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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 7, 1988)
ook around \you. Students fill the campus and smSSSttheir reasons for being here are many. But have you ever thought h\ u , 11 O JZI i— 0 i rt n3 -q ftj . ^*j > <*: ^.-o a scz co-S about why your professors are here rather than at another university or in the business world? Does A&M attract these people because of its academic reputation, its research facilities or its students? And what about the University’s attempts to achieve world class status? How successful have the administrators been? Just how does A&M compare to other nationally recognized institutions? Students want to spend their college years at a school which challenges them and rates among the top universities. And faculty members want to use their knowledge to educate students and further their own careers. “Generally speaking, our faculty is well qualified,” says Dr. Clint Phillips, Dean of Faculties. “Most faculty members look at A&M as offering good career opportunities and competetive salaries. The University has a good reputation both nationally and internationally in some areas. ” The quality of the faculty is highly visible at national meetings when they read their research papers, Phillips says. Overall he believes A&M’s faculty of about 2,100 is very good. “We have made some remarkable hires by going around the country recruiting,” he says. “Other people see this and say maybe that’s the place to be. “Each year we lose some faculty, so they can be closer to their aging parents or they get a heck of a job they just can’t refuse,” he says. “But it is a sick institution that doesn’t lose some faculty. If you have really good faculty, then others will want to recruit them.” So how does A&M compare to other universities? According to the Jack Gourman’s The Gourman Report, a rating of undergraduate programs in American universities, A&M received a 4.02 out of a possible 5.0 overall. Schools rated between 4.41 and 4.99, such as Rice University (4.69) and the University of Texas at Austin (4.63) were considered to have “strong” programs. A&M’s rating between 4.01 to 4.40 indicates a “good” program. “If our undergraduate schools are to remain effective they must be constantly changing,” Gourman says, in the preface to the sixth addition of his book. “They must continuously stimulate a healthy experimentation and competition in the development of increasingly effective programs of instruction. ” The first Gourman Report, published in 1967, was updated most recently in 1987, and is an objective evaluation, not merely an “opinion poll. ” Most of the data comes from university administrators and officials chosen based on their academic qualifications, published materials and desire to improve higher education. Students look to colleges for the knowledge they will need later in life and the report tries to present and inform people about the possible strengths and weaknesses of different universities. “Higher education is in ill health today,” Gourman says in the preface. “At many of today’s schools, their chances of finding what they seek are not good.” nicjf rating guides available. And his college, ranked second in the nation by Gourman behind Cornell University, has been able to attract highly qualified faculty and students, Suter says. They attempt to recruit faculty members that other universities want. “This college enjoys a reputation among peers as being one of the leading colleges in the nation in agriculture,” Suter says. “We provide for quality teaching, research and leadership in planning for the future. Our faculty takes a personal interest in the students, and we deliberately recruit that type. ” Only a few of the 400 to 450 agriculture faculty members have not earned a doctorate, he says. “People come here for the reputation of the University,” he says. “We are well known nationally and internationally for both teaching and research. And we continually receive reports that recruiters from other universities are making inquiries about our faculty.” He attributes the success of the college to the high priority the faculty places on people. They are interested in the students and have demonstrated good interaction. Dr. Mel Friedman, dean of the College of Geosciences, says the best measure of a faculty is its ability to acquire outside research support. Statistics compiled by the Associate Provost for Research at A&M show that less than one million dollars of the college’s research dollars are appropriated by the state. The rest of the $42.1 million research dollars comes from competitors, he says. In addition, 40 percent of the University’s research is done by this college, which makes up about five percent of the total faculty. Because two thirds of their students are graduate students, research is a very important part of the faculty’s job. However, teaching is equally important, he says. “At the graduate level more than anything else, teaching is done through research,” Friedman says. “But because we have so many graduate students, research is vitally important. Through teaching with research we also provide good teachers for the undergraduates, and they can benefit from the quality of the instituion. ” Aside from faculty