Aisha Gonzales
Staff Writer
Students and faculty filled the President’s Dining Room as Laura Hyatt presented a two-part presentation on faculty research culture.
Hyatt, associate professor of organizational leadership, opened with an informative lecture titled “Creating a Faculty Research Culture: Charting a Course for Change.”
“Culture is defined in many ways,” Hyatt said. “For our faculty, teaching is our source of business. It is going to be defined by our faculty and what we become, and frankly I am excited about that.”
Hyatt believes that it is important for faculty members to find a balance between being scholars and researchers, as well as accommodating their students. The reward in publishing and doing research is something a scholar can bring back to their classroom to share with their students.
The purpose of her research was to find the aspects of forming a progressive faculty research culture by studying current faculty research culture at a doctorial university through surveys.
“She created a lot of interest among people in doing a survey of scholarship,” said Mark Goor, dean of education and organizational leadership. “She created the survey and then she worked with me to administer the survey in our faculty meeting.”
Through her research, Hyatt found 133 university job announcements for education faculty over a six month period. 82 percent of those announcements were looking for people with an agenda for research.
“People who enjoy research… are people who have published in the last two years,” Hyatt said as she presented information stating that 87.5 percent of the doctorial faculty have published and presented their work in the prior two years.
Her surveys also found the perceived needs of faculty members to increase publication, such as funding, grant writers, time and paid release time.
The second part of Hyatt’s presentation, titled “What’s love got to do with it?,” was as informative as it was entertaining, as she discussed why Tuesday has been depicted as one of the least anticipated days of the week.
Hyatt said that in many cultures, Tuesday is considered to be the most unlucky days of the week. She used audio from a song and comics that poked fun at Tuesdays, keeping the audience laughing along the way.
“I was impressed at how much there was. Such a high correlation between people who enjoy research and people who do research,” said Amanda McCadden, sophomore liberal studies major. “I also really enjoyed the second part of the talk about Tuesdays. That made the subject a lot more interesting.”
In a humorous manner, Hyatt questioned the audience whether it was a coincidence that “scholar,” “tenured” and “Tuesday” all had the same amount of letters.
“Many editorial decisions are made on Tuesdays,” Hyatt said as she entertainingly listed all the important events that take place Tuesdays. “Even DVDs are released on Tuesday.”
Hyatt presented a slide show of historical people who coincide with Tuesday, such as Richard Whitney, who was in charge of the stock market when it crashed on Black Tuesday.
The lecture ended with a question and answer session, where many faculty members commended Hyatt’s research and looked forward to the rest of her studies at the University of La Verne.
“I am appreciative of Dr. Hyatt’s survey of faculty scholarly activity,” Goor said. “The results of this survey helped us to create a supportive environment to further faculty members goals for research and determination.”
Hyatt hopes to further her research on creating a faculty research culture in the spring.
Aisha Gonzales can be reached at aisha.gonzales@laverne.edu.
