A Balance of Study and Teaching in Tenure and Promotion Cases
The enhanced role of teaching at majorresearchuniversities suchas Harvard and Stanford has sparked renewed interest and debate, but most of the academy would speculate that research and publication will continue to be a significant, if not major, requirement for tenure and promotionat most institutions. Page Smith, former provost of the University of California, Santa Cruz, suggested that the “publish or perish canon that so distorts the educational mission of the great universities” is alive and well (1991, p. 19). Indeed, it is apparent that the emphasis on publication has increased in the recent history of higher education. Arizona State University President Lattie Coor, when proposing the establishment of a major commission to explore the role of teaching at his institution, stated: “There is no question that the scholarly activity of a faculty member has assumed a greater place in university life over the past 20 to 30 years” (1990, p. 1). Still, recent stirrings suggest that institutions may be placing more importance on teaching. Ernest L. Boyer, for example, has argued eloquently for an expanded definition of scholarship that would include not only the discovery of knowledge (original research), but also the integration and application of knowledge with teaching (Boyer, 1991). It is not easy for the average university faculty member to meet tenure and promotion requirements, but it can be particularly difficult and occasionally frustrating for those who are in professional units such as journalism and mass communication. Faculty members in these departments often are involved in “creative activities” such as producing radio and television programs, writing newspaper and magazine articles, publishing textbooks and popular books, and engaging in media consulting. When submitted to university committees as tenure criteria, these activities may be considered weak or lacking in scholarly virtues when compared to the more traditional demand for publication of refereed journal articles. As a result, journalism and mass communication fac-
How Senior Professors Have Coped with Changes in Academic Life
A check of databases such as the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) Index and the Academic Index uncovers thousands of recent studies related to professors, their students, and the programs and departments in which educators work. The relatively few studies that focus on journalism and mass communication educators generally chronicle job responsibilities and attitudes about the profession.An examination of media trade publications also reveals articles about journalism education, but neither these articles nor any scholarly studies have focused on the evolution of journalism and mass communication teaching as experienced by seasoned faculty members during a period of profound changes in academe.This study examines how these faculty members have coped with changes over time. Senior professors, defined as any college or university teachers (regardless of rank) who have taught full time for at least 10 of the past 15 years, have had more exposure to such change than have less experienced faculty members because of this, they were asked to assess its effects on their lives.Literature reviewLeatherman (1992) suggested that the over-arching change in higher education within the last decade may well have been recession-inspired cutbacks in funding. He noted that this has caused generalized problems such as difficulty in maintaining quality in academic programs, inability to retain the most qualified scholars, and inability to hire replacements for professors who retire, thereby shifting the work load to remaining faculty. He also identified a reduction in institutional support for trips to professional conventions and for memberships in professional organizations, despite the relationships between professional activity and universities' tenure and promotion decisions. Additionally, he said recession has forced some faculty to drop all professional memberships, causing them to forego professional development and service activities related to job security and advancement.Despite funding cutbacks and their effects on professional activity, Leigh & Anderson(1992) concluded that traditional research was still highly valued by administrators making tenure and promotion decisions, Their research, however, also showed that many institutions balanced research requirements with good teaching and creative activities.Faculty also find themselves inundated by scholarly journals and other publications related to their rapidly changing fields. This is happening at a time when budget cutbacks have caused libraries to cancel subscriptions to serial publications, which has limited access to such publications (Watkins, 1992). This is potentially damaging to journalism educators, whom Weaver & Wilhoit (1988) found to have diverse reading interests.An additional change is an increasing emphasis on computers and computer literacy in the university (Adams, 1987; Davenport, 1990). DeLoughry (1992) reported that more faculty members own computers than ever before, and that their educational institutions continue to recommend that both software and hardware be updated.Like professors in other disciplines, in the past 20 years journalism and mass communication faculty also have incorporated computer-aided instruction into their classrooms, and some computer programs have been used to make grading more efficient. Smith (1993) found that faculty could reduce grading workloads, if they would use computers for certain kinds of assignments. Other studies have encouraged professors to develop new software or have identified useful computer conference services or databases (Parker, 1991; Smith, 1991).Another problem professors face is overcoming poor preparation and poor scholarship in some of the students they teach, and their challenge isn't limited to the worst students. A 1992 newspaper headline read, "Even the top students lag, colleges say," while the accompanying article, syndicated by The Boston GIobe, noted that the level of student work had fallen significantly in the last 15 years and that current students "are not as rigorously trained, particularly in the communicative skills--the ability to write [and] the ability to speak" (Ribadeneira, 1992, p. …
Metallurgical Process Engineering
The "material of choice" - steel.- Uprising of China's steel industry.- Process manufacturing industry and process engineering.- Engineering science in steel manufacturing process.- Analysis and integration of metallurgical manufacturing process.- Multi-dimensional mass flow control for metallurgical manufacturing process.- Time factors in steel manufacturing process.-Operating dynamics in the production process of steel plant.- Structure and mode of steel plant.- Steel plant and environment.