IU's context broadened
in community-based campuses

Within academic circles, it has become almost a cliché that good teaching is inseparable from good research or creative activity. From personal experience, we know that it is true. We have known the excitement of discovery, the challenge of analytical methodology and the payoff of systematic pursuit of new knowledge. If we are actively engaged in the discipline we share with students in the classroom, the excitement, the challenge and the payoff are real to us and much more likely to become real to our students.

Why is it so difficult to convince others of this obvious truth? Why is it so difficult to convince the public that research, far from being just an isolated and self-reflective activity (the "ivory tower") is intrinsically related to the quality of our students' preparation?

We believe because we have experienced the connection; we have been there and continue to reinforce that linkage throughout our careers.

Indiana University has an historic reputation of academic and research excellence. That record is now being enhanced by a growing appreciation for involving undergraduates in the research and creative process. Importantly for our future, it is here that a real connection between research and learning becomes more public. Our undergraduate students demonstrate for us in a very concrete way the value of active scholarship in promoting excellent teaching and learning.

As our students share the scholarly process with faculty mentors, they become our most effective witnesses to the importance of research.

Recent examples from students at Indiana University South Bend show that this research may be as abstract as the exploration of Mandelbrot and Julia Sets, as concrete as the comparison of a manual versus mechanical procedure in a hospital cardiac care unit, or as applied as strategies to strengthen housing code enforcement or to improve a municipal service such as leaf pick-up.

By demonstrating to themselves and to others outside the academy the real connection between scholarship and learning, our undergraduate students also bear witness to the real connection between scholarship and teaching. Community-based universities like IUSB are especially well situated in this regard, and we see rather dramatic evidence of success. The context of Indiana University is thus broadened and its standards of excellence better understood.

Viewpoint editorial policy

Viewpoint is open twice monthly for opinions on topics and issues that affect IU campuses and their surrounding communities. To submit your idea for "Viewpoint," contact "IU Home Pages" editor Jayne Spencer by E-mail (jhspence@indiana.edu), Fax (812-855-7002) or campus or U.S. Mail (IU Office of Communications and Marketing, 400 E. 7th St., Poplars 721, Bloomington, IN 47405). Please summarize your column idea and the points you intend to make and develop into a 500-600 word column. Viewpoint is open to faculty, staff, students, parents or community members and is intended to express the opinions of individuals, not special interest groups. The "IU Home Pages" Executive Board reserves the right to edit or reject any submitted copy.

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