Page 6 THE BATTALION
FRIDAY, MAYS, 1981
Local/Statp.
tc
Defining professors’responsibilities is difficult task
By TRACEY BUCHANAN
Battalion Reporter
Ask any university professor
what his job entails, and he will
reply: Teaching, research and ser
vice — three small words that are
hard to juggle and next to impossi
ble to conquer.
Nevertheless that is a profes
sor’s job, and the majority say the
three facets are necessary in order
to make Texas A&M one of the
best schools in the country.
They are usually required to
excel in at least two of the three
areas in order to be considered for
promotion and tenure. Tenure
assures a faculty member that he
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will continue in an academic posi
tion. Faculty members are consi
dered for tenure after a certain
period of time, which normally
doesn’t exceed seven years.
Some faculty members are
hired solely for teaching or re
search and can not qualify for te
nure. For example, faculty titles
“lecturer” or “instructor” are
usually on a non-tenure track and
are involved only in teaching.
Some faculty who work at the
Texas Engineering Experiment
Station are hired to do research
only.
“It is recognized that some per
sons are better teachers than
others, ” said Earl F. Cook, dean of
the College of Geosciences. “It is
the combination of the two related
academic functions at a level of
superiority that is required of a full
professor. ”
Teaching and research is neces
sary at all faculty levels, Cook said.
The dominant theory among
administrators and teachers is that
research enhances teaching,
rather than detracts from it. “In
order for a teacher to be an effec
tive one, he needs to be aware of
what’s going on in his field,” said
Charles Hix, dean of the College
of Architecture and Environmen
tal Design.
Teachers in the architecture
college don’t have to be involved
in research and publication to be
promoted, he said. To be prom
oted to a full professor, though, a
teacher must be nationally recog
nized in his field.
Rod O’Connor, assistant profes
sor of chemistry, said that
although it is formally and official-
the department and then sign a
letter of agreement based on those
terms.
“If they (University administra
tors) don’t (change the reward sys
tem), we re going to have the
worst undergraduate lower divi
sion teaching program in the state
of Texas, ” O’Connor said. “That’s
where I think we re headed.
The question of which comes
first — teaching or research —
varies with the philosophies of the
Teaching is almost equally as im
portant, but it takes much more
time to be recognized. ”
The route to promotion is ex
plained to faculty by the depart
ment heads either informally,
through personal interviews and
departmental meetings, or for
mally, through individually writ
ten guidelines.
“It is recognized that some persons are better
teachers than others, ’’said EarlF. Cook, dean
of the College of Geosciences. “It is the com
bination of the two related academic functions
at a level of superiority that is required of a full
professor. ”
Even when a written guideline
is used, it isn’t detailed. For inst
ance, it would not specify 44 per
cent of a teacher’s time must go to
research, 35 percent to teaching
and 21 percent to service or admi
nistrative work.
ly stated that reward will be based
on teaching, research and service,
a teacher is not rewarded for much
of anything except research.
He thinks a faculty member
should be able to tell the depart
ment head how he can best serve
department heads who recom
mend professors for promotion
and raises.
David H. Stewart, head of the
English department, said: “Rec
ognition and reward are most
quickly attained with research.
“I never like to tell a man exact
ly what’s expected of him because
that’s what he tends to do,” said
Gordon R. Hopkins, department
head of mechanical engineering.
Research can get in the way of
doing an effective job just like
other responsibilities can, he said.
However, it is not a matter of sac
rificing teaching for research.
“We re not just hiring teachers
at A&M,” Hopkins said. “High
schools hire teachers. Universities
hire leaders in their fields. ”
R. Alan Wiley, assistant profes
sor of economics, said quality^
pie don’t have a problem coni
ing research and teaching. I
aspects are necessary to have id
tionally strong college, hes
William Bassichis, asso
professor of physics, saidthetj
versity needs to establish!
atmosphere conducive to 1
teaching and research in ordo!
achieve its goals. “Thereisi]
punishment for a guy whoil
crappy job of teaching, but as
who does a similar job inrese
is in big trouble.
“To stand up once a year!
say, ‘You people are doing a g
job teaching and we appreciat
won’t hack it,” he said.
Defining good research i
good teaching is more
than deciding whether or nothj
are necessary.
Faculty members have peril
departmental meetings too
their goals and to evaluate J
past performance. These i
ings, along with self-evaliiM
the faculty members,
evaluation and student eii
tion, play a part in deteri
whether or not an indiviclii!
doing a good job.
Insurance rate hike recommended
United Press International
AUSTIN — The State Board of
Insurance staff recommended
Thursday an average 6.2 percent
statewide increase in property in
surance rates, including an aver
age 5 percent raise in the rates for
homeowners’ insurance.
The staff announced its recom
mendations for the first overall av
erage property insurance increase
since 1978 at the opening of the
board’s annual rate hearing.
