Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 9, 1993 TAG: 9301120373
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SAM G. RILEY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
NOW, ABOUT THAT `BEAR' CLOSING IN ON COLLEGE PROFESSORS . . .
AN IMPORTANT debate is going on over the future of Virginia's colleges and universities. One aspect of this debate concerns the comparative amounts of time professors give to their two most important functions: teaching and research.The State Council of Higher Education, backed by our General Assembly, wants more teaching. As the debate has spread, we professors have found ourselves with a bad case of tarnished image.
Cartoonists, writers of editorials and letters-to-the-editor, and probably a pretty good chunk of the general public picture us as bone-lazy, pointy-headed eccentrics who leave the teaching, testing and grading to mistreated graduate assistants while we selfishly feather our own nests elsewhere.
This scenario sounds unfamiliar to a lot of us. Speaking for myself, as a tenured, full professor at Virginia Tech, I teach my own classes, write and grade my own tests and other assignments, and spend a generous amount of time updating the courses I offer. I have no assistant, nor do I especially want one. I enjoy teaching, as do most other professors of my acquaintance.
I also enjoy the other side of the professorial life: research, which in my case comes in the form of creating original scholarship. For most of us, this is an important component of academic work.
Though there are undoubtedly exceptions, most of us keep firmly in mind that teaching is our product and that scholarship is our most important byproduct. Yet, it is this second aspect of our work that is currently under attack.
The state council is telling us that scholarship is just fine, so long as it brings our college or university large sums of grant money. Unfunded scholarship? De-emphasize it, the council says. Stop wasting time.
Now, a mean, suspicious person might interpret this as rampant anti-intellectualism. If faculty members are discouraged from being intellectual, and if they are not allowed the time to add to the body of knowledge in their fields of study, then our "system of higher education" will not deserve to be so called. Virginia professors would be reduced to merely repeating, parrot-like, what professors from more enlightened states wrote and sold to us.
All of us in academic life have known individuals who are (or were) truly splendid teachers but who had scant interest in research and writing, and there should be a place for such people, even in a major research university.
Still, the very most valuable faculty members are those who are gifted teachers and productive scholars. It has always been this way and always will be, the council and legislature notwithstanding.
Make it overly difficult for us to be productive scholars, and Virginia will surely lose a lot of its best academic talent to other states. Also, council and assembly, please consider that we often get what we ask for.
Which brings to mind a little story:
A preacher is out walking in the forest, gaining inspiration for his next sermon. Suddenly, a large bear appears on the trail and begins to chase him. The preacher runs as fast as he can, but soon the old boy is winded and can't keep up the pace.
In desperation, the preacher drops to his knees and fervently offers up a prayer: "Dear Lord, please, please, fill the heart of this great beast with the Christian spirit!"
Then he looks over his shoulder to see where the bear is. It, too, has stopped running and is down on one knee, head bowed, saying, "For what we are about to receive, make us truly thankful."
The moral here is clear: The preacher got what he asked for.
By like token, take away our opportunity for research and scholarship, and Virginia might well get what it asked for - a professorate of hacks and drudges.
Sam G. Riley of Blacksburg is professor of communication studies at Virginia Tech.