UF President Bernie Machen's recent statements concerning a desire to focus mostly on graduate education is troubling. In itself, setting a goal to become the best research university in the nation isn't a bad thing, but only focusing on the programs that attract the most grant money forecasts a dire picture of UF's future.
This is already evident within the sciences if you compare the vast resources the biomedical sciences enjoy to the relative dearth of research dollars funding the equally important basic biological sciences. If we continue down this path, you will see a sidelining and deterioration of graduate areas, which are the core of an undergraduate education as teaching assistants are often the people who undergrads interact with the most.
As a graduate student in the College of Medicine conducting research in a well-funded, relevant field, you would think I'd be happy that UF wanted to put focus on money-making areas like my own. But I know I would be nowhere if it weren't for the solid undergraduate education I received right here at UF.
One of my biggest complaints as an undergraduate, though, was that professors were too focused on their research and generally disinterested in education.
Putting even more pressure on faculty to become nothing but cash cows will only exacerbate this problem, and while it may boost our statistics as a research institution, it will only cheapen the experience of every undergraduate student and turn them off to learning. This would be a huge disservice to the public. Encouraging research and graduate education is fine, as long as it doesn't come at the expense of others' educational experience. What we should be discussing is greater resource sharing and collaboration between departments in parallel with an active role in evaluating and modernizing our educational model for both graduate students and undergraduates.
While research is what fuels this university and all of its various functions, it is the diverse array of undergraduate students that makes UF different from just a private research facility and a treasure worth preserving.
Brandon Sack is a biomedical sciences graduate student.
