My Chinese friends – professors as well as those in other occupations – do not seem to understand why I love the university I teach at.  They told me that I should be at any other university that is higher ranked, treats me better, and/or gives me more pay. However, what they do not understand is that I like challenges and I like underdogs.

There is little ability to institute change at institutions with higher ranks as they do not see the value of change until it is too late.  The possibility to help and motivate people to achieve greatness is way more fun then sitting around brain storming ideas which most will never use.

This post is the result of a conversation that a Professor and I were having about our school’s ranking and its ability to recruit talent.  The professor claimed that the reason why we cannot recruit good teachers is because the school is ranked low.  In that professor’s opinion, the school is also unable to give more opportunities to its professors because the school’s rank is low.  However, when I asked what the ranks are based on, the answer is that the school ranking is significantly based on research papers, more specifically professor’s research papers.  So frankly, I feel that if you have an issue with rankings and you want that to change then collectively you need to work harder to make this a better place.

The professor claimed that the other problem with the system is that the university has no famous graduates.  We have a really famous, former, now adviser to Beijing University President.  Her fame was helpful to the university as most environmental lawyers in the field know of this institution now because she is so famous in China.  However, we do not have famous students who give back.

My assessment of the problem is as follows: the students and teachers talk about superficial things and gossip but for the most part, they do not trust each other and certainly do not bother to take the time out to get to know each other.  Most of the students and professors will gossip about famous movie stars, other teachers, and chat about events on campus but if there is a huge problem, the students will not go to the teachers and even if some of the teachers know there is a problem, most of teachers would not do anything to help because it does not benefit them monetarily  The concept of charity and being involved just to do good is not accepted here.  Most professors think I am stupid for even trying to affect change that is beneficial because they do not see any immediate benefits.

But if the issue is that you cannot obtain grant money and cannot retain good talent because of your low ranking then stop whining and try to do something about it because if you expect to stay at the institution until retirement then it is in your best interest to help those students and your colleagues.  From what I can tell, most of the professors claim that they have all these things to do but all of these things are self serving.  Paper writing, research, and all the other social activities most of the professors participate in seem to be related to their own promotion.

At this rate, even if we do have some awesome and famous students graduate from this institution, none of those students would give back to the school and help other alumni or students because they are going to remember these selfish and egotistical professors.

We have so many professors and administrative persons who are very into what everyone else is doing but refuse to talk about themselves.  From what I can see, everyone is trying to compare what they have to what others have but they do not want to put in the time and effort to achieve something.  Now the professor justified talking about others because he claimed it is harmless.  However, if it was really that harmless then why are you not talking about yourselves?  The only person you are truly an authority on is yourself.

For example, some of the professors and staff in my own department were complaining about how I am not always on campus like they are.  However, when I am not on campus, I am still working to either negotiate something for the university or still working on projects with other professors and students.  I do not see you putting in the time to negotiate and ask for things which have no bearing on your own salary or promotion potential.  I CANNOT ever obtain tenure at a Chinese university because I am not fluent in Chinese, my negotiations for the school and its students will never lead to an economic bonus for me.  At best it gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Frankly, I believe you should do good just to be good but if you do a cost benefit analysis you should still do what I believe because of the reasons above.

Here are my goals for my time in China other then studying for the UBE and writing some really good research papers for publication and finishing the PhD:

1. Motivate the best students to apply for research grants and opportunities to work and study abroad.
2. Motivate all students to have an open mind.
3. Motivate the administration to have an open mind and to change status quo.  Why should your institution stay in Tier 2 when you can be a Tier 1 school?
4. Change the professional teaching culture at my university.  I want the other professors to stop being so selfish with their time and salaries and live up to the profession.  We are suppose to be teachers first which means you should give a damn about the students.  You cannot expect the students to achieve and be the best they can be when you are disenchanted, do not care about them, and act like a selfish brats.
5. Give opportunities to foster cultural exchange.  People and cultures are not books, movies, or other media.  People are people.  All media is crafted to serve a purpose or agenda.
6. Teach that media is not fact nor is it truth.  We have too many idiots who say but I heard, I saw, etc.  These people are obviously not lawyers nor are they independently minded.  I put in a five second, never mind a five minute delay in any recording and I can change it to say or be anything.  Students in my oceanography class and hopefully my law class from last semester know this.  Showed them the same photos and recordings of things last semester and everyone had multiple conclusions because they looked and sounded different.  Frankly, my American students better know this unless they failed my oceanography class.
7. Increase the number of truly international professors who engage with the students in my school.  We have a handful of foreign professors and the majority of them are very white.  As the North Carolinian friends of mine would say, they are vanilla to the core.  The problem with this is that my one African American friend and I account for the school’s diversity.  Our students and even some professors and staff need to realize that intellect and experts come in all shapes, sizes, and colors.  When everyone looks the same, this does not help the diversity cause.  I am not saying I support affirmative action, as I do not – I believe in merit based accounting for everything.  However, there are good people who come from different backgrounds and our students need to be exposed to them.  Seeing is believing after all.  Sometimes I take for granted that I am raised in NYC and see all sorts of people doing all sorts of things – good and bad.