Monday, December 1, 1997
Bruins welcome visiting professors
ACADEMIA: Temporary teachers enjoy the freedom, opportunity that
program offers
By Marco Ponce Contreras
Daily Bruin Contributor
There comes a time when life becomes too familiar, mundane and
stagnant. When this happens, what is one to do?
Professors are confronted with this problem when teaching and
administrative demands become a hindrance to their personal growth.
Many relish the thought of what an opportunity to teach and conduct
research at another institution would bring. For many men and
women, being a visiting professor is a welcomed reprieve from the
rigors of engrossing academic schedules.
Terence Cave, a professor of French literature, is teaching at
UCLA for the first time as a visiting professor at the Center for
Medieval and Renaissance Studies, while on sabbatical leave.
His interests in French literature began in 1962 at St. Andrews
College in Scotland. Today, at 58, he teaches at the University of
Oxford, England, with the same enthusiasm he had while attending
Cambridge University in the ’60s, where he attained his
doctorate.
UCLA and Oxford are worlds apart in their teaching regimes,
notes Cave. In the latter, the classroom environment is somewhat
impersonal because students are evaluated at the end of their
academic careers, not by grades like in UCLA’s quarter system.
There is also very little dialogue between instructor and
student at Oxford. Students receive tutorials from their professors
and meet with advisors on a regular basis. In contrast, at UCLA,
"it is challenging to teach undergraduates because I don’t know
what level they are at," Cave said.
Classroom sizes are larger and students seldom speak up during
the first few weeks of the quarter. In any event, he has found the
students to be "friendly and hospitable, motivated and eager to
learn."
Having experienced two entirely distinct institutions, Cave
speaks from a rationalizing perspective. "It’s good to work in a
different system and see them from a different angle," he said
Professor Cordon Guojun Liao is another who aspires to see his
field from a new perspective. The opportunity to teach and conduct
research in a distinguished institution brings an invaluable
measure of wisdom that is not easily attained by other means.
His career began in Peking University, China, as an
undergraduate. He continued on to UC Berkeley where he received his
doctorate in 1985. Liao has been teaching calculus for 11 years and
now teaches at the University of Texas.
After all this time, he chose to become a visiting professor "to
have a break from the regular duties of teaching and research."
UCLA’s reputation in research undoubtedly played a major factor
in Liao’s decision to come to UCLA. His reasons included his
research interests and the presence of a strong academic program in
applied mathematics.
Liao’s research at UCLA resides on "grid generation and
adaptation," a crucial step to numerical circulation to
differential equations.
The work on cross-sections of grid coordinates and nodal values
of air foils is the initial step in devising efficient systems that
are applied in aerospace, avionics, water applications and metal
melting in casting – to name a few.
There is a give-and-take between the university and a visiting
professor. UCLA utilizes visiting professors to fulfill certain
needs. By their diversity and expertise, the visiting professors
bring fresh, new outlooks that permanent instructors may not be
able to offer. They also allow the department to evaluate the
professor for consideration for full-time employment. It is a
trial-like tenure the university exercises in order to fill their
faculty positions with competent and respectable professors who are
at the top of their fields.
Karen Nikos, director of media relations at the school of law,
points out that there are two kinds of visiting professors. One
type is known as an "adjunct," a temporary professor whose short
tenure is evaluated for consideration for full-time employment.
Another is the professor who is here to explore personal interests
in a particular field.
According to anthropology department chairman Joan Silk, the
temporary professor would normally replace faculty members who
retired or died, or are on sabbatical or fraternity leave.
A typical temporary professor will have been established in the
field for some time and most likely holds another faculty position
in another institution. On the other hand, professors in search of
personal interests are sometimes recent graduate students who are
close to obtaining their doctorates. They haven’t been in their
respective fields for very long and are recruited to either teach a
single course for one quarter or to conduct research.
Ultimately, "the visiting professor adds a breadth to curricula
that is beneficial to students and faculty," said Nikos.
Visiting professors are allowed more freedom, which they use to
attend workshops, seminars or conferences that expose them to
faculty members with similar interests. It was a workshop which
allowed Liao to meet Stanley Osher, a professor in allied
mathematics at UCLA, and convince him to enter the program. Both
men were impressed with each other’s work.
The life of a visiting professor is an experience with the
potential for psychological and intellectual growth. Professors are
given the opportunity to explore new avenues in research and career
opportunities.
For instructors who have limited experience, teaching gives them
time to decide exactly what they want to do before committing
themselves to long-term employment at an institution.
The freedom of this system is a valuable commodity, and visiting
professors make no bones about taking full advantage of it.
PATIL ARMENIAN
Visiting professor Terence Cave finds it a challenge to teach
undergraduate students.