text:
How to handle requests for a race-based exam structure?
A colleague of mine is a non-tenured teaching-track faculty
in a neighboring university.
We work together frequently through our joint outreach and REU projects.
He is currently teaching a summer course in mathematics (pre-calculus algebra) with a compressed schedule from mid May to early July.
The final exam is scheduled in two weeks.
Last week he received students’ requests/suggestions,
cosigned by presidents of two large student organizations¹, that:

The final exam should be cancelled for minority students (but remain the same for the rest of the students, i.e. minority students will do strictly less work); or
The final exam should be modified to contain only questions that relate to life experiences of marginalized minorities; or
Marginalized minorities will take an easier final exam.

None of these requests are realistic at least in the current semester.
Indeed, imposing different grading standard by race is likely illegal too.
So we can start with the premise that
none of the requests can be granted.
Yet, it seems dangerous to dismiss these requests completely, as they are backed by large student organizations.
Moreover, in one discussion, some student estimated that the failure rate in his classes has a strong correlation to race factor in the last few semester.
(Students probably reached this estimation only by
surveying other students who took his classes in the past, but my colleague admits that it: “sounds about right”.)
It sounds to me that the students are collecting data for the next level of action should he reject the requests.
The vague official message from the chair and dean is that he, as the instructor, has the right to design the course.
However, it is seems that the administration is getting ready to let him take the blame, should this develop into a PR disaster – e.g., the chair will only discuss this on the phone but not over email.
He feels that his job is on the line.
How could one react to this and avoid both a PR disaster or doing something illegal?
There may not be enough time to save my colleague, but I’m still curious, as I wouldn’t be surprised if this would happen on my campus soon.

¹ The two presidents are not enrolled in this class, but many club members are enrolled. This letter was only addressed to this one instructor, cc’ed department chair. If they send the same request to other instructors, we wouldn’t know.

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Can you add a state tag to your question? Laws are different, and from a legal point it may be important. e.g. California recently repealed the former law banning racial and sex based discrimination (making racist laws legal). Also, an Oregon county wanted whites to wear masks, but not minority (later changed).

I would suggest offering something in response that makes the students feel like their concerns are heard, without compromising the academics of the course.
For example:

I understand that this is a difficult time, especially for minority students. Unfortunately, if I cancel the final exam, I won't be able to assign a grade to these students and they won't get credit for their work this semester. But in recognition of the extra challenges some students are facing right now, I am going to schedule an additional review session and office hours before the final exam. This way, students who are struggling can get additional opportunities to master the material before the exam.

A response that communicates empathy and understanding is much less likely to develop into a PR disaster than one that is irritated, defensive, or dismissive.

In terms of things you can offer, if university policy allows it, you could also have a later alternative date for the final for any students who want it.  This has a possible side-benefit of making effective proctoring more possible since you would be online proctoring fewer students at a time.

" I won't be able to assign a grade to these students"  This might be a lie.

@AnonymousPhysicist, In this case, it is probably true that without a final exam, the grades can be very difficult to assign due to the compressed schedule --- the final exam may be the only exam.

@AnonymousPhysicist OP says that cancelling the exam is not "realistic" this semester. This example suggests one reason why it might not be possible to cancel the exam, OP can substitute whatever reason actually applies in the situation.

The discussion about the inclusiveness of math and physics questions has been moved to chat. Please take any further comments on this subject there.

Making special plans for minorities just seems like reverse racism to me. How can you expect the majority to pass this exam, without special assistance, but the minorities not? Why does a person from a minority need special assistance anyway? I'm assuming they had to make the same vetting process any student from the majority did?
This just seems like a massive discrimination lawsuit waiting to happen. You have to do for some students what you do for all of them, unless you want to answer the unsavoury questions about what basis you are doling out 'special treatment'.
I will take the chance to reply specifically to the highlighted parts of the original post.
You cannot cancel an exam for some. Clearly a decision is going to have to be made from an executive standpoint, and yes these are indeed special circumstances, but the decision needs to be applied to the collective and take all the students' concerns to heart.
If you start kowtowing to political rhetoric then it just becomes a matter of time before your institution loses its academic rigour. If student organisations are unhappy with the syllabus, then they can be invited to give their input when the syllabus comes up for review, but you cannot change the syllabus willy-nilly just to appease a student body. Especially not in the middle of a year.
In making the exams easier for some, your institution's credibility dies a sudden death. This is also the first step to becoming a diploma mill. It is also massively unfair to the students who do put in the work and graduate from a school, that from no fault of their own, have their credibility ruined.
Credibility for institutions, just like for people, is very hard to build up. The building of credibility takes years of concerted effort to make happen, but it takes only one moment to tear down.

Your points make sense, but what exactly do you recommend the lecturer to do?

Making special plans for 'minorities' just seems like reverse racism to me. - Unless the minorities face special challenges the majority does not face, or the exam is (inadvertently) biased in favor of the majority. A blind student needs extra time and special accommodations not granted to the majority of students, lest the exam be unfair. Of course, it is quite difficult to draw the line between what disadvantages deserve special recognition in oder for the exam to be fair or not (and my example is deliberately extreme), but that doesn't mean that the concern is generally invalid.

If make the exams easier for some, your institutions credibility dies a sudden death. This is also is the first step to becoming a diploma mill etc... This is a slippery slope fallacy. As pointed out in my previous comment, special accommodations for disadvantaged students are not uncommon, and yet higher education is alive and kicking.

@henning--reinstateMonica This is not a case of medically disadvantaged students, however, and even in such cases the mitigation covers the conditions, not the material or the marking criteria. The students in the OP suggest different criteria across groups, which is discrimination. Assigning more time,classes, modules, resources etc to students who struggle is not only welcome but essential essential, but when it comes to assessment the field must be even for all. Even for blind or mentally ill students, the assessment changes only in the conditions and to the extent it is not advantageous.

@Titus I would also agree that during these extraordinary times special help for students is welcomed as long as the help is given to all. Most of the students pay the same course fees and are all deserving of the same care and consideration.

How can you expect the majority to pass this exam, without special assistance, but the minorities not? Easy - Black students are naturally much more distressed by continued police killing and violence toward Black people than their White peers [personally, I am not sure whether including all POC make sense, but for Black people at least, the problem is easy to see]. Beyond that, their communities are being hit harder by COVID. This comment isn't to endorse a course of action; but to answer your question. || Can  you explain why you put "minorities" in quotes? I see little reason to do so.

@henning--reinstateMonica Bias doesn't cancel out. If a test is biased against black students, responding to that with race-based scoring adjustments means you have more discrimination, not less. When an accommodation is made for a blind person, it's based on the specific challenges that that specific person faces, not based on their group membership.

There's a massive amount of equivocation/fallacy going on here. Bias is a population attribute, and does not justify any particular student getting preferences. A statistical phenomenon existing across a population does not justify speaking of that phenomenon applying any particular individual in that population. Do mixed raced students get half the preference? Is it scaled by how dark a person's skin is? Treating population-wide attributes as applying to individuals is called "racism" when it hurts black people. Why should it have a different name when it helps them?

Blindness is a personal attribute, and can be responded to by tailoring the test to the personal challenges of the specific student. It's not saying "You're blind, and so we're going to treat you differently based on these statistical attributes of the entire blind population." It's saying "You specifically have these particular attributes". If a school is saying "Blind people average 20% lower grades, so we're going to give every blind student a 20% bonus to their grade", that is NOT how accommodation is supposed to work, and is NOT acceptable behavior.

@Accumulation, no in the context that's relevant here, namely examinations and test theory, bias is an attribute that refers to the "differential validity of test scores for groups, e.g., age, education, culture, race, sex". You might be onto something with your comment regarding my example. I respond to that when I get around to it.

@Acccumulation I agree with you that the accommodations should be made to address unequal extraneous and individual circumstances, but that these should not include the grading criteria. However, the way I understand the above answer is that it calls such accommodations "reverse racism". I chose my example to make it very obvious why not giving "special assistance", as the answer calls it, can be unfair. But you are of course right to point out that accommodations must be adequate to the specific challenge. Perhaps a better example would then be allowing a student to submit an assignment ...

@Acccumulation ... past the original deadline, because he or she has been unable to work on the assignment due to being sick. I'm not sure what the activists are arguing here, but I assume in light of recent events they are referring to increased levels of grief and anxiety, which could impede their performance.

@henning--reinstateMonica "no in the context that's relevant here, namely examinations and test theory, bias is" It's not clear what you're disagreeing with here. If it's my claim that bias is a population attribute, your cite doesn't disagree with that. "differential validity of test scores for groups". Bolding added. It is nonsensical for a black person to claim that a test is biased against him or her. A test can be biased against black people, but it can't be biased against a black person.

Bias does suggest that there is unfairness, but there is a bit of a fallacy in saying "There is X without Y", in that the literal meaning is "not Y -> X", but there is an implied claim of "Y -> not X" that is quire different. You can argue all you want that there is bias without special assistance, but that doesn't address the question of whether special assistance increases the fairness at all.

