[Archaea]

Originally Posted by Jeff Lebowski

It just means that the board of trustees has decided that the church does not have the resources (or that it would not be a wise use of resources) to build BYU as a top-tier research school. Instead, they are attempting to get a quality educational experience to as many students as possible.

I have known faculty who have come to BYU from other schools and commented that the focus on pedagogy and excellence in teaching is truly refreshing.

Also you seem to have a pre-conceived bias that there is little or no research at BYU. That simply is not true. While BYU doesn't pretend to be MIT, it does expect each faculty member to excel in scholarship. Some of the older faculty were hired under different expectations, but they are retiring now and being replaced with young faculty who must "publish or perish". And many of them are doing quite well. How can this happen at a primarily undergrad school? BYU has a high student to faculty ratio but they provide strong funding for TA support so that most faculty shouldn't need to spend all their time grading papers. Also, in recent years there have been millions in new funding for supporting undergraduate research. You can't build a strong research program solely with undergrads, but you can staff labs and do a lot of the "grunt" work associated with research by involving undergrads, who often have a rewarding experience. And given the high quality of undergrads at BYU, there is typically a big pool of strong candidates for the few grad student positions that are available.

Once again, BYU doesn't pretend to be a top-tier research school. But you simply cannot survive at BYU anymore without doing some scholarship and research. I have known a few pretty decent faculty at BYU who have been sent packing at their six-year reviews due to poor performance in research. I have also seen a few professors given the door due to poor teaching, in spite of decent research; something that is quite rare at most schools.

appreciate your insights as well.