It’s a familiar story at Iowa State.

A professor is adored by his students. He stimulates thought, encourages discourse and opens minds to new ideas.

He attracts prospective students to Iowa State with his passion for the subject he teaches. His classes are perpetually difficult to get into, even though students know they will be challenged in his class.

Then, suddenly, he leaves Iowa State.

His students are left to ask why. Why would a teacher so popular and so adept at what he does leave?

The answer is simple, and its one of the biggest problems facing faculty.

He couldn’t get tenure.

At the Faculty Senate meeting on Jan. 11, this problem was addressed again by members of the faculty and Provost Rollin Richmond.

Contrary to what some faculty members believe, Richmond says teaching is important — even equally important to research. But that just is not demonstrated by the practice of Iowa State.

It’s not surprising. After all, research is easy to measure. You have research published; you are awarded grants for continuing research; the university sends out a press release letting everyone know what an incredible researcher you are.

Research can be easily characterized as something that brings prestige to the university. How can teaching compare?

In today’s front page article, Richmond says about a professor up for tenure, “If that individual is a poor teacher, I will not recommend them for tenure.”

But how could Richmond or any other administrator possibly quantify teaching enough to know whether a professor is a skilled teacher?

Yes, there are student evaluations, which are said to be very important to professors’ tenure tracks. There’s just one flaw with that. Student evaluations are remarkably ineffective at demonstrating teacher ability.

But what else is there? How else do administrators know that a professor is a good teacher? Is it instinctive? They can just look at a professor and know?

Research at a school such as Iowa State is important; there can be no doubt about that. But despite what Richmond says, it is treated as the most important thing. And that is not right.

Some professors are quite good at blending both research and teaching responsibilities, but most are not. That is just the way it is. Most professors are better at either researching or teaching, but not both.

The problem is, that affects the teachers, not the researchers, when tenure time rolls around.

If Iowa State really wants to be the best institution it can be, equal consideration must be given to be good teachers and good researchers.

We need to keep the good teachers here.

Iowa State Daily Editorial Board: Sara Ziegler, Greg Jerrett, Kate Kompas, Carrie Tett and David Roepke.