was typically a male profession, expanding their career choices.

One of Professor Neff's most noteworthy service accomplishments is her instilling in others the importance of service and her guidance and assistance in that service. In her friendly, gentle manner she has taught many of us the need to personally take an active role in the section. There is no way to count the numbers of talks that have been given and the number of committee seats and section offices that have been filled because of the encouraging words of Professor Neff.

Mary Frances Neff, we commend you and thank you for all you have done to serve the section for many years. In recognition of outstanding contributions to the Section, it is an honor to add your name to the distinguished list of recipients of the Mathematical Association of America Southeastern Section's Distinguished Service Award.

Award For Distinguished College or University
Teaching of Mathematics

At the conclusion of the afternoon general session of the 77th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Section on Friday, March 12, Stephen Davis presented the Section's award for distinguished teaching to Ben Klein of Davidson College. The following is the text of Dr. Davis' remarks.

It is my very real pleasure to announce that the recipient of the 1999 MAA Southeastern Section Distinguished Teaching Award is Benjamin G. Klein, the Beverly F. Dolan Professor of Mathematics at Davidson College. Ben's service to the Southeastern Section is well known, as a past Chair of the Section, through service on numerous committees, and now as co-editor of the problem section for the College Mathematics Journal, but his talent and impact as a mathematics educator is even more extensive. It is for these latter characteristics that we honor him today.

Ben grew up on Long Island and graduated with a degree in mathematics from the University of Rochester. He went from there to Yale University for his Ph.D in ergodic theory under Professor G. Arnold Hedlund. After a post doctoral appointment at New York University, Ben came to Davidson College in 1971. For at least the last two decades he has served as Chair of the Teacher Education Committee at Davidson, and he is Interim Chair of the College's Department of Education this year. He has served as Vice President for Colleges in the Western Region of the North Carolina Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and is a frequent speaker at NCCTM meetings. One frequently finds another Klein at these meetings, Ben's wife, Rosemary, who is an award winning teacher at Cornelius Elementary School.

Ben is a prolific problem solver and problem poser. Since 1991, he and Irl Bivens have co-authored the North Carolina State Mathematics Competition, and his longtime correspondence with a local amateur mathematician is born of a mutual interest in problem solving.

The esteem in which Ben is held is reflected in the many leadership roles for which his Davidson colleagues have called him, including Department Chair, Vice Chair of the Faculty, and Interim Dean of the Faculty. But, to see Ben in the leadership role he surely cherishes most, drop in on the 11 a.m. service at the Davidson College Presbyterian Church during the second Sunday of the month. Just as the service reaches the point of exhausting the patience of the four- and five-year olds in the front pew, Ben shepherds his little charges to their "classroom." There he gives them his undivided attention while the congregation hears the sermon and finishes the service.

Ben's teaching prowess has been recognized through Davidson's 1990 Thomas Jefferson Award and as the Council for Advancement and Support of Education 1991 North Carolina Professor of the Year. To observe him in a teaching environment, be it in class, with a student in his office, mentoring a colleague, or presenting at a professional meeting, is to encounter Ben in his true element. He has the rare talent of reaching beyond his own keen intellect to grasp the essence of his audience's difficulty and finding just the right turn of phrase to bring an elusive concept to light. MAA members in North Carolina had the pleasure of hearing Ben as a State Dinner Speaker at Salem College in February, 1998. His talk, "Marilyn Vos Savant: Lucky or Smart," investigated the vagaries of several ill-posed problems from the well-known column in Parade magazine. Ben navigated this minefield skillfully and brought those present to an enlightened understanding of the issues and their solutions. It was a wonderful demonstration of the treat that Ben's students enjoy daily, be it in his introductory Finite Mathematics course, or in his senior-level Mathematical Statistics course.

Reflections on Ben, from colleagues and students alike, invariably mention his steady, unhurried, unharried approach. One regularly finds a steady stream of students at his office door seeking his counsel. A conference with Ben is a genuinely collaborative experience; the student who simply wants to be told how to work a problem quickly learns that is not going to happen. While Ben will suggest possible approaches to the problem, the student will be gently prompted to define the concepts involved, to state relevant theorems, and to take ever larger steps in the process. The reward is a mathematical idea acquired, and some good cheering along the way. Who among his colleagues cannot instantly picture Ben's beaming countenance and hear his enthusiastic voice declaring, "Good for you!," as the student begins to gain insight into how a proof or solution might go.

Consider, finally, this testimony from a former student, now a secondary mathematics teacher:

"Although Dr. Klein obviously loves his field, he does not teach only mathematics; he teaches students, and that is what makes him exceptional. During my years at Davidson, Dr. Klein modeled the dedication and enthusiasm that I strive for as I embark on my own teaching career."

Ben Klein is a deservedly admired member of the mathematics educational profession. His exemplary teaching and broad influence in mathematics education are the qualities which our Section's Teaching Award was established to recognize. Ben, I am delighted to present you with the Southeastern Section's 1999 Distinguished Teaching Award.

