Soros Professors Program

[Valery <Valery>]

Last week, in accordance with the decision of the last board meeting, 
I worked out the description of the Soros Professorship Program.  
I am sending to you this draft for your consideration and comments.  
I have also sent this draft to Harley Balzer, Gerson Sher, Yuri Gleba, 
and George Soros.  Gleba is very supportive of this text, and George 
told me that he was glad to read it.  I am still waiting for comments 
from Balzer and Sher.  
Let me explain to you some specific details of the proposal.  
1.  According to the latest Soviet statistics (Narodnoye Khozyaistvo 
SSSR in 1990 godu, Izd. Finansy i statistika, Moskva, str 219,), there 
are 911 educational institutes in the former Soviet Union, including 
71 Universities, 198 Pedagogic Institutes, and the rest are technical 
Institutes.  Yuri Gleba and I think that we can expect the number of 
several tens of thousands of professors and associated professors over 
the FSU who are teaching basic science (In every institute we predict 
there are about 10 schools - afrekmntnjd; in every school are about 10 
departments; in every department there are in total 10 professors 
plus associated professors;  therefore it means that approximately 
100,000 Professors plus Associated Professors are in the FSU.  But, we 
have to think that at least 80 percent of this number does not relate to 
basic science.  This explains how I obtained this estimation:  several 
tens of thousands).  I think that, theoretically speaking, the substantial 
portion of them can appeal for nomination.  We can predict to receive 
several thousands applications.

2.  a.  The process of the review of applications can be split into three 
categories:  initial selection based on students' and teaching 
colleagues' evaluations, the second round based on the conclusions of 
the specially formed Committees in every Independent State, third 
round will be done by the Board of the ISF.  Let me give you a brief 
explanation of this system.  
b.  Teaching colleagues' and students' evaluations are not developed in 
Russia and other Independent States.  I see that it is very important to 
help Russians and others develop this method of evaluation.  We have 
to formulate something like 10 to 15  specific questions for the 
evaluation by colleagues to avoid the custom common in the FSU 
when, instead of consideration of important characteristics, the 
process relies on personal feelings and personal relations.  After 
obtaining the list of specific questions, we can help to channel the 
activities of colleagues into the stream of real evaluation instead of 
personal accusation.  For the student evaluations, I think that we can 
pick up 15 questions (and give 6 grades for every answer) from 299 
questions which were included in the Purdue Catalog Items.  
I prepared a copy of this Catalog, and if any of you intend to help me 
pick out questions, I can send to you a copy of this Catalog for your 
convenience.  
        
c.  Regarding the Committee of Specialists, I don't think that original 
Skulachev's idea that the Peer Review Committees should be involved 
in the process of selection of George Soros Professors is correct.  My 
understanding is that the matter of selection of educators should rely 
on the opinion of educators more than the opinion of pure scientists.  
So, I think that we can gather together the best educators in every 
country and ask them to perform the second round of selection.  
        
d.  A very important subject is how many candidates can be eliminated 
at every stage.  I think that if we use six grade tests for student and 
colleague evaluations, and will leave in the list of candidates only those 
persons who have more than 5 positive grades, then we will eliminate 
more than 90 (or may be even 95) percent of the initial number of 
applicants.  Therefore, from one to several thousand names will be 
chosen for the second round.  Of course it will be important to 
prepare some formal criteria for the activity of the Committees to help 
them have the same requirements in different states.  I think that it 
will be realistic to believe that more than 70 percent of the qualifying 
candidates will be eliminated at this stage.  Then we obtain several 
hundreds of names for our final selection and approval.  

e.  We discussed with Yuri Gleba such option that the overwhelming 
majority of names will come from the Russian Metropolitan Area, and 
we both agree that it will be very important to avoid the situation when 
all stipends will come predominantly to Moscow, St. Petersburg, or 
Kiev, and that it will be much more important to support the 
educators who are working in geographically distant places.  My 
question, therefore, is whether you prefer to give quotas for former 
Republics or establish special coefficients for provincial Institutes, or 
to let the process develop without our intervention and look for the 
results?  I personally am inclined to take the third scenario.  I would 
appreciate very much any comments.  

        
3.  I heard from several Russian colleagues that many top scientists in 
Russia, especially those who belonged to the leaders of the Academies 
of Sciences or participated in different scientific councils in the 
Former Soviet Union, are waiting to obtain the George Soros Professor 
Positions to live without troubles for several years at least.  It seems 
that it will be wise to establish the rules which will give some priority 
to people who were out of political activity earlier, and who spent all of 
their energy on educational duties.  I remember from my years at 
Moscow State University and Timiryazev Academy in Moscow that the 
best educators were among smaller proportion of professors who were 
not members of the Communist Party.  But simultaneously, I am 
understanding that the introduction of political accents in our 
program can create very severe problems in public opinion.  Gerson 
today emphasized this matter and I accept his view without further 
questions.  To avoid the potential problem, we can introduce another 
principle:  to give the awards to educators who had no other source of 
income, such as additional salary for full membership in the USSR and 
Republican Academies of Sciences as well as USSR Academy of 
Medical Sciences, or Lenin's Academy of Agricultural Sciences.  The 
members of Academies lived very profitably in the Soviet Union.  Now 
their stipends look not very large because of inflation, but for years 
they used their privileges and highest influences, they were involved 
very deeply in political activity, they used their Institutes, Laboratories 
and Departments for improper personal advancement (remember that 
it was not infrequent that Directors of Labs and Institutes put their 
names in the list of authors of every article from their Institutes, that 
they only represented Soviet Science abroad, that they participated in 
enormous quantity of governmental and semi-governmental agencies, 
committees, and so on; it means that we cannot rely on the Citation 
Index)  and those who were excellent teachers but did not belong to 
the Academies were and are the real treasury of the educational 
system.  If we will support them predominantly, we will exclude the 
patronage of the representatives of the old system.  
        
