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Pete L. Clark

 Discussion on question by user131371:…

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Pete L. Clark
Dec 1, 2022 19:26
Maybe I missed something but: how does the OP know that their supervisee does not have a PhD? That they didn't have one at some point in the past certainly seems inconclusive absent further information. I would advise checking up on this with the institution before pursuing any kind of formal corrective action.
 

 Discussion on answer by Pete L. Clark…

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Pete L. Clark
Oct 30, 2021 17:38
@DVK: I am not implying what you're suggesting. Moreover, what I have given is my sincere advice for how to best get taken seriously for solving a difficult problem. I gave you a specific link to someone whose work is not getting taken seriously for this exact reason. As your recent comments are not engaging with the nuances of my responses, I will stop responding to you on this point. But if your advice is different, please feel free to leave an answer. The best advice is supported by external evidence and personal experience, so I would be very interested to hear about that.
Pete L. Clark
Oct 30, 2021 17:38
Also, you mention in all capitals that there are non-US academic publications: who are you talking to? More than half of all my publications are in journals which are either based in countries other than the US or are not even fundamentally based in any particular country.
Pete L. Clark
Oct 30, 2021 17:38
@DVK: If you don't "care to check" what the current situation is on mathematical publications in languages other than English, why are you commenting on it? I explained why for the purpose of solving a famous problem, publishing in a language that the experts in the field can read is important. You do not convince people you aren't a crank by publishing a paper that none of the experts will read. If your point is merely that "There are countries outside USA": I promise you, I know that.
Pete L. Clark
Oct 30, 2021 17:38
@DVK: If your English skills are not strong enough and you are not experienced writing in English, writing your paper first in your native language is probably a good idea. However, when it comes to publication, the number of languages in which reputable math/TCS journals accept papers is by now quite small: you can submit a paper written in English or French virtually anywhere; some prestigious international journals accept German papers [though most native German speakers now write all their papers in English].
Pete L. Clark
Oct 30, 2021 17:38
There are countries with tremendously large and strong mathematical communities -- China, Japan, Russia -- in which virtually all serious researchers publish their papers in English or French. There are some journals which publish papers in other languages -- but these papers are then usually not read by the larger community. If you just want to publish something, ok; but if you want recognition for solving a famous problem, this type of publication is problematic: see e.g. newscientist.com/article/….
Pete L. Clark
Oct 30, 2021 17:38
@ff524: Yes, that was not my intent, but I think it's okay: whether or not language issues are the entirety or the brunt of the problem, it will still be advantageous for the OP to address them. (In fact, only by doing so will s/he be able to figure out whether this is actually the case.)
Pete L. Clark
Oct 30, 2021 17:38
@Selfishness: "[I]f a person is not known and has done very good thing, they will ignore his work (at first at least)." Given that my answer contained a specific, recent, clear counterexample to this, I'm not sure what further to say in response.
Pete L. Clark
Oct 30, 2021 17:38
@scaaahu: Sure, the OP has used entirely the wrong word here. Again, this is not a crime, but doing this in one's academic work could certainly lead to its lack of understanding and thus rejection. Look at it this way: wouldn't it be nice if language issues were most of the source of the OP's difficulties? If so, they can be overcome provided they are acknowledged and addressed. Not to tell someone when their writing is unclear is not doing them a favor, in my opinion.
Pete L. Clark
Oct 30, 2021 17:38
@scaaahu: Not being able to speak English well is not a character flaw. It is however a problem if English is the language that you're writing your papers in. There is also a distinction to be made between speaking a language imperfectly and expressing yourself poorly. In my answer I tried not to harp much on issues of grammar and usage.
 

 Discussion on answer by Trunk: I feel…

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Pete L. Clark
Jun 16, 2021 15:47
I am very familiar with the rules for faculty/student romantic relationships at my university. (This is, unfortunately, because I have had to serve as a third party to inappropriate faculty behavior.) There is absolutely no difference between attached and unattached students in our rules or ethics. Moreover I disagree that there should be a greater barrier: some engaged and married people are non-monogamous; all people need to have their boundaries respected. Your suggestion that the OP's one true solution is the eventual love of a man is somewhere between silly and offensive.
Pete L. Clark
Jun 16, 2021 15:47
...to read Jeff's answer.
Pete L. Clark
Jun 16, 2021 15:47
-1: This answer assumes that it is appropriate for an academic supervisor to pursue a romantic relationship with their student as long as they are not engaged. It further assumes that the type of person who would commit such an inappropriate action could be dissuaded from doing so just by being asked in advance and that asking would incur no negative repercussions. In my 25 years of academic experience, neither of these things are true.
 

