Professors defend academic research

In an article titled, “Texas students should not take a back seat to research,” published in the March 31 issue of the Houston Chronicle and on the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) Website (http://www.texaspolicy.com/press_releases_single.php?report_id=3638), Ronald L. Trowbridge argues that Texas university students are getting shortchanged because professors spend too much time on research and not enough on teaching.

Trowbridge is a senior fellow of TPPF, an organization that regularly presents itself as a politically connected far-right activist group that is currently conducting a campaign against funding higher education in Texas.

The TPPF holds that students are customers, and that professors should be in the business of satisfying their customers rather than wasting their time on research.

What is the problem with academic research?  Trowbridge makes several charges but two stand out: (1) Much academic research is worthless, and (2) Professors don’t do much research anyway.  This sounds like the old joke about the restaurant where one diner says, “The food here is terrible!” And another says, “Yes, and the portions are so small!”  Yet Trowbridge is entirely serious.  Why does he think that much academic research is worthless?  Because, he says, ordinary citizens do not understand it.

In 1919 Albert Einstein became famous when the New York Times and other newspapers proclaimed that his theory of relativity had been confirmed.  What did the ordinary citizens of 1919 understand of relativity theory?  Advanced research always sounds esoteric initially, yet worldwide interest in Einstein’s theories was enormous.

Trowbridge claims that professors take time off from teaching for research, but then do little research, with half publishing less than one article a year.

Some academics publish little, but others are incredibly prolific, generating not just articles but books, book chapters, edited anthologies, reviews, grant proposals and presentations at professional conferences.  Trowbridge mentions nothing of these.  What is wrong with providing the most productive researchers with the means and the extra time to pursue their work?  Just what is his complaint?  Should we stifle research because some do more of it than others?  We suspect that Trowbridge here is merely promulgating one of the sillier myths of the far right, namely, that academics are an indolent lot who work a few hours a week and spend the rest of their time sipping Chablis in the Faculty Club.

In other reports by this group and similar groups, claims have been made that the average professor makes over $100,000.  All the reports cited the same statistical information made available via Texas Public Records.  What they did not explain was that they averaged administrator’s salaries with full, associate and assistant professors.

In the academic world, we call this “lying with statistics.”  Perhaps if Trowbridge learned how to do current academic research, he would be better versed in the field and might actually call for more funding.  After all, several surveys of university students demonstrate that students want to be exposed to current research in their chosen fields.

Our experience is that our research has made us better teachers.  Research puts you in touch with what the smartest of your colleagues are saying and doing.  This gives you fresh and relevant material to present to your students and gives them an accurate idea of what is really going on in the field.  Research makes you think hard about deep subjects, and publishing forces you to express yourself accurately and cogently.  These skills also make you a more effective teacher.  Sadly, while Trowbridge is advocating an end to research he is advocating an end to enriching university educational experiences, something we believe nobody wants— right or left.

What we have found at the University of Houston—Clear Lake, an institution that prides itself on being student-centered, is that what really eats away at the time and energy needed for teaching is not research but the ever-more-onerous service duties.   Long hours spent on meetings, committee work, writing program reviews, etc., is time taken away from preparing lectures, grading papers, and mentoring students.  Reducing the excessive burden of service work would do the most to improve university teaching.

Debra E. Clark is an Associate Professor of Communications and Digital Media Studies at the University of Houston-Clear Lake.
Keith M. Parsons is a Professor of Philosophy at University of Houston-Clear Lake.