        
4.  Time Frame.  My idea is to start the program beginning in 1994.  It 
means that we have a very short time to implement the whole 
program and to select the candidates.  The success of the program 
will depend on our effectiveness.  I personally am ready to spend 
substantial time in the summer and fall for this goal.  I am planning to 
be in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kirgizia in the middle of July.  I asked  
Harley, Gerson and Alex Goldfarb to supply me with a secretary to help 
me work productively and am waiting for help from Goldfarb's and 
Balzer and Sher's offices in this matter.  

        
5.  The last question appeared today when I heard from Gerson that he 
and Harley believe that the Board approved only 2.7 million dollars for 
this program.  I think that there is some misunderstanding.  In the 
beginning (January), we approved a budget in which 8 million dollars 
were devoted to the Soros Professorship.  I don't know who and when 
decided to trim this sum a little bit, but during our last Board meeting, 
I found in the document presented by the Russian Advisory Committee 
3.5 million dollars for stipends and 3 million for technical support of 
Soros Professors.  George Soros suggested to combine together these 
figures and as I remember, none of the Board members opposed his 
suggestion.  Nevertheless, I did not find this suggestion reflected in 
the minutes of the Board, and more than --  Harley and Gerson 
interpreted this decision as approval by the Board of the sum which is 
equal to 2.7 million dollars.  It has to be clarified and resolved at the 
next meeting of the Board.  


Sincerely 

Valery N. Soyfer
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Draft
George Soros Professors Program

In 1992 New York financier and philanthropist George Soros 
established a special program in the former Soviet Union to support 
excellence in undergraduate teaching in the natural sciences.  The aim 
of the program is to support the best educators over the former Soviet 
Union and to provide technical support for these educators.  The 
program is not intended for only universities, but for professors at any 
institutions in the field of the natural sciences.

1. Allocated funds 
 
6.5 million dollars are devoted to this program for three years' activity.  
George Soros expressed his good will extending the program an 
additional two years based on the results of the first two years of this 
program.  The International Science Foundation will try to raise 
additional funds for further extenuation.  

2. The financial support of the Soros Professorships 

In total the stipend for George Soros Professors will consist of 
$20,000 a year, which will be given to the recipient of the stipend.  
This quantity is divided into two portions:  personal salary of the 
recipient, which is equal to $6,000 a year, and discretionary fund of 
the George Soros Professor, which is equal to $14,000.  The 
discretionary fund is subdivided into three basic categories:  personal 
discretionary support, $2,000 a year, which can be spent by the 
George Soros Professor for his/her attending professional meetings or 
purchasing small personal business items such as a computer, 
software, clerical equipment;  $1,200 a year for hiring a personal 
assistant; $10,800 will be allocated for technical support of his/her 
teaching.  The award will be given in total to the recipient, and he/she 
will control the spending of all money based on his/her understanding 
of the teaching process.  For example, he/she can decide to use 
$10,800 to buy equipment for his/her lectures (video and audio 
equipment, preparation of hand outs, purchase of special literature, 
and so on) or research equipment, technical support for the 
Department or the Institution where the recipient will be affiliated, or 
even presentation of small student stipends to his/her best pupils 
from families with minimal incomes (not more than $30 a month per 
student in addition to the regular student stipend;  and not more than 
10 students under the direction of each George Soros Professor).  
These students will be named George Soros Students.  The financial 
service of the institution will be permitted to provide technical 
control of legal and financially correct spending of the discretionary 
fund.  Any fee incurred for administrative services cannot exceed 1% 
of the discretionary portion of the stipend.  The Institution (or 
Department) can use not more than 10% of the discretionary fund in 
the form of indirect costs.