 Discussion on answer by Mark Sapir: W…

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Pete L. Clark
Jun 10, 2021 04:03
I am confident that the situation -- for math faculty in the US -- lies somewhere in the open interval between how Mark Sapir portrays it and how Alexander Woo portrays it. I think my estimation would lie a bit closer to Sapir's than Woo's. But obviously we are all equipped to appreciate the limitations of "I think I think I think..." It would be nice to deepen this discussion and make it more quantitative.
 

 Discussion on answer by Vladhagen: I …

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Pete L. Clark
Jun 13, 2019 13:27
@Guest1: As someone who has done graduate admissions at an American university for many years, I am concerned by your words and tone. You speak of "blatant injustice." But you haven't seen the application of your classmate who got the job, and your attitude seems to be "All the evidence I can see, when viewed by me, points to my superiority. So the committee must either select me or explain otherwise." That is a problematic and self-serving attitude.
 

 Discussion on question by Erel Segal-…

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Pete L. Clark
May 14, 2019 17:41
This question was asked previously on a different SE site: math.stackexchange.com/questions/54431/….
 

 Discussion on question by Whatif: Wha…

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Pete L. Clark
Mar 31, 2019 01:57
Being wrong and being a trivial consequence of your work are two very different things. Is there some reason you're asking both at once?
 

 Discussion on question by James Smith…

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Pete L. Clark
Mar 14, 2019 14:30
@vonbrand: In a relatively small class, for sure. In a class of over 500 students -- which is the real life example from 2010 from which the OP has borrowed the histograms -- this seems less likely. (If so, that student should be getting paid as a TA!) In fact, because the question is about the merits of a statistical argument, I think it's a bit irresponsible of the OP not to mention the sample size. In classes of the size I normally teach -- 30 or fewer students -- I would essentially never allow statistics to influence policy. 500 students is another thing entirely.
 

 Discussion on answer by Empischon: Ho…

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Pete L. Clark
Sep 20, 2018 07:34
@Dmitry: Well, on the one hand, certainly not everything published by academic publishing companies is peer-reviewed, and they charge readers for the non-peer reviewed material just the same. On the other hand there are also journals that don't charge readers (and a smaller, but still positive, number of journals that don't charge readers or authors) that are peer reviewed. So I don't think that peer review is a service the publishers are providing.
Pete L. Clark
Sep 20, 2018 07:34
I have virtually none. But refereeing is not a service contributed to the publisher; it's a service contributed to the author and to the academic community. I referee your papers because I want and need you to referee mine (or something similar but with more parties). Paying referees would open several cans of worms with respect to quality, fairness and conflicts of interest. It is also really naive to think that the publishing companies will provide this service out of their current (enormous) profit margins. Or so I believe, anyway.
Pete L. Clark
Sep 20, 2018 07:34
"It therefore is completely reasonable that a person is not willing to give that resource away for free." That's like saying that it's completely reasonable that a person is not willing to give away friendship (or parenting or love...) for free. People do so because of reciprocity. Paying money for referees would, at best, open a huge can of worms.
 

 Discussion on answer by John Slegers:…

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Pete L. Clark
Aug 15, 2018 15:41
Women are obviously not fairly represented in mathematics (percentages drop at every level; PhDs are at 30%; 15% at the tenure track faculty level), and the data presented in this answer obviously do not indicate that they are. Your claim that the pernicious underrepresentation of women in mathematics is related to / assuaged by the mild over-representation of women in a few other unrelated academic fields is silly at best.
 

 Discussion on question by k99731: Why…

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Pete L. Clark
Feb 14, 2018 13:51
@SSimon: It isn't. Your own previous comments either explicitly mention the US or do not specify a region in which they might be true. I actually don't know anywhere in the world where supervising graduate students is a requirement for a math professor to get tenure: I know that it is also not required in Canada and large parts of Europe. But again, without proper scoping your claims about what "must" be true are demonstrably false. Could you please stop making such claims?
Pete L. Clark
Feb 14, 2018 13:51
@SSimon: No, not master's degrees either. I am getting a little confused about why you keep proclaiming things about math professors at US institutions that are not true. If you are not a math professor and not at a US institution, then respectfully -- why do you think you know what "must" be true about us?
Pete L. Clark
Feb 14, 2018 13:51
In pure math, it is definitely not a requirement to supervise a PhD student before tenure. If proof be needed, I can mention that in my department six of the tenured faculty members have never supervised a PhD student. Out of the remaining (roughly 30) tenured faculty members, several more did not advise a PhD student until after they were tenured and, in some cases, until after they were promoted to full professor. And this is nothing against my department: e.g. there are people who became full professors at Harvard before supervising students.
2
 