SECTION CALENDAR

Call For Nominations For 2000 Award For Distinguished College Or University Teaching Of Mathematics

Nominations for the 2000 Southeastern Section Awards for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics are now being accepted. The Southeastern Section Selection Committee will choose one of the nominees for the Section Award. The awardee will be honored at the Spring 2000 meeting of the Section and will be widely recognized and acknowledged within the Section. The awardee will also be the official section candidate for the pool of Section awardees from which the national recipients of the MAA Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Awards for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics will be selected except that one of the national winners may be selected from another source. There will be at most three national awardees, each of whom will be honored at the national MAA meeting in January 2000 and receive a $1,000 check and a certificate.

A full set of nominations materials is included in this newsletter, and each of you is encouraged to submit a complete nomination to Harold Reiter, chair of the selection committee. Although all supporting materials are carried forward from year to year, the selection committee will ask those who nominated candidates for the award in previous years whether or not the nomination should be kept active and, if so, whether the nominator wishes to submit an updating letter to the selection committee.

However, since preparation of a complete nomination requires information which may not be readily available to you, you are also welcome to submit a single letter to the chair of the committee. This letter should

1. be limited to one page,
2. clearly identify, with name, address, and institutional affiliation, the person you are recommending to the committee's attention,
3. spell out the reasons YOU support the person as a potential recipient of the teaching award,
4. suggest, if at all possible, the names of one or more individuals (for example, a department chair) who could be asked to submit a complete nomination packet.

If a complete nomination packet is submitted, your letter will become part of this packet. The deadline for such letters is September 1, 1999.

Section Putnam Award

Each year the Section awards a $100 prize to the individual from an institution in the Section who scores highest on the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition. This year the Section is honored to have two students named as Putnam Fellows, Nathan Curtis and Kevin Lacker, first and second year students at Duke University. Each will receive a $100 prize. Congratulations to Nathan and to Kevin!

Joel Brawley Awarded
The Prestigious MAA Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics

Joel Brawley of Clemson University was one of three recipients of the 1999 Mathematical Association of America Haimo Award for Distinguished Teaching. In 1991 the MAA instituted Awards for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics in order to honor college or university teachers who have been widely recognized as extraordinarily successful and whose teaching effectiveness has been shown to have had influence beyond their own institutions. In 1993 the MAA Board of Governors renamed the award to honor Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo. These awards in the amount of $1,000 and a certificate are given at the Annual Meeting of the Association. They are selected from the Section recipients of this award with the provision that one of the winners may be selected from another source. The other recipients of the 1999 awards were Robert W. Case of Northeastern University and Joan P. Hutchinson of Macalester College. Previous members of the Southeastern Section receiving the Haimo Award are Carl Pomerance of the University of Georgia in 1997 and Anne Hudson of Armstrong State College in 1993.

Congratulations, Joel! We're very proud to have you as a colleague.

PASSING THROUGH

Those members attending the 1999 Meeting of the Southeastern Section in Memphis were treated to a moving song by Joel Brawley. Joel comments "I learned the song in the early sixties from a 1961 Pete Seeger folk song book I bought about the year it was published. In that book, Seeger attributes it to a University of Chicago student, Dick Blakeslee, who composed it in 1948. There are four verses as published by Seeger, but I only used two of the four original verses. As I mentioned in Memphis, this song has a lot of meaning for me and I have often used it to close a presentation in which I have done some singing. I had originally written verse 3 to sing to Clemson groups, but in Memphis I was thinking of it in a larger sense and dedicated it to all the colleges and universities represented. Verse 4, I wrote especially for that presentation and dedicated it to all teachers, past and present. So many of mine have already passed through."

Passing Through

1. I saw Adam leave the garden with an apple in his hand.
I said "Now that you're out, what are you gonna do?"
"Plant my crops and pray for rain, maybe raise a little Cain.
I'm an orphan now and I'm just passing through."

Passing through, passing through,
Sometimes happy, sometime blue, glad that I ran into you.
Tell the people that you saw me passing through.

2. I was with ole George Washington, one night at Valley Forge.
"Why do the soldiers freeze here like they do.
He said, "Men will suffer, fight, even die for what is right,
Even thought they know they're only passing through.

Passing through, passing through,
Sometimes happy, sometime blue, glad that I ran into you.
Tell the people that you saw me passing through.

3. I was with ole Tom Clemson 'bout a week before he died,
I said, "Tom with all this land whatcha gonna do?"
He said, "Leave it for a college, young folks can come get knowledge.
It'll help our people as they're passing through."

Passing through, passing through,
Sometimes happy, sometime blue, glad that I ran into you.
Tell the people that you saw me passing through.

4. I was sitting in my office one winter afternoon,
And thinking on the teachers that I knew.
Perhaps the greatest feature of a life spent as a teacher,
Is the difference we can make while passing through.

