The End of the Ivy League As We Know It?

[UCBChemEGrad]

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@xiggi

Fwiw, your deliberate inclusion of faculty and especially GRADUATE students is duly noted, but also quite irrelevant as the faculty at Cal is essentially dedicated to research while Princeton is essentially an undergraduate institution.

Au contraire!</p>

<p>[Tenure</a> road rough for professors - The Daily Princetonian](<a href=“http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2008/05/16/21215/]Tenure”>http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2008/05/16/21215/)

Scholarship versus teaching</p>

<p>Members of the faculty were clear about which factor was most important in tenure decisions.</p>

<p>“Research is it,” molecular biology and Wilson School professor Lee Silver said. “Teaching is a tiny little bit. A brilliant teacher who’s just ok would never get tenure. And … a brilliant researcher who’s just a mediocre teacher could get tenure. Unless you’re on the edge, teaching’s irrelevant.”</p>

<p>Tilghman defended the focus on research over performance in the classroom.</p>

<p>“We are one of the most distinguished research universities in the world,” Tilghman said. “And we got there by setting very, very high standards for the quality of research and scholarship that is conducted by our faculty.”</p>

<p>Tilghman said she has rejected “very fine and very dedicated teachers” because “the evidence of sustained excellence in scholarship definitely wasn’t there.” She added that candidates with impressive scholarship have also been turned down for a poor teaching record.</p>

<p>Dobkin agreed.</p>

<p>“We believe the best predictor of long-term success on our faculty in research and teaching is measured by the quality of the faculty member’s research at tenure time,” he explained.

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