Q&A with Dr. David Lyle Jeffrey

Dr. Jeffrey is senior vice provost and Distinguished Professor of Literature and Humanities at Baylor University.
 

Q: How aware of Baylor 2012 were faculty candidates before they applied to the University?
A: A fairly significant number of people became candidates because they knew about the Vision who might not otherwise have been candidates. They downloaded it from the Web site, and they decided they would make Baylor a place they would apply to, in addition to some very distinguished schools.
Q: How does this faculty class answer the criticism that you can't find excellent Christian scholars who are willing to balance research and teaching?
A: This class answers that pretty dramatically. The academic quality of this class overall is, I'm sure, the highest we've had for many years. My sense of it is that the traditional notion that Christians can't be found out there who are excellent in the academic fields is simply not borne out by the evidence. It's not borne out in this year's hiring.
Q: The statement has been made that a professor cannot be both an excellent classroom teacher and produce publication research. Is that an unrealistic expectation?
A: At places like Vanderbilt, Rice, Notre Dame or the University of Rochester -- mid-size but superb research universities with great undergraduate programs -- faculty members are hired on the same basis. What we share in common with all of them is we believe a person should be not only a fine teacher but also a producer of new knowledge. When we talk about becoming a tier-one institution, we're talking about entering into conversation with America's leading universities in which both teaching and research are done at the highest level. Candidates are not surprised by that, they're grateful. It's what they're looking for.
Q: What do you expect the campus community's reaction will be to this incoming class?
A: A lot of folks are going to be excited. They're going to take a look at this and say it is really remarkable. Some folks, I suppose, might not know what to make of it. What will be clear to all is that some departments -- like math and philosophy and theater -- have taken the initiative to realize the Vision more quickly than others.
Q: There are faculty members hired prior to 1991 (before research expectations were implemented) who believe they've been passed by, that they're no longer relevant to what's happening at Baylor. What would you say to them?
A: I feel a tremendous amount of sympathy for that. Here's the thing: You can meet that challenge of "the new" in two or three different ways. Some folks meet it by just feeling that it's terrible, that "I just want it to stay the way it was when I was 30." To the other side of that reflex is an awkward fact: Our students have to compete in a world that's changed. We have to serve those kids, to get them ready, to provide them with a different experience. Wiser heads recognize that, even though one feels a certain nostalgia for things as they were, we have to try our best to help our young folks get where they need to be for the world they're facing.
Q: There are several new hires this fall who came through Baylor as undergraduates. Is the University actively seeking its own?
A: It is a measure of the success of Baylor that we have graduated undergraduates who've gone on, remaining faithful to their Christian beliefs, to accomplish great things, to add to the body of knowledge. These folks Baylor has produced have been tempted, after their PhD, to sign on at other research-based universities. We're saying to them, "You don't have to go someplace else to do your research. You can do it while teaching at Baylor." We will continue, God willing, to produce excellently trained undergraduates who will do the same thing, more than before. If we don't lose nerve, if we don't lose heart, what Baylor produces will only get better and better. Some will come home to help us. Some already have.
Q: Can a good Christian be a good scholar? Can Baylor be more than "just a good Baptist college"?
A: The adage is: If Christian, not very good academically; if academically very good, not Christian. That's a false syllogism. It's going to be apparent to everybody that it's not a sustainable syllogism. In reality, to imagine it's not possible to be both faithfully Christian and academically excellent is to deny the efficacy of what Baylor's been doing so well for so long.