Passing through, passing through,
Sometimes happy, sometime blue, glad that I ran into you.
Tell the people that you saw me passing through.

Section Meeting
March 12 - 13, 1999

The 1999 Spring Meeting of the Section was held on March 12-13 at Rhodes College in Memphis, TN. As had been the case in Charleston, SC in 1998 Memphis was experiencing unusually cool weather with some light rain on Saturday morning. The campus of Rhodes College is a lovely place with stone buildings with slate roofs that could easily be a European University campus except that there are large areas of space between the buildings. The atmosphere around Memphis emphasizes "blues" and "rock and roll" music. Several of us were able to take advantage of the "blues" restaurants of Beale Street and the social with an optional tour at Graceland, the palatial home of Elvis, the King of Rock and Roll.

Short courses were presented on Friday morning. The Section thanks the presenters of the short courses: Colm Mulcahy and Jeffery Ehme, The Digital Age; Todd Will, Incorporating the Singular Value Decomposition into Linear Algebra; and Doug Hardin, Wavelets, Multiwavlets and their Applications.

Joel Brawley Jr., recipient of the Award for Distinguished Teaching, gave the First General Session address on A Smorgasbord of Mathematics Topics . He spoke of mathematics games and tricks, beginning with a card trick he had been taught at age 8 years. Perhaps being inspired by the proximity to so much musical history, he played the guitar and sang ballads of mathematics. He spoke of the "gamblers ruin", showing that a gambler beginning with $50,000 and aspiring to double that amount to $100,000 playing Roulette had a probability of .994873 of ruin, i.e., losing it all before winning $50,000. He also showed that there is not enough money in the world to give you a .90 probability that you could make $1,000 bets and earn even $30,000. He spoke briefly of the problem that gained national attention when the article of Marilyn Vos Savant conjectured that you would have 2/3 probability of winning as opposed to a 1/3 probability if you used a switch strategy as opposed to a stick strategy when selecting from three doors after the host had shown you a door that was a loser. He concluded with some comments on theometry, the intersection of mathematics and theology. Suzanne Lenhart, the Section Lecturer, gave the afternoon invited address on Applications of Optimal Control to Various Population Models. She discussed models for timing drug treatments to maintain a high number of the good T cells in HIV patients. She also talked of an optimal scheme to control the air flow through a bioreactor with a cylindrical shape to convert contaminated water or soil into less hazardous materials. This was an elegant talk with a hint of the mathematical technicalities involved in serious problems. Tom Banchoff, new President of MAA, gave the Saturday morning lecture. He gave a talk on Interactive Mathematics on the Internet-Totally Electronic Journals and Paperless Classrooms using his "homepage" and other web sites during the talk. The amazing thing about his talk was that the technology worked perfectly during the entire talk. He demonstrated viewing some art work that is in a form that cannot be written on paper because it is not linear. He also illustrated the way in which he is using the internet to teach his courses, giving questions that students are to solve and send both him and the class their thoughts on the problems.

An Awards Ceremony followed the Second General Session lecture on Friday afternoon, with Hugh Haynsworth, Chair of the Section presiding. David Stone read a very moving memorial statement given for John Neff, who had died during the past year. The Southeastern Section Award for Outstanding Service was presented to Mary Francis Neff for her very long and varied service to the Section. The Southeastern Section Award for Distinguished Teaching of Mathematics was presented to Ben Klein, who has given a number of addresses at Sectional meetings.

The Friday evening social was held at the Graceland Pavilion, across the street from Graceland, homeplace of Elvis Presley. Attendees were presented with the option of touring Graceland for a small fee. A barbecue dinner was held.

A TA Rush with pizza lunch was held on Friday with several Universities participating. A Career Fair was held on Friday morning.

A MAA Departmental Liaisons meeting was held on Saturday morning. A Women's Issues breakfast was held on Saturday morning.

There were a number of Special Sessions with two sections of Student Presentations. There were a large number of contributed papers in the various areas of mathematics and mathematics education. The members of the Section continue to be very active and supportive of their Southeastern Section of the MAA.

Rudy Curd

Executive Committee Meeting

The spring meeting of the Southeastern Section Executive Committee was held Thursday evening, March 11, 1999, on the campus of Rhodes College. The committee received an update on preparations for the imminent Section meeting at Rhodes, and each of the officers presented reports. Many of these issues are reflected in the minutes of the Business Meeting. State Directors reported on activities in their states, including state dinners. Chair Haynsworth announced that an ad hoc committee, consisting of Tina Straley, Sylvia Bozeman, and Joseph Albree, was formed with the charge to determine how best to update the MAA-SE Section history through the year 2002 (our 80th anniversary). Preliminary planning for the UNC-Charlotte meeting in 2000 focused on potential short courses and plenary speakers.

Section Business Meeting
March 13, 1999

The Business Meeting was called to order by Section Chair Hugh Haynsworth at 8:30 am on Saturday, March 13, on the campus of the Rhodes College.

