To Teach and Research
As with most complex issues or organizations, it's possible to look at the same facts and characterize them in dramatically different ways. It all depends on what you focus on and what you leave out. I would like to apply that principle to Mortimer B. Zuckerman's critique of research universities in "The Cambridge Question" [April 10]. First, a general observation: Research is not more important than teaching but is at least equally important, and there is sufficient overlap that it's often difficult to say where one stops and the other begins. To cite an example: Does anyone believe that everything in today's textbooks is true? That there is nothing we will need to correct or revise? And whose responsibility is it to ferret out and correct mistakes, to ask and answer new questions? Who if not the teachers and researchers themselves?
Also worth noting is how dramatically the United States has shifted responsibility for basic research to its universities. When I graduated with a Ph.D. in physics in 1968, I could have gone to large basic research labs at companies like AT&T, Sylvania, or IBM. These labs were justified by ultimate bottom-line arguments, but the time frame for expected payoff was unknown but very long--sometimes decades. Few of these labs survive today; those that do are much smaller and have a much shorter time frame for expected payoff. Quarterly returns have replaced long-term health and strategic investment as the dominant priority for corporate America. Where will the future technologies that will be important in our 21st-century economy come from?
Today, a large fraction of our basic research is performed in about 100 of the nation's 4,000 universities: major state flagship institutions, Ivy League schools, and a few large privates like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford. Faculty at these schools have multiple responsibilities with inherent time conflicts in fulfilling those commitments. Thus it will always be fair to ask how appropriately faculty apportion their time. But no competent administrator would insist that every faculty member implement the same time division each semester throughout their career or that tenured faculty spend equal amounts of time and effort at all curricular levels. Instead, administrations strive for optimal deployment of faculty time to fulfill the multiple missions at the departmental and college levels rather than at the individual level. It would be irresponsible to insist that tenured math faculty teach all introductory calculus courses. After all, bachelor's graduates teach calculus well in many high schools, and we have a large cadre of well-qualified math graduate students. Using them as instructors is efficient and the way we train the next generation of faculty.
In the calculus example, using only faculty would be not just inappropriate but impossible at most large universities. Wisconsin has about 50 math faculty and about 200 sections of calculus. If each faculty member took four sections, no other math would get taught at higher levels. The same is true in other "introductory" or "survey course" areas. Keep in mind that these same universities produce most of the Ph.D. graduate degrees for the United States and huge numbers of master's degrees and professional degrees. At Wisconsin, we have 30,000 undergraduates and 10,000 graduate and professional students, and the latter are inherently more time consuming for faculty. On average, faculty are responsible for about five grad students and 15 undergrad students and spend roughly equal amounts of time on each group. There is a misperception that any time taken away from undergraduates is a deviation from mission. It just isn't. That's not to say, though, that the undergraduate teaching mission is unimportant, neglected, or devalued.
We have a balancing job to do, and it doesn't happen automatically. It requires constant attention, and constant correction when things seem out of balance. Most faculty agree with that need for balance and participate in making it happen.
JOHN D. WILEY
Chancellor
University of Wisconsin-Madison
advertisement