A History of the MAA North Central section
Wally Sizer, minnesota State University, Moorhead
The Formation of the Minnesota Section
With the founding of the Mathematical Association of America in December, 1915, provision was made for the formation of regional bodies—sections—within the larger organization. Almost immediately sections started springing up, with the first ones in Kansas, Ohio, Missouri, Iowa, and Indiana. A section was formed in Minnesota not much later.
On November 8, 1916, three Twin Cities mathematics professors—G. N. Bauer and R. M. Barton of the University of Minnesota, and G. W. Hartwell of Hamline University—sent a letter to teachers of college mathematics in Minnesota, inviting them to a meeting “for the purpose of considering the possibility and wisdom of organizing a Minnesota section of the Mathematical Association of America”. The meeting was held December 1, 1916, at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Twenty-three teachers attended, from St. Benedict’s College; St. Catherine’s College; Concordia College, St. Paul; the Heron Lakes schools; Fergus Falls; and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. The issue of forming a section of the MAA was presented and discussed, and the meeting voted unanimously “to form a Minnesota Section”. After a break for lunch—a long-standing tradition of Minnesota (NCS) Section meetings—the section reconvened and elected G. N. Bauer to be president, W. D. Reeve (U of MN, Twin Cities) to be secretary-treasurer, and C. N. Gingrich (Carleton College) to fill out the executive committee. In addition, the executive committee along with J. S. Mikesh (Hibbing Junior College) and Miss E. G. Berger (St. Catherine’s College) were named as a policy committee for the section.
The meeting concluded with a program of five papers: “Cultural Value of College Mathematics”, J. S. Mikesh; “Report of Research in Transcendental Curves and Numbers”, H. L. Slobin (U of MN, Twin Cities); “Thoughts on a Natural Number System”, L. E. Lunn (Superintendent of Schools, Heron Lake); “A Solution of the Differential Equation …”, W. O. Beal (U of MN, Twin Cities); “Unification of Mathematics in the High School and College”, W. D. Reeve (U of MN, Twin Cities).
The minutes of the meeting add, “It was further agreed to hold two meetings of the section each year, one in the spring and one in the autumn.” Seemingly it took thirty years before this policy was acted on; there was just one more fall meeting before the end of World War II.
The minutes of this first meeting appeared in the American Mathematical Monthly (February, 1917) under the heading “Organization of a Minnesota Section of the Mathematical Association of America”, so this date gives the official date for the formation of the section.
The Minnesota Section, 1917-1946
For the next thirty years the section functioned for the most part as a group of college-level mathematics educators from Minnesota (or the eastern part of the state). Meetings were held at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Hamline University (St. Paul), Carleton College (Northfield), the College of St. Thomas (St. Paul), Macalester College (St. Paul), St. John’s University (Collegeville), St. Olaf College (Northfield), Gustavus Adolphus College (St. Peter), the College of St. Benedict (St. Joseph), St. Catherine’s College (St. Paul), the College of St. Theresa (Winona), and the State Teacher’s College (Mankato). Officers came from these institutions, with a few from Duluth, Virginia (the city in Minnesota, not the state), and Hibbing. Presenters of contributed papers also came from these places, with many by mathematicians from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
The exception to the image painted above is Margaret C. Eide, who attended the May, 1929, meeting of the section, was elected to the executive committee the following year, and was elected chair of the section in 1931. In May of 1932 her institution hosted the Minnesota Section meeting, and she attended meetings of the Minnesota Section four other times in the 1930’s. Margaret C. Eide was from the State Teacher’s College in River Falls, Wisconsin (and the 1932 meeting was the only section meeting outside Minnesota in the first 30 years). Of course, River Falls, Wisconsin is closer to the Twin Cities than is Collegeville or Winona. The Wisconsin Section of the MAA was not formed until April of 1933, so early on Margaret Eide did not have that possibility for professional contacts, and even after that date many of the Minnesota Section meetings were closer to River Falls than were the Wisconsin Section meetings.
The only fall Minnesota Section meeting during this period, apart from the organizational meeting, was a joint meeting with the Minnesota Education Association in October, 1938, held on the campus of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. This meeting was attended by over 200 participants.
The main activity of the section during this period was to hold yearly section meetings. Attendance, varied considerably, from a low of 21 to a high of 96 (apart from the joint meeting noted above). Programs consisted of a business meeting to elect officers and a series of mathematical talks, occasionally with pedagogical or historical overtones. On a couple of occasions there was discussion of issues related to college mathematics teaching. Meeting minutes do not show other section activities.
The Minnesota Section, 1947-1968
The next two decades saw the Minnesota Section transform into the North Central Section. The transformation in everything but the name was quite fast; the name change came much later.
At the May, 1947, section meeting at St. Cloud State Teachers’ College, a resolution was made and passed instructing the Executive Committee to prepare new by-laws, and in them to “consider the advisability of enlarging the Section to include parts of the neighboring states not now included in any section.” The impetus for the resolution is unclear. The minutes of previous meetings of the Minnesota Section do not indicate the presence of MAA members (or others) from neighboring states or provinces (except for invited speakers), so the resolution was not a recognition of a trend already in motion. An examination of minutes from the couple of national meetings just prior to this time does not suggest an imperative from the national level to expand sections, although this is a possibility. The effect of expanding recognized section boundaries would be that MAA members in the affected areas would be placed on the section mailing list and get the section newsletters and other section communications.
