I hope you can help with the following situation I alerted you to. I believe I am acting in good faith and in a proper fashion. Nevertheless I and my staff and getting harassed ..... Mamedbekov is a fine young man who is both extremely talented and very sincere (see forwarded letter 2). I gather that Mathematics has the same problem that Physics has -- students enroll in field but actually get a masters in CS or CE and then of course a job and a green card. They are then lost to given field. I suggest that correct approach to this issue is to make field more attractive and that is in fact what I am trying to help Physics to do. Such positive measures are more appropriate than what Math appears to be doing -- as you will see their actions suggest a more defensive negative attitude which is not so student-centered Essentially all I know is contained in following email. Dr. Anderson also telephoned Tom Haupt on my staff and "harassed" him -- Tom is project leader for effort on which Mamedbekov has been working for 2 semesters. 1)I note that from message 2 Mamedbekov found a replacement TA 2)I note that I knew of no issue what so ever till July 22 99. Till then I thought everybody was happy and was not aware of any issue 3)Mamedbekov was made an offer at exactly same time as all other NPAC students 4)Mamedbekov worked for us for two semesters. Initially as a volunteer ( a step we essentially always take) and then this summer as a funded student 5) Federal contract on which Mamedbekov works is extremely happy about our team's work and there is as always strict project deadlines and deliverables 6) I have put no pressure on Mamedbekov to accept or decline our offer. He decided to accept our offer today. 7) I am willing to pay him through a start up if useful bureaucratic ruse 8) I do not know what legal situation is but certainly (in my opinion) students have a right to shop around and often do. I remember one terrible time A T and T hired a great student away from NPAC one week before key deliverable (on which we defaulted). Best strategy is to be consistent (make offers with clear criteria and fixed non negotiable salaries) and be attractive 9) I believe working for NPAC is in best interest of students's academic future as he wishes to join the nation's information technology workforce 10)Mamedbekov would be ranked in top 15% of all NPAC graduate students. He is an intellectual Gem and from my limited exposure, a nice person. 11) I find the strategy of Math (personally unattractive communications, harnessing graduate school to bully me) as not very collegial and hardly the way to build a student centered department. Not suprisingly their strategy (which was from the start aggressive) makes me very motivated to dig in my heels! I also think Mamedbekov has the right to expect an offer from NPAC which his abilities obviously warrant. I would also be derelict with my DoD sponsor not to offer a job to somebody who is helping the National Security ...... The Mamedbekov File ------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- Forwarded Messages Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 11:55:33 -0400 From: Douglas Anderson To: gcf@npac.syr.edu Subject: Farhad Mamedbekov Dear Dr. Fox, It is my understanding that NPAC is thinking of offering Mr. Farhad Mamedbekov a graduate assistantship for the 1999-00 academic year. As you consider whether to do so, I think you should know that Mr. Mamedbekov has already accepted a Teaching Assistantship for 1999-00 with the Mathematics Department. Indeed he accepted our offer in April. Under these conditions, I would take an dim view of NPAC deciding, at this late date in the summer, to offer him a competing assistantship. I would do so for several obvious reasons: · Having Mr. Mamedbekov serve as a TA is an integral part of the Mathematics Department planning for meeting its teaching commitments for the Fall. · It will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to find a suitable replacement for Mr. Mamedbekov at this late date. · If a replacement for Mr. Mamedbekov cannot be found, the Mathematics Department may be forced to cancel course sections that would not otherwise be cancelled - an action that is far from being in the best interests of our students and is also without precedent in the Mathematics Department. I hope we can resolve this problem amicably and quickly. If you would like further information from me, please feel free to call me at x-1472. Sincerely, Douglas R. Anderson, Chair Department of Mathematics ------- Message 2 Date: Sun, 25 Jul 1999 22:54:37 -0400 From: "Farhad F. Mamedbekov" To: gcf@npac.syr.edu Subject: Replacement for Farhad Mamedbekov Dear Professor Anderson, As we discussed last Thursday, I have to teach at the Math department in Fall and it was hard to find a replacement now. However, there is a possibility for me to accept NPAC's assistantship should the suitable replacement be found. As you remember, Ramakant Komali has received his MS in Math last year. During his two years of study at SU Math department Ramakant has taken even more MAT classes than I did. Ramakant was admitted to the ECS program, however, he has yet to bind himself by any assistanship position. Ramakant would like to perform TA's duties at the Math department like he used to for two years, and, in particular, to take over my assignment. This wo uld allow i) him to finance his studies, ii) NPAC to keep me on their current project iii) Math department to preserve Fall 99 class schedule. Ramakant will contact you on Monday. In the view of their interest in this matter, I am putting Messrs. Fox, Haupt, and Komali on the CC