Bias says that some black people are getting grades lower than they "should" get, but it doesn't tell you which ones. If you give them an across the board bonus, you are assuming that all black people are affected equally, or else you asserting that any time one black person experiences unfairness, giving a bonus to a black person addresses that, regardless of whether the person experiencing unfairness is the same as the person getting a bonus. It's treating black people as interchangeable, which is quite racist. I have further points, but it's already quite long and this belongs in chat.

@Acccumulation Bias says that some black people are getting grades lower than they "should" get, but it doesn't tell you which ones. I agree with you here. Ergo, a good exam should be equally valid for all group, getting rid of biased items, i.e. items that on average produce different scores for different parts of the population. If you give them an across the board bonus, you are assuming that all black people are affected equally. Hence, I do not suggest giving an across the board bonus! I suggest (1) examining implicit assumptions in exams to improve their design (2) and ...

@Acccumulation granting accommodations to individuals when they are deserved. This can e.g. include leniency when it comes to (re-)scheduling exams for people who currently have to cope periods of anxiety and grief after the recent events related to police violence, or stress related to earning a living and caring for kids and/or relatives during Covid-19. Both issues affect the black population more, but accommodations should still be granted based on individual circumstances, not on a blanket basis. My initial point was and remains: They should not be rejected on a blanket basis either.

@Acccumulation anyway, interesting discussion. Thanks.

@henning--reinstateMonica "a good exam should be equally valid for all group, getting rid of biased items, i.e. items that on average produce different scores for different parts of the population" That is mathematically impossible unless you assign the same score to everyone.

@user76284 ...ok, that systematically produce different scores that are not due to the latent variable that we want to measure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_charity

@henning--reinstateMonica That is extremely different from what you said. The latent variable may be different for different parts of the population (as it almost always is).

@henning--reinstateMonica "Ergo, a good exam should be equally valid for all group, getting rid of biased items, i.e. items that on average produce different scores for different parts of the population." That's not what "biased" means.

It's worth noting that giving in to the student can also cause a PR disaster, it just will upset other people.
When dealing with those that asks for special treatment, I would advice arguing for why it's good for minorities as well when there's equal treatment.
If it's generally known that minority students at a given university don't have done the same work that nonminority students did, the degrees of the minority students will be worth less.
This will seen encourage employers do be less trusting that minority students with degrees have the skills that a nonminority student with the same degree has and thus further racism.
But not giving the marginalized students the same exam you would effectively steal the opportunity of them to prove that they have skills. If one wants to live in a world where margalized students can be hired based on the skills that they have taken away the opporunity for them to prove their skills seems to be discrimination.
The goal of a pre-calculus algebra course is to teach students certain math that's needed by later courses. If the students continue without actually learning the material of the cause they are likely to get problems with later causes. It's likely best for students who don't have the skills to pass the exam to repeat the course.
One job of exams is to provide a student objective feedback about how they deal with the subject. If a students learns early that they aren't fit for a certain subject they waste less resources that they would otherwise invest in the subject.

Sure, but what do you suggest now the OP and their friend?

@user111388: Before suggesting any course of action, it is wise to consider all possible consequences of various actions, and what Christian said here is part of what has to be acknowledged.

@user21820: Ah, ok. I thought answers here should (also) give an answer to the posed question.

@user111388: Ideally yes, but knowing these potential consequences might be far more useful to the asker than just hearing opinions on what to do. =)

"If it's generally known that minority students at a given university don't have done the same work that nonminority students did, the degrees of the minority students will be worth less." Indeed. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas famously wrote that he affixed a "15 cent" price sticker to his 1974 Yale law degree for exactly that reason. (For those not familiar with Justice Thomas, he's black.)

Moreover, in one Zoom discussion, some student estimated that the failure rate in his classes has a strong correlation to race factor in the last few semester (Students probably reached this estimation only by surveying other students who took his classes in the past. But my colleague admits that it "sounds about right").

I am wondering, why this has not come up yet as part of a possible approach. Correlation does not imply causation --- yet, if there are hints and your colleague's gut feeling that minority groups struggle more with the course, I would ask myself why this is the case. So as some have already proposed to widen tutoring and office hours before the exam, I would kindly ask all students to elaborate on their struggle with the course, its content or anything related. In my opinion this is best done anonymously (i.e. as teacher leave the room while the students contemplate and set up a letter box or a messenger system).
The chance is that you may find issues that can cause that perceived asymmetry (alongside with structural reasons, about which usually no one can anything do about on their own).
// edit: The same appraoch is useful for any intersectional dimension of inequality: class background has a huge impact on academic merits as well as sex/gender (e.g. in natural sciences).

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. Please remember our be nice policy.

Before talking about what to do, here are some suggested premises to follow:

Document all communications on this issue. Even if it's just a phone conversation, record the date, time, and summary.

Use these two as guiding questions: "Have I followed the school policy and syllabus?" and "Have I done my due diligence to make sure students' requests are heard?"

Acknowledge that if there has been any racial discrimination in the school, your colleague cannot undo this in a semester. However, it's important to look into it and get started. (aka, do the due diligence.)

Get into alliance rather than being antagonistic. The common enemy here is supposedly the school and the math curriculum. Ascend the students' grade-centric request into momentum for a larger movement.

First, I don't think your colleague should deal with this alone. If the department head is not taking this up directly, then involve other parties such as Office of Equal Opportunity or whichever office that handles requests for accommodation.
Second, go back to the syllabus and stick to the policy asking for accommodations. The said students are asking for accommodations. Invite them to submit a request to the office in charge. In most institutes, that office will contact you with a recommendation on what accommodations to implement (e.g. extended time, larger fonts on text, quiet room, etc.)
Third, go for highest possible level of transparency: acknowledge that this is happening and make this incidence known to the whole class without disclosing any information marginalizing any group. Document those announcements as well.
Fourth, check with your registrar and see if it's possible for some students to apply for switching to pass/fail instead of getting a letter grade.
Fifth, check again with your registrar to see if they can actually get some real grade data broken down by student's race/ethnicity.
Sixth, sit down, and really think how much extra is your colleague willing to do. For example, extra office hours by appointment (so that those who feel marginalized can have some more face time, should they want.)
Seventh, consider extra credit that is also useful for your colleague and educational for the students. For example: a 5% extra credit on a two-page essay on "What I'd do to achieve race/ethnicity equity in pre-calculus algebra," "Is the mathematics curriculum equitable? Why and how to fix it?" Make sure to note that the information may be summarized anonymously and reported back to the department for future planning.

My answer received this following comment and I'd like to give a more detailed explanation:

How is your extra-credit question algebra? This is an algebra course,
not a social studies course.

My counter question would then be, given the rift between social science and STEM, who is going to own up to this question? Should they be a pile of assignments filed away by a social science professor, or a set of possible improvements that an algebra professor can adopt? There are pros and cons in both, I'll leave that to each of their own view. But I feel that, enough with pushing our STEM education questions over to social science, ask about the inequity, learn about it, and do something with it.
Another more pedagogical point I'd like to highlight is that: don't get too bogged down by the frame of your assessments. A lot of teachers think that they can only assess what they teach. But actually assessments engulf much, much more than what the students learn.
For example, pre-existing knowledge or misconception is worth assessing at the beginning of the class. What did the students come equipped with? How well they know it? Learning environment is worth assessing as well. Do they feel enough supports from this class? Do they get the software and textbook without much trouble? Or have they been doing without it because they are expensive? And of course, affect and emotion are worth assessing, too. Do they feel safe in my class? Are the examples featured in class applicable to their lived experience and career prospects?
I'd implore everyone to assess more broadly. You may often be surprised by how much you have affected the students, and how much you can learn from them.

Your second-last paragraph has good recommendations, but it doesn't address the question of why one should evaluate students in an algebra course on the basis of a social studies essay.

@user76284, it's from the students' requests in OP's question. I'd give them the benefit of doubt that they are asking for this accommodation because they want their opinions heard. The requests also provide some suggestions (exam waivers, etc.), perhaps there are other viable alternatives from the students as well? And of course we can evaluate student based on an essay. Some scientific courses give credit for filling out mid-course evaluation. Do we say that those courses shouldn't do it because questionnaire goes under psychology?

And, in the spirit of not going into the ivory tower ourselves, I also want to emphasize: be creative with whatever extra credit assessments you'd like: make a post-it wall, make a vlog, get a time-series data set and find out where and when COVID hit the minority the hardest, go wild! The baseline is that, we need to hear them out, we need to see how we can help leveling the leaning ground. I'd refrain from defending essay or not, that's really besides the point.

In my experience, course evaluations are simply completion-based, and they don't require a two-page essay.

Too bad this answer is late to the popularity contest. It has some good practical advice.

This is the best answer.  I would stress to get the equal opportunity office on-board more.  They are (or should be) trained experts, may have seen this situation before, and if OP's colleague follows this office's advice and bad PR follows, they can at least somewhat shield themselves from the worst.

Much of this answer is excellent — in particular, acknowledge their concerns, and work with the university’s equal opportunity office.  However, I’d suggest some major caveats about the extra credit assignment.  Such assignments give advantage to students who have extra time and energy available, and who are familiar with essay-writing (or similar) on subjects outside their specialisation.  In practice, this typically ends up further advantaging students from privileged backgrounds.  See https://ilaba.wordpress.com/2019/12/01/diversity-statements/ for a thorough discussion of a similar point.

