2008 Woodie Awards
Yeshiva College Encourages Faculty to Pursue Research
Some Faculty Find Research Appealing, but Distracts from Teaching
Zev Eleff
Issue date: 10/22/07 Section: Features
- Page 1 of 1
Though the many hirings and faculty searches conducted at Yeshiva College are meant to accommodate Yeshiva's growing undergraduate population, another reason for the expansion of faculty is to encourage more professorial scholarship and research.
YC Dean David Srolovitz believes that scholarship is essential to raising the level of education at Yeshiva College. "I believe that on average, active scholars make better professors," he stated. "It's not only that active scholars are more up to date on developments in their fields, but that active scholars tend to be more enthusiastic about their subject matter. The best instructors not only present the best information, but they present in a manner that encourages students to want to learn."
Other YC administrators echoed Dean Srolovitz's commitment to faculty scholarship. "We are committed to making Yeshiva College as vital an intellectual community as possible in which faculty live what they teach," said Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Joanne Jacobson. "We are very much a teaching institution, so we do not by any means see teaching simply as an obstacle to scholarship.
Yet, we also know that an excessively heavy teaching load can make it very difficult for faculty to be productive in their own scholarly and creative work." At least one faculty member disagrees with the deans of the College. YC Professor of Chemistry Sergey Buldyrev told The Commentator that "there is no direct correlation between the productivity of a scientific researcher and his or her quality as a teacher."
Dr. Buldyrev added that research often distracts faculty from teaching. "Research is addictive and if you have an unsolved problem, you keep thinking about it day and night even five minutes before your class. I would say it is the opposite, teaching helps research."
However, Dr. Buldyrev conceded that without significant faculty research, "the whole atmosphere of the department changes and the intellectual level drops and as a result the teaching level drops."
Dean Srolovitz pointed out that according to the College's updated credential requirements for tenure positions, a hefty dosage of published work is necessary to demonstrate "promise to be real players in their own fields." He added that "all of our untenured faculty know that tenure depends heavily on productivity and accomplishment in their scholarship.
According to Dean Srolovitz "by and large, the faculty have been enthusiastically responsive to these changes" to tenure policy.
In order to accommodate faculty members to work on research, YC has taken several steps to help. First, the College has steadily decreased the number of courses per year that a faculty member teaches. In addition, YC has been providing more resources to help faculty with their work including funding faculty members who desire to attend academic conferences, purchase research equipment, library memberships, and finding ways to provide faculty with student research assistants
Regarding these considerations, Dean Srolovitz commented that "right now, we offer more positive inducements to increase scholarship among the faculty than at any other time in YC's history."
Of the above steps taken by Yeshiva College, Dean Jacobson was most enthusiastic about decreasing classroom hours. "As we continue to recruit productive, exciting faculty, we will also be looking for ways to set faculty teaching loads at the most reasonable levels for sustaining that work."
Dr. Buldyrev is one of the most published professors in the College. Yet, Dr. Buldyrev admitted that the current academic atmosphere at YC does not make things easy for researchers. "In graduate institutions there are graduate students who help. Here we do not have a graduate program so the solution is to hire post-doctorate professors," said Dr. Buldyrev who confessed that hiring post-docs would require considerable funding.
On the possibility of recruiting research assistants from Yeshiva's Albert Einstein School of Medicine, Dr. Buldyrev was not optimistic. "It is very difficult to interact with the office of sponsored research at AECOM. It would be nice to have a dedicated person from this office to spend one day a week at Yeshiva."
According to Dr. Buldyrev, YC students are "so busy during the school year that it is impossible to do any research with them except in the summer. But then it is only enough time to teach them necessary procedures. So you spend your time, the students obviously learn something useful, but you do not get anything back."
As a possible solution, Dr. Buldyrev suggested that should more students remain on campus a fourth year. "They can devote some time to research. These students will write a thesis, may co-author an article and as a result will have a much better opportunity to get into a good graduate school."
