 Professors at a research university divide their lives into 6-year segments. From their first job as an assistant professor to their tenure and promotion to associate professor is a 6-year block. Because it is up or out or, as we often say, publish or perish, that initial period is crucial for the fledgling professors. During this short window they must prove to their colleagues that their ideas are original and interesting enough to survive peer-review and result in publication. This is, of course, the same time when assistant professors are developing new courses and fine-tuning their teaching skills, which are as important to their future as are their research results.
After passing that preliminary bar of tenure and promotion, professors need to start thinking about the next book or set of articles that will be evaluated after yet another 6-year segment. If all goes well, they should become full professors at that point. If not, at least they still have a job, although their self-respect may have taken a blow.
Good research, like good teaching, is not always easy to identify or define. What about the new Internet-based publication opportunities – are they the same as text-based articles or books? Is peer review enough, or will the relative lack of expense in publishing digitally eventually lower quality? Does the fact that someone has to pay in itself guarantee a higher bar? In an era when university presses are under pressure to publish only books that will at least break even, is there excellent, paradigm-changing research that is never seeing the light of day?
The faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences have set a high standard for themselves in teaching and in research. No one, we believe, is better qualified to guide our students into the new knowledge of the future than those who themselves are producing such knowledge in their articles, books, blogs, and public presentations. The accomplishments of our honored alumni speak eloquently to the success of this approach. Margaret Lehrman (’66, English) has excelled in her position at NBC News; Luis Ernesto Derbez (’74, Economics) is a politician who teaches at the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Mexico City, and Gurdeep Singh Pall (’89, Computer and Information Science) plays an important role at Microsoft. These and many other alumni continue to show us how a liberal education can prepare you for almost any job. We are justly proud of these high-achieving alumni, and of all our faculty who are committed to bringing new ideas to light.
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