Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 23, 1993 TAG: 9309230063
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ANNE GEARAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
But the tenured 25-year veteran, who earns $53,000, said he is tired of the suggestion he and other faculty aren't earning their pay.
"No one in their right mind would expect a minister to stay in the pulpit all week long. No one expects a surgeon to be in the operating room all week long," Riley said.
"They have a lot of other things they do as well, and I don't think anybody would disagree with me that those things are important. But those people say a professor ought to spend most of his or her waking hours in the classroom."
Riley is among several faculty members at Virginia's state-supported colleges and universities who feel stung by educational reformers and outside critics who say professors shun classroom teaching in favor of individual scholarly projects.
According to those critics, students, particularly undergraduates, may get short shrift when professors are preoccupied with research projects. Faculty research may mean a promotion, a coveted professional honor or large grant for the university.
"It's an easy kind of comment to make, but it's facile. It's often made by those who have little or no experience with higher education," said Robert Boughner, a classics professor and chairman of his department at Mary Washington College.
Colleges are by necessity different from high schools, or even community colleges, where the focus is squarely on teaching, faculty said. Universities have responsibilities to further academic debate and improve the community as a whole.
"The nation looks to universities in very complex economic and political times," to train its leaders and solve thorny problems, said R.K. Ramazani, chairman of the foreign affairs department at the University of Virginia. "We have the obligation the nation has put upon us in universities to address these problems and provide answers."
A series of articles on higher education in Virginia distributed last week by The Associated Press included critiques of faculty workloads, citing figures showing professors at UVa, Virginia Tech and two other large schools spend fewer hours a week at the lectern than most workers put in at the office in a day.
"I think the real problem for us is, it's criticism that seems leveled at research universities the same way it's addressed to community colleges, as if the same teaching load or something like it should prevail across the board," said Barbara Nolan, vice provost and a senior English professor at UVa.
UVa, which has extensive graduate research programs, a medical school, law school and business school, has the lightest average teaching load for its full-time faculty. The average faculty member is responsible for just under two courses a semester, or less than six hours a week.
Universities typically respond by saying research informs classroom teaching. The better teacher will be well-versed in his or her field and intellectually inquisitive, faculty and administrators say.
"To say that research or much research doesn't matter or is bad, and that teaching or much teaching is good, is like saying that inhaling air is healthy and exhaling air is unhealthy. They are inextricably linked," Ramazani said.
Many faculty say the research vs. teaching critique ignores the question of faculty involvement in a wide variety of teaching-related activities.
Most faculty at Virginia schools work at least a standard 40-hour week when time is counted for preparing for class, grading papers, helping in labs, meeting with students and attending to administrative duties, several faculty members said.
"You add all those up, and it is an enormous amount of time we spend doing things that don't seem to show up very well," Riley said. "All we hear is, `You lazy bums, why aren't you in the classroom all day like you should be.' If we were, we couldn't do all these other things."
A good professor will spend a minimum of two hours preparing for every hour of lecturing, Boughner said. He figures he spends a minimum of 50 hours a week at work.
Boughner makes $46,429 to teach four courses a semester and tend to the administration of the department. His course load is twice that of Riley's, in large measure because of the difference between their institutions.
Virginia Tech is a large research-based university with vast graduate offerings. Mary Washington has a fraction of Virginia Tech's student body and no graduate schools.
In Virginia, it's mostly the research universities that have gained national reputations, Nolan said. "It's a national reputation that draws students to us and gives them an especially valuable degree when they graduate."
At Virginia's best-known campuses, tenure and advancement continue to depend heavily on faculty performance outside the classroom - publications, grants, scientific discoveries, participation in professional groups.
"For many science faculty, developing a graduate empire is the path to success," said Robert Hazen, a geophysicist at George Mason University. "This traditionally is at the expense of undergraduates."
Hazen, a prominent scientist with degrees from Harvard and MIT, is part of a special program at George Mason devoted to teaching undergraduates. Hazen is paid $95,880 to teach two introductory science courses in addition to graduate advising, research and writing books. He spends six to eight hours a week in the classroom.
Hazen said other universities could partly resolve the old publish-or-perish debate by installing similar programs. Instead of a chore, undergraduate classes could be made a coveted assignment.
High-level research still would have its valued place, but professors who choose to concentrate on teaching could be rewarded, Hazen said.
"It's a small thing if you think about it, but it allows the university to change and move forward."
by CNB