 Discussion on answer by aeismail: Why…

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Pete L. Clark
Feb 12, 2018 16:32
@Massimo: In the US, a lot more than 10% of PhDs end up in academia (though not enough to justify our nearly monomaniacal focus on preparation for an academic career). I think the difference is that compared to Europe, the US has a ridiculously large number of post-secondary institutions -- I meet Americans all the time who went to colleges that I've never heard of. A generation ago, one did not need a PhD to work at many of these institutions. But now you do.
Pete L. Clark
Feb 12, 2018 16:32
@aiesmail: I would say subtract STE PhD students instead. But if what you said was true before (I believe you...), it should still be true. So maybe "vast majority" is too strong -- it depends on how many STE students have clear industry plans. But other than falsifying my comment, whether it's over 50% or not is not really the point: many, many PhD students have no other plans, including virtually all students in many academic fields.
Pete L. Clark
Feb 12, 2018 16:32
...I am currently the director of my PhD program, and I tell students that the purpose of the program is to train them for an academic career. Then I tell them that there can be other paths, but if they are interested in that they need to be much more proactive about making sure that their needs are met.
Pete L. Clark
Feb 12, 2018 16:32
First of all, this is very field specific: if you take away science, technology and engineering, I would expect that the vast majority of PhD students desire an academic job...or at least have no other clear plans. Second, the culture of many PhD programs still largely to completely assumes that students are studying for academic jobs. My (relatively dim) understanding is that a preprofessional attitude in many humanities programs is distinctly looked down upon, as is amateurism (in the literal sense of the word)....
Pete L. Clark
Feb 12, 2018 16:32
This is a key sentence: "You’re assuming that the purpose of a PhD is to get an academic job, when that is not the case: Many people who get PhD’s have no desire for an academic job, even from the time they apply!" Now the sentence is true, but I think it's more complicated than you're making it out to be...
 

 Discussion on answer by Anonymous: Ac…

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Pete L. Clark
Dec 8, 2017 19:31
I agree with this answer. Let me add: I am an American mathematics professor, and I also am happy to be called Dr. Clark or Professor Clark in all situations and Pete in many situations, but I do recommend that students not call me Mr. Clark. Also within the last week one of my colleagues who does not have a PhD (but several master's degrees...) told me that she prefers Ms. S. to Mrs. S., even though she is married and S. is not her maiden name.
 

 Discussion on answer by Pete L. Clark…

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Pete L. Clark
Dec 6, 2017 17:05
@AndrésE.Caicedo: Thanks for letting me know; maybe this practice is still more common than I thought. Still, you would probably agree that this makes it very challenging for such institutions to hire senior people.
Pete L. Clark
Dec 6, 2017 17:05
As a point of American academic culture, if I have tenure and I apply for a position that has tenure as an option, then tenure should be part of the offer. There are a few edge cases, but they are really edgy. (E.g. if the institution literally cannot offer tenure on arrival. This used to be relatively common at state universities. It's really uncommon now, precisely because it's so hard to get people to take this kind of deal.) Of course my answer is an opinion, and the OP could decide to roll the dice. As a tenured faculty member at a US institution, I recommend he doesn't.
Pete L. Clark
Dec 6, 2017 17:05
@R.M.: According to the OP's quote, the position announcement was for a tenure-track assistant professor or a tenured associate professor. The OP, who is currently a tenured associate professor, was offered neither of those, so indeed they are changing the terms. In terms of not being impressed enough: they told him he was their leading candidate. If they are not impressed enough with their leading candidate to offer them the rank and position they already have, then they are sending a very mixed message at best.
 

