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.