<p>Speaking as a researching faculty member at a research university, I say that most research faculty have an interest in teaching well. They live and love their discipline: eat, drink, and sleep it. It may seem a bit silly to use a national figure, a major intellectual, to teach freshman, but many chose to do so and enjoy it. </p>
<p>There is a certain fear of intellectuals that has them labeled poor teachers automatically. Knowledge and passion are the greatest pedagogy. I write this as someone who use to interview graduate students across the curriculum for jobs. The worst were from the ed school, lots of pedagogy talk and not much passion or knowledge.</p>
<p>Northeastern’s ability to recruit the best teachers from a non-research population is not unusual in a top university in an urban area, but for most universities, faculty can outperform the locals, if they are given adequate support.</p>