President's Message

The 1997 IMACC Annual Conference at Allerton was attended by approximately 130 participants from colleges in Illinois and other states. The keynote speaker was Stephen Rodi of Austin Community College in Texas. Steve "laid it on the line" with his opinions about current trends in mathematics education. The panel discussion on Saturday featured many points of view which promoted an intensive dialogue about reform.

Review of the evaluations indicated that free time for exploration of Allerton Park and Allerton House continues to be the most popular session. You can be sure this will be a constant in upcoming years at the Conference.

Many thanks are due to those who ensured a successful conference; Past-President Karl Zilm, Program-chair; Lisa Carrington (President-Elect) and Mike Emerick, Co-coordinators; Shirley Scheiner for the successful scholarship raffle and Mary Beth Pederson for her design of the IMACC lapel pin. The contributions of the Probability and Statistics Group and the Linear Applied Geometry Group to the scholarship fund are also gratefully acknowledged. Finally, we also appreciate the publishers that sponsored the social hours and also Beverly Becker, the Allerton House Manager.

As I look forward to the 1997-98 IMACC year I see many challenges for IMACC and two-year college mathematics education. Over the past several years we have had retirements, however, our membership has not grown. We must each take responsibility for recruiting new faculty at our colleges for membership and active involvment in IMACC. To this end, a contact person will be established at each college. If you receive a call from Sandra Cox, Chair, or any other person on the Membership Committee, please help out in this task.

Implementation of the AMATYC Standards is a challenge we face. Discussions at Allerton indicate that reform means different things to different people. I think it is time to consider course description changes in the IMACC/ISMAA Curriculum Guide which will support the AMATYC Standards. There will be a meeting of the Curriculum Committees of IMACC and ISMAA to reconsider pre-requisites for Finite Mathematics. Perhaps other changes should be considered. The Curriculum Guide is intended to be a "living" document that changes as necessary to reflect current trends.

The Illinois Articulation Initiative has caused us to take critical looks at certain courses. There is much confusion across the State regarding college algebra versus pre-calculus. Clearly, pre-calculus is intended for those pursuing math intensive programs. What is the purpose of college algebra? College algebra does not satisfy the math requirement for the general education core curriculum. Some departments name a course "College Algebra" when it is really pre-calculus and others have a much less rigorous course called "College Algebra". Perhaps the joint IMACC/ISMAA committee should take a look at this and make some recommendations. Please e-mail me with your thoughts.

Next year, due to printing and mailing costs and because the Winter and Spring issues have often been close together because of the changing times of the Allerton Conference, there will be only three issues of the Math ConneXion; Fall, Winter and Summer. This was decided by the Board at its last meeting. See the Editor's Column for more details.

I am already thinking about the theme for next year's conference. A survey was given on this year's Allerton evaluation form. I will study the results of that survey to get an idea of what the membership wants. Once the theme of the program is determined I will be mailing an invitation to IMACC members to participate. I know that we have a lot of "hidden" talent within our organization and I would like to have some of it come out of hiding and be shared at next year's conference.

If you are interested in serving on any of the IMACC committees, please let me know as soon as possible. I am in the process of finalizing committee assignments for this year. I encourage you to get involved - it is a rewarding experience because IMACC represents a great bunch of people. Please e-mail me at dmagno@harper.cc.il.us if you are interested.

Finally, IMACC lapel pins are still available. You can get one by making a $5 donation to the scholarship fund. Send your contribution to Dave Clydesdale, IMACC Treasurer at the address given on the IMACC mailing list later in this issue.

Dom Magno, President