For years, Carl Mize has been an outspoken opponent of the university’s goal of becoming the premier land-grant institution.

His claim that he speaks for “most of the citizens of Iowa” in voicing his opposition is doubtful.

He certainly does not speak for me as a faculty member or as a tax-payer.

As a taxpayer, I would demand nothing less of my public servants than to strive for excellence.

In the case of faculty, that means excellence in all of our tasks — teaching, research and outreach.

I certainly see no evidence that the university has been paying less attention to teaching in the past five years.

In fact, I’d say that the scrutiny of who teaches, what is taught and how it is taught has increased under the current administration.

All this begs the question of what Professor Mize finds objectionable in a goal of becoming the best land-grant university.

Would Professor Mize prefer to be associated with a university with a less ambitious goal, say, to “strive for mediocrity.”

Or maybe we should “dare to be average” or even to “be comfortable with complacency?”

The purpose of a goal is to set a direction.

As a scholar and a teacher, I’d rather fail attempting to excel than succeed in standing still.

Peter F. Orazem

Department of Economics