A few naysayers have criticized our System’s recent decision to add technology commercialization to the list of considerations in the granting of tenure.
Some have indicated a belief that the university should be a place apart—a place, as one editorial writer poetically put it—above the clash and struggle of daily life of the society that sustains them.
My first thought was that anyone who thinks universities are free from clashes and struggles hasn’t spent any time in academia.
My second thought was to remember what Peter Flawn, the great former president of the University of Texas at Austin, once said: “You can buy the knowledge product of research or you can steal it, but what you cannot buy or steal is the capacity to do research. This capacity to do research is what universities give to their society.”
That hasn’t changed. Part of our mission as a land-grant institution has been to help improve people’s lives through research and the practical implementation of research findings.
The thing that has changed in recent years is the amount of state funding education receives as a percentage of total funding. We must rely more on partnerships with business and industry for funding. The commercial marketplace and the marketplace of ideas are not opposites.
As Richard Chait, a professor of higher education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, told the Houston Chronicle recently, our change in tenure policy “is certainly reflective of new academic and economic realities.”
Most universities, including some of our own, give faculty ‘credit’ where applicable for commercialization activities, but we wanted to do so explicitly as a matter of formal policy for the entire Texas A&M University System.
This does not mean that tenure-track professors will be required to pursue technology commercialization—even in those disciplines where such opportunities primarily exist—any more than they are currently required to pursue the criterion related to health care, which is specific to faculty in our health science center.
This policy will hurt no one, but it will help some. Two examples are Dr. Mark Holtzapple and Dr. John Criscione, both of Texas A&M University.
Mark
Holtzapple
Among other things, Dr. Holtzapple, a professor of chemical engineering, and a partner developed an engine called the StarRotor, which requires significantly less energy, offers high performance and produces much less pollution than anything we’ve ever had before. Just think of the possibilities. Every motorized machine—from cars to air conditioners—could one day cost us less to operate and keep the environment cleaner.
But Dr. Holtzapple almost lost the chance to change the world when his tenure process was prolonged because of a perception by his departmental colleagues that he “would like to be recognized as ‘Mark Holtzapple the inventor’ rather than ‘Mark Holtzapple the scholar/educator.’”
That was 10 years ago, and Dr. Holtzapple is now a full professor who has received numerous accolades nationally and internationally. Just last week, he was named the first-ever recipient of the Walston Chubb Award for Innovation from Sigma Xi, the international scientific research society.
He will be honored and will present the 2006 Walston Chubb Lecture on Innovation at the society's Annual Meeting and Student Research Conference this November in Detroit.
John
Criscione
Another example is John C. Criscione, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering who is both a Ph.D. in engineering and an M.D. and who will go through the tenure process this year.
In addition to his teaching duties, Dr. Criscione and a partner have developed a device that could restore proper motion to the heart when implanted following a heart attack. Their novel concept of physical therapy for the heart could one day help heart attack sufferers prevent the dangers of congestive heart failure and return to a normal life.
Dr. Criscione’s invention has also attracted attention. Last month, he became one of four recipients to get funding from the state’s Emerging Technology Fund, a $200 million initiative created by the Texas Legislature last year to help businesses get innovations to the marketplace. Criscione’s company, CorInnova Incorporated, will receive $500,000 for the commercialization of its heart therapy device.
Regarding the new A&M System policy, he wrote, “I feel privileged to be able to teach engineering students as well as to investigate the causes of heart disease, invent new therapies, and work toward bringing successful discoveries to the bedside of patients in need. In fact, I feel obligated to make taxpayer-supported discoveries available to the taxpayers. A disinterested inventor would make product development more risky and more unlikely.”
I heartily agree. And to those who finally understand that our universities have never been a place apart, I would also add the following: Profit has never been a four-letter word.