@PLL, that is an excellent point and I'll keep that in mind. In that light, I think OP's friend may still be able to implement something less time-intensive. Perhaps making a Google Doc and invite the class to draft a statement (or the instructor can provide the scaffolding), and then invite the students to vote and decide if the statement should be passed to the department. Anyone who voted regardless aye/nay, got some bonus points. This is simple (read and vote), realistic (regardless how occupied, remember to vote as a citizen), and could lead to some actions.

I like most of this answer, but I'd try to devise some other scheme for soliciting feedback on the race / equitability question. Also, I wouldn't phrase it about the curriculum, i.e. I wouldn't suggest that perhaps "Algebra is racist"...

I consider the answer of @ff524 to be the best, but here is an administrative alternative.
The lecturer can discuss with administration if the exam can be replaced with coursework within short notice but with sufficiently long deadline. This gives all students, including minorities students, flexibility and much more additional time.
Another option is to discuss with administration (or suggest to students) if extensions or special arrangements (e.g. exam extra time) can be granted to all or any students who apply for them. Although such accomodations are normally made centrally, a "local" departmental solution might be possible.
Both of these solutions are based on how some universities have dealt with students affected by the coronavirus, where blanket extensions were given and/or extensions were granted without the students having to supply much, if any, medical evidence. They are not without their problems but provide a reasonable way out. In any case, students must not be discriminated based on skin colour, ethnic origins etc, or given a (dis)advantage compared to other students. As a mitigation example, the first and third solution suggested by the students in the OP are inapplicable on those grounds and are certain to expose the lecturer.

Note: Math Educators SE currently has a question on the best way to give exams in the current climate, and the top-voted answer observes that a multi-day project in place of an exam saw widespread cheating, and filing of F's and academic dishonesty violations against a quarter of the class (https://matheducators.stackexchange.com/a/18479/5563).

@DanielR.Collins Unfortunately that is a risk and I am fully aware of the problem. Without knowing the specifics of the material and the course, it is difficult to suggest a way to mitigate it.

I think that the clear implication from that answer is to not give long projects.

@DanielR.Collins It is not for me to determine the duration or how it relates to the material of potential coursework, hence I have written "sufficiently long" in my answer. This can mean 4 hours or 4 weeks.

@DanielR.Collins I had a similar experience in one of my foreign language courses.  I had never experienced such brazen cases of academic honesty in my career.  I've tossed around the idea of doing oral defenses of work, to spot check things that look suspicious / generate a genuine dialogue, but it's very time consuming — tough to do 30 minute examinations for each of 30-60 students in a typical American college timeline

EDIT:  The question has changed substantially, resulting in a bit of a mess.
I subscribe to the philosophy that conflicts with students should be used as teaching opportunities where possible.
Is your exam actually useful?  If it's not, cancel it for everyone.  If it is, explain to students why its useful (to students or society, not you personally).  If it's useful, it would hurt minority students if they don't take it.
Your exam probably should include questions that relate to the experiences of minorities.  Questions that relate to the experiences of a particular group do put that group at an advantage.  Spread the advantage around as equally as you can.  There might be exceptions, such as if the topic of your course is a white person or a group of white people, you might not be able to ask questions that relate to black people.  Or maybe your course is about a pure math subject or cosmology which cannot be connected to anyone's experiences.  Tread carefully: if you are not familiar with a particular group's experiences, do not rely on stereotypes.  Ask an expert for help, or admit you don't know how to do it if that's the case.

The discussion about the inclusiveness of math and physics questions has been moved to chat. Please take any further comments on this subject there.

The course in the question is pre-calculus algebra... what do you mean "maybe your course is about a pure math subject"? Of course it is! This answer doesn't apply to the question by its own admission.

@Clay07g The question was changed, and you are incorrect anyway.  Pre-calculus algebra is not a "pure math subject which cannot be connected to anyone's experiences."  Maybe number theory is.

@AnonymousPhysicist Also, to me it seems preposterous to ask if OP's colleague's exam is "actually useful." Let alone to suggest to cancel it. But that's my opinion.

@BlueElephant I took quite a few useless exams during my time as a student.

@BlueElephant On that point, I have to agree with Anonymous Physicist. I've taken plenty of useless exams that had no real bearing on measuring what a student knew about the subject at hand over the years. Granted, those were pretty rare in math courses.

I just didn't think it was a very nice thing to say, that's all.

I'd offer two practical suggestions.  First, have a "blind" grading system, where each student is assigned a random code that goes on their exam papers* instead of their name.  None of the graders know which code corresponds with which student.
Second, ask the students to suggest questions that relate to the life experiences of "marginalized minorities".  Of course that includes figuring out how to tell if someone actually is a marginalized person, or say one of Barack Obama's kids :-)
*Maybe homework too, but it's too late for that this year.

I like the first part of the answer. The blind grading system is what Chinese used for  thousand of years, However, I don't know how to implement it in this case, if the professor and the grader are the same person. I have no comment for the second part of the answer. The original request/suggestion is not understandable to me. How could a math exam be related to skin color? !+1 = 2 for whites, 1+1=3 for Asian?

@scaaahu:  For the random codes, you could use computer-generated ones, and not look up the corresponding names until after the exam.  Wouldn't be hard to design a system for that.  For the second, I do share your lack of understanding, but comments on that would almost certainly be deleted.

Not sure what age group this exam is aimed at, but potentially you could incorporate such life experiences into “word problems”. e.g. you could potentially use voter suppression through gerrymandering as the basis of a question on percentages/ratios.

@scaaahu CrowdMark (an online grading tool) anonymizes assessments.  Unless a student writes their name on every page, work is anonymized while grading.  I presume that other similar tools (I am aware of at least one other, called "Gradescope") work in the same way, or can be set to work in the same way.  I also usually design exams with a front page containing only some kind of academic integrity statement and nothing to be graded.  When I start grading, the first thing I do is go through every exam and flip to the second page.  Anonymizing is not that difficult.

@jl6 A university pre-calculus algebra exam would almost certainly be most likely to be taken by first or second-year university students, so 17-19 years old, for the most part. Granted, there may be some "non-traditional" (i.e. older) students, too, who are entering college at some point later than right out of high school. Those are more likely to happen in graduate school (in which case I would certainly hope that you would not be needing to teach them pre-calculus algebra!,) but do happen in undergrad, too.

This is an ongoing problem at all levels of university life. For example Asian students applying to Harvard (1) brought (and lost) a lawsuit against Harvard's admissions policy that they claimed was racist because of a perception that Asian students 'had fewer social skills'  In other words that they were perceived to be inferior in some way. On the other hand, Yale (2) have been accused of discriminating against Asian students on the grounds that they are somehow over-qualified and therefore over-represented. This supposedly deprives other groups of available places.
That such opposite claims should exist simultaneously and be vehemently pursued, shows the depth of feeling and confusion that exists in this area.
The value of exams ultimately is to persuade potential employers that candidates are capable of performing the job adequately. If employers feel that certain people's degrees are less valuable because the possessors of them have had an "easy time of it", this only pushes the problem further along the line.
I suggest that representatives from all parties must be involved in the discussion. The argument should be,

"We passionately want to further the interests of minority and/or disadvantaged
students as much as possible. At the same time it is important not to
devalue the perception of their qualifications in the employment
sector. How do you suggest we best do this? All ideas are actively
welcomed."

Citations
(1) Why The Asian American Students Lost Their Case Against Harvard (But Should Have Won) by
Evan Gerstmann - professor and published writer on constitutional and educational issues. https://www.forbes.com/sites/evangerstmann/2019/10/01/why-the-asian-american-students-lost-their-case-against-harvard-but-should-have-won/#4ef936bb63c1
(2) U.S. Investigating Yale Over Complaint of Bias Against Asian-American Applicants
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/us/politics/yale-asian-americans-discrimination-investigation.html

Its possible for admissions to both percieve Asians as having fewer social and superior academic skills.

I think you overestimate the importance of future employers. A degree is only an acknowledgement by an institution that a certain education has been attained. That level is only somewhat related to the job market. After all most universities will tell you to go to a tradeschool if all you want is a job.

@Ian Sudbury - Yes, and that is what I was hoping to point out. Asian students who feel discriminated against, have to come up with an argument. The reasons for discrimination are usually hidden in these times so the students have to hypothesise why racism might be occurring and argue from that point of view. A scattershot approach is less likely to work in my view.

@Neil Meyer - I'm not so sure. In Britain, there has always been in certain sectors, a tendency by employers of graduates to preferentially choose from the older more 'prestigious' universities.  Oxbridge graduates are in the general population often perceived as superior to those of institutions that were originally polytechnics. If a college produces graduates that appear to have a lower standard for certain sectors, this perception will spread out into the general consciousness willy-nilly - even if it lacks validity.

What exactly is wrong with having fewer social skills and superior academic skills?  Describes me perfectly, and I'm not Asian.

