SEPT 26, 2024 | NEWS | By Havalin Haskell
For the first First Monday Talk of the 2024-25 academic year, math and computer science professor Beth Malmskog presented on how mathematics can identify and grapple with partisan gerrymandering in the United States.
Titled “Colorado in Context: Democracy, Representation, Fairness, and Math” Malmskog set the stage for an exciting First Monday Event series reinvigorated with higher student engagement. The presentation emphasized the work of her research group, which involved Colorado College students, in the 202 redistricting process in Colorado. Malmskog elucidated the power of mathematics in achieving better representation and as an essential tool for preserving and upholding democracy.
“I really believe that it is the most important tool in analyzing single member districts,” Malmskog said, “but these ideas don’t just apply to congressional districts, they apply in any setting where you have people you are trying to collect to represent you.”
Starting with an academic paper on their work applying ensemble analysis to redistricting, Malmskog and her group were eventually asked to consult the Colorado State Legislature independent commission on their redistricting process in 2021. They used this mathematical process to increase fairness and limit disproportionate representation in the redrawing of Colorado’s congressional districts.
Malmskog’s message sought to highlight the significant impact of student participation in undergraduate research. Malmskog cited ensemble analysis as an example, as the tool applied to redistricting was first conceived of by a professor and an undergraduate research student at Duke University.
“Don’t ever tell me that undergraduate research doesn’t matter, because this is a tool used in every court case around redistricting currently,” she said.
Malmkog’s talk was the first event in the 2024 Sondermann Presidential Symposium: Democracy in This Moment, sponsored by the political science department. Students will be able to engage with current political issues and hear from a broad range of scholars, journalists, and political figures on topics throughout the series.
Despite low turnouts at several of last year’s First Monday talks, Armstrong’s Kathryn Mohrman Theatre had full seats.
“This was the best First Monday talk attendance since coming out of COVID,” said Brenda Soto, Assistant Vice President for college events.
Attendance was 255 in total, the majority of which were students.
“I thought, compared to past years, attendance was a lot better,” said Joshua McFeeters, President of Blue Key Honor Society, a student organization that helped create First Monday talks back in 2012 and has continued to nominate speakers every year. “I think the structure of the talks being back at 11:15 was the most helpful for student engagement,” he added.
McFeeters is hopeful about increasing student engagement and involvement not only with the First Monday talks, but with the process of selecting First Monday speakers this academic year.
“Right now I don’t know all of the details on how specifically student engagement will be increased, but our hope ultimately is to send a sort of form out to the student body where they could submit information about the speakers they wanted and they would be reviewed and then the speaker would be selected from those student nominations,” he said.
In her introduction for the First Monday talk, Professor Sophia Fenner, who sits on the academic events committee, also emphasized the desire for more student input on the selection of First Monday speakers and noted that the committee is still in the process of selecting speakers in following Blocks. Professor Fenner urged attendees to fill out the online form on the Colorado College academic events page to propose future speakers and topics.
“We are eager to hear from you of who you would like to hear from and see come,” she said.
For more information on Professor Malmskog’s work explore the links below: