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Interesting comments. I agree with a lot of this, but I'm not sure I agree that there is a big problem with "politics" being discussed in the classroom. It just didn't happen to me at the undergrad, grad, or faculty level. Maybe there are others out there that had faculty after faculty rail about some political or social issue, but not in my experience. That isn't to say it doesn't happen, but I don't see it as an epidemic.
As far as faculty teaching their own classes, this is a mixed bag. As I noted on another thread, the primary function of faculty at a large university is to run a research program...teaching is an afterthought. Unless you change the criteria for promotion and tenure, you have the problem of selecting for one set of skills (research and getting funded), then requiring them to teach. Some are great at both. But most are not.
So, do you create a caste system? Have researchers and teachers separate but equal (or not)? The argument for having researchers in the classroom is that you want people who are on the cutting edge in the teaching trenches as well. But many buy their teaching time out so they can focus on what they prefer to do (research). Do you eliminate that?
As for teaching assistants, many large schools have huge intro classes (1000 students). Does a full faculty member give every lecture and lead discussion sections? And grade all the exams? Good luck with that.
The english requirement is interesting. I understand what is behind it, but the fact of the matter is in many disciplines there are not enough native english speakers available either as students or faculty (if you want the best and brightest). So do you lower entrance standards to favor native english speakers? Do you hire a lesser qualified faculty candidate because their english is better? I can say that in searches I served on we did take language skills into account, but that was at a liberal arts college. At a reserach institution, it would receive less weight as, again, its about who can get research funded, not who can teach the best.
So if we add the english requirement and require all this teaching, how will basic research get done in this country? Companies don't do it.
ROI is in play here. That's been my argument leading to my prediction that many small colleges will go bankrupt in the next 20 years...they can't justify the cost relative to what they provide, especially with pressure from new models like U. of Phoenix, etc.
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