Background Information
I taught as a senior staff member at HCSSiM from 1999-2009 and co-directed the 2005-2008 programs. Co-directing, done right, is essentially a half-time job averaged out over a year. There is a huge amount of work to do during the summer, a large amount of work to do in the late spring, and a smaller amount of work to do in the fall, winter, and early spring. The co-directing tasks include recruiting, screening, mentoring, and evaluating both students and staff, writing a new Interesting Test for the applications process each year, and maintaining advisory relationships with alumns.
In addition to this co-directorial work for the 2005 - 2008 programs, during the past decade I created a website for the program and maintained its content (and began hosting it after the Hampshire College server previously hosting it died and would not be replaced), implemented electronic applications to the Summer Studies, organized a major redesign of the brochure (moving to color and professional printing), initiated and maintained a presence at The Art of Problem Solving, expanded recruiting to multiple ARML sites, did research on recruiting of girls, initiated electronic archiving of the Program Journal, added current and accessible MAA journal problems to the Program Journal, initiated the process of moving the Program Assistant from part-time to full-time status, did comparative research on funding for similar summer programs, initiated and coordinated multiple grant proposals, initiated financial recordkeeping, sorted and organized 30 years of paper archives, started keeping data on the applicant pool and on recent alumn achievements, initiated the creation of an alumn database, and conceived of and co-organized the Yellow Pig Math Days conference in 2006. In material terms, I purchased three laptops for use by junior and senior staff, bought desktop publishing software for a staff member who redesigned brochures and posters, provided a Rubik's Cube to each student for a few years, and purchased chalk and markers for staff classroom use for several years. (I did not request reimbursement for any program-related expenses, as I made contributions where I saw a need.)
Some of these efforts had an immediately tangible effect on HCSSiM. For most of the first thirty years of HCSSiM, there were 50 - 60 student participants (four classes). When I started teaching at HCSSiM, there were about 25 student participants (two small classes) each summer. This grew to nearly 40 students (three medium-sized classes) around the time I began co-directing, and by 2009 there were many more well qualified applicants than dormitory rooms allocated to HCSSiM. I attribute the bulk of this growth to the addition of an electronic application process, and some of the growth to my focus on responding to applicants in a timely fashion.
My position as co-director was entirely unofficial relative to Hampshire College.
Officially I was a Summer Casual employee, hired every April or May and terminated
in August. There were (are?) no contracts for Summer Casual staff. During the
academic year I volunteered an average of 5-10 hours/week of organizational/administrative
work. To be clear, during the summer I was paid a co-director stipend as well
as a teaching stipend, but the co-director stipend barely covered the administrative
time I spent on HCSSiM during the summer. I was never notified in advance what
the amount of the stipend would be, nor was there any option to negotiate the
amount of the stipend. Certainly I was not the only person in this position.
Junior and senior teaching staff were also not notified as to their stipends,
and sometimes not notified that they had been hired by the program. (I did
try to change this practice, by at least notifying staff when a hiring decision
was made.) Additionally, as I discovered in 2009, the Program Assistant seems
to have been a temporary employee for the last decade.
So What Happened?
Over the years I co-directed HCSSiM, my responsibilities increased. I decided to take on some of these responsibilities and others were delegated by the HCSSiM founder and co-director. However, I felt that my efforts to serve the program were not adequately supported either in terms of task-sharing/delegation or financially. In particular, I willingly made professional sacrifices in order to devote enough academic-year time to HCSSiM, but there was no attempt by HCSSiM or its founder to help make it possible for me to continue serving the program.
By August 2008, I felt acutely that I was not being treated professionally. I tried to discuss the lack of support with the HCSSiM founder (by email, in person, repeatedly) for about 8 months. Sometimes he just ignored me, and at other times he scolded me for various invented or rehashed failings. It became ever more clear that my time and efforts were neither valued nor respected as the HCSSiM founder's treatment of me grew worse both professionally and personally.
In March 2009, the process of writing the Interesting Test went completely
awry. I had been working on it since January and had a (non-HCSSiM) collaborator
scheduled to visit in late March. I scheduled my time so that I could complete
work on the Interesting Test, prepare a project for work with the collaborator,
and spend a few days of Spring Break with my parents before the collaborator
arrived. I shared these plans with the HCSSiM founder, who approved them and
the schedule for completing the Interesting Test. However, he did not respect
these plans and instead insisted we work intensely together on the Interesting
Test just before and during my visit to my parents. While I was away, he threw
out much of my work (with no real reason given) and chastised me both for complaining
about this and for not being willing to forgo my parental visit or preparations
for the arrival of my collaborator. This unprofessional treatment was unacceptable,
so I stopped volunteering for HCSSiM.
The Personal Angle
Even before I co-directed HCSSiM, I was regularly approached at professional
meetings with questions about the future of the program. I was thrilled to
be entrusted with co-directing in late 2004, and hoped that I would eventually
have an answer to my colleagues' questions. The HCSSiM founder voiced his intent
at a conference in summer 2006 and again at a fundraising meeting in late 2008
that I was to be the future of HCSSiM and eventually run the program. On the
strength of these statements and my experiences with HCSSiM, I relocated my
family to the Pioneer Valley so that I could do in-person work on HCSSiM during
the academic year and so we could all be in the same place. One of my family
members is also a professional mathematician who taught at HCSSiM for 16 years;
he gave up tenure to move to the area near Hampshire College. So I am not the
only one whose life and career are affected by my affiliation with HCSSiM ending.
Epilogue
Almost immediately after I ceased volunteering for HCSSiM, an alumn stepped in to try to mend the situation. There were several emails exchanged in April and some meetings with the HCSSiM founder in May and June. Incremental progress seemed to have been made; he agreed (in writing) to hire me for a few hours/week as a Fall Casual employee. He did hire me as a restricted teaching staff member for part of HCSSiM 2009. However, the HCSSiM founder ceased to communicate with me after the end of the program (mid-August 2009). This appears to verify that my long-term and (then) ongoing contributions to the program were not valued.
Moreover, there appear to be some detrimental effects to HCSSiM as a result of my absence. HCSSiM has lost two of the three regular senior staff members from the last decade (the third is the HCSSiM founder). This removes a substantial amount of institutional memory and experience. HCSSiM has also lost some potential alumn junior and senior staff members (who have institutional memory and experience as well), because many alumns and friends of the program are saddened or angered by these events. (Of course, I am both saddened and angered. I put a great deal of my energy and passion into enhancing and growing HCSSiM and am still unhappy that I had to choose between retaining some professional dignity and being involved with the program I loved.)
As of this writing, I've neither seen nor heard evidence that HCSSiM is well organized or staffed for the coming summer(s), so I can no longer recommend the program to the colleagues, students, and parents who regularly seek my advice. There is no other summer program like HCSSiM, but competitors Mathcamp and SUMaC are closest in flavor and quality.