Registration at the Section meeting was announced at approximately 330.

Ray Collings, Vice-Chair for Two Year Colleges, requested suggestions be sent to him regarding a possible short course on teacher preparation at next year's Section meeting in Charlotte.

Newsletter Editor Theresa Early gave the annual appeal for campus news, including reports on honors received by members of our section.

Joe Wimbish, Vice-Chair for Programs, invited suggestions on how the program can be improved.

Secretary-Treasurer Stephen Davis reported a balance of $10,082, about $1400 lower than a year ago. Major expenditures continue to be the production and mailing of the newsletter and of meeting announcements. First class postage was used to mail the meeting program this year, to ensure its timely arrival. This will probably occur again next year, with another meeting in early March. Results of the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition were not yet known; the winner of the Section's award will be announced later.

Governor Sylvia Bozeman reported on activities at the national level affecting the section. The MAA is engaged in a major planning exercise, including a needs assessment of its programs and services.

MAA President Thomas Banchoff presented a brief "state of the association" message. Mentioned in particular were electronic publications; see MAA Online (www.maa.org). Stating that the heart of the MAA is its sections, he encouraged the Section to respond to calls for our input in the planning process as the MAA develops an agenda for the 21st century.

The Secretary-Treasurer offered five resolutions which were adopted by acclamation.

--Resolution #1--

The Southeastern Section of the Mathematical Association of America expresses warm appreciation to the Department of Mathematics at Rhodes College, and to the administration of Rhodes College, for providing excellent facilities for the 78th annual meeting. We have been the beneficiaries of their hard work, extraordinary efforts, gracious hospitality and helpfulness in attention to many details that such a meeting involves. We mention in particular,

• Tom Barr, Math/CS Faculty, Site coordinator
• Michelle McDaniel, Dept. Secretary, assistant to all local organizers
• Dave Feil, Math/CS faculty, registration & TA Rush organizer
• Eric Gottlieb, Math/CS faculty, Career Fair organizer
• Bill Linderman, Math/CS faculty, Vendors organizer
• Terri Lindquester, Math/CS faculty, Social Event organizer
• Kennan Shelton, Math/CS faculty, Student worker manager, photographer, registration programmer, webmaster

We also thank the very large supporting cast of Rhodes College staff and students, including:

• Charlie Lemond, Rhodes Computer Center Director
• Lemuel Russell, Rhodes Media Center Director
• David Hicks, Bryan CLC Manager
• Tim Vandermeersch, ARA Campus Dining Director
• Melanie Tatum Moore, ARA Catering Director
• Roosevelt Evans, Store Room Director
• Corbin Miles, Music faculty
• Sandi Tracy, Career Services Director
• Brian Foshee, Housekeeping/Physical Plant
• Ralph Hatley, Security

Student workers:

Burke White, Cody Nash, Nik Granger, Ashok Jayashankar, Nicole Gibson, Jason Bainbridge, Katie Thompson, Wade Bond, Kevin Woods, Chris Gonsalves, Mark Wilkinson, Nikki Kelsay, Marekh Khmaladze, Bheerendra Prasad, and Yusra Murshedkar

--Resolution #2--

The Southeastern Section of the MAA expresses warm appreciation to the following companies for their informative and attractive displays presented at the 78th annual meeting:

• Addison Wesley
• Apple Computer
• Houghton Mifflin
• Mackichan Software
• Prentice Hall
• Texas Instruments
• John Wiley and Sons
• McGraw Hill
• Brooks Cole

We also thank these companies for their generous financial support, helping to supply the refreshments that contributed greatly to the success and enjoyment of the meeting.

--Resolution #3--

The Southeastern Section of the MAA expresses its gratitude to the presenters of short courses at the 78th annual meeting:

• Doug Hardin, Wavelets, Multiwavelets, and Their Applications
• Colm Mulcahy & Jeffery Ehmes, The Curves and Surfaces of the Digital Age
• Todd Will, Incorporating the Singular Value Decomposition into Linear Algebra

We commend these individuals for their service to the Section through the presentation of these inviting and stimulating courses.

--Resolution #4--

The Southeastern Section of the MAA expresses its gratitude to the presenters at the Career Fair during the 78th annual meeting:

• Elizabeth Stinson, Sr. Analyst, Ernst & Young
• Chad Myers, Morgan Keegan & Co.
• John Behrends, Project Engineer, Federal Express
• Diane Wadlington, First Tennessee Bank
• Scott Wagner, Database Analyst, Fusion Marketing
• Kevin Pray & Don Heezen, Actuaries, Watson-Wyatt Worldwide

We commend these individuals for their fine representation of mathematically related careers, especially to the students in our section.

--Resolution #5--

The Southeastern Section of the MAA acknowledges with genuine appreciation the excellent and faithful leadership and dedicated hard work of those officers completing their terms of service:

• Hugh Haynesworth, Chair;
• Suzanne Lenhart, Section Lecturer;
• Stephen Kuhn, Tennessee State Director.