YC Dean David Srolovitz believes that scholarship is essential to raising the level of education at Yeshiva College. "I believe that on average, active scholars make better professors," he stated. "It's not only that active scholars are more up to date on developments in their fields, but that active scholars tend to be more enthusiastic about their subject matter. The best instructors not only present the best information, but they present in a manner that encourages students to want to learn."
Other YC administrators echoed Dean Srolovitz's commitment to faculty scholarship. "We are committed to making Yeshiva College as vital an intellectual community as possible in which faculty live what they teach," said Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Joanne Jacobson. "We are very much a teaching institution, so we do not by any means see teaching simply as an obstacle to scholarship.
Yet, we also know that an excessively heavy teaching load can make it very difficult for faculty to be productive in their own scholarly and creative work." At least one faculty member disagrees with the deans of the College. YC Professor of Chemistry Sergey Buldyrev told The Commentator that "there is no direct correlation between the productivity of a scientific researcher and his or her quality as a teacher."
Dr. Buldyrev added that research often distracts faculty from teaching. "Research is addictive and if you have an unsolved problem, you keep thinking about it day and night even five minutes before your class. I would say it is the opposite, teaching helps research."
However, Dr. Buldyrev conceded that without significant faculty research, "the whole atmosphere of the department changes and the intellectual level drops and as a result the teaching level drops."
Dean Srolovitz pointed out that according to the College's updated credential requirements for tenure positions, a hefty dosage of published work is necessary to demonstrate "promise to be real players in their own fields." He added that "all of our untenured faculty know that tenure depends heavily on productivity and accomplishment in their scholarship.
According to Dean Srolovitz "by and large, the faculty have been enthusiastically responsive to these changes" to tenure policy.
In order to accommodate faculty members to work on research, YC has taken several steps to help. First, the College has steadily decreased the number of courses per year that a faculty member teaches. In addition, YC has been providing more resources to help faculty with their work including funding faculty members who desire to attend academic conferences, purchase research equipment, library memberships, and finding ways to provide faculty with student research assistants
Regarding these considerations, Dean Srolovitz commented that "right now, we offer more positive inducements to increase scholarship among the faculty than at any other time in YC's history."
Of the above steps taken by Yeshiva College, Dean Jacobson was most enthusiastic about decreasing classroom hours. "As we continue to recruit productive, exciting faculty, we will also be looking for ways to set faculty teaching loads at the most reasonable levels for sustaining that work."
Dr. Buldyrev is one of the most published professors in the College. Yet, Dr. Buldyrev admitted that the current academic atmosphere at YC does not make things easy for researchers. "In graduate institutions there are graduate students who help. Here we do not have a graduate program so the solution is to hire post-doctorate professors," said Dr. Buldyrev who confessed that hiring post-docs would require considerable funding.
On the possibility of recruiting research assistants from Yeshiva's Albert Einstein School of Medicine, Dr. Buldyrev was not optimistic. "It is very difficult to interact with the office of sponsored research at AECOM. It would be nice to have a dedicated person from this office to spend one day a week at Yeshiva."
According to Dr. Buldyrev, YC students are "so busy during the school year that it is impossible to do any research with them except in the summer. But then it is only enough time to teach them necessary procedures. So you spend your time, the students obviously learn something useful, but you do not get anything back."
As a possible solution, Dr. Buldyrev suggested that should more students remain on campus a fourth year. "They can devote some time to research. These students will write a thesis, may co-author an article and as a result will have a much better opportunity to get into a good graduate school."
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Morris Kalka
posted 10/23/07 @ 12:48 PM EST
I am happy to see that YC is again emphasizing research among its facuty and Dean Srolovitz is to be congratulated. When I was a YC student, I chose to major in mathematics for many reasons, mong them the excellent research mathematicians then at the Belfer Graduate School of Science. (Continued…)
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