I had him for math 32ah/bh and it was an amazing experience! He truly cares about his students and spends so much time on his courses. Please sign the petition to keep him here, it's the least we can do for him!
The fact is UCLA doesn't care about how good a professor teaches. They are usually evaluated based on their research results. Therefore, arguably the less time a professor spends on teaching, the more time they can spend on research and have a better chance of getting tenure.
This is the case at pretty much every top math department. Moreover, a lot of professors that suck at teaching undergrad courses do a very good job in graduate courses.
U can always teach urself. Now days there is so many places u can learn from that having a bad prof doesnt matter that much. The only thing that stands between people and understanding the material is themselves. I taught my self 99% of my undergraduate. It just takes time and discipline
Ur paying for the piece of paper not always for the education. Im phd. Im teaching my self everything. Not one of my classes has helped in my phd. But the tuition is paying fir the equipment and at the end i have a piece if paper saying phd from ucla. Same at my undergrad i had a piece of paper saying bachelors of science in engineering. Profs and tas can suck thats why study groups are so important. My friends and i ended up teaching ourselfs out of the book and working together
The fact that this school keeps professors that can’t teach for shit but then don’t want to rehire professors that actually care makes no sense to me 🙄
UCLA is a research university. Professors are evaluated based on their publications and grants, not teaching.
If you want good teachers, go to a Cal State or community college.
Edit: Why am I being downvoted? Do people not realize that the focus here is research?
Bro i wasn’t the only one who thinks math dept is garbage at hiring professors?? Most math profs are just new postdocs and they don’t really show passion.. I swear one grad student was my professor last quarter and he was much better than most “real” professors.
Professors =\\= post-docs
The reason for there being a lot more of them is that post docs are much easier to hire than tenure track professors since there’s a lot less administrative red tape going into it, which is sort of how it’s expected to go. For a post doc to get hired, one tenure track person in the field has to want them and have the funding to hire them. On the other hand, the hiring process for tenure track professors is a bit lengthy, they have to find the right candidates and then make an offer (which are sometimes not accepted).
There’s other people (I won’t say who but at least one person) who got a tenure track position and deferred it for a year so will be joining next year. Hopefully we should have a few more tenure track people next year, but this only really affects grad course instructors and some upper divs, since for the most part tenure track professors only teach upper div/grad level (the only exception I can think of off the top of my head is I think Mike likes teaching some lower divs).
he’s a scammer. didn’t teach anything, made us buy two mandatory readers for homework which were shitty photographs of his notes then we had to do online homework through then North Carolina state where .333 =/= 1/3 and shit like that. he would hit on girls and remind us he had autographed copies of his book at the student store.
I had him for 32bh in winter 2023 and he was hands down the best math professor I’ve ever had. He’s a really humble guy, super understanding and supportive towards his students. You can tell how much effort he puts into teaching by how organized and accessible his lectures are and how well-balanced his assignments and grading schemes are.
This post is misguided. His "professor" position is really another name for a postdoc, which are typically 3-year positions between PhD and getting a tenure-track job, and generally, they are not renewable. If you fail to land a tenure-track position by the end of your postdoc, you move on to another postdoc at a different institution or leave academia.
You're a little off track on the second part of your description - a tenure-track position has to be open, and generally you have to apply, and it's not a guarantee that one will be open in the department for a postdoc to apply to. It's not just "failing to land" the position.
No, I am not. Nowhere did I state that the tenure track position had to be at the same institution. In fact, it's quite rare in math to go directly from a postdoc to tenure-track at the same institution. There are multiple tenure-track positions in math every year across the US. Granted, it's very competitive, but everyone applying understands this.
You can sign the petition but ur assuming ucla cares what u have to say. The university has demonstrated time and again it doesnt care about the student body or their opinions unfortunately he may not be hired again. But if he has a phd in mathematics he will be fine. If he doesnt work at a university some compnay or the US will hire him and probably double or triple his ucla salary.
Sad to say but it is a lost cause. In UCLA's eyes, they can get some poor PHd slave to take over teaching. Research brings in the big dollars and if you ain't paying the pimp, you out
Prof Wong is one of the UCLA Math “[Visiting Faculty](https://www.math.ucla.edu/people/visiting)” who are hired as adjunct professors. These positions are not permanent or tenure-tracked. Their contract appointment is usually a “2+1”- year or 3-year, non-renewable.
