Institutional priorities

I sat down for brunch with The Canon’s two regular contributors, Derek and Esfandyar, a couple of weekends ago. Somewhere between discussing the nature of love and how to order eggs, one of us threw out a question along the lines of:

“Would you rather have a Nobel laureate who can’t teach or a great teacher who hasn’t done any research?”

Derek immediately answered, “a great teacher.”

After a pause, Yar sheepishly looked up at Derek, “a Nobel laureate.”

Some disagreement and name-calling ensued. Yet both answered the question with significantly more nuance here.

Columbia is certainly more research-oriented now than it was in 1754. Whether or not this trend should continue is up for debate.

Lanbo Zhang
Editorial Page Editor

Should Columbia give higher priority to research or teaching?

• An active faculty by William Theodore de Bary
  • The academic dilemma by William Deresiewicz
    • Teach research by Esfandyar Batmanghelidj
      • Two birds, two stones by Derek Turner

        The Canon runs every other Wednesday and is dedicated to the discussion of Columbia's perennial problems. Its prompts feature questions that we should repeatedly ask and constantly answer. While we may never come to firm resolutions, either collectively or individually, the belief is that there is some merit to the discussion itself.