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Research,
teaching top dialogue
Final
Vision in Action meeting focuses on faculty research and
academic programs.
By
Lacey
Krause
Staff Reporter
Approximately 50 students, professors and staff members
met Wednesday to discuss “Finding the Ideal Academic
Mix.” The discussion revolved around the importance
of faculty research and improving the core curriculum.
The meeting was the last of six town hall meetings organized
by Chancellor Victor Boschini’s Vision in Action
group. Boschini charged the group with formulating a three-
to five-year strategic plan for the university.
One goal of the Academic Program Comprehensiveness/Appropriateness
committee is to develop a TCU-specific definition of the
“teacher/scholar model.”
“My vision of an ideal teacher/scholar is one who
believes in and excels at teaching,” said Matt Orlovsky,
a senior history major.
TCU should encourage faculty research by funding professors’
projects and research-related travel, Orlovsky said.
“The university has to encourage and further provide
the resources for the professors to go where they want
to go,” he said.
Board of Trustees member Malcolm Louden had another idea
for encouraging faculty research.
“Why wouldn’t it be better to pay more and let
the individual professor decide what to do with it?”
Louden said.
TCU needs to develop a center for research, said Bonnie
Melhart, associate dean of the College of Science and
Engineering. Students and faculty could go to the center
to develop ideas for projects and find funding sources.
Interdisciplinary education also needs to be addressed,
said Sherrie Reynolds, director of graduate studies for
the School of Education.
“It allows people to be prepared to deal with real-world
problems and needs,” she said.
The university currently offers a Master of Business Administration/Doctor
of Education program in educational leadership. This is
an example of a niche program that fulfills a need, Reynolds
said.
“There is no one preparing people in the way we are,”
she said.
Other comments had to do with the TCU curriculum. The
university should offer a “life skills” class,
Louden said. The class would teach topics like understanding
insurance and planning for retirement.
“When a person leaves TCU, we haven’t prepared
them for real life,” Louden said.
The university must continue to emphasize liberal arts
areas like philosophy, French and English, said Blaise
Ferrandino, a music professor.
“We have to remember those forgotten areas upon which
the liberal arts stand,” Ferrandino said. |
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Sarah
Chacko/Photo Editor
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| Rhonda
Keen-Payne, a nursing professor, responds to questions
asked at the last Vision in Action meeting at noon
Wednesday in the Student Center Lounge. |
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