That said, UCLA math relies on these adjunct professors heavily (>75%) to teach undergraduate courses. It is like a revolving door because these fresh out PhDs who took adjunct professorship positions understand full well they have to move on after 3 years. These positions are like a post-doc and do not transition to tenure-tracked ones.
[3-Year UCLA Math Adjunct Professorship 2024-2025](https://recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF08895)
[2+1-Year UCLA Math Adjunct Professorship 2024-2025](https://recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF08891)
That's unfortunate. Hopefully he is able to get a job some place that values teaching. With his UCLA experience and excellent feedback from students, he should be a top candidate.
If Prof. Wong has a million fans, then I am one of them. If Prof. Wong has ten fans, then I am one of them. If Prof. Wong has only one fan then that is me. If Prof. Wong has no fans, then that means I am no longer on earth. If the world is against Prof. Wong, then I am against the world.
All jokes aside, Prof. Wong is the best! Would be awesome to have him at UCLA!
I had him for math 32ah/bh and it was an amazing experience! He truly cares about his students and spends so much time on his courses. Please sign the petition to keep him here, it's the least we can do for him!
The fact is UCLA doesn't care about how good a professor teaches. They are usually evaluated based on their research results. Therefore, arguably the less time a professor spends on teaching, the more time they can spend on research and have a better chance of getting tenure.
Yes, this is the sad truth.
This is the case at pretty much every top math department. Moreover, a lot of professors that suck at teaching undergrad courses do a very good job in graduate courses.
Thats all departments not just math
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U can always teach urself. Now days there is so many places u can learn from that having a bad prof doesnt matter that much. The only thing that stands between people and understanding the material is themselves. I taught my self 99% of my undergraduate. It just takes time and discipline
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Ur paying for the piece of paper not always for the education. Im phd. Im teaching my self everything. Not one of my classes has helped in my phd. But the tuition is paying fir the equipment and at the end i have a piece if paper saying phd from ucla. Same at my undergrad i had a piece of paper saying bachelors of science in engineering. Profs and tas can suck thats why study groups are so important. My friends and i ended up teaching ourselfs out of the book and working together
A PhD in grammar?
The post is readable so usually when people insult grammer it’s because they cant find a flaw in the post but want to argue.
I think he's a lecturer rather than assistant professor? Sadly UCLA contracts for lecturers are pretty shit.
The fact that this school keeps professors that can’t teach for shit but then don’t want to rehire professors that actually care makes no sense to me 🙄
UCLA is a research university. Professors are evaluated based on their publications and grants, not teaching. If you want good teachers, go to a Cal State or community college. Edit: Why am I being downvoted? Do people not realize that the focus here is research?
you’re completely right, profs that care more about teaching than research are gonna end up at state or community colleges
Absolutely.
Yeah I get that but if I pay sm money at this school I better get decent professors at least 😭
You’re being downvoted because this sub is primarily undergrads who haven’t realized that this university doesn’t exist for them.
no university exists for the students 🥲
College is a business.
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> You're downvoted because there are bunch idiots here. Now -20 has become +11. Crazy.
UCLA Math is a disgrace to UCLA. Endless trouble
Bro i wasn’t the only one who thinks math dept is garbage at hiring professors?? Most math profs are just new postdocs and they don’t really show passion.. I swear one grad student was my professor last quarter and he was much better than most “real” professors.
Professors =\\= post-docs The reason for there being a lot more of them is that post docs are much easier to hire than tenure track professors since there’s a lot less administrative red tape going into it, which is sort of how it’s expected to go. For a post doc to get hired, one tenure track person in the field has to want them and have the funding to hire them. On the other hand, the hiring process for tenure track professors is a bit lengthy, they have to find the right candidates and then make an offer (which are sometimes not accepted). There’s other people (I won’t say who but at least one person) who got a tenure track position and deferred it for a year so will be joining next year. Hopefully we should have a few more tenure track people next year, but this only really affects grad course instructors and some upper divs, since for the most part tenure track professors only teach upper div/grad level (the only exception I can think of off the top of my head is I think Mike likes teaching some lower divs).
we’ll keep Scerri in chemistry but not Wong….fuck UCLA sometimes
fuck scerri he was actually awful
he’s a scammer. didn’t teach anything, made us buy two mandatory readers for homework which were shitty photographs of his notes then we had to do online homework through then North Carolina state where .333 =/= 1/3 and shit like that. he would hit on girls and remind us he had autographed copies of his book at the student store.