list. Sincerely, Farhad Mamedbekov ------- Message 3 Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 12:15:02 -0400 From: Peter Englot To: "gcf@npac"@syr.edu cc: hjohnson@summon.syr.edu, rgjensen@syr.edu, sltice@summon.syr.edu, danderso@syr.edu, kcarey@syr.edu Subject: Assistantship Offers Dear Dr. Fox, I write because I understand that NPAC's written assistantship offers are being composed so that they can be made officially to graduate students. I wish to point out that in _Procedures for Making Graduate Appointments_ (a packet distributed annually by the Graduate School), there is a provision related to administrative units and the home academic units of prospective appointees. The text follows. "Pre-Appointment Check of Satisfactory Progress All academic and administrative units making graduate appointments need to seek the approval of a potential appointee's home academic unit (program of matriculation) before making an offer. This policy is intended to ensure that appointees are making satisfactory academic progress. In the case of international students, it also helps ensure that the University's position with the Immigration and Naturalization Service is not jeopardized if academic progress is unsatisfactory." (p.2) I raise this now because as I understand it, there is at least one graduate student (Farhad Mamedbekov) to whom you are about to extend an assistantship offer and whose department (Mathematics) has not yet been consulted. In this particular case, it is not so much a concern about academic progress that may conflict with your plans, as it is the fact that the student has already accepted an assistantship offer from his home department. While not explicit, the guideline I quote above is intended to promote collegial exchange between non-academic and academic units regarding the funding of graduate students and provide an opportunity to avoid having funding sources within the University from working at cross purposes. In spirit, it is intended to echo the nationally recognized agreement among graduate schools that a student must seek a written release from an accepted funding offer if competing offers are made after April 15 (a Council of Graduate Schools resolution). Consequently, in respect for our institutional guideline, I hope that before your offers go out in writing you will take the opportunity to seek the approval of the home academic units of the graduate students to whom you would like to extend funding offers. If you have any questions about this provision, please let me know. Sincerely, Peter Englot Assistant Dean The Graduate School ------- Message 4 Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 15:14:45 -0400 From: Peter Englot To: "gcf@npac"@syr.edu, danderso@syr.edu cc: hjohnson@summon.syr.edu, rgjensen@syr.edu, sltice@summon.syr.edu, kcarey@syr.edu Subject: Re: Assistantship Offers Dear Geoffrey and Doug, While Geoffrey has acknowledged that NPAC did not check with the Department of Mathematics prior to discussing an offer of an assistantship to Mr. Mamedbekov, there are several mitigating circumstances. First, I will be the first to admit that the guideline in question is not highly visible. Its few lines at the bottom of a page in a large booklet don't do anything to improve on its obscurity. Second, NPAC has appointed graduate students from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and from IST, almost exclusively. These academic units have reached an understanding with NPAC that makes checking on each appointee unnecessary. Appointment of a student from outside these academic units is not expected generally, and was not suspected in this case because of the student's proficiency in the research area involved and because the student did not mention it himself throughout his contact with Geoffrey. Had he known of Mr. Mamedbekov's existing commitment, Geoffrey offers assurance that he would have called Mathematics to discuss the situation. Third, the student had been pursuing work with NPAC actively. In fact, he offered to work for free out of sheer interest in the research and professional development opportunity. He was offered summer work there in April after being judged to be near the top of the pool of all NPAC research assistants. During this time, he has indicated to Geoffrey an ultimate interest in professional employment in his area of NPAC research. It seems to me that NPAC acted in good faith and that the primary consideration of the guideline in question--satisfactory academic progress--is not really at issue in this case. However, with the recent approval by ECS of a formal dual master's program between mathematics and computer science, it might make sense for you both to come to some understanding about the timing of appointments so that similar situations might be avoided in the future. Please let me know if you have any questions about the applicability of the guideline in this or other cases. Thanks, Peter ------- Message 5 Date: Tue, 03 Aug 1999 14:40:24 -0400 From: Tina Mucci To: "'gcf@npac.syr.edu'" Subject: student Dr. Fox I received a call from the Graduate school about Farhad Mamedbekov. He is still a student in the Math department at SU and he shouldn't be accepting a job at NPAC. The math department has not released him yet from there department. Juanita in the graduate school was hoping that you and Professor Douglas Anderson could working something out? She asked that you contact him and see if you can work out some kind of agreement. Please let me know if you need me to do something. Thanks Tina Tina Mucci Administrative Director NPAC @ Syracuse University ------- End of Forwarded Messages