The staff also recommended a
change in the way the State Board
of Insurance considers investment
income earned by insurance com
panies in determining insurance
rates in Texas.
“The new approach effectively
anticipates investment income to
be earned by insurance com
panies, and directly includes
these earnings in the rate develop
ment formula,” said Gaylon
Daniel, a staff actuary.
“As a consequence of this re
vised formula, the traditional 5
percent property insurance profit
loading in the rates has been re
duced to approximately 1.5 per
cent.”
He said if the insurance board
staff had used the old formula in
recommending new rates, the av
erage statewide increase for prop
erty insurance would have been
11.4 percent rather than the 6.2
percent recommended by the
staff.
cost of the same policy on a similar
home in central Dallas would rise
from $194 to $212, a 9.3 percent
jump.
The Texas Insurance Advisory
Association, representing the in
surance industry, is seeking a 11.3
percent statewide average in
crease for property insurance.
Under the staff proposal, the
cost of a one-year policy for a
$25,000 brick-veneer home in
central San Antonio or El Paso
would rise from $184 to 200. The
The cost of a one-year policy on
a $50,000 brick-veneer home in
south Houston would go from
$368 to $371.
policy would go from $470 to(:
in central Waco and Fort Wod
from $804 to $812 in nortm
Lubbock and from $510 tool:
south Houston.
Rawhii
ed by j
happy
The largest price hike for the
same policy on a similar home
would be in Fort Worth and Dal
las, where the cost would go from
$339 to $371.
The cost of a one-year polictl
fire and extended coverage oil
$50,000 brick-veneer home w:J
go down in many locales undeil
proposals.
On
For brick-veneer homes costing
$75,000, the cost of a one-year
Residents of northwest Li (11'"|
bock could see their rates qi-A-I.
from $430 to 425. Rates u
drop 11.1 percent in south H(
ton, from $234 to $208 a
Unitec
DALLAf
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7:15 9:35
Midnight Shows
Friday and Saturday
Black U.S. judge refuses
Klan bid for her removal
Iroductivit
ise Texas
to three tii
jge, state :
Statistic
jealth dep
led the cot
istimated t
United Press International
HOUSTON — A black federal
judge Thursday refused a Ku Klux
Klan request that she withdraw
from a lawsuit in which Viet
namese fishermen seek court pro
tection from threats by the Klan
and native Texas shrimpers.
“You are not entitled to a judge
of your choice, but you are enti
tled to a judge who will give you a
fair trial,” U.S. District Judge
Gabrielle K. McDonald told Klan
leader Louis Beam.
“I am deeply committed to
equal justice under the law and
you will get it. You are entitled to
nothing more and nothing less.”
Beam, the Klan and native
Texas fishermen represented by
the Seabrook-Kemah Fishermen’s
Coalition are defendants in a law
suit filed April 16 by the Viet
namese Fishermen’s Association.
The defendants have com
plained about the influx of Viet
namese refugees, but deny plans
for violent actions.
Beam said he doubted the de
fendants' chance of a fair trial be
fore a black woman judge, who as a
lawyer, handled civil rights cases.
The defendants charged that the
judge’s law clerk favored the Viet
namese in an incident Tuesday.
“I have no confidence that I’d
get a fair trial here any more than
you might have in going before a
trial by the KKK,” Beam told the
judge in testimony. “I know the
prejudice of your people against
the Klan.
“I have been a member of the
Klan since 1969, since I returned
from Vietnam. I have had ample
opportunity to see the prejudice
against whites who join the Klan.
Everywhere I go, blacks holler
death to KKK.”
The Vietnamese lawsuit accuses
the defendants of threats, intimi
dation and violence in order to eli
minate the Vietnamese fishermen
as competitors in Texas coastal
^ob in 1981
marshals. ^ leathswer
Defense lawyers filed then) during the
tion asking the judge todisquili York,
herself after an alleged incideit The sta
which her law clerk, Charlesb rate is an e
her, asked Vietnamese if it [Stopped kc
were intimidated by Klansm jpational ac
wearing white robes to deposit * "Lack o
hearings. lisguiseth
.. , ,i idling fro
I wanted to give you the; n( j disea ,
nefit of the doubt,” Beam said ner state
wanted to wait and see if “ j; vans
would be impartial. 1 had noi ; ^ a ^ e
tention of filing this motionti< Texas’ higl
the court showed its prejudice [onthelacl
The j udge denied giving Bait;
instructions to act improperly;
Barber testified he intended
unfair action in favor of the pk
tiffs. She said there was
cient reason for her to
duties to another judge
fisheries. The suit seeks a court
order and the protection of U.S.
A hearing was scheduled Md
day on the plaintiffs rec
We dc
rograms
’racey, e
Texas Ind
"We’ve ti
put havei
akes it s
death cot
preliminary injunction forbiddit there had
harassment of refugee fisher®:
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