Montana State University Bozeman - Montanan Yearbook (Bozeman, MT)

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Controversy Education vs Research Although teachers, researchers and administrators alike agree that research is a vital component to the advancement of any science, they disagree on the proper degree of emphasis that should be placed on research and teaching at MSU. According to Dr. Peter Brussard, biology department head, “Teaching and research are of equal importance and in fact, are complementary.” However, as Dr. Don Collins, a professor in the biology department sees it, “Not only at MSU but all institutions of higher education are emphasizing research over teaching. Furthermore, all over the U.S., administrators are equating academic excellence in terms of numbers of grants received and graduate programs offered rather than undergraduate teaching.” These two comments represent two divergent philosophies concerning the role of research and teaching in higher education. Further complications arise with the idea that those primarily involved in teaching and those primarily involved in research could see teaching and research as pursuing separate, independent goals. Collins describes the goal of a teacher as one that would present established knowledge with updated applications and examples as they pertain to the student. The goal of a researcher is, according to Dr. Gary Strobel, a leading researcher in the field of plant pathology, “to push back the frontiers of ignorance by seeking out novel ideas and pursuing them. This apparent distinction carries over to the perception of the role of MSU as an institution of higher education. President William Tietz would like to “reaffirm MSU as the leading comprehensive research institution in Montana. This doesn't mean that teaching will be neglected. As evidence to MSU’s committment to undergraduate instruction, he cited the core curriculum, honors program, general studies, counseling efforts, and learning labs for writing and other skills. “Nevertheless, it is important that we consider this institution the home of scholarly research efforts in Montana,” he concluded. In opposition, a retired MSU biology professor said this: “Research is becoming increasingly emphasized, more so than teaching at MSU. The bottom line is that college where students are taught secondhand, sometimes out-of-date information. In disagreement, Colins asserts that the educational needs of undergraduate students couldn't possibly be satisfied by information solely generated at MSU. Everyone teaches someone else’s work — even researchers. Additionally, the subjects that need to be emphasized in the teaching of undergraduates aren’t necessarily the same as the areas of fruitful research. “Those areas that should be emphasized are the basics,” Collins said. Money and where it should be spent are always valid questions. According to Brussard, “Because of the financial set-up of the university system, it is best to maintain a balance between research and teaching. Research isn’t profitable because of the overhead. Although it's most profitable to have that balance, MSU also needs the reputation and prestige associated with research to attract students.” Collins, however, said, “The goal of the university as public, land grant institution should be to give undergraduates a basic, comprehensive education, not financing Montana is a rural state. In Montana, teaching is essential to the students. Teaching is getting the shorter end of the deal and ultimately, it is the students who are getting short changed. The question of emphasis surfaced a whole series of questions concerning what the role of the university is, quality of education, the issue of productivity, and rewards. Given that there is a degee of prestige associated with the publication of research activities, Strobel sees this as vital to the reputation of a university. He says that universities are ranked according to their graduate programs which will in turn affect a school’s ability to recruit new faculty members and students. Furthermore, Strobel describes a strong research program as that which will segre gate universities and community colleges He says, “First-rate institutions don’t deal in second-rate information,” meaning that at universities which have research programs students arc taught the more current information by those working on the cutting edge of science. This can be contrasted, he says to the education received at a community

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The Question Remains research programs. As a land grant institution, MSU is funded by taxes paid by residents throughout the state of Montana. Instead of strengthening our education programs, money is being diverted to enhance graduate programs at the expense of teaching and the overall quality of education. Collins and others foresee a decline in the quality of education, largely due to hiring practices that would harmonize with a shift in emphasis from teaching to research. To Brusaard, “New faculty members are not hired to do research. They are hired to teach and if it came down to a choice between a class and spending time doing research, the class wins out.” But according to another anonymous source, “New faculty members are hired at increased time doing research, the ratio of teaching to research being 60:40. The source went on to raise this question: if new faculty are indeed hired at a 60 percent teaching load, what happens when a 100 percent teacher retires: what fills the void! In answering their own question, the source said, “The way you’d make up the 40 percent deficit is by increasing the number of classses taught by TA’s, decreasing the number of sections taught, even cancelling classes.” In response, Brussard says, “It’s not a choice between teaching and research. Instead research and teaching complement each other, both being simply two aspects of any professor's job. In fact, most faculty members take pride in teaching and research and do well at both.” Strobcl embraces this idea saying the overlap between research and teaching enables students to participate in the thrill of a new idea or a breakthrough. “It’s like a shot in the arm for both students and the researcher teacher conducting the work,” he said. With respect to filling the role of both researcher and teacher, Brussard says that faculty members will differ in their areas of strength and expertise. Some will be most productive with the scale tipped towards research, and stil other with the scale tipped toward teaching. The ideal situation would then be to utilize the individual strengths of faculty members to a maximum in achieving the highest degree of departmental productivity across the board. In opposition, Collins said, “There are two ways for a university department to conduct research. Either have every faculty member to both — which is highly inefficient, or designate a few good teachers to handle large undergraduate classes and free up the time of other faculty members to conduct research; the latter being the optimum. He concludes, “Let those that are better at research-conduct research and those that are better at teaching-tcach. In the fields of science and engineering, no one disputes the importance of research. However, when speaking of emphasis, there still remains a disagreement as to the proper ratio of teaching to research activities here at MSU. It would seem apparent that as budgets tighten, some difficult decisions will have to be made. by Carolyn Sime 371 Milo Men