I was only a freshman. Maybe I was expecting too much. But that first day of chemistry class, I just thought something was wrong.

They had told us all that those introductory classes would be tough, and we would be in classes larger than many students’ hometowns. I didn’t have a problem with any of that (my hometown isn’t that small), but the class just didn’t seem like what I had envisioned college to be.

By the end of the first week, I was sure something was wrong with this chemistry class. By the end of the first month, I had figured it out.

The professor didn’t realize he was teaching a class.

He showed up every day, and he lectured at us for a while. But I am convinced that he didn’t ever realize we students in the class were supposed to be learning.

This chemistry professor would ramble on for an hour, usually reading directly from the book. He would occasionally entertain questions from the class, although he never actually answered any of the questions. Then we students would be left to our recitations, where we would beg our grad student T.A.s to teach us what we were supposed to be learning.

Don’t get me wrong; the chemistry professor was a very nice man. He was a distinguished professor, a member of the Faculty Senate, apparently a great resource for graduate students and of course a very accomplished researcher.

But he shouldn’t have been teaching freshman chemistry.

I didn’t need my hand held through that class. But it was a horribly disappointing experience for me, an idealistic freshman.

Before I came to Iowa State, I assumed that college would be a place where professors would want to mentor me and direct me in ways to open my mind. I thought classes would be stimulating and interactive. Even in intro classes of 300 students or more, I expected professors to be dedicated to the art of teaching.

Boy, was I wrong.

Yes, I’ve had some great teachers here. There have been some professors, both in large lectures and in small 400-level classes, who have challenged me and forced me to think in ways completely foreign to me. I didn’t receive As from all of those professors, but I will always remember them for caring enough to teach me.

Unfortunately, those professors are few and far between at Iowa State.

Maybe they should be rare. After all, this is a research-intensive school. Although I’m a liberal arts major, I recognize that this is not a liberal arts school.

It’s pretty well-established that most professors are not going to be able to devote as much time, energy and skill to both research and teaching. That’s not their fault. It makes sense that chemistry prof and so many other professors would ignore their undergraduate classes and concentrate on what they do best — and what will get them tenure easiest.

Research.

Maybe that’s the way it should be at Iowa State. But if that’s the way it’s going to be, it would be nice if the ISU administration would stop jerking students and faculty around and tell us the truth.

The things ISU’s administrators say lead the people of Iowa to believe that student education is the most important thing at Iowa State.

They say things like, “Undergraduate education is our No. 1 priority at ISU,” (President Martin Jischke), and “[F]aculty needs to recognize that teaching is a primary function of the university,” (Provost Rollin Richmond).

But the things they do directly contradict all that they say.

They refuse to support for tenure professors who are exemplary teachers but have not demonstrated excellence in research. They say they will not grant tenure to skilled researchers who are poor teachers, but they have no basis for determining a professor’s teaching proficiency except student evaluations, which are horribly unreliable.

Professors are left with few options but to concentrate on what will allow them to keep their jobs.

And students are left with chemistry professors who don’t care whether they learn.

Iowa State’s system of promotion and tenure is a no-win situation for almost everyone involved. Teachers and students are left out in the cold, and researchers are left having to defend themselves to students and peers for doing what they do best.

The only winners in the system are the ISU administrators.

Maybe not enough students care about the lackluster educations they are receiving. And maybe too many professors like their jobs too much to risk losing them in a battle with the ISU administration.

But I am sure that there are enough people opposed to the way promotion and tenure is run here to finally do something about it.

We students need teachers. And teachers need a place to help young people learn new things and explore new worlds.

It’s too late for me and my chemistry prof. But it’s not too late for future legions of idealistic young students and teachers yearning to open their minds.

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Sara Ziegler is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Sioux Falls, S.D. She stopped going to chemistry before the evaluations were handed out.