 Discussion on answer by Pete L. Clark…

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Pete L. Clark
Nov 7, 2017 03:06
Political correctness is a reality of modern academia. As for me, as a person I am quite liberal; as an academic, still liberal but there are massive mountains to the left of me. Being anonymous on the internet is a good, safe way to get a taste of what people will say, and the OP has clearly gotten that. Good.
Pete L. Clark
Nov 7, 2017 03:03
Let me finally say: do I think the OP is a bad teacher, a bad person, a likely sexual harasser? No on all counts. His question is a reasonable and important one; I would not have answered it at length otherwise. On the other hand, some of the things he said are not going to thrill some of his colleagues. The business about not being able to imagine male on male sexual harassment may be honest, but it is not going to be well received.
Pete L. Clark
Nov 7, 2017 02:54
If he maintains this perspective and relates to students in this way, it is likely that some will pick up on his discomfort and fear in an unhelpful way. But if he empathizes with them they will pick up on that. The exceedingly rare mentally unbalanced individual who considers doing him harm will probably pick up that he is not an easy target and look elsewhere. This is practical advice!
Pete L. Clark
Nov 7, 2017 02:51
Regarding plagiarism: all I will say is that is a very inapt analogy. Regarding empathy: that's a tough thing to say, but it's sincere advice to the OP. By knowing a colleague who was falsely accused of sexual harassment, he has experienced a very low probability event that has unfortunately skewed his perspective and empathy. As he admits, this has made him look at female students as potential career ruiners.
Pete L. Clark
Nov 7, 2017 02:44
@user7530: Being careful and being fearful are not the same thing. Indeed the OP should think carefully about it, and I gave him advice about how to do so, including knowing exactly what is illegal and what are considered best practices at his institution.
Pete L. Clark
Oct 31, 2017 21:34
By the way, if there is some news story about a faculty member who manifestly did nothing wrong and got publicly accused of sexual harassment anyway...I really missed it. Could someone provide a link?
Pete L. Clark
Oct 31, 2017 21:33
@StrongBad: Thank you for your arithmetic defense; I agree. Just now I went back and removed the last paragraph of my answer. I do think it's relevant but it's not essential: any interested party can investigate cases like this at their own university.
Pete L. Clark
Oct 31, 2017 21:23
If "What the what?!?" is a conversation stopper: sorry, that was not my intention. But indeed you're still replying and indicating that you read everything I wrote. Truly I am trying to help you, not put you down.
Pete L. Clark
Oct 31, 2017 21:21
Nor was it my intention to belittle your fears. I don't share them, and I explained why, but that's not the same thing. One of the things that the internet provides best is straight talk from people who don't know you personally. That's the spirit of my answer.
Pete L. Clark
Oct 31, 2017 21:17
If you don't think that understanding the circumstances and issues surrounding true sexual harassment is relevant to false sexual harassment, that's your right, but for my part I do think it's highly relevant.
Pete L. Clark
Oct 31, 2017 21:16
@electrique: I am in the same professional situation as you, and I gave you the advice that I follow and that makes me confident enough not to worry about being accused of sexual harassment. I also tried to explain that consideration of the larger social context is part of the strategy.
Pete L. Clark
Oct 31, 2017 20:33
...(Sorry, I was interrupted by a student in my office!!) The OP is sufficiently worried to consider videotaping his office visitors and refusing to meet with female students. (To be sure, it seems clear that he knows better than to do any of these things.) What I meant is that I'm not sure why he is that worried about the situation...enough to potentially deform / inhibit his professional life. In terms of seat belts: yes, he should absolutely take appropriate precautions. I outlined several in my answer. I sincerely believe that if he does these, he'll be as safe as possible.
Pete L. Clark
Oct 31, 2017 20:33
@Abra: I am not saying that it is impossible for a faculty member to be falsely accused of sexual harassment: it does happen sometimes. There are many terrible things that could happen with small probability. I firmly believe, and could marshal supporting statistics accordingly, that a faculty member at my university is much more likely to be seriously injured in an automobile accident than falsely accused of sexual harassment. So there are relative levels of worry....
Pete L. Clark
Oct 31, 2017 20:33
@bishop: I'm not sure there is any human behavior that is guaranteed to be acceptable in every possible social context, but you can find a lot of literature that lists handshakes as the single clear exception to "unwanted touching" in the workplace. A part of this is the mutually voluntarily nature of a handshake: it doesn't happen until both parties put their hands out. (Also, anything can be suggestive. Saying someone's name can be suggestive...but obviously it is okay to say people's names.)
 

 Discussion on answer by Fomite: Photo…

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Pete L. Clark
Nov 6, 2017 17:35
The comments of Lembik and Ukko have it right. Two points: (i) In certain contexts, information about race is requested. It is never required. Not only is there absolutely no penalty for not providing the information, but for most academic jobs (as opposed to grad programs) this information is provided to a different part of the university than those who are evaluating the applications. And thus: (ii) When this information is voluntarily provided, it is not provided on the CV: in US academic culture, listing your race on the CV would look very strange.
Pete L. Clark
Nov 6, 2017 17:35
@sgf: "considering that American CVs often require you to state your race." Beg pardon? It would be absolutely illegal to require a CV to list a race on any academic job, nor have any of the literally thousands of CVs I've read in the context of American academic job searches contained information about the candidate's race.