@jamesqf  - No one here has implied that. It becomes racism when a whole group of individuals is perceived that way, regardless of their actual character. That's exactly what the Asian students were complaining about  - being lumped together as though they were all the same.

@IanSudbery: And that's because some consider laziness a social skill, along the same lines as why many people think it is socially acceptable to be bad at mathematics, but not to be bad at speaking English.

That such opposite claims should exist simultaneously — maybe people have different prejudices depending on what part of Asia someone is from (confusingly, your first link contrasts Asian with white, when a large proportion of Asians are white (South Asia, Middle East, Central Asia, and Asian part of Russia have many/mostly "Caucasian" people), I guess it's the Middle East and South-Central Asia students that are facing the worst discrimination?)

@chasly from UK: Yes, and likewise I'm complaining about being lumped into a group that is assumed to have high social skills, and all sorts of other "privileges".

@gerrit: You're just arguing about artifacts of language.  Russians &c aren't considered Asian in ordinary language, nor are Indian Indians.  And there are Indian Indians, American Indians, East & West Indians.  Language is not logical :-)

@jamesqf Indian Indians are certainly considered Asians in the United Kingdom.

@gerrit: Yes, this is one of the many ways the US differs from the UK :-)  I think from context this question is about the US.

One could consider an option (offered to all students in the course) of making the exam optional. This could be done where taking the exam could only help a student's grade; or where it could help or hurt. You could also say, for instance, that to be eligible for a grade of A, a student must take the exam. If you do this option you should be prepared, in advance, to let a student know what their grade without the exam would be.
I have been a student in at least two courses where this occurred...quite a long time ago, but both very reputable institutions.

This is happening in many, many universities, even before the protests for justice started, with just COVID.

CYA: Cover your Ass

Have all communications with everyone over email. Send follow up emails recapping discussions after phonecalls.
Do not opine on anything, not with the students nor with any one else. Your opinions are irrelevant and will only get you in trouble.
Follow explicit University policy on designing exams. It's likely that it is illegal for the instructor to make any attempts to gain any knowledge about a student's race, let alone make any decisions based on it.
Freedom to design a course is completely different from freedom to grade on anything other than course material.
Stay off of social media.
Do not accept any suggestions made by the president of the student organizations unless explicitly approved in writing by the Dean or University President or someone higher up. Try to be robotic about the application of University rules.
Leave out "real life based word questions" entirely. Change "Bob wants to fence a rectagular garden ... " to "What is the area of a rectangle if width equals ..."

Seriously, please ask your friend to focussed on staying employed (in their non-tenured job) during COVID19. The race relations situation in America is extremely tempestuous right now, particularly on campuses, and now is not a good time to become a scapegoat that gets caught in a conflict involving much larger political forces.
The issue of making mathematics accessible to underprivileged communities or the even broader issue of education being a tool of cultural hegemony or cultural violence etc can be addressed more systematically by folks who are tenured and in positions of power at the University.

It might be possible, without compromising the construct validity of the exam, to accede in part to the second request, i.e. to include some questions of direct relevance to contemporary struggles for racial equality.
@jl6 already suggested one potential area for investigation in a comment above, examination of the mathematics of voter suppression/gerrymandering.
I don't know what the intended learning outcomes of OP's courses are, but it might also be possible to build an interesting algebra exercise around one of the following:

showing that, given some algebraically-prescribed significance test, some algebraically-prescribed structure of data set [*1], and some algebraically-prescribed way of controlling out confounding variables, there exists a domain of parameter values for which one cannot detect statistically significant racial bias in the stop-and-search decision-making of any individual police officer, but one can nevertheless detect statistically significant racial bias in the aggregated stop-and-search activity of the police force as a whole [If anyone's thinking of going down this road, I suggest not identifying any particular real-world police force, unless you know for sure whether that particular police force is inside or outside that domain of parameter values, and are therefore able to defend yourself against any accusation of defamation]; and/or
deriving expressions for the second moment of area, about axes aligned in different horizontal directions, of a horizontal cross-section of the legs of a statue of a confederate general (or equivalent local wrongdoer outside the US), and thus determining in which direction one would pull on a rope attached to the statue's head, to achieve flexural failure with the smallest force [*2].  I think OP said "pre-calculus", so one would probably have to supply a formula for the second moment of area of a single leg about its diameter, and have students use the parallel axes theorem.  [If anyone's thinking of going down this road, make sure to check local laws on "instructing in the art of crime" or similar first; although recalling some of the formative-assessment questions I was set when I was an undergraduate leads me to believe this is well within the bounds of what's safe in my local jurisdiction.]

I note OP's observation about more senior faculty members showing signs of preparing to scapegoat the front-line instructor if anything proves controversial.  My advice for dealing with this is: make sure the questions are written in good time to put them through the faculty's established system of internal and external moderation (the faculty does have an established system of internal and external moderation as part of its exam authoring process, right?)  That way, a couple of other academics have looked at the questions, and either dipped their hands in the blood by signing a form agreeing that the questions are appropriate, or ruled the questions inappropriate and requested (in writing) particular changes to them.
[*1] but probably not the actual content of a data set - that would lead down an arithmetical rabbit-hole that probably isn't relevant for an algebra course
[*2] or, if your local protesters appear to want the statues they topple left intact (either in order to avoid prosecution for criminal damage by not actually doing any damage, or in order that the statues can be re-erected as cautionary artifacts of historical record in a non-celebratory context), to avoid flexural failure while applying enough force on the rope to rotate the statue off of its plinth.

Suggest that he edit his word questions to directly relate to typical experiences for African-American students.
One of the comments mentioned that this is a course on pre-calculus algebra, so presumably the exam would include word questions. You could base these on official numbers for things like the rates of inter- and intra-group criminal violence compared to the proportions possessed by those racial groups, or do things like include questions on stereotypical interests possessed by African-Americans; for instance, if you have a word question about exponential growth, you could make it a question about a rapper calculating how much interest he'll make if he puts the money he made from his latest album into the bank, or a question about solving a linear or quadratic equation might become a question about a black woman calculating the total cost of different hair care products.
If your colleague takes this approach and is not African-American themselves, they may want to ask an African-American colleague to look over it and make sure that none of the stereotypes they've used have reached the point of being offensive, and the best person to decide if any of the stereotypes your colleague's used are offensive to African-Americans would be an African-American. Your colleague probably wouldn't want to include any questions referencing fried chicken, watermelon, or purple drink, for instance, because it's my understanding that those are considered offensive stereotypes.
Note: I'm not an African-American myself, so I can't say for certainty what is and isn't offensive to them.

those are considered offensive stereotypes – And the questions you are actually suggesting are not? These seem offensively stereotypic to me, in particular “a black woman calculating the total cost of different hair care products”.

@Wrzlprmft It's my understanding that African-American women spend a lot more time and effort getting their hair the way they want it than women from other ethnicities do, because of how curly and frizzy it tends to be. If an African-American says that it is offensive, I'd be willing to edit the post to remove it, though, and include any examples they might give of problems that wouldn't be offensive.

The technology does not allow the school to administer a "fair" exam (example).
I am a little surprised that the chair told him that he has the right to design his own course (I believe departamental exams are more common in remedial math courses).
Since all the students are stressed out by the current events, he should not administer any final exam, but just give everyone an "A".

How is giving everyone an A fair, in the sense that grades are supposed to convey an accurate (to the extent possible) assessment of the students on the topics covered?

But we can't assess, and we can't compare their performance this year with other years.  Some students are too stressed out by all the stuff happening this year. Some will check (this is a remedial math class) using Chegg and similar tools.

@DimitriVulis What if it is in the medical field? Should medical students who had a stressful semester get an automatic pass, even though they have no idea how to do their job properly? Some university courses are actually teaching important things, where lives are on the line.

@DimitriVulis But then wouldn't the correct "grade" to give them then just be a letter "I"? That is, as per https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-an-incomplete-793156

@PerAlexandersson You're right that the medical field, or perhaps some other really important fields, like police academy, should not pass if not ready. There's more damage done to the community by passing everyone, than by, perhaps, simply delaying the exam for as much as needed, even years if necessary. On the other hand, there's more damage to the community to block all the other exams than to let them pass. Giving a pass during war times is pretty standard practice if you look into history. It is of course fair to say that, this is not war, but it is close enough to warrant the comparison.

The OP never references a "remedial" course, so I'm not sure where that came from in the answer. But to address the surprise/assertion about remedial exams: note that CUNY this semester has canceled its standard institution-wide remedial algebra exam. The "instructor has responsibility" is exactly what I would expect to hear in cases of contentious issues like these.

@Andrei But a pass and an A grade are not the same. Many universities switched to or gave a pass/fail option to students due to COVID-19, which makes sense, but giving an A grade just for passing would be an incorrect assessment.

@DanielR.Collins The 'remedial' part probably came from the OP saying that it's a university pre-Calculus algebra course. Granted, that's not necessarily remedial for non-STEM students, though I would certainly consider it to be so if the students were in a STEM field. At any rate, it's a course that's much more likely than average to be remedial, even if it isn't necessarily so.

