A Metro State professor is being scrutinized for her travel to exotic locales in the name of research, as reported in a 7News story this week. Before I go on, let me be clear: I work at Metro State. I do not know Dr. Cruz, nor am I at all familiar with the travel in the Human Services department. Although $30,000 is a lot of money, it is clear that the article is not portraying the full picture here. In short, I am not going to spend this post debating the validity of Cruz’s travel. What I think is interesting for the sake of this blog on Higher Education in Colorado however, are the public’s comments to the story (there are 64 posted, as of the time that I’m writing this).
For the purpose of this discussion, let me summarize the key findings here that don’t seem to be under debate:
· Cruz has spent approximately $30,000 (of state tax dollars) on travel over the last few years—though the story does not provide the timeframe for the expenditure. Much of the money funding her travel was from a grant from the Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS). The travel was to international conferences related to her research re. parents with intellectual disabilities.
· Cruz traveled to some quite desirable locations (though it is certainly plausible that she also did travel to less exciting destinations that didn’t make it into the news story).
· Cruz added tacked on some personal vacation while traveling on behalf of the College and she often brought her husband along (although everyone seems to be in agreement that both the husband’s travel expenses and their personal excursions were paid with personal funds).
Now let me paraphrase some of the comments made to the article:
· This lady (Cruz) is a freeloading lazy vacationer who should pay ME for my vacations.
· These public employees are pilfering my money.
· Sure, social work “research” in the Bahamas. Yep. I want to do “research” in the Bahamas too.
· Maybe if she wasn’t out globetrotting they wouldn’t have raised tuition this year at Metro State.
· Why on earth is a teacher out doing research when she should be doing what she was hired to do--- teach!
· Typical college wasteful spending
and my personal favorites:
· Occupy Metro!
· I voted “no” on Prop 103
(last two are not paraphrased)
Reading these types of comments led me to two main points:
1. Coloradans do not value the research aspect of the faculty role, at least not when it costs money. In the eyes of 7News viewers, and even putting money aside, faculty are teachers, and therefore they should be teaching and not researching. However I have to wonder if this is is this consistent across institutions and academic fields. Consider for a second the probable travel expenses (both time and money) of faculty members at highly selective institutions. Do you think that faculty at Berkley or the University of Virginia (both publics) would be scrutinized for spending $30,000+ on travel for the sake of research? Doubtful. Or, perhaps it is her field. If she were in a STEM field would this issue be the same? I think that it is safe to say that if that if she was out finding a cure for a chronic disease, this would be a non-issue and her research would be applauded.
2. Coloradans perceive higher education as a glutton of excessive spending, yet have a simplified sense of education financing (the comment re. prop 103 comes to mind here…). The comments which imply that if Dr. Cruz had not traveled that students would pay less tuition highlight this. Although I’ll certainly agree that there are areas in public higher education where we could be much more frugal, the equation is a complex one (which I don’t yet fully understand either…). Furthermore, the article reports that the funding for Dr. Cruz’s travel was from a CDHS grant- yet the comments largely ignore this. Without knowing the details of the grant, I do think that it is safe to assume that the grant isn’t going to be used to offset Metro State students’ tuition.
I am not surprised with the public comments that indicate a simplified understanding of higher education financing, and the general sentiment that public institutions and employees are wasteful. However, I was somewhat surprised by the criticism about Cruz traveling for research. This got me thinking about the general public’s impression of the role of higher education, and more specifically, of faculty. As we discussed in one of our earlier classes, research responsibilities are certainly nothing new to our world, yet it seems that many outside of our field and/or outside of the particular industry/field that may benefit from said research are either entirely ignorant of the research which goes on in higher education, or dismiss the importance of such research. To the general public, faculty members are teachers, so naturally they should be in the classroom, teaching—not gallivanting off to tropical destinations to conduct “research”.
My guess is that most faculty members care very little about the general public’s opinion of them. Their research will be their main ticket to tenure, so that’s going to take priority. But how might the public’s view of faculty research (and related spending) impact the role of the academy in Colorado’s future? Might we see more regulation in this area around how public grants can be used by colleges and universities? Couldn’t a situation like the one surrounding Cruz spark new legislation along these lines? Given Colorado’s history re. funding for education, the current economic climate, and the upcoming campaign season, this may not be too far fetched. Although I am certainly in support of fiscal accountability and responsible use of public funds, I also think that we need to be cautious not to let reactionary public opinion dictate our important decisions in areas such as this. Granted, I may be off base with thinking that this could be a resulting action of the Cruz situation (and I’ve yet to take the Public Policy class…), but the public comments to this article really struck me.
Oh, and one more take away that I had from reading the article’s comments:
3. Coloradans need to learn to critically examine the information presented to them in the news media before jumping to absolute conclusions!
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