Jacob Baron '10 seems to argue for the impossibility of attracting researchers to Dartmouth ("The Rural University Paradox," Jan. 16). His position is inaccurate on its face: One only has to look for proof at the groundbreaking work that has been done at the College (artificial intelligence and chaos theory come to mind; along with innovative work in virtually all the other disciplines). And today, this supposed rural/urban divide is less important than ever, given the ease of communication between scholars.
However, beyond these points, the teaching/research issue is worth discussing because alumni are often depicted as opposed to research by the faculty. If you give the subject a moment's thought, you can't have first-class teaching without research.
Place yourself in the position of the College. When Dartmouth grants tenure to a faculty member, it faces several challenges in justifying a 30-plus-year commitment to its permanent employee.
How can the College ensure that the professor's teaching remains vibrant for this extended period? How can Dartmouth guarantee that the professor imparts to students the notion that any intellectual field has an ever-evolving understanding of its subject?
Some of us, though only rarely at Dartmouth, have faced the bleak task of taking a course with a faculty member for whom the flame has gone out. With research in the distant past, teaching has become no more than the repetition of old lecture notes. For students, such courses often involve little more than the ingestion of "facts."
Contrast this experience with a class given by a professor constantly on her discipline's leading edge. I have heard art history professor Joy Kenseth lecture on the Baroque artist Caravaggio three times in the last 30 years: first, when I was a freshman in 1976; then again in the early '90s; and about four years ago. Each time her lecture engaged me because each time it was different, with Kenseth integrating current scholarship and recently uncovered Caravaggio paintings into a discussion animated by the thrill of discovering more about a painter.
Living in France, I have seen people who are the products of an education that focuses less on the evolution of knowledge than does our liberal arts tradition. Many French students long to study in the U.S. in order to share the excitement of doing research with American faculty members. They recognize the heavy hand that the repetition of old learning places on their society. As only one example, contrast the French with Americans' adaptability to technology, a trait that I believe flows directly from the overall receptiveness of our faculty and students to new ideas. If you doubt this, think how slow your French friends were to have e-mail in their universities and at home.
The only way for students to truly understand the importance of research is to do it themselves. Participating in a professor's search for new knowledge, helping to organize what has been learned, and drafting a professional paper are intellectual activities infinitely more valuable than the rote acquisition of information.
When this work takes place in a contentious field, where researchers advance ideas and are then countered by other scholars, the experience is even more enriching. I watched this process last year in professor Susannah Heschel's Jewish studies seminar on the historiography of the Holocaust, a young field where scholarship is moving at a fast pace.
Faculty hoping to deepen alumni appreciation of research should talk more about their own research in class. Hearing about a professor's scholarship is eye-opening. This past spring, English professor Bill Cook spoke about his research on Dartmouth's Caleb Bingham, editor of "The Columbian Orator," and the vital influence that this book had on Frederick Douglass.
We need to put the teaching versus research controversy behind us; the debate is not "either/or." Rather, we should move forward and talk about the correct balance between these two supporting activities. If the College can set the right balance, we can give our students a unique education.