@reirab: (a) This answerer wrote that prior to OP editing what course they're teaching. (b) Having made the edit, precalculus is absolutely not a remedial course in U.S. colleges. It's the 2nd credit-bearing course in the calculus track at the large universities I'm familiar with.


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Are European Research Council (ERC) starting grant preparation courses worth it?
Has someone here an opinion or experience (and recommendations) with online preparation courses for writing ERC grant proposals, or for other kinds of funding?

Just to say that there's no magic class that will unlock the hidden ERC secret. If you don't have a good project idea, no class will fix that. If you do have a good project idea, you can find everything you need to shape it into an ERC proposal online.  I speak from successful experience.

@GrotesqueSI there are thousands of good ideas out there ...

I won an ERC-StG a few years ago. I worked very closely with the fundraisers at my university and found their (personalized) feedback extremely helpful. They had also managed to collect a good number of successful applications to use as references when creating my own application. Once I'd heard I got an interview, the university then sent me to a 2-day interview training course in the Netherlands (Yellow Research), which I found extremely useful. Not just for the advice they give, but because they put you in a room with 4-6 other hopeful interviewees with which to discuss and spar with.
Based on my experience, here's what I'd recommend:

Work with the fundraisers at your institute. If they are not helpful, ask your institute to pay for outside help.
Set aside at least 3 months full time to work on the proposal.
Consider that some national funding agencies will offer smallish grants (something like €10k) to help support your salary while writing, or for training courses like I mentioned above.
Find some reviewers that you trust to give you critical feedback. Some should be non-specialists in your field and very familiar with ERC grants, ideally by serving on a panel (most universities will have 1-2 current or former panel members in their faculty). Others should be specialists on your field, but not necessarily familiar with the ERC system. For this I used my collaborators.

"Set aside at least 3 months full time to work on the proposal." -- What??? This is completely unreasonable.

@user151413 it's reasonable if that grant will fund your lab for the next X years as starting grants can. It's basically front-loading your grant writing for the next few years. Also, even if the grant is rejected, it can serve as the basis for other grants, meaning that those 3 months will catalyze your grant-writing efforts for a while to come.

I've heard several good things about Yellow Research. Thanks for the insight, although I too think that 3 months full time is unreasonable and I'm sure I don't need it since I already got all the literature work, preliminary data and a knowledge about the subject available.

@user151413 That's also what I thought when I was told this by our fundraisers. But what I learnt is that the standard of ERC-StG proposals is insanely high - everyone brings their A-game, and many applicants are tenured with large research groups and h-indices of >30 (I think mine at that time was ~9). Most of those 3 months (actually it was 2.5 months but I was very stressed at the end) were spent developing the idea and preparing the relevant arguments, figures and simulations. Had it not been successful I would have recycled the idea for national-level starting grants.

@roger-reject I'm not necessarily saying that 3 months is unreasonable if you set it into scale (but then you must be quite certain that it will work!).  I think it is unreasonable that you spend so much time on writing it.  All people who I know & talked about this and who got it spent significantly less time on it.  I don't think these things still get better after a certain point.  (Of course, things might be different if you still need to do simulations etc., see the comment above.)

@user151413 1/2 guess what, 3 months full-time commitment is completely unreasonable and at the same time it is expected by the crap bandwagon that ERC research are.
Why do I consider ERC crap? because they claim to fund only potential breakthrough research, but then they claim 80% of their funded research is a scientific breakthrough  https://erc.europa.eu/news/impact-erc-research-confirmed2020
It's impossible. Failure is part of research, but ERC has found the magic bullet and manages to fund only succesful research ... yes, I totally believe in this miracle :D .

@user151413 2/2 I agree, 3 months per each applicant is a lot of research time wasted. and it is research time paid by other funding agencies or by the young researchers with their free time, just to allow ERC to collect the low hanging fruits and then boast about their success rate. A lottery is much fairer than this, even gambling on illegal dog fights is probably fairer in terms of exploitation of participants vs gain for the winners and for the organizers.

Yes, but this is strongly dependent on the course. For example, will the teachers give you personalized feedback on your proposal, or is it simply a course that offers general guidelines and tips? Usually the "tips" type courses are helpful if you're a first-time grant applicant without a strong external network. However, if you have colleagues who have been awarded these grants or have served on review committees and are willing to look over your proposal, their feedback will be more valuable. Especially because they will be more similar to your actual reviewers (pressed for time, not in your field, etc.).
If it's a course that includes specific feedback on your proposal, or if it's a private grant preparation service, these can be more helpful because they are more tailored. I have some colleagues who run this kind of grant editing/grant preparation service, and they usually offer some statistics in their promotional materials. For example, of those whose grants went through this process, how many were funded? My colleagues' success rate is about 80% at the moment, so clearly these kinds of services can really improve your chances. However, they also require substantially more money that may not be reimbursable by your university.

"My colleagues' success rate is about 80% at the moment, so clearly these kinds of services can really improve your chances." -- Correlation does not mean causation. Maybe those people who take those courses just generally take it more seriously.

80% is incredibly high. An average ERC success rate is below 10%, and I recall some ultra-competitive calls where 2 grants were awarded out of like 1000+ submitted.

@DmitrySavostyanov Indeed, rather unlikely an editing service or the like would raise this to 80%.

@user151413 Yes, these stats aren't for ERC grants, they're for typical US NSF funding so obviously the 80% figure isn't that relevant. My point was more that these personalized grant-editing services can substantially improve your hit rate. Whether that's from 10% -> 20% or 40%->80% or whatever. Whether that's worth it depends on the cost and what you think your grant writing skills are like to begin with.

Yes, if you are a novice, I think they are crucial. It saves a lot of time to have all information pre-digested by someone else.

Yes, they are crucial and they may provide you excellent contacts with professional working side by side with the Bruxelles evaluators.
You will have the chance to engage with a network of competent professionals and you will have the chance to understand how your application can be carefully streamlined to achieve higher winning probabilities, too.
It is not easy to quantify how much your chances will be increased, but most of the grant writer support professional will help you avoiding formal errors (which may take you hours to understand how to correctly fullfill) and will help with the soft skills needed to have a competitive proposal.

This answer can be shortened as: a lot of people work in Bruxelles in things related to the European Union. The pool of experts evaluating the ERC grant are part of a very small communitiy, the winner of ERC grants are even a smaller one.
Experts that have been in the evaluation panels of previous Horizon and FP programs known how a proposal is getting good points, those experts collaborate with some of the companies providing support. This is not a necessary help, but it is almost sufficient. Ask your potential hosting institutions, they will able to point you to the right companies ...

A complementary perspective to the already good answers: Take into account how much time the course will take you, compared to how much time you spend in total on the proposal.  So even if the benefit is not big, it might still be worth the time. And beyond some information, you might get to know people.

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

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How to write good and effective lecture notes?
I am an undergraduate student. During the lectures the professors simply keep talking and at times write some stuff on the board. I am not sure when and what to write in my book. I am asking because I am facing two troubles: 1. unhelpful peers 2. dull teachers.
So how do you take lecture notes?

Why do you need lecture notes?

Does this answer your question? What is the most effective way to take notes in class?

The first question to consider is what you want the notes for.
Situation A: to improve listening comprehension
If you just want to take notes to help yourself listen better (which is what I do), then it's not a big deal what you actually write down, but you should practice scribbling fast while listening. You could practice on (relevant) YouTube videos for a little while, which has the added bonus of showing you the material twice (so you're better prepared when you actually get to class).
Situation B: to use as study material
If you want to take notes that you can use to refer to later, it depends more on what you're studying. In general, though, here are some tips:
it helps to read whatever material your professor gave you ahead of time (videos, textbook chapters, their own notes...) so you have some idea of the structure beforehand, which helps you know what's important and what's not.
There are several different"note-taking systems" floating around online, like the Cornell method and the Mapping method, that you might find helpful (personally, I find it slows me down, but I know people who swear by structured note-taking). I'd recommend doing a bit of research to see if it might help you stay organized and keep things legible.
You should also work out some shorthand that works for you (stuff like -> for "implies", ^ for "is a subsection of"... Whatever works in your field). These are great, but you do have to develop them yourself so they make enough sense; otherwise when you come back at the end of the semester, you won't know what you wrote.
The other thing that I find works for me is having a color-changing pen so I can use color changes to easily denote subject changes, but that's more personal and probably a holdover from my 20-color notes in secondary school.
(Can someone help format this for me? I'm on mobile and I keep messing it up.)

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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Outreach activities in the COVID era
All the outreach activities planned this year for my project have been cancelled due to COVID-19 disruptions.
These include Summer math camp for high school students and seminar in local high schools.
These are stated in my grant proposal, and thus I have a responsibility to carry these out one way or another.
An easy way out is to replace everything with their Zoom version.
In my opinion and experience, however, the usefulness of such alternatives will be very limited.
What other outreach activities should we consider now?

I am also involved in outreach; I think a Zoom seminar could be quite well-received by overwhelmed teachers (at least they're overwhelmed and unsupported in the US, other countries are doing better, probs).

