Message from the Chair - "Awe and Pride"
Abstract
It is an interesting conundrum wherein we find ourselves in this educational world. We can focus on being outstanding educators and teachers, we can work in developing extensive research agendas and lengthy publication and presentation lists, or we can strive to develop partnerships with local, national, or even international industry partners to benefit our students and universities. All three options have relevance and importance in academia. However, is it possible to do all three at an effective level? What about two of the three? Must we focus on just one of the three areas to be truly exceptional? These are difficult questions that all of us have struggled with as we have endeavored to be our best selves. Sometimes it seems that recognition and reward for our efforts are minimal and slow in coming. Often it appears that efforts in the classroom or with industrial partners are not considered ‘as important’ as generating another conference presentation, journal article, or grant proposal. The pressure to publish in academia is widely accepted and much commented. The phrase ‘publish or perish’ is attributed to Cornell geneticist Kimball C. Atwood in 1950, and has been repeated an untold number of times over the intervening decades.
The purest purpose for publications, of course, is to contribute to the body of knowledge in our field, to make others aware of what we are doing, and to share ideas that may help others. However, what this ideal seems to have degenerated to for many is the incessant pressure to provide more research funding to continue the cyclical process that keeps universities running. What a shame that so many of us are frustrated and disillusioned with the publishing process! As I think back to my early days in academia, I remember the awe and pride I felt with my first academic publication (in the Engineering Design Graphics Journal, naturally!). Over the years, I seem to have lost that feeling of accomplishment associated with succeeding at this process – it became drudgery, a task done grudgingly at best, and with open hostility and resentment at other times – again, what a shame! However, of late I seem to have found new motivation and joy in publishing, although I am not sure why. Perhaps it is because of the outstanding and enthusiastic graduate and undergraduate students that I have been able to coauthor with; maybe it is the great colleagues that provide an example of outstanding effort in all three areas mentioned above that has re-energized me; or it may just be that I have refocused myself on the ‘pure’ purposes for publishing listed above, instead of only focusing on tenure, promotion, and merit pay (all good things, too!). It is a wonderful feeling to enjoy learning new things and disseminating knowledge to others!
We are fortunate to have an excellent vehicle to help us in this process. Our Journal has a magnificent history of high-level scholarship, and serves an important role in our professional success. I hope we all will continue to take advantage of the opportunity to publish in the EDGJ. We are blessed with very dedicated and committed Division members that put in many hours of service that we may have this avenue for academic growth – let’s leverage this privilege and submit articles frequently to the Journal. If we will do so, we will all continue to benefit from the process, and certainly not ‘perish!’