We anticipate with delight and pleasure their continued presence among us, as well as their valuable contributions in perhaps less visible but no less valuable venues.

Bob McConnel, Chair of the Nomination Committee, presented the following slate of nominees:

• Vice-Chair for 2-Year Colleges: Ray Collings, DeKalb College-Clarkston Campus
• Section Lecturer: Dan Flath, University of South Alabama
• Secretary-Treasurer: Stephen Davis, Davidson College
• AL State Director: Jerry Shipman, Alabama A&M University
• GA State Director: Martha Abell, Georgia Southern University
• NC State Director: Jeffrey Clark, Elon College
• SC State Director: Walter Patterson, Lander University
• TN State Director: Doug Hardin, Vanderbilt University

(Note: six of the eight candidates---all except those for Section Lecturer and Tennessee State Director---are incumbents.) No further nominations were made from the floor and the slate was elected by acclamation.

Harry Chang, Chair of the Site Selection Committee, reported on the site for the 2001 Section Meeting. The committee unanimously recommended that the Section approve an invitation from Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama. The committee's report was approved without dissent. The dates for the Huntingdon meeting are March 30--31, 2001.

It was moved and approved that the memorial statement for the late John Neff, read by David Stone at the Awards Presentation on Friday afternoon, be included in the official records of the Section.

President Banchoff invited members to attend MathFest 99, July 31--August 2, 1999, in Providence, RI. Chair Haynsworth concluded his term of office with an invitation for all to come to the 79th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Section, hosted by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, on March 10--11, 2000.

The meeting concluded with a short message from our new Chair, Bob Fray, thanking Rhodes College for their excellent work, and echoing the invitation to the UNCC meeting next March.

Project NExT-SE

As Bob Fray mentioned in his "From the Chair" section, Project NExT-SE is alive and doing well. Project NexT stands for New Experiences in Teaching and has been supported by the Exxon Foundation for the past 6 years. Originally, Project NExT took approximately 60 new faculty (fewer than 2 years in a permanent position at any college or university in the country) and conducted workshops and sessions which deal with topics of interest to new faculty (i.e. teaching ideas, tenure, etc.). Each year a new group of NExT-ers would be chosen and the cycle would begin again.

Three years ago, David Stone of Georgia Southern decided to begin a version of Project NExT specifically for new faculty in the Southeast Region of the MAA, called Project NExT-SE, which is also funded by the Exxon Foundation. The second group of southeast NExT-ers began their term last year at the Charleston meeting and held another session at the Rhodes meeting. This second group consists of Jeff Dodd of Jacksonville State University, Patricia Humphrey of Georgia Southern University, Matt Lunsford of Union University, Janice Miller of Wingate University, Vic Perera of University of West Alabama, Kevin Peterson of Columbus State University, Edwin Smith of Jacksonville State University, Nesan Sriskanda of Claflin College, Michael Sterner of University of Montevallo, and Pinghua Wang of Floyd College. Those in the Project NExT-SE program wear a yellow dot on their name tag at the meetings.

The program at Rhodes consisted of a session on undergraduate research, organized by Rob Harger; a mathematical murder mystery, organized by Julie Barnes and Kathy Ivey; obtaining grants, organized by Tracy Espy and Ginger Rowell, and Neat Classroom Ideas, organized by Julie Barnes, along with informal discussion on a variety of topics.

Those participating in Project NExT-SE have praised the program for providing useful information as well as the opportunity to meet other new faculty in the region. We appreciate the Exxon Foundation for their financial support as well as the support we've received from the section. We plan to continue with what we feel is an important program, so be on the lookout for future news on Project NExT-SE.

John Harris and Greg Rhoads

News From The States

Alabama:

The 1999 State Dinner Activity for Alabama was actually a State Cookout held at Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville, AL. The chief chef for the cookout was Ed Smith, a top notch leader with assistance from his colleagues at Jacksonville. The food was plentiful but above all it was downright delicious according to the 20 attendees. The lecture during the activity was given by Dr. Richard McNider, Interim Dean of Science and Mathematics Professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. The title of Dr. McNider's lecture was "Mathematics and the Environment." The State Dinner Activity was held on February 26, 1999 in connection with the Alabama Association of College Teachers of Mathematics which met on February 27th at Jacksonville State.

The State Dinner in the year 2000 will be held at Troy State University. In the year 2001 the 80th Section Meeting will be held at Huntington College, Montgomery, AL.

Appreciation is expressed to the members of the Alabama State Committee: Cathy Hayes, University of Mobile; Barry Spieler, Birmingham Southern College; and Ed Smith, Jacksonville State University.

Georgia:

The Fourth Annual Georgia State Dinner was be held on Friday, November 6, 1998, at Augusta State University in Augusta, Georgia. The evening featured the presentation, "Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Hamming Codes", by Dr. Curt Lindner of Auburn University. Approximately fifty were in attendance, including faculty and students from several institutions. The meeting was organized by Michelle Benedict of Augusta State. In addition to the outstanding presentation and dinner, those in attendance enjoyed the opportunity to share ideas, meet new friends, and catch up with old acquaintances.

Several lecture series were held at state institutions this year. The Joint Mathematical Lectures, sponsored by Emory, Georgia Tech, and the University of Georgia (UGA), featured Prof. Larry Shepp of Rutgers University. One lecture was given at each of the three schools, March 3-5, 1999. A lecture was also given by Jerry Bona of University of Texas. (See http://www.math.gatech.edu/"spingarn/colloq/egg/) Georgia Tech also sponsors the Stelson Lectures. This year's speaker is Richard Stanley of MIT. The Middle Georgia Mathematics Mosaic, an informal organization of college and university Departments of Mathematics located within an approximate 100 mile radius of Macon, Georgia, met twice during the year. One of the goals of the Mosaic is to give area mathematicians the chance to get to know one another in hope that at some point, this might lead to useful collaborations among the participants. This year, the Mosaic met on February 19, when Dr. David Stone of Georgia Southern University gave a talk entitled "Mathematics = Problems" On March 19, Dr. Hope McIlwain of Mercer University spoke on "Can You Hear the Size of the Vertices? An Inverse Spectral Problem of Laplacians on Graphs." Mosaic meetings are held on the campus of Mercer University in Macon, but the participants include mathematicians from throughout the middle Georgia region. For more information or to suggest possible speakers, contact Curtis Herink at (912) 752-4172 or herink_cd@mercer.edu.

Several conferences were held during the year. These include at UGA: (1) the Southeast Geometry Conference, April 9-11, in conjunction with the IMACS conference at UGA on Computational Soliton Theory, April 12-15. (Organizer: Malcolm Adams); (2) the Georgia Topology Conference, March 12-16. Topic: 4-manifolds and symplectic topology. (Organizer: Gordana Matic); and at Columbus State University (CSU), the Second Annual Mathematical Modeling Conference, April 16-17. Speakers: Benny Evans and Bruce Crauder of Oklahoma State University, authors of "Functions and Change, A Modeling Alternative to College Algebra"; and Henry Edwards, UGA, and Mary Ellen Davis, Georgia Perimeter College, who are currently collaborating on an Elementary Mathematical Modeling textbook. (Organizer: Kitt Lumley)

Future Meetings: Kennesaw State University has been selected to host the Year 2000 International Conference on Dynamical Systems and Differential Equations in May 2000. UGA will host the 24th Annual Southeastern Atlantic Section Meeting of SIAM, March 24-25, 2000.

Mathematicians from around the state participate in numerous conferences, workshops, and special programs. Robert Balman of Coastal Georgia Community College presented "A Photo Album of Julia Sets" at the Georgia Association of Two-Year Colleges Conference on Jekyll Island and at the Fourth Annual Valdosta State University Mathematics Technology Conference. In addition, Tim Howard and engineering colleague Abiye Seifu of CSU have been accepted to participate in the Connected Curriculum Workshop to be held at Duke University in June. The workshop will focus on applications for use in engineering and mathematics courses, particularly in linear algebra and differential equations.

The Faculty Development Program at Georgia Tech is in its third year of operation. Through this program, employees at University System of Georgia institutions may apply for the opportunity to spend some or all of an academic year teaching and doing research with a faculty member in the College of Sciences at Georgia Tech. Among others, Elinor Berger of CSU has spent this year studying game theory with Ted Hill.

Kennesaw State University (KSU) sponsored several programs of interest this year. For the third year in a row, students at KSU helped students in Bartow County with a Mathematics Rodeo. This year, the students in Math 2242 and Math 2590 designed fun-filled mathematics activities for the Math Rodeo held at Woodland Middle School on October 23, 1998, and at Cass Middle School on March 31 and April 1, 1999. The sixth, seventh and eighth grade students earned points by participating in various mathematical games, puzzles and challenges. After earning enough points, they were treated to refreshments provided by the parents. Many of the KSU students participated in the preparation of the activities and materials and many were on hand at the rodeo to "man the tables". This was an excellent service learning activity for the KSU students and a great opportunity for them to interact with and observe middle grade students of all ability levels having fun with mathematics. KSU preservice teachers and the students and teachers at these schools agree that this is a valuable and enjoyable experience for all involved. The Math Rodeo has been so successful that they are hoping to extend it to all the middle schools in Bartow County in the future. In Cherokee County, the students at Dean Rusk Middle School participate in a Math Circus every spring. This year's event, in which seventh and eighth graders create fun with mathematics, was held on March 25 and was a cross between a Science Fair and a Carnival. The KSU FUTURESCAPE Program is designed for students in grades six through eight and their parents, teachers, and counselors. It will be held on the KSU campus Saturday April 24, 1999 from 8:30 - 12:00 PM. The purpose of the program is to get students excited about mathematics, science, and technology. The program attempts to encourage students to take mathematics and science courses so that they will be able to pursue career opportunities available to those who have prepared themselves academically in these areas.

