From the President: Academic Ties by Steven G. Lehmann

In 1998, the CAS, Society of Actuaries, and Canadian Institute of Actuaries appointed the Joint Task force on Academic Ties to explore building a stronger partnership with academia. Goals of the task force include producing a sufficient number of qualified students and future employees, generating an adequate amount of theoretically sound and practical research, enhancing the recognition of actuarial science within the academic community, and optimizing the use of the combined resources of both the academic community and the actuarial profession.

The task force has identified a number of problem areas including increased competition for the best math students, a declining pool of candidates graduating from college with quantitative skills needed to enter the profession, and a declining number of candidates writing Part 1 exams (26 percent decline from 1993 to 1997).

The task force is working on a report to the profession with an anticipated delivery to the membership late this year or early next year.

I fully support this goal of improving our ties with academia. In fact, the CAS has recently approved a number of initiatives designed to improve our academic ties. At the November Board Meeting, the CAS Board approved the following measures:

• Waive CAS meeting and seminar registration fees for up to $1,500 per year for academics (defined as Academic Correspondents and full-time academic members of the CAS).
• Establish grants to educational institutions of $7,500 for FCAS and $5,000 for ACAS when an academic from the institutions attains one of these designations.
• Provide CAS Office support for a newsletter for academics via E-mail or CAS Web Site, provided that volunteers write the newsletter.
• Create postcards for distribution to academics' students to publicize information available on the CAS Web Site.
• Create a Web page (within the CAS Web Site) to provide information of particular interest to academics.
• Recruit CAS members to serve as one-on-one contacts with schools.

The CAS External Communications Committee developed these proposals. In following up on the last item, the committee published an article in the February 1999 Actuarial Review and is soliciting via the CAS Web Site for actuaries willing to serve as liaisons to a college or university.

These are great steps to improve our academic relations, but I'd like us to do even more. As I travel around the country talking to our Regional Affiliates, I am suggesting that each Regional Affiliate commit additional resources to develop relationships with academic institutions in their area. The Regional Affiliates, together with local employers of casualty actuaries, are ideally suited to build contacts and awareness of the casualty actuarial field. I'd also like to hear your suggestions on improving our relationships with academia.

We should not devote all of our attention to colleges and universities. A number of you have pointed out that we need to start talking to potential actuarial students in high school. I agree. The Actuarial Foundation is pioneering a new partnership program between actuaries and high schools. We are investigating a pilot program to be sponsored by one or more of the CAS Regional Affiliates. We are also working with the SOA in sponsoring career fairs for high school and college students.

Before concluding this column, I want to give you an update on the progress of our Task Force on Nontraditional Areas of Practice. This task force, under the direction of Mike Miller, has developed a follow-up survey to supplement the nontraditional practice survey that was sent to members in November 1997. The survey was mailed to all members a few weeks ago along with a separate survey on research. I hope you will take the time to fill out these important surveys. The 20-25 minutes of your time that it will take to fill out both of these surveys is an investment in our future.

Editor's note: If you have comments about this column, please send them to Steve Lehmann c/o the CAS office or send an E-mail directly to Steve (SteveL@MRHT.COM). Alternatively, if you want your view published, please send it to The Actuarial Review.