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April 20, 2007 > Opinion > Don’t save Dr. Eliot

Don’t save Dr. Eliot

By The Rice Thresher Editorial Staff | Thresher Editorial Staff

Faculty turnover is no new thing. Groups of students protesting the termination of a lecturer’s contract is. (See story, Page 1.) And despite the size of the Save Dr. Eliot campaign to extend Kinesiology Lecturer John Eliot’s contract, we agree with Kinesiology Department Chair Gary Wihl’s decision to uphold Eliot’s original contract termination date.

We have no reason to doubt that Eliot is an inspiring lecturer or that he has changed the lives of more than one current student. But the fact of the matter is Eliot’s prominence in televised media and positions on multiple local advisory boards do not make his courses in the sociology of sports and how to team-build effectively any more or less relevant to the university’s educational mission. Sure, he is very successful at what he does both within the Rice community and outside the hedges, but what he does is not what the university should be focusing on as it expands.

President Leebron’s Vision for the Second Century calls for faculty to articulate goals for an ideal Rice undergraduate education. We hope faculty choose to emphasize intellectual pursuit, both as an individual and group process, in these goals. We do not believe the university’s educational goals should include an emphasis on the process of team-building in itself, but instead team-building only as a means toward greater intellectual pursuits. In short, the subject of Eliot’s most praised class — UNIV 309: Creating and Managing Change — should be subsumed into the curricula of classes that have more inherent intellectual merit.

Part of the V2C mission is to focus faculty appointments and university money more narrowly on programs in which Rice wants to excel. Rice’s endowment is large, but not infinite, and cuts need to be made to the university’s less prominent areas of study. So while we lament the loss of a fine lecturer, we think the decision is a step in the right direction. As new hires are made, we should keep both Eliot’s ability to inspire students and the university’s desire to provide a holistic intellectual experience in mind: Professors with Eliot’s charisma can change lives, and we should seek them out in every department.

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