Mathematics competitions for high and middle school students continue to be successful at state institutions. The 25th Annual CSU Invitational Mathematics Tournament was held on Saturday, March 6, 1999. One hundred eighty one students competed, representing eighteen high schools from Georgia and Alabama. (Read more about it on the web at http://math.colstate.edu/Tournament/ ). Over 700 students from Southeast Georgia participated in the Eleventh Annual Georgia Southern Mathematics Tournament on February 6, 1999. (See http://www.cs.gasou.edu/~sbarrs/math_tournament/) Tournaments were also held at Armstrong Atlantic University and Georgia Southwestern State University.

Tina Straley of KSU and Brian Winkel of USMA are the PI's of the NSF-funded MAA sponsored project called "Partnerships: Interdisciplinary Workshops for Undergraduate Faculty." There was a page one article in the February 1999 edition of FOCUS about the project's workshop held last year on Art, Humanities, and Mathematics at Dartmouth College. The workshop was in great demand with almost three times as many applicants as there were places for participants. There are two workshops this coming summer: Physics and Mathematics, Carroll College, Helena, MT, June 20-25; and, Business, Economics, Finance, and Mathematics, Indiana University, Bloomington, July 11-16. Information and applications are available on the web at http://science.kennesaw.edu/math/events/html or through the MAA home page at www.maa.org under Faculty Development. Faculty from the SE Section are encouraged to participate.

One of our state institutions received a prestigious honor. The Number Theory Group at the University of Georgia has been ranked tenth in the nation in the latest U.S. News and World Report rankings of graduate programs. (They are tied with Brown.) See http://www.usnews.com/usnews/home.htm.

Virginia Watson of KSU and a member of the MAA Georgia State Committee has volunteered to serve as a coordinator for the Georgia MAA Student Chapters. She plans to have e-mail contact with chapter advisors on a monthly basis to keep them updated on chapter activities at state schools and other announcements such as the Exxon Grants. She also hopes that this helps to establish more communication between the chapters in the state. Virginia may be reached at vwatson@ksumail.kennesaw.edu.

North Carolina:

Our state has hosted one dinner for MAA faculty and students in the Fall, and will be hosting a second one this semester.

The first was held at the University of North Carolina at Asheville on November 5, 1998. Prof. Angela Shiflet of Wofford College spoke on ``Not Black or White, but Shades of Gray''. There were forty attendees, with ten of them being students.

The second dinner will be held at High Point University on April 7, 1999. Prof. Steve Robinson of Wake Forest University will be the speaker.

Many thanks to Rob Harger, Todd Lee, and Paula Young for all their hard work in organizing these dinners.

The North Carolina Council of Teachers of Mathematics held its annual conference in Greensboro on October 29 and 30, 1998.

Mathematics Contests (for high school students) have been hosted at the following test sites: Appalachian State University, Campbell University, Charlotte Country Day School, Chowan College, Coastal Carolina Community College, East Carolina University, Elizabeth City State University, Elon College, Lees-McRae College, N.C. A&T University, UNC-Charlotte, UNC-Pembroke, UNC-Wilmington, Wake Forest University, Wake Technical Community College, Wayne Community College, Western Carolina University, and Wingate University. The winners will participate in a State Mathematics Contest at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics on April 29.

South Carolina: Walter Patterson, State Director, Lander University, Greenwood, SC 29649-2099. e-mail: wpatters@lander.edu.

I continue to receive very strong support from my committee made up of Richard Robinson, Wofford; Laurie Hopkins, Columbia College; and Jane Upshaw, USC Beaufort. This year the state dinner was arranged by Richard Robinson and held in the upstate at Wofford College. Over 40 members attended the meeting. We had a wonderful dinner follow by a really great talk on Grey Codes by Dr. Angela Shiflet of Wofford. (She was so good that North Carolina stole her from us as their dinner speaker also.) Next year we plan to have the dinner in the Low Country, perhaps even at Hilton Head. Jane Upshaw will be arranging this one. Last year Laurie Hopkins set up the dinner in Columbia. We are trying to spread the dinners around the state so that everyone will have a chance to get to one that is "close by."

Our share of this year's Exxon Grant to support student travel to the SE Section Meeting at Rhodes College in Memphis went to the students at the College of Charleston. Congratulations.

Tennessee:

Members of the Mathematics and Computer Science Department at Rhodes culminated a year of planning and preparation for the MAA Sectional Meeting on 11, 12, and 13 March. Approximately 330 faculty and students from across the section, along with some from neighboring states, converged on the Rhodes campus for a program that included three general sessions, about 90 contributed papers, a career fair, the traditional TA Rush, and ten vendors. The social event, a barbeque dinner at the Graceland ticket pavilion along with tours of the Presley mansion across the street, was enjoyed by all who attended. Those involved in the planning were Tom Barr (site coordinator), Dave Feil, Eric Gottlieb, Bill Linderman, Michelle McDaniel, and Kennan Shelton.

