Monthly Archives: September 2014

From FSU Professor of Mathematics Alec Kercheval: I agree with this quote I just read from Sept 13 [“The biggest issue with FSU’s presidential search:  Can FSU’s faculty rebuild its sense of community after the search is over?”]: “In such … Continue reading →

This morning, one of FSU’s faculty wags tweeted this in response to the decision of the university’s Board of Trustees to hire Senator John Thrasher as FSU’s new President:  “It’s official:  The State University System of Florida is the fourth … Continue reading →

Are you (or is your daughter or son) majoring in studio art in college?  Maybe you (or your child) will face this in graduate school.  This is a homework problem from a course in structures being taken by students in … Continue reading →

There has been a disturbing tendency to equate the evolution and climate change education issues.  These two issues are not equivalent, and saying that they are distorts the nature of the challenges science educators face in the US. That Earth’s … Continue reading →

On Wednesday, the day after I spoke in favor of advancing Senator John Thrasher to the final round of FSU’s presidential search during the meeting of the search advisory committee, a colleague thanked me for speaking up.  He said there … Continue reading →

Not everybody likes my idea (described in an op-ed in yesterday’s Tallahassee Democrat) to drop the test score requirement from Florida’s Bright Futures program and replace it with a requirement for higher level high school math and science courses – Precalculus, Biology, … Continue reading →

If you have a problem with the way the FSU presidential search is being conducted, fine.  Make your points, and make them civilly. But leave John Thrasher’s attempt to take a close look at the FAMU/FSU College of Engineering out … Continue reading →

Originally posted on Bridge to Tomorrow:
In my 28 years at Florida State, I’ve served only one academic year in the Faculty Senate. That was 2002-2003, the year of the presidential search that resulted in the hiring of TK Wetherell,…

After reaching a fairly respectable 11.0% in 2004-2005, the percentage of African-Americans among SUS engineering bachelor’s degree grads began to decline, reaching a low of 6.5% in 2011-2012. Overall, African-Americans received 12.1% of all SUS bachelors’ degrees earned in 2012-2013. … Continue reading →

If the mission of the FAMU/FSU College of Engineering is to graduate African-American engineers, then this is very bad news. In 2003-2004, FAMU graduated 81 African-American engineers at the bachelor’s degree level, which accounted for about 1/3 of the total … Continue reading →