3. The Application

Any acting educator in the rank of Associate Professor (Dozent) of 
Professor as well as a researcher who has experience in teaching of 
the undergraduate courses andc ready to start his/her regular teaching 
at the educaztional Institution can apply for a George Soros 
Professorship.  These positions will be offered predominantly for the 
people who are not active members of the Russian Academy of 
Sciences, former Republican Academies of Sciences, Russian Academy 
of Medical Sciencesor Lenin's Academy of Agricultural Sciences and 
who have no additional support equal to the support from the 
Academies. Application should include a resume of the applicant, 
including current position title, scientific degrees, scientific and 
teaching experience, list of supervised graduate and doctoral students, 
professional membership, awards (including current and pending 
grants from local, National, and International Programs, Societies, 
Funds, etc.), list of publications, phone, fax and E-mail address and 
must be signed by the applicant.  The applicant should attach an 
explanation of the ideas regarding teaching and methods of improving 
the educational process (not exceeding two pages).  The applicant 
should indicate the Institution in which he/she prefer to have outside 
evaluation of application in accordance with the rules for application 
review (see below Section 4, Stage /ii/).  Applications can be prepared 
either in English or Russian.  Applications should be mailed to any of 
the addresses listed in Appendix 1.  A post card and a self-addressed, 
stamped envelope must be enclosed.  The deadline for receiving 
applications is September 15, 1993.

4. The Review of Applications.

The review process will be divided into three stages:  /i/ evaluation by 
the applicant's Institution, /ii/ evaluation by Committee of specialists 
which will be formed by the ISF and /iii/ approval by the Board of the 
ISF.    

Stage /i/  Upon receiving the applications, the local International 
Science Foundation staff will send the requests to the Institutions 
where the applicants are affiliated, to perform the first stage of the 
evaluation.  It will include two components:  an evaluation by faculty at 
this Institution and evaluation by students taking classes with the 
applicant.  The forms of the evaluation (Appendix 2) and the 
procedure will be attached.  The goal of this stage is to evaluate the 
ability of the applicant to establish productive collaboration with 
his/her colleagues, to test his/her teaching ability and effectiveness, 
and to understand the merits of the applicant's motivation in obtaining 
the position of George Soros Professor.  The applicants who will not be 
able to receive the score larger than 5.0 will be excluded from further 
competition.  This stage must be completed by October 31, 1993.  

Stage /ii/  The second stage will be an independent professional 
evaluation which will be done by specialists in the applicant's scientific 
field.  The National Advisory Boards of the ISF will establish 
committees of outstanding educators and scientists in the basic fields 
of the natural sciences, which will take the second round of the 
evaluation.  The list of the members of the Committees in every 
Independent State will be published by October 15, 1993.  Each 
Committee will consist of thirteen specialists, two-thirds of which 
must be actively teaching at the time.  These committees will start 
their work after obtaining the reviews of the Institutions.  The 
Committees will send out the applicants' documents to the 
independent Institutes which will be selected in accordance with the 
requests of applicants or according to the decision of the Committee if 
the applicant did not indicate his/her choice.  Upon completion of 
this work and obtaining the evaluation results of the outside 
Institutions, the Committees will select the best candidates.  Their 
decisions should be based on the following criteria:  the formal score 
of the teachers and students, the formal score of the outside 
Institutions, general overview of written summaries of Institutional 
reviews, the formal characteristics such as:  the Citation Index, 
outstanding publications, and innovative ideas of the applicants.  This 
stage must be completed by November 15, 1993.  

Stage /iii/  The Board of the ISF will make the final decision on the 
nominations of the George Soros Professors by December 15, 1993.  
This decision will be made on the basis of the number of applications, 
the available funds, and comparative analysis of the applicants' data 
(teaching skill, publications, especially textbooks, references, 
scientific achievements, and the Citation Index) and their evaluations 
by students, colleagues, and the National Advisory Committees.  Two 
preference will be made by the Board of the ISF:  /i/ the preference 
will be given to applicants and Institutions from geographically distant 
places of the Former Soviet Union, and /ii/ to applicants from 
internationally recognized scientific and teaching schools, the 
retaining of which will be important for the progress of whole 
Humankind.  Both preferences will be made with appreciztion of other 
above mentioned criteria for obtaining of the Gesorfe Sosros Professor 
position.  The positions will be officially offered by George Soros by 
December 25, 1993, and funds for individual recipients will be 
transferred to the Institutions of the new Professors by January 1, 
1994.  


GEORGE SOROS EMERITUS PROFESSORS

Two hundred positions of George Soros Emeritus Professors will be 
offered to outstanding scientists and educators over the former Soviet 
Union to support this people financially and to appreciate their role in 
the development of science and the educational system of the FSU.  
These positions will be offered for the people in the rank of Full 
Professor who are not members of the Russian Academy of Sciences or 
former Republican Academies of Sciences and who have no additional 
support equal to the support from the Academies.  Preference will be 
given to people who never were members of the Communist Party of 
the Soviet Union, but people who focused their activity in scientific 
and educational fields.  Each stipend will consist of $1,500 a year.  

Applications

Every person aged 55 and over for women and 60 and over for man 
can apply for nomination and should submit the following documents:  
a CV, including a list of publications with special attention to textbooks 
and teaching materials, a list of courses which he/she taught during 
his/her career as an educator, the list of Candidates of Sciences and 
Doctors of Sciences whom this person supervised, letters of reference 
from at least three Professors in his/her field, and any other materials 
which can confirm the outstanding role of the applicant in education.  

Application Evaluation

The committees formed under the National Advisory Boards of the ISF 
will collect the applications and will choose candidates for the 
positions of George Soros Emeritus Professors.  
The decision about the nominations of the Emeritus Professors will be 
made by the Board of the ISF by January 1, 1994.