Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 22, 1993 TAG: 9309290322
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Faculty teach little, spend much of their time on frivolous topics, and avoid courses like freshman writing.
Professors are grossly overpaid.
Gov. Douglas Wilder, roused to the pitch of "Good Lord!," is right to want to cut the budget of state institutions, which squander their resources.
These would all be sad conclusions: sad because they are half-truths, they misrepresent.
To help burst this bubble, let me offer three specific examples from the English Department at Virginia Tech.
The data on Page A6 show that freshman English is taught by only 3 percent of our senior faculty. That's not because they avoid the course but because, to save the state money, we have hired 53 instructors, most not "taking a break from graduate school" (as the article claims) but committed, active professionals who relish helping students improve their writing. In truth, more than half of our instructors have been with us for more than five years. In truth, we have recently raised the teaching loads of seven senior faculty, some of whom teach three courses each semester.
To suggest that "big-name" poet Nikki Giovanni merely teaches "four poetry classes at Tech" (Page A6) misses the wealth of contributions she makes elsewhere: Last year, for example, she gave 33 talks across the nation, sat for 12 interviews, had 21 of her poems reprinted, published a book of essays, and prepared a poetry textbook for public-school students.
One of our star associate professors, earning now under $40,000 per year, is an award-winning teacher, in his office every day, author of articles and books (not one of them frivolous), the architect of our fine new curriculum for majors. He spends at least 60 hours a week doing his job. Although he didn't merit inclusion in your series, he is typical of our research faculty.
I believe in the research university - not because it paves "easy street," not because it allows a professor to "write his own ticket," not because it offers "a job for life" (to quote your series again), but because it provides a home for serious thinkers to assess the world around them.
We need these thinkers. We need their work. Our society must be willing to pay for it. Yes, research universities can do better, be more efficient, more accountable. We're already doing so. But we also need to hear a whole truth about what we do and who we are. Readers must be able to draw accurate conclusions from what they read in their newspapers.
MICHAEL SQUIRES
English Department head
Virginia Tech
BLACKSBURG
by CNB