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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (51552)	6/20/2002 6:54:34 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

Thus, the system of reserving most main courses to Ph.D.s, while remanding discussion to graduate assistant "section men", merely creates an expensive redundancy. IMO, this is not merely an expensive redundancy, it's downright absurd. My college experiences were all in small classes. I can't imagine sitting in a huge room listening to a canned lecture from some genius and then not being able to ask questions. It would be a better use of the professor's time to tape the lecture or write it down for the students to read. That would free some time for him to meet with students afterwards to answer questions, even questions prescreened by grad students. Much about higher education is very inefficient and wasteful.

To: Neocon who wrote (51552)	6/20/2002 9:21:55 AM
From: J. C. Dithers	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 82486

A bit of a rejoinder on universities here, Neo... I don't know of any university that automatically grants sabbatical leaves. The general policy is that faculty are eligible to apply for leave every seven years. "Applying" means submitting a comprehensive proposal as to the proposed project, which is then reviewed at several committee levels, from department to college to university. A negative response at any level ends the process. In U-Mass, ultimate approval following the various committee recommendations is by the university president. I don't have a statistic, but my guess would be that about 15 percent of requests are approved in a given year. Many college faculty go through an entire career without ever getting a sabbatical, because they don't have the research skills to qualify for one. I don't think most people appreciate the importance of productive research in a university, as opposed to the teaching mission. In various ways, a university encourages research by freeing up classroom time for the productive faculty, which shifts the heavier teaching burden to faculty who are not interested or qualified to perform the research function. As to mass lectures in lower-level core courses, this is one practical way to expose students to the more prominent members of the faculty (who have achieved prominence because of their publication record, not their teaching ability). It would be the students and parents who would complain the most if the more celebrated faculty names never appeared before students, especially at the lower level courses where students taking, say, Economics 101 number in the many hundreds if not thousands. The blending in of discussion sections taught by grad assistants is a logical method to assure a closer interaction experience for students. Overseers of higher education from the legislative branch tend to have the simple-minded view that university faculty should spend 40 hours a week in the classroom like any other working stiff. This is an example of confusing quantity with quality. Teaching needs to be measured by not just how much is taught, but by what is taught. University faculty, in the aggregate, create the knowledge that is to be taught through a continual process of research ... without which, the quality of our world-renowned university system would soon wither.

To: Neocon who wrote (51552)	6/20/2002 12:07:28 PM
From: The Philosopher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

Several factors have led to the current inefficiency in the university system. One is the pressure the GI bill put on colleges after WW II -- they had to expand, and had to have faculty to do so, and gave generously during a time where there was plenty of money flowing in to the system. In connection with that -- whether as a result or independently -- faculty gained enormous power over the universities, so that they basically wrote the rules. So of course they wrote rules that were favorable to them. Those are now ingrained, and it going to be very difficult to root them out. We have also developed an expectation that almost everybody should go to college. This is a substantial change from pre-WWII. Employers look for college degrees as though they meant something vauable. Some do, many don't. But as in ancient Rome, they have become a prerequisite to most employment. Of course, given the deterioration in the eductation provided at the high school level, this is understandable. When high school students can gradute with diplomas without being able to write a decent paragraph or do more than the most rudimentary math, employers have to look for more. Not all of our educational system is in total disarray. There are many schools, colleges, and universities which work quite well to educate our students. But many fewer, I believe, than was the case when I was growing up.