@AzorAhai--hehim,  I have done a few of these, and I didn't like the experience.  Maybe I am just terrible at it.  With most students at home, it is very difficult to get them on Zoom in the first place.  When they are on Zoom, it is pretty obvious that they cannot focus.  In addition, many students actually do not have computers at home.  So we can use Zoom in if there is not other choices, but I'm trying to see if there's any other ideas we should consider.

Is weather in your locale amenable to outdoor seminars with social distancing?

Great point!  Will investigate.

I suspect that your grant agency may be aware of the pandemic and public health limits put on such activities this summer.

What do you mean by "responsibility"? Do you mean to yourself (ie a moral one) or to the grant givers?

@JonCuster, Agreed.  In the worse case, if nothing can be done, I'm sure grant agency will understand.  But in US at least, things are not getting better.  Actually it's getting worse quickly.  I don't see how we can get back to normal quickly.  It could be years until we get back to normal.  It certainly feels wrong to do nothing at all for two years, three years...

@user111388, I don't think the grant agency will hold me legally responsible.  But a promise is a promise.

@ssquidd - oh, for sure. On a major project I'm working, we have decided to replan based on not being 'normal' for at least the next 15 months, and that the plan after than may need to be drastically adjusted as well - this is on a $1B class project. On the other hand, this also means you could take some time and try various experiments. The options are not good, though - it is pretty much either something online or something in person with only a few people (and could get cancelled rapidly). Right now there are no good options.

The most responsible course of action is to postpone your in-person outreach until it is safe to conduct it.  In-person outreach is very effective.  Get the funding agency's approval.

An alternative is to create asynchronous outreach content.  This is less effective, but can reach a wider audience.  For example, you can record YouTube videos of activities.  Disadvantages include difficulty getting your intended audience to watch the video.  Advantages over Zoom/synchronous include no need to schedule or register people, and the potential to do things over when they don't work.

Some people are running online competitions, but I don't know yet if they work.


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How to follow up on the status of the official offer letter
About 5 weeks ago, I decided to accept a TT assistant professor position at a R1 University in US, and was told to wait for 1-2 weeks for an official (electronic) letter arriving since it would go through the internal HR processes before being ready for signing. At this moment, I have not received further updates about the letter. I think the process may take more time than expected because of the Covid-19. But is it appropriate to send out a follow-up email? Or just watch for their notice? If the letter has no harm, any suggestions to draft one? Many thanks in advance.

I will presume that you have scanned your spam folder?

Yes, I did that.

May I ask how long it took for you to receive the official letter? I'm in a similar place now and it's been three weeks with no updates...

You can probably safely wait a bit longer for the reasons you suggest. The staff that normally handles such things may not have complete access to their office systems and may be poorly supported for distance work.
There is some turmoil generally in hiring now and if the university is part of a State system they will be bound by directives from the legislature. But there is nothing you can do to affect that in any case.
So don't wait more than another week and ask for an update. Just note that you don't have the official notice yet and would like an update.
If you have other offers pending with deadlines don't wait too close to those deadlines to ask for the update. I don't expect bad things to happen, but it is hard to make predictions in times of chaos.
And congratulations.


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Publishing company's reps refusing to send desk copies to my home. Any way around this?
A certain popular publishing company won't send a textbook to my home, for a course I'm teaching this Fall; It's a new edition for this year. I understand they have policies, but I was expecting some kind of favor during the COVID business. It isn't easy to get the textbook if it's shipped to the campus right now, because the college is completely locked down. Has anyone found ways to convince publishers to send them out to home addresses?

Would "OK, I'll just use a free online textbook for my 100-student class instead." work?

@Buffy I don't think that's how it works?

@DavidPeterson Oh yes it works like that and you have, or the librarian or equivalent, gives them advance notice of numbers - they don’t print overnight for you. It is easier with e-books but many students don’t like those...

@Buffy Our department has been using their texts for probably 30 years. They have no problem sending "free" desk copies (instructor versions) to me at the college address.

If the "instructor version" is different from the student version, there may be an issue about where they can be sent. Can someone claim to be a prof and ask for a desk copy?

@Buffy To Clarify: I am teaching the course in the Fall and need a single desk copy to acclimate myself with the new edition so I can build my syllabus. The online version they supply is substandard, and I prefer a hard copy anyway. Edit: they have  validated me as a faculty member and I have access to the virtual instructor's edition.

Just say “thanks for your help, and mention an equivalent from a different publisher”... also drop in how many copies you would need :)... they need sales and work hard to get them.
Also consider contacting their boss by email, saying you wanted to consider their book but you crossed them off as you can’t inspect the book.

Thank you. Our department kind of picked out texts in mini committees long ago. I'd like to avoid a confrontational approach but will keep in mind.

The publisher doesn't need to know that, though.


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Independent research after grad school while holding a somehow unrelated career. What are the potential caveats or problems?
I recently graduated from a master's degree while working on an interesting but niche intersection of machine learning and biology. This area is of my personal interest and I believe it can impact the world in the future but it is not readily marketable. Therefore, I decided to choose a position in a tech company as a software engineer, with works and responsibilities that are unrelated to this niche area. I don't want to give up my efforts in my previous research area and want to continue doing research as a personal passion in my free time such weekends or when I come home from my daily work (which btw I enjoy very much). I find this idea particularly interesting as I would have more freedom to think freely without feeling the pressure of publish or perish and I think it would make the research even more enjoyable to me compared to when I was in grad school and under pressure. However, there might be potential issues and caveats that I am blindsided to them, so I wanted to ask the people here about the potential downsides or considerations in doing research as a part-time or second career.

Also, even if your daytime work is not related to your personal research, you may either have signed something about IP (=intellectual property), so that your employer feels that they own essentially everything you do that is even remotely related to your job. I'd think you should look into this, discreetly...

Yes, be careful what you sign; but be even more careful if the employment contract you sign doesn't explicitly mention IP, because in that case, local public law will define a default position for who owns any IP you create, and that default position may surprise you.

The main issue I can think is time. Other people who will be working on the same research field will spend their full working week on the topic while you will be working only in your free time (weekends etc.).
So you will be progressing very slowly and there is a high chance that you might get scooped if you are working on some hot research topic.
All that assuming that you have some average productivity aptitude and you are not some productivity beast that is able to finish up work in 1/10th of time than the rest :)

Yeah, I understand the time limit that you mentioned. I am not afraid of being scooped as this field is not that popular and mainstream in general. However, allocating enough time to provide relevant and timely results is a concern as you mentioned.

In addition to time constraints, you'll want to try to collaborate with people or professors from your institution. It is pretty difficult to do good work alone, especially in computational fields. One benefit of doing research on your own time is the flexibility to explore areas that may not have immediate funding or interest, but could be impactful.


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Choosing which project advisor to ask recommendations from
I did a research project, in which I was advised by two researchers. Most of the time, it was a PhD student who defended and transitioned to post-doc during the project. But my official advisor, with whom I talked less often, was this post-doc's own advisor, hence more established and with a "full researcher" position.
I am not sure which researcher I should contact about letters of recommendation for PhD applications. They both gave me good feedback and advice. It was the senior advisor who graded me (close to a perfect grade), but as I said, the post-doc advised me more often.
Note that I am not yet applying to anything, I just want to ask if they would be willing to write recommendations for me in the future.
Would it be better to contact the post-doc, the full researcher, or both in a joint e-mail? Does the job title make a big difference, or is it more a matter of how closely they followed the project?

Related: https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/32829/68109

Definitely contact them both. The email doesn't need to be the same to each, but inform each that you are also asking the other.
But try to write it in a way that gets you some feedback about what each would write in an actual recommendation: "I hope you view my contributions in a positive light. I found it a valuable experience...."
The senior person's recommendation would have more weight. Both people writing would also be good if there aren't other, better, choices. But you need someone familiar enough with your contribution so that their recommendation seems genuine and not pro-forma.


