To the Editor:
It is probably useful for me to amplify a recent article describing my remarks regarding changing influences in American higher education [The Dartmouth, "Pelton discusses professors' salaries," April 29]. The article's headline might lead the careless reader to conclude that I sought to criticize increases in faculty salaries. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that the earning power of today's faculty is less than that of their counterparts four or five decades ago. As a result, a number of institutions are making efforts to recover the loss in real wages during this time. This is an effort I support in general and one I have established as a high priority at Willamette University.
My remarks were directed toward research universities and changes in the nature of the professoriate at these institutions. I noted three changes in particular: greater mobility at senior and mid-level ranks, the emergence of the "star-system" and the reappearance of the public intellectual (certainly a more powerful influence in the '50s and early '60s). The growing specialization of knowledge and American market forces have been, I suggested, the major influences accounting for these changes.
Whether or not these trends will positively or negatively affect the quality of higher education in this country is open to debate. What concerns me is what effect these influences -- which occur primarily at research institutions -- will have on colleges and universities whose educational mission includes teaching as coequal or preeminent. Will these institutions lose the faculty loyalties and commitment to community that make them special? Will these institutions seek to bolster their academic reputations or reputations of individual departments through the appointment of faculty "stars" or "free-agents?" I hope not.
A recent report by the Carnegie Foundation criticized a number of American research universities for their neglect of undergraduates. The authors need only look to Dartmouth as a place that, in my opinion, does it right. Our educational objectives incorporate scholarship and research -- not to the detriment of undergraduates -- but in ways that enhance the quality of their educational experiences. Other institutions have much to learn from what takes place here.
