PSU Magazine Spring 1993

faculty perform. Each has a different mix depending on its mission-Univer– sity of Oregon professors perform more research than PSU profs, and PSU faculty spend a higher proportion of their time teaching than OSU-but they are consistent with what is hap– pening in the rest of the country. The nation-wide debate is centering on whether the current research/teach– ing mix-when all W'.iversities are lumped together-is a good one. Are university professors spending too much of their time on research? Should they spend more time in the classroom? Ann Weikel, chair of the PSU faculty senate's University Planning Council, says there is a misconception by the Legislature that the 9 to 12 hours a week a professor is in the class– room tells the whole story of what faculty do with their time. PSU Provost Michael Reardon agrees. "Most academics will tell you that simply (looking at) class loads i not the way to conceive of productivity, or BPSU Dean Robert Tinnin mea ure it. It's a very simplistic idea," he says. He adds that PSU faculty probably could not take on a significant increase in teaching loads. "At PSU, I'm not sure what 15 percent would equate with," says Reardon. The Vanguard in January cited a study that full-time faculty across the nation worked an average of 53 hours a week in 1987. Tinnin says that figure is similar to hours worked by PSU faculty. University profe sors throughout the country devote a portion of their time to research. But research-the publica– tion of what some may see as obscure studies performed at the expense of classroom teaching-has fueled public skepticism about all universities, whether they are strictly "research" institutions or, like PSU, "compre– hensive" universities whose mission is primarily to teach. Says Weikel, "the Harvards and the Stanfords of the world emphasize research so much, and we're being painted by the same brush." Weikel, Tinnin and others at PSU who are close to the issue say that research and teaching go hand in hand, and that teaching without the benefit