Balance Between Teaching and Research (and Service)

1. Balance Between Teaching and Research (and Service) George Comer Georgetown University FDSA Presentation June 17, 2012

2. The Goal As a PhD Student: complete a high quality dissertation as quickly as possible so that you can get the best job posible As an Assistant Professor: get promoted to Associate Professor with tenure As an Associate Professor: get promoted to Full Professor so that you have some say in departmental decisions As a Full Professor: get a Chair so that you can fully devote yourself to activities you enjoy

3. Know the Rules of the Game • Each institution is different. Whether you are a PhD student, assistant professor, or associate professor, understand as best as possible what is necessary to achieve your goal • Warning: the rules of the game can change (new director of PhD program is hired, new dean is hired, new provost is hired, etc.) • Once you know the rules, let the value system of your school determine your time allocation • Warning: research is more time intensive and takes longer than teaching. Because teaching gives more immediate satisfaction, there is a natural bias toward spending more time on it

4. Rules at Top Research Institutions • Journal quality matters much more than quantity • Most top schools only count JF, RFS, and JFE as top journals, while JFQA and Review of Finance can sometimes count • Minimum number of top journal acceptances required for tenure is generally thought to be 4 • In addition, at least 1 paper must not be with a more senior coauthor • Annual evaluations and raises are heavily weighted toward research productivity • A person with no top journal acceptances and the highest teaching evaluations will get a significantly lower raise that a person with one top journal acceptance and below average teaching evaluations

5. Georgetown Specific Rules • Teacher evaluations are on a scale of 1 to 5. Evaluations ranging from 4 to 5 are treated identically for raise purposes • Professors with a JF, JFE, or RFS within the last three years are virtually guaranteed a summer research grant of 2/9ths of annual salary (roughly $35,000 to $50,000) • Since the rules of the game suggest I devote as much time as possible to research, I try to provide students with a great learning experience (and myself with high teaching evaluations) yet minimize the overall time devoted to teaching

6. My Teaching Techniques • Two things that I’ve found carry a tremendous amount of weight in students’ perceptions of the course and influence how much they “buy in” to the course • Do you “care” about them? • Are you applying rules consistently? (Doesn’t matter whether rules are easy or harsh – as long as you tell them the rules upfront, consistency is key) • In my experience, if students believe that the answers to the above questions are yes, other things matter less • Relative to my peers, I am slow returning emails, particularly on weekends, and don’t answer emails past 9 pm at night during the week • My slides are relatively boring compared to my peers • I tell no jokes in class (I’m not naturally funny) • I limit office hours to the specific times on the syllabus

7. My Modus Operandi • My goal: At some point during the semester, each of the students (or groups of students with similar interests or characteristics) will “feel” that they are the focus of my attention • Students like the fact that you know who they are, what they are interested in, and that you think they are important • Students tend to be more focused and more motivated when they feel the professor has focused on them • Students tend to not blame the professor as much when they feel the professor cares • I engage students in a variety of ways in and out of the classroom to achieve this goal

8. Information Sheets • Information sheet at beginning of semester • Where are they from • What activities they participate in • Major • Previous and/or current internships • Anything else interesting that they want me to know about them • For undergrads, I also take pictures. An MBA picture book is provided • I either keep this information in a notebook or have an admin create a spreadsheet with the information

9. How To Use This Information • If I know that I’m going to discuss an example in class that involves a specific company or industry, I will call on students who have interned/worked in that field and ask them some simple questions that 1) they can easily answer and 2) will provide some background/context for the example/discussion that is to follow • Side bonus: this also establishes the relevancy of what you are doing (i.e. you are not wasting their time with useless examples since one of their classmates has seen this specifically). Students are more likely to “buy in” to that class session. Throughout the lecture, I’ll often reference the comments made by the student(s) directly mentioning the student(s) name each time

10. How To Use This Information • If I know an example relies on other business core subjects (i.e. accounting, marketing, etc.), I will call on students who are non finance majors and have them explain inputs that we may need from their field to successfully complete the problem • Side bonus: shows the relevance of the class to nonmajors as well as majors

11. How To Use This Information • If I know there is another class that a substantial number of students are taking simultaneously to my class, if an example allows me to reference that class, I’ll ask students some simple questions related to the class to show how things relate/fit

12. Use of Email • Use of email • Students who specifically mention that they are afraid of my class (or just fear finance in general): I send them emails when they do above average on an assignment to help establish/reinforce confidence • Students who have a confused look on their face during class: often better to send a short email after class rather than ask directly in class (“Hi Jane, I noticed a confused look on your face when we were discussing NWC, just want to check if everything was OK or if you had any questions”) • Students who make a great unsolicited comment during class: I’ll send a short email thanking them for their wonderful comment indicating that they helped reinforce the point I wanted to make

13. Use of Email cont. • Use of email • Students who did great on an exam/assignment: send short email congratulating them on being one of the top performers in the class and that you recognize how much work they must have put into the assignment • Students who did poorly on an exam/assignment: send short email that you noticed their score was probably lower than they had hoped and you just wanted to check to make sure they are OK or if something more serious is going on (9.5 times out of 10, they’ll email back saying you shouldn’t be concerned)

14. Use of Email • Summary email to entire class after each session • Short email that 1) highlights the key concepts/takeaways of that days’ class, 2) clearly spells out expectations for next class (i.e. Before next class, you should ….), 3) reminds them of any concerns I have (i.e. don’t get behind in doing your practice problems as the exam is in two weeks) • Side bonus: significantly reduces the number of emails students send

15. Final Observation • Use your PhD Project network to make life easier • Computer programs • Access to data • Starting point for lit search • Research partners • Knowing where to send papers • Questions (and solutions) for tests/quizzes