August 11, 2008
Albuquerque Journal
UNM Faculty Striving To Be Accessible to Students (Op-Ed)
By Howard Snell, President, UNM Faculty SenateThe Princeton Review's recent assessment of the University of New Mexico sent a mixed message. UNM once again made the review's list of the “368 Best Colleges,” with reviews touting its “strong academic community” and “excellent graduate programs.”
As president of the Faculty Senate, I was not surprised. UNM is a great university providing quality education, research and public service for the State of New Mexico.
The surprise was that many of the 356 UNM students surveyed by the Princeton Review gave the faculty lower scores than students surveyed at the other 368 Best Colleges when asked, “Are your instructors accessible outside of the classroom?” and “Are your instructors good teachers?”
The university has a superb faculty of gifted individuals from virtually every field of study. Just last month five UNM professors joined the ranks of the university's “distinguished professors,” which is the highest honor a faculty member can achieve. UNM now has 34 of these most talented teachers and scholars. As a biology professor, I take special pride in UNM's recognition as one of America's finest schools for the life sciences and many other fields.
Speaking for many of my colleagues, the faculty rankings are puzzling. UNM faculty members hold regular office hours for unscheduled visits and are available by appointment outside of those hours. Because students have diverse schedules and many work off campus, many faculty members maintain active e-mail lists or Web pages for their courses to foster classwide discussions that don't require additional time on campus.
Aside from increasing access, those Internet tools allow all students in a course to understand the instructor's reply. In my courses I've found the e-mail discussion lists to be valuable tools for students — especially on the evenings before exams when answering questions by e-mail can go on well past midnight as students study.
All that being said, as UNM faces the challenges of academic excellence, we plan to address the perception that our faculty is inaccessible. Just as we are proud of our dedicated faculty and the achievements of our students, we want to be likewise satisfied that our faculty is available to the students at times and places that are mutually convenient.
President David Schmidly has made “Communicate” this year's theme at the University of New Mexico, and part of that will be improving communication between faculty and students.
The Faculty Senate will work with both graduate and undergraduate student organizations — the Graduate and Professional Student Association and the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico, respectively — to understand the issues associated with accessibility and instruction. With a better understanding of what problems exist we can determine how we as faculty can make ourselves more available to our students.
The most important learning experiences sometimes happen outside the classroom, and as dedicated teachers, we want to ensure that UNM is a leader in fostering frequent and productive student-faculty contacts.