Illinois Faculty Leaders Push for President's Firing

Parent Cafe
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<p>Well, look, you could make an argument that with a student-faculty ratio of 16:1, the UIUC faculty is already more than twice as “productive” as the Northwestern faculty, with a student-faculty ratio of 7:1. And you could take the UIUC faculty’s “productivity” even higher: at the University of Alabama the s/f ratio is 19:1, at the University of Florida it’s 21:1, at Florida State and LSU it’s 22:1, at Arizona State it’s a staggering 24:1, and Oregon State tops even that at 25:1. But why stop there? You could set a goal of doubling the “productivity” of the UIUC faculty, with a target s/f ratio of 32:1.</p>

<p>It would be easy, but a tragic mistake, to try to make UIUC more like Arizona State and Oregon State, and less like Northwestern. Heck, Illinois already has plenty of mediocre state universities; it doesn’t need another one. The big losers would be the top students in the state, many of whom already elect to go to private colleges and universities either in Illinois or in other states, but many of whom presently elect to remain in Illinois because they’ve got an attractive, high-quality public option in UIUC. </p>

<p>I don’t blame the UIUC faculty one bit for trying to protect the quality and prestige of the UIUC brand. Perhaps some others will. There are those who just don’t believe in public higher education, and would be happy to see it all go away. There are others who believe public higher education is fine so long as it sticks to providing a mediocre, mass-market education for other people’s kids, while they send their own kids to elite privates. But historically that’s not where the majority of citizens and taxpayers of Illinois have been. Like the people of neighboring states in the Big Ten conference, they’ve built a strong public flagship with a strong brand identity, and my sense, as a former resident of Illinois, is that a lot of people have been pretty proud of it. I don’t think they want to see the brand diluted or the product diminished. Nor should they.</p>

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<p>The Khan Academy is a great thing, but it’s best for the kids who are lagging behind and for the kids who are gifted and need to go at a faster pace. I think it’s a bad idea to replace the actual lesson or lecture with a video. Videos are a nice supplement and often lectures are taped for review, but it’s not the same thing. The only reason why it might be better for the California public system is that Khan himself is probably better at explaining math than your typical teacher.</p>

<p>I did hear rumors that U. of Illinois-Urbana was thinking of making organic chemistry an on-line course. That is one of the dumbest things I’ve heard of in a while. If they want to do that, they shouldn’t be charging tens of thousands of dollars in tuition.</p>

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<p>You may be right, but it’s very tough to find any actual info about the details of Hogan’s policies.</p>

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<p>bclintonk,</p>

<p>Your last paragraph is just what myself and many others feel. Thank you for stating it so eloquently.</p>