Keep the professor's we have

Dear Editor:

I think it is ridiculous that the University is hiring new tenure-track professors for the fact that they want our University to be in the top 100 universities for research. Did the administration think maybe they should focus on being in the top 100 universities for excellence in education instead?

Every year there are great professors up for tenure who don't get it because they aren't "super-publishers." This year is not any different. One professor who is up for tenure said to me the other day, "Your review probably won't matter because I am not going to get tenure anyway - I didn't publish enough." This professor had an enormous impact on my college education and it is too bad that there is a possibility that she won't be here for all of the other students in years to come. This professor might not publish a million papers but she is an awesome professor, a mentor to many and, more importantly, she is a friend to her students.

I don't care if SIU is in the top 100 research universities. All that means is my professor's are sitting in their offices writing papers while their graduate assistants are teaching me. I have attended SIUC for four years now, and the majority of my classes were taught by graduate assistants.

My parents pay for me to get a college education and I don't think being taught by other college students is their idea of a college education. There is a really good chance that I might have passed geology the first time if I would have been taught by my professor and not by a broken-English-speaking graduate assistant.

The SIUC administration doesn't need to be searching for new hires; it needs to be focusing on keeping the quality professor's that it already has.

Nina Bucciarelli

senior, speech communication

Carbondale Resident

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