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Over-taking notes due to: 1) copying sentences in textbook + 2) trying to fit new understandings in previous notes which just makes things messy
So I've been having issues lately on note-taking. Written below is a slight stream of consciousness on what I have been doing, my struggles, and potential solutions (I'd like to know about your opinions regarding whether my solutions are good or if you have any solutions of your own)
Currently, I am self-learning my High School Economics textbook in order to have a full review done before my online college classes begin.
Basically, I read the section I want to take notes on. After that, I try to summarize it the best I can bolded words here and there. However, one issue is that I tend to still sort of copy information into my notes. Thus, my notes get a bit lengthy and crammed. I don't want to copy, but many times many of the sentences are worded really well. I think I seem to get stuck into the "better be safe than sorry" mode where I'm unsure if the specific wording is important to memorize in order for me to re-explain it in those specific words for a possible future test. This also inevitably occurs when it comes to taking notes on lecture-slides. If I can kill two birds(copying nicely worded might-be-on-test information on textbooks and/or powerpoints) with one stone, that would be awesome, but at least hoping to fix the textbook note-taking problem first..... Solution: Perhaps I should read the section multiple times, and force myself to summarize in my own words on a separate sheet of paper, and then re-look what I missed/what specific wordings I feel I should use, and then officially write proper notes in an official notebook?
Usually, when I take notes, after reading the section I go straight to writing my notes into my official notebook. After writing all those notes, I'll realize that when reviewing through these notes later I'll make new connections or realize I'm vague or after going into sections some new information will make me re-think the way I've written past notes. Unfortunately, I have this giant block of written text from this section, and trying to draw little arrows to add my insight in order to 'correct' my already-written notes is really hard to do and aesthetically unpleasant. I just get left with this mess. Going onto the next page and making all these symbols to reference certain sentences of passages of my previously-written notes is also messy and unfulfilling.
Solution: Perhaps similar to above I need to avoid going straight into my official notebook and instead let myself just do summaries on random pieces of scratch paper. I need to be patient and possibly do this for the whole unit. Then I go back re-read all the sections, re-read my scratch-paper summaries, and try and write my official notes with any new insights and connections I've made along the way.
Note: When I say 'official notebook' I mean more like my 'main' notebook where it is ago to resource for my notes and where everything I've written should preferably be organized, clear, and not vague. The problems that are occurring above are sort of degrading the quality of the official/main notebook that just make future-reviewing hard or the satisfaction that I have everything clearly written in one single-burst impossible.
I see all these note-taking methods of taking beautiful notes, but for me time is of the essence as I hope to finish reviewing my Economics textbook before college starts. To me the problem is not the aesthetic design of how I take notes.. I don't need the Cornell Method or Mind-mapping.. I'm just trying to fix some fundamental problems that prevent me from taking good notes that I can then use to leapfrog into spaced-repetition, voice recording myself discussing my notes, etc to truly get them in my memory/head and diminish the need for the notes overall (since I hate having piles and piles of un-reviewed notes that I hardly review)
Sorry for this extremely long question and post. I'm really stuck on this and it would mean the world to get some help. If you believe I have posted this question in the wrong place, please let me know. Thank you!

Is the "official notebook" something for a teacher, or just your own use?

@Buffy Just for my own use. To clarify, it's my "main notebook" it's what is my go to resource for my notes and where everything I've written should preferably be organized, clear, and not vague. The problems that are occurring above are sort of degrading the quality of the official/main notebook that just make future-reviewing hard or the satisfaction that I have everything clearly written in one single-burst impossible.

This all seems a bit over the top to me (effort put into writing notes), but something that might help is to include the use of index cards, which can be arranged in various orders, individually rewritten and replaced as needed, etc. Also, you can use different colors for exact phrases/sentences from published sources (red ink pen) and for things in your own words (blue ink pen) to help with unintended plagiarism when writing term papers, your honors or other thesis (if exists), your own publications and such.

Would a technical solution be of interest? I spent my whole HS/college career trying to solve this and related problems with paper notes and never found a good solution. Then recently I purchased an iPad and installed the notability app -- game changer.

@cag51 I'm aware of electronic drawing boards, apple pens, and iPad. However, this is a bit of an investment for me (I recently purchased an expensive MacBook Pro). I always found typing-up notes to not be helpful in gaining understanding because physically note-taking felt like "connecting neurons" and "Actively learning"... However, digital notetaking (such as using an apple pen on an iPad, which is still "writing things down") allows me to rearrange notes, but it's too much of an investment right now... is there any way I can turn my MacBookPro into a digital drawing board like an iPad Pro?

Yes, iPads are not cheap, and sadly they are most useful right when one can least afford them (i.e., during HS and college). Sadly, I don't think the MacBook Pro has any support for handwriting. There are lower-end tablets (e.g., from Microsoft), but I've never used them and cannot comment on their suitability for note-taking.

Let me make a few suggestions:
First you want to understand how the mind works in order to know how to optimize your study. It turns out that to learn, we actually need to physically change the brain, reconnecting neurons. For the science behind it see: The Art of Changing the Brain by James E Zull. The implication is that we learn by reinforcement (repetition) and feedback. The feedback is to assure that what we have "learned" isn't actually wrong.
Having a complete set of notes on paper (or in your computer) doesn't imply that you have actually learned anything. You have to make the connections in your brain so that you can both recall things and put them to use.
Reinforcement is actually increased and enhanced if you take notes in your own words, rather than copying them. The original words can give you feedback if you are studying on your own, but using your own words implies that you were more engaged when you were note taking and not just copying without thought.
So, paraphrase and then check.
The second bit of advice is to periodically go over your notes and summarize them in a smaller space. What do we now see, having read a bit more, as the most important ideas in our notes? You can take this to several levels.
Another trick is to use index cards to effectively capture the essence of an idea in a very small space. See this answer to a different question for an explanation of something called the Hipster PDA, which is both an effective tool for note taking and for summarizing. Don't write too much on a card, though. The idea is to filter things down to the essence.
And cards are especially efficient as they can be rearranged (to combine ideas) and also easily carried to help you with the reinforcement. You can carry a dozen cards and review them while waiting in line, for example.
There is nothing inherently wrong with long form copying of sources for your own use, but there are more efficient ways to assure that you actually learn from your reading and not just move it from one bit of paper to another.
Reinforcement and feedback.

Do you think this will work for economics (note-taking for economics), which uses graphs many times in its textbooks.. these graphs may take-up space on my index cards and end-up cramming what other writing I would do on the index card (sometimes I may be forexample explaining what the graph means on one index card)?

Use the back of the card for notes on graphs, perhaps. And the main idea is to get the knowledge into your mind, not on the card.


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Any tips for preventing perfectionism when it comes to notetaking?
This is a slightly seperate question from before.
I was curious on hearing any tips from the community regarding: Preventing perfectionism when it comes to notetaking?
It can be trying to make the notes look perfect (aesthetically + information-wise it troubles me not understanding a couple of key points after having written a bunch of notes down and I'm reviewing them).
I don't do color-coding and doodles, but I like underlining key parts of my notes a bit too much.
I feel like it's all about having this nice condensed packet of beautifully written notes for future review, which is wrong. I know some people will address how this is not a good way to get information in my brain and I agree you should address that, but also please address the perfectionism aspect of my notes because I will still have to take notes in life anyways and that is why I'm asking this question
This is tied to preventing perfectionism in general I guess too.
Note: I wouldn't say I have OCD as I'm not at that level in other aspects of life or to an extent in academics, but still it is a 'perfectionist attitude' or 'minimalistic, beautiful notes', etc

You have to recognise and control your own behavior.

@SolarMike Well, right now (I believe) I have recognized my behavior. I'm coming on here to find out tips to control it. I'm going to try and apply Daniel's (and any other poster's) methods in order to control my behavior. Feel free to give an answer below with whatever tips, methods, etc you may have for me!

A friend and I once took a college "independent study" math course together. The professor simply had us sit for an hour three days a week and copy his carefully prepared written notes into our own notebooks. I didn't learn a thing and have no insight into that topic. I think the same was true for my friend.

Whats the actual problem with your behavior? My process is very similar. I need to get my notes into a very good shape and by the time I have done so, i usually have learned the material very well due to working with it and don't need the notes anymore - and if I need them later, I do have perfect notes to catch up on the topic. I'm not sure why this poses a problem? Can you elaborate what needs "fixing"?

This question, combined with your previous one, makes me think that you are confusing two issues: transcribing information and understanding information. These are not the same thing.  In fact, if you focus more on transcribing information in detail, but you might actually learn less than if you had taken no notes at all.  See for example this article: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-learning-secret-don-t-take-notes-with-a-laptop/
I think you need to break yourself of the habit of taking too many notes.  Here's what I suggest: read an entire chapter or lesson without taking a single note.  Don't write anything down at all, just focus on understanding the material.  Sit on your hands if you have to to prevent yourself from writing.  If you don't understand the material, read it again (or maybe look in a different book, find a relevant website etc,).  Once you think you have an understanding, try to summarize the entire chapter very concisely, for example just 10 bullet points.  if you can't do it that concisely, you probably didn't understand it.  Go back and read again.
After while, once you've broken yourself of the habit of taking too many notes, you can go back to taking a few short notes as you read.
Edit: To clarify based on Buffy's comment: I'm not suggesting this as a long term strategy.  Long term you need to find a balance with the right level of note taking.  I'm suggesting this as a short term (say a week or two) approach to get you out of the habit of excess note taking.

I'm not sure that going from one extreme to another is the best advice, actually.

Note also, that "applying information" requires more than "understanding it". That requires practice as well as reading and note taking. It is also much more likely to lead to insight.

@Buffy, your point is well taken. Going to the other extreme may not be the best strategy long term.  I'm suggesting that the OP has a bad habit and that to break this habit, he should go cold turkey on it, short term.  Once the bad habit has been broken, then he can focus on building up a better study routine.

I was curious on hearing any tips from the community regarding: Preventing perfectionism when it comes to notetaking?

You shouldn't prevent perfectionism, and you shouldn't stop trying to make your notes as perfectly as you can. What you should do is to understand that aesthetics has little to do with perfectness. Perfectness is about how well your notes are taken in view of the purpose with which you take them. If the purpose is to help you recall what was said by the lecturer, and help you prepare for an exam, then the main criterion is completeness. If you fail to write down an important piece of information because your mind is occupied by making your notes aesthetically pleasing, then your notes are simply not perfect. And it goes without saying that you should ensure that your notes are readable and understandable for yourself. So completeness and clarity are the main criteria.
In short, remain a perfectionist, but redefine what is perfect.