Student Chapters

Alabama

Alabama A&M University: Six Alabama A&M University students participated in the 78th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Section in Memphis, TN on March 12-13, 1999. Under the guidance of Professor Maged Elshamy, three of the students gave individual undergraduate student presentations, two gave a student poster presentation, and a graduate student presented in one of the contributed paper sessions. The students were Corban Banks, Jendayi Harmon, Mennen Alemayehu, Jennifer Popham, Karirah Thomas, and Adria Mason (graduate student). The State Director congratulates the students and their advisor for a job well done.

Georgia

Augusta State University: The Augusta State University MAA Student Chapter has five members and began the year by hosting the Georgia MAA State Dinner which featured a talk on Hamming Codes by Dr. Curt Linder. They had a holiday luncheon in December at the Good Day Chinese Restaurant in North Augusta, SC. T-shirts were sold on "The Scarecrow Conjecture" which disproves the statement made by the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz movie. With the proceeds from the sale, five students were able to travel to the Section meeting in Memphis. Their advisor reports that they were so energized by the talks, especially Dr. Brawley's, and the trip in general that they're now trying to figure out how to get to MathFest this summer.

Columbus State University: Columbus State University has seven students this year, two of whom attended the Section meeting. They are looking for more activities which will work with the mostly non-traditional students in their chapter.

Georgia Southern University : The ten students at Georgia Southern University have had several meetings where refreshments were served and the faculty made presentations. They also assisted with the GSU Mathematics Tournament.

Kennesaw State University: The Kennesaw State University Chapter has twenty members. The Chapter President attended the joint meetings in San Antonio. Speakers this year have included KSU Chapter President Hill Mossor who spoke on Faces of the Tri-Hexaflexagon and John Treece of Lockheed Martin who discussed his mathematical career and the role of mathematics in his job. Members and their advisor are participants in the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search. They have also been promoting Math Education and skill retention through the Tutoring lab at Kennesaw State University. The tutoring lab hires many Math majors and current MAA members. In order to improve Math and Tutoring skills several MAA members have, in the past, attended and presented at the National Tutoring Association conferences. This year two MAA members submitted a proposal to the NTA which was accepted for presentation. It is entitled "Unique Perspectives from two Peer Tutors".

North Carolina

Davidson College: Davidson's Bernard Society of Mathematics (their MAA student chapter) continues the usual activities such as Math Coffees (talks), socials, and recreational problems.

Western Carolina University: This year our student chapter of the MAA has been active doing a variety of things. Nine students attended the NC dinner meeting at UNC Asheville in November, and more recently four students attended the sectional meeting in Memphis. Two students presented current research at the Memphis meeting and are presenting at the National Undergraduate Research Conference in New York. Three students are scheduled to attend the ASU miniconference on graph theory. Also, eight students participated in the CoMap Math Modeling contest. On the social side, our chapter sponsored a mathematical murder mystery on our campus, and helped organize another murder mystery for the southeast section of Project NExT. Other social activities include hiking, bowling, listening to a member play in a band, and a picnic. On April 15, our department will be sponsoring the WCU math contest, and the student MAA chapter will do volunteer work at the contest.

South Carolina

Erskine College: Erskine College has a very active chapter of the mathematics honorary, Kappa Mu Epsilon. They will hold their annual induction of new members on 19 March 1999. The club advisor is Susan Patterson.

Lander College: The Lander College Student MAA Chapter has been very active again this year. Still to come this year for our Chapter are the annual spring picnic and our annual visit to Furman University for the Clanton Lecture Series. We had a student, Josh Hughes, present the results of his summer research in Michigan on Grobner Bases to the chapter members. He first presented these results at the San Antonio meeting in January.

The Outer Banks AMATYC Summer Institute Teaching in Context

The AMATYC Outer Banks Summer Institute being held June 27 - July 2, 1999, in the resort town of Duck, North Carolina, will be informative and interesting. The classroom for the Institute is housed at the Army Field Research Facility on the oceanfront and offers the view and sound of the Atlantic surf.

Participants will learn how to use interesting situations, problems, or data to enhance student understanding of mathematical ideas. Teaching mathematics in the context of these situations has real potential for helping students understand the concepts being presented in the classroom. Classroom visits by local experts and field trips to park service sites will assist participants in the quest for materials to help teach in context.

Instructors for the Institute are Debbie Crocker, Appalachian State University; Ed Laughbaum, The Ohio State University; and Bill Thomas, University of Toledo Community and Technical College.

For further information please contact Ed Laughbaum, Institute Director, at elaughba@math.ohio-state.edu, (614) 292-7223.