[The Montana Professor 24.1, Spring 2014 <http://mtprof.msun.edu>]
Philip Gaines, PhD
Associate Professor of Linguistics and Chair, Department of English
MSU-Bozeman
Welcome to the latest issue of Montana Professor. Here is a summary of what we have to offer this time around:
In Focus on Teaching, MSU-Bozeman writing instructor Jill Davis, recent winner of the President's Award for Excellence in Teaching, shares her insights on the community-engaged scholarship model of service learning that she developed for her class of WRIT 101 students. I think you'll find Jill's approach—and her remarkable results—inspiring and informing of your own teaching.
For this issue's MP Interview, Montana Professor poses questions to four presidents of tenure-track faculty unions in the Montana University System about the state of collective bargaining in our higher education units and the relation of unions to university administrations. To call their answers hard-hitting is almost euphemistic.
There is only one Book Review in this issue, but it's a good one. MP Book Review Editor Marvin Lansverk takes over the space to talk about Derek Bok's latest offering on the state of higher education. Bok is always engaging and provocative—if not sharply controversial—and Lansverk represents his perspectives astutely.
Professor Emeritus Jerry Coffey brings us another of our Critical Issues in Higher Education—a sobering analysis of the near- and longer-term prospect on retirements among the tenure-track faculty in the MUS. Coffey knows whereof he speaks, having served the system for many years as a strong voice on benefits and retirement. His insights and concern deserve a close reading.
For Current Research, we hear from Montana Tech's Martha Apple and Keith Edgerton from MSU-Billings. Apple reports on her research into the effects of climate change on alpine plants in Glacier National Park, the Pioneer Mountains, and Cairngorms National Park in Scotland. Keith Edgerton gives us an intriguing and sometimes surprising look into the life, times, and impact—for good and ill—of copper king William Clark, whom Edgerton calls one of "the most powerful, influential, and ruthless of the 19th century American robber barons."
Finally, don't miss emeritus professor Bill Locke's contribution in Reader Response, in large part a reaction to the MP Interview with former Board of Regents Chair Angela McLean in the last issue. Although McLean has since left her board position to become Montana's Lieutenant Governor, Locke's letter provides a perspective that will still resonate with many. Warning: It's another hard hitter.
On that last point, allow me to editorialize for a moment. When Montana Professor first came into being, it was understood that the journal would be a voice for the interests and concerns of the Montana professoriate. Over the years, those concerns have included sometimes sharp criticism of the policies and perspectives of the Board of Regents, the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education, and university administrations. And as we all know, one of the proclivities of university faculty has always been taking the administration to task when they don't like something.
It is to be noted, however, that for most of MP's life, the journal has been funded by the two flagship campuses of those very administrations. This relationship model, in which an institution funds the work of an entity whose constituents sometimes criticize it, is in keeping with a time-honored American tradition of freedom of expression, even when that expression is strong dissent. Obviously, the administrations' support for the journal does not imply agreement with the dissent of its contributors, but it does evince a kind of magnanimity that is, in my view, healthy and productive. Whenever people are given a chance to speak out, sometimes in strong terms, about matters of concern, they are empowered in feeling that they have made a worthwhile contribution. Moreover, the conversation about the issues in play can only become richer and more nuanced as a result. This journal's board, its editor, and its readership appreciate the opportunity that UM-Missoula and MSU-Bozeman have provided for the tenure track faculty of our fine four-year institutions to say what they think.
[The Montana Professor 24.1, Spring 2014 <http://mtprof.msun.edu>]