Thursday, April 7, 2011

Narcisissma is the pride of the faculty

(Let's start with an apology to Don McLean.  Having learned the word narcissism from his song back in my childhood, the concept always reminds me of the song.)

One of my colleagues has stated at faculty meetings that, "students come and go, but the faculty are always here, so the university should be run for the benefit of the faculty."  This way of thinking has always bothered me.  Recently my department chair chose to publicize the publications of faculty members and a scholarly activity award for another faculty member.  Aside from not mentioning the student co-authors, the chair at the same time completely ignored that one of our seniors earned a NSF Graduate Fellowship, and our students took three of four university awards for scholarship and service.  The specifics of these cases are not important but serve as examples of the insidious ways departments shift away from student focus and towards faculty focus.

It's not that faculty don't care about students.  With constantly increasing class sizes, pressure to graduate more students regardless of achievement, budget cuts that reduce the resources for teaching and research, pay that even the state's consultants say is below national averages, and leaders who tell the public that budget cuts will be covered by reduction in the pay and benefits of faculty and staff, faculty can come to feel that no one cares about them.  The faculty need to bolster there self esteem by drawing attention to their successes.  I can't fault that.

The thing is, at PUIs and MCUs the faculty must remember that those who control the resources see our main products as educated students.  Most of the public don't get the connection between the faculty member's publication or scholarly activity award and what they perceive that they are paying for.  The connection must be made through the students.

Every argument, and the foundation laid for every argument on budget must be based on the quality of education our students receive and the value that quality represents to the community, the taxpayer, and the parent or student who is paying the tuition.

It's the students, stupid!  Love yourself a little less, love your students a little more, and the community will view you with higher esteem!

T.S. Hall

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