I think you need to say more about "how to redefine perfection" to make this more valuable for the OP.

Perfectionism is a positive trait, and I share your sentiment about organization (which is what I assume you mean by "aesthetic looking" notes).  However, I would recommend not worrying too much about this as you're taking the notes in class. Just try to write down as much as you can, and then you can rewrite/reorganize them later; this way you're actually copying them twice, which will help you retain the information.
Just be careful not to over-edit them for the sake of having a "condensed packet of beautifully written notes." The idea of notes is to help you remember the information, so the more comprehensive they are, the better. (They can be comprehensive and organized at the same time.)

One thing is that perfctionism regarding making notes look aesthetically pleasing and "condensed" takes time and I may not have that time. Currently I'm self-learning by reading a textbook, but I still don't want to be spending too much time making things look aesthetically condensed and all in the right order, logic, making sense, etc......... Would you add like to add any information to your answer now that I have given you this extra information?

If this isn't for a class, then maybe you could slow down your pace rather than sacrificing the quality of your notes. For example, if you're currently spending 3 hrs. each night on notes (just an arbitrary #),then you could cut back to 1 or 2 hrs and pick up the next night. This will take you longer to finish the text, but in the long run, you'll remember more with organized notes.

One of the answers here suggests you go to the opposite extreme and not take notes at all. Another suggests that you just ignore the issue and be perfect, but maybe in a different way. I think both are misguided.
A scribe can take aesthetically beautiful notes with no knowledge at the start or at the end other than knowledge of the alphabet and a bit of penmanship (for notes on paper). It has nothing to do with learning.
I want to suggest that you learn to become more effective in your notetaking.
Of course, if you have tons of time on your hands and nothing better to do, then "wasting" time isn't an issue. But as you advance in your education, that will become less true since more will be asked of you.
Background: To learn something, you need to do more than see or hear it once. In order to make it part of your knowledge you need to reinforce the learning. In a course, the reinforcement usually comes from the instructor asking students to do various exercises, whether technical or not. The teacher also provides the second element: feedback. This gives you an idea about whether you have learned the right lesson from readings or lectures. Reinforcement can be negative as well as positive and I've had a few students struggle because they reinforced the wrong thing early on. But another thing that exercises do is to help you apply the knowledge to various tasks. If you can do that, then you have some assurance that you have actually learned it.
Advice. Let me suggest that you spend your time more effectively directed at learning, rather than copying. Since you are mostly learning from books, I'll give advice that would be different if you were learning from lecture.
Most books written for study are divided into chapters and the chapters are divided into sections. We won't go into the paragraph level of division that might be important if you were learning from scientific papers rather than books. But books also have page numbers.
I suggest that when you read a section of a book, you do so three times. The first time you just read it to get an overview. The second time you read it, perhaps later the same day, or the next day, you read it to try to extract the most important ideas that the author is trying to convey in that section.
But for the first two readings you don't try to take notes, or not your final notes, in any case. In the third reading you do take notes, but they are very sparse. What you want to capture in your notes is the single most important idea in that section. Capture it in as few sentences as you can. Two or three sentences ideally. You can also try to capture one or two subsidiary ideas, but make sure you note the relationship. On this reading you are taking notes, but you can annotate those notes with page numbers from the book you are reading so that if when you later look at the notes you don't immediately remember the details, you can go back to the place in the book immediately for more reinforcement. But use your own words, don't copy sentences. Don't be a scribe.
At the end of a chapter, you can take some additional notes. What are the key ideas of this chapter. Not all of the ideas, just the key ideas. If you can do this from memory, without rereading or looking at the section-level notes then you have probably learned something.
One level I've neglected here, which is to connect the flow of ideas through the chapters. One of the notes you can take, separately from the above, is how the key ideas of a section or chapter flow from and are connected to the ideas from the earlier sections and chapters.
You aren't just copying things. What you wind up with at the end is a structured outline of the book. And if you've been good about page numbers, then you can go back to the book if necessary to find the detail.
But, this "plan" for reading might not be a lot less "obsessive" than what you are now doing. But it will give you more than a faithful copy of the book that you already have in hand. The main idea here is to capture ideas from the readings, not words.
And if the book provides exercises for you, then do those. Ideally all of them.

Note that this "read it three times" idea was used as a recommendation for doctoral students who need to learn from academic/scientific papers. I don't know its actual original source.

Another suggests that you just ignore the issue and be perfect. << I didn't suggest ignoring the issue. I suggested rethinking the concept of perfectness.

Yes, @Mitsuko, I realized that just when you did. But see my comment on your post.

I just saw it. I'm too sleepy now to improve my answer and will possibly do that later.


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Self-Publishing or Academic Publishing (on Springer) for Mathematics books?
Book Publication Dilemma
I am looking to publish a book on mathematics this year. It is around 250 pages and the material in it is on differential forms, and very applicable to hobbyists. Choosing a publisher has been somewhat of a headache for me. I have done a fair amount of research on some of the larger publishers like Springer but am unsure if it is even worth publishing academically. In my research I have often seen that the self publication route, on Amazon, has been worthwhile under the stipulation that the publisher knows how to advertise the book; advertisement should not be an issue; the problem I have seen with Springer and the other academic publishers is that they tend to charge more per book than Amazon where you are allowed to edit the price of your work. I am not so worried about how much I make from it, but rather-so how many people read it; with a larger price point, I feel less people would read the book.
Here is a question similar to this one; it addresses the same topic but does not speak on specific publishers like Springer.
Thank you!

I need the entire publication process to be less than or equal to 8 months. - Why?  And if you want more people to read it, why not make it a free online book and post it on the arXiv and open textbook repositories?

More people will see your book on arXiv than any version of self-publishing, by far.

Also, if you have an 8-month limit on all the prep for the book, even if you feel it's already ready... it'll probably be impossible. All my own book-writing has run overtime by a year or two, even when I've thought it was completely ready-to-go...

You might have unrealistic expectations for the potential market of your book. Based on your description, if you approach a publisher like Springer, you might sell a couple hundred copies at ~$100/each and earn a couple thousand dollars in royalties. If you self-publish at $0/each, you might sell a couple thousand copies. Of course lower prices will also lead to more copies sold, but the amount gain is usually quite little.

@user143 One, because an 8-month deadline sounds like a rush.  But also to figure out what kinds of solutions will work for you.  E.g., does it have to be published and appear as "for sale" with 8 months for some tenure requirement or something like that?  Or to fulfill some personal goal you set for yourself?

Springer etc gives a certain professionalism to your book. Fewer people trust a self published monograph on Amazon. If you don’t care about that, you can also just upload your books as a PDF to website. It is very common eg in CS that the best books are available at the authors website for free.

The problem with self publishing with Amazon or otherwise is that no one will be able to find your book unless there are some special circumstances. I've done this as well as published with large publishers, including Springer.
If you are incredibly well known in your field and have a valuable web presence and anyone who might want to find your book can find you, then it can work and you can get a lot of sales and retain more of the revenue. But otherwise the book will just get lost in the millions of others. Publishers actually, take some effort to advertise and promote the books they publish, but it is much harder for you to do so, since people know about Springer, but maybe not about Joe Doakes and what he does.
For text-book material, the big companies will travel to book exhibits at conferences that educators might attend and give their (your) materials some visibility. They might also help you attend and meet some of your potential audience. But for professional works there is less opportunity for that.
The down side of the big publishers is that they can be abusive in some ways and I found that their promotions of books was very time limited. Two years. If you had a popular book they will want a new edition in two years. If it isn't popular, then it will just disappear.
But one valuable service of the big publishers is that they can help you a lot with copyediting and such. It is very hard, I find to edit one's own work. When you read, what you "see" is what you thought you wrote, not what you actually wrote. You can pay people for this, but they need to be math "aware" for it to work out.
A minor issue, perhaps, depending on your material, is that the big outfits are likely to use better materials, such as acid-free paper, than what the in-house Amazon system does. The same is true for the quality of bindings.

I'm working a bit on a math book myself. But it is a labor of love, when I can find the energy. But I expect exactly zero sales. Mathematicians are a weird lot, I guess.

That depends a lot on you. If your ideas are sound then it might go quite quickly. But if some reviewer wants to see a lot of changes then longer - a year - more. One of my books took endless rounds of revision but wound up pretty much where I started. Respond quickly to any suggested revisions (whether you change anything or not) and it will be quicker. And for books, the editor is looking more at profits than anything else, I fear.

I don't think that the editorial process will step on you too much. The reviewers are honest, but may have different ideas. But the editor (acquisitions editor, not copy editor) has to balance effort-cost  against potential sales. If you want a full color book, good luck to you.

I found that their promotions of books was very time limited - beyond two years, absent a big event (e.g. author wins Nobel prize), promoting a book simply doesn't lead to many sales. New editions of popular books are effectively free money since they're practically guaranteed to sell at least decently; unpopular books are unprofitable (they might even lose money) so disappearing is normal.