DEREKH FROUDE/Arizona Daily Wildcat Political science senior lecturer Jim Todd lectures yesterday on the First Amendment and on recent Supreme Court decisions regarding freedom of expression. Todd, who recently received an award from students for excellence in teaching, is under fire from the political science department for not publishing professional research. A requirement in his contract mandates he spend 25 percent of his time on research.

Memo from department head sayslecturer must publish within a year to keep his job

Political science senior lecturer Jim Todd was awarded April 10 for outstanding teaching and his involvement with students outside the classroom. Five days earlier, he had received a notice from the head of the department that said he has a year to publish his research or find another job.

The department of political science and students at Yuma Hall, the residence hall where Todd is a faculty fellow, have been stirred up by the recent news. The lid has come off a debate about balancing research and teaching at the University of Arizona, a Research I Institution.

Todd was chosen for the Five Star Faculty Award, the only award that students give to professors, after 16 years of teaching in which he has been nominated countless times and once named a finalist, said Honors College Dean Patricia MacCorquodale.

But getting the award this year is odd timing for Todd.

"It's ironic that I get this (award) at a time when my department has told me that if I don't publish they're going to fire me," Todd said. "I resent, at 16 years of service, being told that I should publish and that I'm somehow inferior for not publishing."

However, publishing research is 25 percent of Todd's job, as written in his contract as a senior lecturer, political science department head Bill Mishler wrote to Todd in an April 5 memo.

Todd posted that memo on his office door.

Striking a balance

Wanda Howell, vice-chair of the Faculty Senate, said it's up to the department to decide whether or how much research its lecturers are required to do.

Four years ago the political science department established a new policy that all faculty must engage in research.

According to the Handbook for Appointed Personnel - which contains the rules for faculty employment - lecturers, like other faculty, can be subject to performance evaluations based on research as well as teaching.

By vote of his peers, Todd's job with the department will be up for renewal next spring. If he has not published by that point, Todd will have until spring 2004 to find another job, the memo states.

"This is a crock of shit, honestly," said political science junior Scott Weller. "He's a great professor. He's fun. He's really responsive, and the department doesn't respect him. I think a majority of the students do."

Todd has been cited for not doing research in yearly performance reviews and took a sabbatical to conduct research, but has not published, the memo states.

Todd is a faculty member, but, as a senior lecturer, his primary responsibility is teaching, according to the Handbook for Appointed Personnel. Of UA's approximately 1,600 faculty members, about 50 are lecturers, according to the UA FactBook.

Neither Mishler nor College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Interim Dean Charlie Hurt were available for comment. Associate administrators in the department and the college declined to comment.

There were more than 100 nominations for the Five Star Faculty Award, with some professors nominated by several students, said Andrew Man, a management information systems senior. A committee narrowed the nominees to five finalists, who were interviewed and evaluated for teaching ability.

"What swayed the selection committee's vote in the favor of Todd is that he is so close to the students," Man said.

Getting personal

Todd is also a faculty fellow, which means he gets to know students in an assigned residence hall.

The wall near the front door of Yuma Hall is plastered with pictures of Todd and Yuma Hall residents on hiking trips they took this year. The residents are talking about circulating a petition.

A glance at Todd's computer shows that he gets a steady stream of e-mails from current and former students who have personal crises, doubts about their careers, need letters of recommendation and who are just checking in to tell him what law firm they're at now and say hello.

"I've found that I probably do more good in working with students over their lives · than publishing in some second- or third-grade journal that no one will read," Todd said.

Todd begins his courses each semester by telling his students he's very liberal politically, a member of the Green Party, and that they're free to disagree with him. Occasionally, his classes become debates.

Political ideologies aside, he's well-liked by Republicans too, one student said.

"He's the only teacher on this campus in four years that's bothered to learn my name or care about my education," said Manny Espinoza, a political science senior and past president of the UA College Republicans. "Everyone likes Professor Todd, and we thought it's ridiculous that the university would try to get rid of him, because he's such a great teacher."

Publishing research hasn't been Todd's top priority, he said, because he teaches year-round at the UA and during summers on the East Coast to supplement his income and make it into the $50,000 salary bracket. Before coming to UA, Todd worked as a lawyer for the now-extinct Interstate Commerce Commission in Washington, D.C.

Publish or perish

Todd's case symbolizes a bigger debate - how university faculty should prioritize research and teaching.

Faculty in Arizona's three public universities spend about 64 percent of their time each week, or just over 35 hours, teaching, according to a 1998 Arizona Board of Regents Report. But that report addressed tenured and tenure-track faculty, who are required to maintain even more of a balance than lecturers between teaching and research.

The faculty in that report also spent about 20 hours a week performing research. Based on a 55-hour work week - which the report said was typical for a university faculty member - Todd would be fulfilling his contract as a senior lecturer by spending just under 14 hours a week on research.

Research and teaching should go hand in hand, not just for Todd, but in all departments, some of his colleagues said.

Ideally, an instructor's job should be about 40 percent research, 40 percent teaching and 20 percent public service, said Barbara Norrander, political science professor.

"Spending time with students obviously means you're not spending time with research, and they're both important," said, university distinguished professor in the department of political science James Clarke.

As of 1998, research brought in about $530 million in outside funding annually among the three universities.

Clarke said research makes the difference between a university, especially a Research I Institution like UA and a junior college where the focus is solely on teaching.

Ana Perches, Spanish and Portuguese senior lecturer, knows the balancing act that goes on between research and teaching.

While she was on the tenure track over a decade ago, and raising a 5-year-old, Perches spent more time with students than doing research, and she never made tenure as a result.

Perches said she has no regrets about not getting tenure, because she'd rather concentrate on teaching more classes instead. She got the Five Star Faculty Award in 1997.

Meanwhile, Todd is considering his options.

"I may not be here in the fall," he told some of his students. "Because of my current situation I'm looking for jobs."