Tech faculty recognized among most productive in nation
Adam Young
Issue date: 11/30/07 Section: News
Texas Tech faculty members in three academic departments and programs have been recognized as being among the top 10 in the nation in the 2007 Academic Analytic's Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index.
Tech's composition, rhetoric and writing program in the Department of English ranked fifth in its respective category, the Department of Industrial Engineering ranked sixth in its category and the wildlife sciences program ranked eighth in the nation in its category, according to the index, which is available on The Chronicle of Education's Web site, www.chronicle.com.
Sam Dragga, chair of Tech's Department of English, said he believes receiving the recognition increases the university's national visibility as a competitive academic institution.
"It's good for students to know that their faculty are productive in their scholarship and that the education that they're getting here at Texas Tech is really at the leading edge of the discipline," he said.
Dragga said Tech being recognized as having highly productive teachers will make Tech alumni' degrees more competitive.
"It certainly adds to the value of their degree because it means that their faculty are nationally recognized for their scholarship, they are contributing important research to the discipline and employers or graduate schools who see the students in our program know that these are students who are getting a first-rate education in the discipline," he said.
Rich Rice, an assistant professor of English at Tech, said the Academic Analytic's index measures productivity in terms of faculty members' articles and books published, grants earned and the use of their ideas in other researchers' articles.
He said he credits part of his contribution to Tech's recognition to having co-written two books that have sold more than 70,000 copies each - books that he believes have made a significant impact in teaching freshman English composition.
"To be listed as one of the top 10 of being productive means to me that we're doing a really good job at teaching because all of our projects are in some way related to teaching," he said.
Tech's composition, rhetoric and writing program in the Department of English ranked fifth in its respective category, the Department of Industrial Engineering ranked sixth in its category and the wildlife sciences program ranked eighth in the nation in its category, according to the index, which is available on The Chronicle of Education's Web site, www.chronicle.com.
Sam Dragga, chair of Tech's Department of English, said he believes receiving the recognition increases the university's national visibility as a competitive academic institution.
"It's good for students to know that their faculty are productive in their scholarship and that the education that they're getting here at Texas Tech is really at the leading edge of the discipline," he said.
Dragga said Tech being recognized as having highly productive teachers will make Tech alumni' degrees more competitive.
"It certainly adds to the value of their degree because it means that their faculty are nationally recognized for their scholarship, they are contributing important research to the discipline and employers or graduate schools who see the students in our program know that these are students who are getting a first-rate education in the discipline," he said.
Rich Rice, an assistant professor of English at Tech, said the Academic Analytic's index measures productivity in terms of faculty members' articles and books published, grants earned and the use of their ideas in other researchers' articles.
He said he credits part of his contribution to Tech's recognition to having co-written two books that have sold more than 70,000 copies each - books that he believes have made a significant impact in teaching freshman English composition.
"To be listed as one of the top 10 of being productive means to me that we're doing a really good job at teaching because all of our projects are in some way related to teaching," he said.
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