Oregon audit's push for more professor accountability clashes with university culture - Bill Graves, the Oregonian

This class of cultures between state leaders and universities is unfolding across the country. Faced with record revenue shortfalls, leaders are putting pressure on universities to show their money is well spent. Universities, rooted in the ancient values of Academe, see these moves as unpractical impositions that threaten academic freedom and undermine quality. The push by states to make their universities more cost-effective has led to talk about faculty productivity, says Bruce Vandal, higher education policy director for the Education Commission of the States in Denver. "If you are going to start that conversation about how they spend their time, then you're inevitably going to be walking into the academic freedom argument head-on." Several states track professor work. The Nevada System of Higher Education produces a faculty report every two years that shows not only the average number of courses and credit hours, but also the average number of papers they write, students they advise and other out-of-classroom activities.