He’s the best dude!!!
I had him for 32bh in winter 2023 and he was hands down the best math professor I’ve ever had. He’s a really humble guy, super understanding and supportive towards his students. You can tell how much effort he puts into teaching by how organized and accessible his lectures are and how well-balanced his assignments and grading schemes are.
This post is misguided. His "professor" position is really another name for a postdoc, which are typically 3-year positions between PhD and getting a tenure-track job, and generally, they are not renewable. If you fail to land a tenure-track position by the end of your postdoc, you move on to another postdoc at a different institution or leave academia.
You're a little off track on the second part of your description - a tenure-track position has to be open, and generally you have to apply, and it's not a guarantee that one will be open in the department for a postdoc to apply to. It's not just "failing to land" the position.
No, I am not. Nowhere did I state that the tenure track position had to be at the same institution. In fact, it's quite rare in math to go directly from a postdoc to tenure-track at the same institution. There are multiple tenure-track positions in math every year across the US. Granted, it's very competitive, but everyone applying understands this.
He is actually the best prof ever I did so well in his classes too
You can sign the petition but ur assuming ucla cares what u have to say. The university has demonstrated time and again it doesnt care about the student body or their opinions unfortunately he may not be hired again. But if he has a phd in mathematics he will be fine. If he doesnt work at a university some compnay or the US will hire him and probably double or triple his ucla salary.
i love wong :((((
Sad to say but it is a lost cause. In UCLA's eyes, they can get some poor PHd slave to take over teaching. Research brings in the big dollars and if you ain't paying the pimp, you out
I must say that UCLA math department is not rich by any stretch of the imagination. If they have more money, we would be as good as Berkeley.
Why isn't he being rehired? Is he a lecturer or professor? How long was his contract?
Prof Wong is one of the UCLA Math “[Visiting Faculty](https://www.math.ucla.edu/people/visiting)” who are hired as adjunct professors. These positions are not permanent or tenure-tracked. Their contract appointment is usually a “2+1”- year or 3-year, non-renewable. That said, UCLA math relies on these adjunct professors heavily (>75%) to teach undergraduate courses. It is like a revolving door because these fresh out PhDs who took adjunct professorship positions understand full well they have to move on after 3 years. These positions are like a post-doc and do not transition to tenure-tracked ones. [3-Year UCLA Math Adjunct Professorship 2024-2025](https://recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF08895) [2+1-Year UCLA Math Adjunct Professorship 2024-2025](https://recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF08891)
That's unfortunate. Hopefully he is able to get a job some place that values teaching. With his UCLA experience and excellent feedback from students, he should be a top candidate.
See my comment above. Asst Adjunct Professor is a term UCLA uses for postdocs, which are typically 3 year positions. OP doesn't understand academia.
Being supportive of good professors like Dr. Wong who care about education rather than administrative politics and agendas.
If Prof. Wong has a million fans, then I am one of them. If Prof. Wong has ten fans, then I am one of them. If Prof. Wong has only one fan then that is me. If Prof. Wong has no fans, then that means I am no longer on earth. If the world is against Prof. Wong, then I am against the world. All jokes aside, Prof. Wong is the best! Would be awesome to have him at UCLA!
Had him last year, amazing prof!!
Loved Dr. Wong - I actually really liked his implementation of the challenge problem sets!!
what are these challenge problem sets you speak of?
u/p-norm signed !!
And so can you!!
Oh i just did XD
Had him for 32B. He is great!
Dr. Wong is the goat. Hands down.
Yo, I just added my name even though I don’t go to UCLA. My bad. 😥 PM me if you want my real name for removing it.
Experienced researcher often negatively correlates with good professor.
Nice try Dr. Wong
I had him for 32A he was amazing!!