This article is the second in a two-part series examining professors who take research leaves. The first installment examined the faculty and administration's viewpoint on the phenomenon; today's installment will take a look at the effect the leaves have on students.
A slew of pamphlets and Web sites serve to remind prospective students that Tufts professors are accessible mentors, but the validity of these words sometimes plummets as students watch their professors and advisors leave the classroom for months at a time to research.
While virtually all faculty members are strong proponents of granting research leaves, some students have dealt with academic frustrations due to a constantly morphing faculty pool.
Sophomore Brogie Helgeson is taking three courses whose normal professors are away on leave - two of which are requirements for her chemical engineering major. With these courses taught by interim professors new to Tufts, Helgeson explained that she has experienced a disjoint between her original professors and their current replacement faculty members.
"I'm sure in the grand scheme of things, research leaves are beneficial, but as a student, it is difficult to gain as much from a course because the interim professors, even though they are qualified, don't have the same experience," Helgeson said.
Against the background of a stable faculty, as many professors have had years of teaching experience at Tufts or another elite university, the differences in taking a course with an interim professor can be glaring, Helgeson said.
"Interim professors don't know the school's policies or how courses at Tufts are usually structured," Helgeson said. "Some seem overly qualified, and they dig too deep into the subject matter, while others cover just the minimal amount that is in the textbook."
According to Helgeson, who is being taught by three interim teachers, the issue could be resolved with closer attention to the timing in which professors in the same department conduct research.
"It would be hard for the school to regulate every major's requirements so that few professors are on leave within a particular major at the same time, but it would definitely be more convenient," she said.
For junior Derek Kong, the negative implications of research leaves have not been as significant with the help of the Internet and e-mail.
"My classics professor, Emma Blake, is spending a year abroad working on a book and doing research, and she has been writing me recommendations for graduate school," Kong said. "She seems very busy with research, but she has still been in touch."
As a chemistry major and advisee of Associate Professor of Chemistry Elena Rybak-Akimova, Kong conducts research in molecular cardiology at the Tufts Medical Center and said he supports the necessary absences professors must take to advance scholarship.
"I think research leaves are a really good thing, because it is important to collaborate with others and share ideas so that our work is not just among the Tufts community," Kong said. "It's always good to talk with others if your laboratory is having problems."
Because the nature of advising can vary by department, some advisors have found that students have few concerns in regards to having an advisor on leave.
"Our chemistry majors require fairly little advice," Rybak-Akimova said. "The chemistry requirements are well specified and fairly rigorous, so more often than not, I noticed during my leave that advisees would come because of a formal requirement for
-+a meeting."
Because Rybak-Akimova remained in the Boston area during her research leave in the spring semester of 2005, she found that it made no difference in her advising to be
on research leave.
"I kept my advisees because I was at Tufts every weekday, and on weekends as well, so there were no problems," Rybak-Akimova said. "However, my impression is that if we want to push research at Tufts, we have to have research leaves, but if there are issues from the students, we have to solve these issues while still maintaining the practice."
Hosea Hirata, Professor of Japanese and Chair of the Department of German, Russian, and Asian Languages and Literatures, plans to temporarily direct his advisees to Japanese Professor Charles Inouye during his leave in the fall semester of 2009.
Hirata acknowledged the difficulties of being an advisor on leave, but said he is confident his students will be equally satisfied with Inouye.
"It is really hard to keep advising students and maintaining that relationship," Hirata said. "In this particular case, I don't think it will be difficult for students, because Professor Inouye is a great advisor, and he really looks after his students."
Still, many feel that the research leave policy should be altered to further consider the needs of students.
"There is some cost associated, and students don't always see the benefit, they only see the cost," Dean of Undergraduate Education James Glaser said. "We in the administration are well aware of the costs, and there are things we can do about it - we can set up better systems to connect students with advisors and instructors and we can make sure that we offer courses that are important even if faculty that normally teach them are on leave. There are things we can do as deans and department chairs to ensure that students do not get lost as a result of the fact that faculty go on leave."
Conversely, Associate Professor of Art History and Dean of Academic Affairs for Arts and Sciences Andrew McClellan said that even though some advisees will miss the personal connection they made with their original advisors, faculty research leaves will bring mostly positive changes to the university.
"Faculty leaves are sometimes the occasion to bring in new faculty covering new fields and new perspectives on a temporary basis, expanding and enriching the curriculum in exciting ways," McClellan said.