not gaining tenure and being asked to leave, Friedman says over the past 10 to 15 years, no more than six faculty members in the college have left A&M for better jobs. The faculty comes to the University for its quality programs, and by being involved in their professions, they are dictating the direction of science, he says. “We look for faculty who are truly dedicated to their particular disciplines and the concept of being at a university, ” Friedman says of the criterion for choosing his college’s faculty. “If they just want to do research, they can go to a government laboratory. We look for people with energy.” Of the 100 faculty members in the College of Geosciences, 63 are officers or committee members of professional societies, 16 are fellows of such societies and 11 serve on international committees. “If we are ranked by industries, we should be in the top five, ” he says. Dr. Dean Corrigan, dean of the College of Education, says the faculty in his college is “tops. ” The quality of the faculty, the quality of the students and the support from the University and the other colleges on campus improve the overall quality of A&M, he says. “We try to recruit faculty from the best institutions, ” Corrigan says. “We have outstanding teachers, model teachers. And we get good feedback from students regarding the quality of the faculty.” All of the 150 to 175 members on the tenure track in the College of Education hold doctorates, Corrigan says. In the past 10 years the size of the faculty has doubled, making it the fastest growing college of in the University, he says. Interim Dean of the College of Medicine, Dr. S.H. Black, says his faculty is highly dedicated and motivated. Although it is a relatively new program, admitting its first students in 1977, the college has been able to attract quality faculty. “We are attractive to faculty who are willing to try something new, that is to identify themselves with a new and growing program,” Black says. “They must have somewhat of a pioneering spirit to risk their professional careers in something that is still in a new and early state of evolutions. But we are able to attract outstanding teachers who couple that skill with a remarkable facility for research.” Most medical faculty are attracted to A&M because of its growing reputation as a first-order, research- based university, Black says. Virtually all of the 500 faculty members have either a doctorate degree, a medical degree or both, he says. An advantage A&M has over other medical schools is that it is not a free FAOU Does the A&M rank among t By Leslie Guy people at the front of their work. ” The College of Veterinary Medicine has about 140 faculty in the tenure track, an increase of about 10 members in the past 10 years. A high percentage of the faculty are tenured and have a low turnover rate, losing an average of three per year, he says. Most faculty members have a doctorate, are board certified, are doctors of veterinary medicine or a combination of the three. “We have no Nobel scholars, and haven’t been successful in some competitions like that,” Shelton says. “However, we have certainly been successful in getting people who were being recruited by other schools. iS-i 11- 10- 9- 8- 7- 6- 5H 4- 3- 2- H 0- Texas ASM University Professor thru Assistant Turnover (Excluding Visiting Faculty) University Average 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 standing medical school and can provide an opportunity for interaction with other disciplines. “We have a highly motivated faculty and a highly motivated student body, and together they have been able to do good things, ” Black says. Dr. George Shelton, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine, says they have a strong program which is one of the top four or five in the country. The faculty is sound and diversified, and he says the college is much stronger than it was in the past. “We recruit faculty from the best programs we can,” he says. “We bring people in from non-veterinary schools, too. We go to Oxford, Michigan, California Polytechnic StateUniversity — wherever we can get them. We have well recognized We’ve got good people, but probably don’t recruit the same people who will go to Cal Tech or Johns Hopkins. ” John Fackler, dean of the College of Science, says the college is developing well, with some departments ranking with the best in the nation. For instance, chemistry is known nationally and internationally as being one of the top departments granting doctoral degrees, he says. “We have people listed to be among the top two or three in the world,” Fackler says. “In one area of physics we have one of the strongest groups in the world. It is a small group of only three faculty members, but it’s very strong. We also have some oustanding world leaders in linear analysis. ” The College of Science was reviev Couni depar chemi rankir subste made “W Fackk biolog Unive Ad chemi becau institu lead tl it bett( “W take ri simply institui institul from,’ Dar planni of Arci Desigr qualifi colleg< the co mastei landsc 25 per doctor colleg< other‘ out of includi “AS resean specifi dayligl preser (protei made “Buty the fac Ami Colleg Envirc presidi Reseai presidi societii statew Mar havet they e: positio Ben Page 8/At Ease/Thursday, April 7,1988