Thursday, May 29, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Backstory: Loading up on UNLV

By Michael Green

How hard do UNLV professors work? According to a recent Review-Journal report, the answer seems to be less than they should, or less than some claim. About half of them teach less than the three-course-a-semester load, getting time off to work on research grants and supervise graduate students, among other things.

But this isn't a black-and-white issue, and too many miss the shades of gray.

Not that I am a disinterested observer. I have so many conflicts of interest on this issue, my name could be Michael McDonald or Dick Cheney. The R-J's parent company owns this publication. I am married to a UNLV staff member (non-faculty). While I am a professor at CCSN, I teach part-time at UNLV and serve on the College of Liberal Arts alumni board. I have a lot of friends on the faculty--whom I don't see much because all of them are working hard.

With disclaimers noted, here are some not-so-random thoughts on the issue:

¥ Part of the problem is that the article appeared in the R-J. As R-J readers know, its editorial page is critical of government spending on everything from high salaries (if you work for the government, take a vow of poverty) to paper clips. So, some critics mutter, the R-J is trying to influence the Legislature as it considers raising taxes to keep the state government open--the premise being that some legislators are too dumb to understand a university's functions. A correct premise.

But that's unfair to Natalie Patton, the reporter who worked on the story for months. It's unfair to UNLV, since the facts still would be facts even if the Legislature wasn't in session. It's even unfair to the R-J, because every newspaper in the country, liberal or conservative, skews its news coverage at some point according to its biases, so the R-J shouldn't be singled out.

¥ One way to reduce UNLV's dependence on state funding is for it to obtain more outside funding. One source is private contributions; are critics ponying up? Another is grants, from foundations, industry or the federal government. Of course, it hardly helps that many who want the state to spend less on UNLV also want the federal government to shut down.

But consider some questions and answers. What purpose do such grants serve? They almost always fund research. How does a university obtain funds for research? By proving it's good at research. How does a university do that? By hiring faculty who are good at research. How can they be hired? By offering them the chance to do research.

How do they have the time for research? That requires a longer answer. Most professors who want to do research find a way to do it, whatever the constraints on their time. But the more teaching they do, in the classroom or as mentors to students, the less time they have for research. And if another school offers them the time, they go there, and take the funding opportunities with them.

¥ In some ways, research can benefit the individual faculty member, the institution and even the student more than classroom teaching. Professors at UNLV and other schools are more likely to receive pay increases for publishing a book, for example, than for brilliance in the classroom--a common practice. The university becomes better known nationally in the process, and that brings in more outside money.

Students may lose time with the professor in the classroom, but when they need letters of reference for jobs or graduate school, their chances are better if that professor is known (I didn't get into graduate school on my looks, that's for sure). That fame, limited though it may be, flows mainly from research, not teaching.

¥ UNLV is not free from blame here, of course. The nature of the question of teaching loads prompts most academic administrators to look like they have just been invited to be the guest of honor at a root canal. It's hard for their answer to make them or their institution look good, especially when some of the numbers add up about as well as George W. Bush's tax cut. Nor does it help when some professors are unproductive. A few bad apples don't spoil the barrel, just your opinion of the rest of the apples.

Another problem here is that UNLV could do better at a task that is incredibly difficult in the first place: educating us all about education. Too many residents of this community believe the duty of a university is to produce winning sports teams and grind out employees who report to work as good automatons. Never mind that liberal arts silliness; why should you be able to read and think?

Winston Churchill said, "The first duty of a university is to teach wisdom, not a trade." Yes, UNLV professors could teach more. But not all wisdom comes from the classroom. UNLV needs to show more wisdom in how it teaches the public about itself. And all of us should have the wisdom to understand what a university is and does.