TEACH US

by Jonathan Rheaume

Clark Kerr’s California Master Plan of Education in 1960 designated the University of California as the only state institution authorized to award PhDs. The focus on research,however,did not erase the teaching mission of the University of California.Although the teaching load was lowered,the acceptable level of quality of teaching was not.

The University of California’s Mission lists its fundamental responsibilities as teaching,research and public service. Appearing first and foremost in this list is teaching.

Graduate students at UC Berkeley are concerned about the emphasis on research at the expense of teaching.As a result,the Graduate Assembly voted teaching improvement as one of the three main focuses for the 2007-08 academic school year. The initiative is called TEACH US,which stands for Teaching Excellence At California’s Highest Universities. Advising was added to this list by friendly amendment.

The goal of TEACH US is to encourage excellence in teaching at UC.Several teaching awards already exist,but these awards do little to motivate faculty members across the board to improve teaching. At UC Berkeley,substandard teaching is tolerated as long as research quality remains high.

Ironically,most students at UC will never perform any research. The overwhelming majority of students will never publish a paper or perform any research of significance.Undergraduates and professional students makeup a large majority of students on campus.They did not come to UC to do research,and they are poorly served by policies that slight teaching for the benefit of research.

Similarly, all UC Berkeley students who pass through the Sather Gate will need advising during their educational journey,but advising does not appear in the University’s Mission.There is no mechanism to provide feedback about the quality of advising. How well advising needs are being met is in question.

While improvement in teaching and advising can be expected by increasing their weight during promotion evaluations (merit review,tenure cases,etc.),this outcome is unlikely in the near term.The TEACH US committee is considering the following near term goals:1.Making course evaluation statistics publicly accessible on the internet,2.Raising awareness of teaching quality and 3.Instituting a performance metric for advising.

Former UC BerkeleyChancellor, Robert M. Berdahl said it best:“Unless the state recognizes and supports excellence,excellence will not develop and we will all be the poorer for it.” The TEACH US initiative aims to support excellence in teaching and advising.

1- University of California's Mission.Accessed on 10/23/2007 from http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/aboutuc/mission.html.

2- RobertM.Berdahl,“The Futureof Flagship Universities,Texas A&M University Convocation, October 5,1998.Accessed on 10/23/2007 from http://cio.chance.berkeley.edu/chancellor/sp/flag-ship.htm