Some ISU students disagree on whether education should be the university’s primary mission and first consideration in faculty promotion and tenure.

“I think more emphasis should be put on undergraduate education,” said Simon Messmer, sophomore in history. “I think research is important, but I think its value is limited. I think people are more interested in the money it brings in than the value it brings to the world.”

Betsy Baldwin, senior in civil engineering, compared the university’s mission to that of a business.

“If the university is trying to run a business and the students are the customers, then the professors need to serve the customers, and they need to be teaching well,” she said.

Carmella Nogar, undeclared freshman, agreed that education should be the university’s first priority.

“We need people to teach us so we can go out in the world and function,” she said, “and if they’re more concerned with research than teaching, we won’t be able to do that.”

Mike Toepke, senior in chemical engineering, said he believes education needs to be the university’s first emphasis.

“The university is here firstly because of education,” he said. “That’s why it was founded, and I think that needs to be the primary focus of the professors.”

However, ISU Provost Rollin Richmond said he thought the promotion and tenure document that the Faculty Senate passed last year does an excellent job of equalizing education and research.

“I think it makes it clear that we’re looking for a balanced approach to the mission of faculty at this institution,” he said.

Richmond made some controversial statements at a January Faculty Senate meeting, where some senators thought he implied that research is more important than undergraduate teaching. However, he said he regrets that education and research are still being talked about as if they are completely separate.

“I believe that they’re closely related to each other,” he said. “It is frequently the case that the best teachers are often the best researchers and scholars at the institution and that the skills which make one a good scholar frequently make one a good teacher as well.”

Richmond also said he believes being at a research university has advantages for students.

“I believe that the education that we are able to offer students at a research university like Iowa State gives them a different and important perspective on knowledge that they wouldn’t necessarily get at other institutions,” he said.

Some students agree that education and research should have equal emphasis at the university and in promotion and tenure consideration.

“I think that both are important,” said Scott Mickelsen, graduate student in agricultural education and studies. “I think both can play a vital role in education.”

He said different scales should be used to evaluate good teaching and research.

“I don’t think it needs to be 100-percent research,” he said. “I think that goes against the mission of a land-grant university.”

Ginger Shipp, graduate student in veterinary microbiology and preventative medicine, said she also believes research and education should be equally important.

“If you don’t have good teaching, you don’t have good researchers at the end,” she said.

She said it is unfortunate when tenure decisions are made on research alone.

“Teaching should be held in just as high esteem,” she said. “If you don’t have good teaching, you lose your mission.”

One problem that causes difficulty for teaching and researching at the same time is lack of money, said Stephen Treimer, graduate student in chemistry.

“It’s hard for the professors to have a nice research group and teach at the same time,” he said.

Although there are many research awards, Treimer said there are not many awards for excellent teaching for teaching assistants or for professors.

“That also comes from the fact that we’re a land-grant research institution,” he said.

Treimer said he would like to see more professors coming to Iowa State with an interest mainly in teaching.

“It would be nice if Iowa State had the ability to hire more professors who just wanted to teach,” he said. “That just doesn’t happen in a large-scale university anymore.”