The minutes for the May, 1948, meeting of the section report that “In accordance with the instructions given at the 1947 annual meeting” new by-laws were presented. Following amendment they were approved, subject to approval by the Board of Governors. The May, 1949, meeting of the section then voted to amend the bylaws specifically to include North Dakota, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
The May, 1948, meeting lists F. J. Arena of North Dakota State College as contributor of a paper; the May, 1949, meeting elected F. C. Stanley of the University of North Dakota to the executive committee. October, 1949, finally saw the institution of regular fall section meetings, this one hosted by the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. The Minnesota Section was clearly expanding beyond the state boundaries in the late 1940’s.
Action by the MAA national Committee on Section Meetings, and in December, 1948, by the Board of Governors led to a statement in the February, 1950, Monthly on Geographic Boundaries of Sections. This ruling declared that the membership of a section should consist of all MAA members who desire to be enrolled as section members; however, for holding section offices or voting for section officers, the boundaries were specified geographically. The Minnesota Section was defined as including Minnesota, North Dakota, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, and the Nebraska Section included Nebraska and South Dakota. The name of the section continued to be the Minnesota Section for another 18 years, however.
During the 1950’s and 1960’s the Minnesota Section of the MAA in fact included most of the territory of the present North Central Section.
Meetings were held at North Dakota Agricultural College (1951), the University of Manitoba (1954 and 1966), South Dakota State College (1955 and 1961), the University of North Dakota (1960), and North Dakota State University, formerly the Agricultural College, (1963). Officers in the Minnesota Section for this time period included A. G. Hill and Frank Arena (NDSU), H. B. MacDougal (SDSC), Charles Hatfield (UND), and R. J. Dowling (University of Manitoba). Many people from South Dakota, North Dakota, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba contributed papers at these meetings. Only the section name denied the geographical extent of the section.
Evidently parts of South Dakota quickly allied themselves with the Minnesota Section despite the 1950 Monthly statement grouping South Dakota with the Nebraska Section. In particular, SDSC and Sioux Falls College faculty were active in the Minnesota Section in the 1950’s. Those parts of South Dakota have been part of the North Central Section for years, but when the alignment became official is not clear.
The primary section activity during the period from 1948 to 1968 was to provide for section meetings, which now occurred regularly twice a year. Attendance at meetings during these years varied from 29 to 136.
In addition the section for some years sponsored a high school mathematics contest in Minnesota. The idea of a high school contest was first proposed in 1949, but was abandoned in 1950 when the High School Principals Association of Minnesota failed to approve a contest. The idea was promoted again in the late 1950’s when the MAA national organization backed such a contest, and this time the proposal was met with enthusiasm from many of the state high schools. The section sponsored the contest from 1958 through the 1960’s. In addition, the section again was active in questions of the undergraduate course in mathematics, and also in conjunction with its spring, 1964, meeting offered a seminar on computer operation.
Finally, the October, 1968, section meeting voted to change the section bylaws, including a change in the section name to the North Central Section, thus completing the expansion of the section which started 20 years previously.
The north central section, 1969-2015
The North Central Section continued to hold meetings twice a year from its naming to the present. Most meetings were scheduled in Minnesota or the strip along the western border of the state in South or North Dakota. Meetings in Winnipeg have already been noted; other meetings were held at the University of Saskatchewan (Regina), Lakehead University (Thunder Bay, Ontario, just within the eastern boundary of the section), and Minot State University (North Dakota). In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s it was common to have 120 or 130 participants at a meeting; recently the numbers have been in the range from 50 to 85. Meetings featured mathematical papers, some with pedagogical or historical overtones. Also in the early 1970’s there was frequently a panel at the meetings; panel topics included calculus, accreditation, individualized instruction, applied mathematics in the curriculum, and linear algebra.
Over the years the section has encouraged student participation in section activities, especially at meetings. There are usually several students presenting papers at section meetings, special activities for students at meetings (both sectional and national), and opportunities for schools to have student chapters.
Section sponsorship of the high school mathematics contest died out; the last mention of the contest in meeting minutes was in 1967. However, beginning in 1997 the section has had an annual team competition for college and university undergraduates, run by Jerry Heuer. Recently there have been over 80 teams participating from over 20 institutions, and this for pleasure and bragging rights, not for prizes. In recent years, with the tightening of the US-Canadian border crossings, this has been a major way Canadian schools have been involved in section activity.
From 1985 (or possibly earlier) the section offered summer seminars for faculty and other interested people in alternate summers; topics have included the history of mathematics, bioinformatics, combinatorial game theory, early mathematical astronomy and spherical trigonometry, and climate modeling.
From 1994 on the section has recognized outstanding teaching at the undergraduate level and outstanding service to the section and/or profession with award certificates at their spring meetings. The outstanding teacher has then been invited to give a talk at the next year’s meeting.
Since 2005 the North Central Section has run a section NExT program, helping new faculty in the section adjust to being faculty members in mathematics. Section NExT fellows have met for a separate program (including a dinner) prior to regular section meetings.
Over the years the North Central Section has supported the national association with numerous committee members and officers. The section has provided six national presidents through the first century: Dunham Jackson, Raymond Brink, Lynn Steen, Joseph Gallian, David Bressoud, and Paul Zorn.
For over ninety-eight years the Minnesota/North Central Section of the MAA has been a lively community of college and university mathematics instructors and others interested in mathematics. Their primary activity has been meeting to discuss mathematics, its teaching, and its history, and to maintain a network of professionals in mathematics. They have been actively involved in other activities to promote mathematics and mathematics instruction, and will continue these pursuits with a strong organization into a new century.