IU columnists duke it out on IU's priorities

Universities always evolve, and ours is no exception. Public universities, in particular, face the daunting challenge of losing the state funding that made them public in the first place. With the budget difficulties facing IU, it makes sense to re-evaluate our priorities, and President Adam Herbert has made it clear that the life sciences are now the "highest University priority."\nThis sets off plenty of alarms in the brain of an English major who loves the humanities. When English professorships are being cut and College of Arts and Sciences faculty members are worried about their relevance within the IU system, a statement such as Herbert's can rile up some hostile feelings. \nYet, the University has to go where the money is, and guess what folks -- research grants and high-tech jobs aren't the first things that jump to mind when I think humanities. As budget pinches get tighter, I think the humanities departments of COAS will see significant obstacles, but I think it's a hit we must be willing to take.\nAny belief that the humanities stand at the center of IU life is illusory. As the university continues its transformation into an increasingly private enterprise, it has to seek out funding wherever possible. To assure the continuation of public funds, an emphasis on the life sciences makes IU relevant to legislators in a quickly expanding field and creates the possibility for job creation and retention within Indiana. Also, research grants are more likely to go to the life sciences, because honestly, the political science department doesn't typically need million-dollar labs.\nSome fears concerning liberal arts at IU are totally unfounded. The idea that the humanities departments will collapse is quite silly, and as IU Chancellor Ken Gros Louis correctly pointed out, more funding for the life sciences means more funding in general. I don't think IU's priorities represent a zero-sum game, where one department's gain is another department's loss. \nI do, however, recognize that a reprioritization of academic fields signifies a necessary and altogether natural shift in the life of a university. There has always been a balance between the traditional, humanities-based classical education institutions and scientifically based, professional research ones. For the past two decades, we have steamed ahead in the research direction, and now, IU is firmly on board.\nWhat I see as the greatest challenge in this new direction is the role of the professor. A focus on the life sciences invariably means a focus on graduate studies and research as the yardstick of a faculty member's worth. If a professor will be judged on research ability rather than educational ability, I worry that teaching, especially on the undergraduate level, could suffer markedly. If we decide that research is the goal of a university, where does that leave the actual education?\nIt's easy to perceive some kind of prizefight between science and the humanities that the humanities are in terrible danger of losing, but this is simply not the case. Such shrill cries are ignorant of the decisive moment that the University has reached, and if we do not change with the times, we will surely be left by the wayside. I do want the humanities to remain strong at IU, and I have no doubt that COAS (and probably a few professors) will be around until the end of time, but if we don't get the funding, we'll have one hell of a time trying to support them.