By Lea Abito | Staff Writer
Established in 1965, Florida International University is one of the fastest-rising public universities in the United States. Yet for such a young university, there seems to be an influx of older professors.
On the first day of the semester, there’s a strong possibility you walk into class and see a professor over 60 years old sitting at the desk.
An older professor usually signifies experience and proficiency in their field, until they can’t get the projector to work or have trouble with the computer.
At FIU, there are over 54,000 students, over 2,400 faculty members, and a student-faculty ratio of 22:1, yet in my two years at FIU, I’ve had a handful of older professors, enough to notice a trend.
Many departments are dominated by older faculty holding onto their teaching positions longer than they should.
For a young university built on the idea of innovation and prosperity, with a vision to be a top 30 public university by 2030, faculty stagnation seems detrimental to that goal.
While I appreciate the decades of knowledge older professors bring to the table, the truth is that in some fields, what they bring is outdated.
This is especially the case in journalism and communication.
As a digital journalism major, I have learned about the history and evolution of journalism, and the field has changed drastically over the years.
Gone are the days of newspapers and radio.
The name of my major is evidence of that.
The growth of social media, new media, audience interaction, and citizen journalism has drastically transformed the field, as journalism must quickly and constantly evolve to avoid the fate of print journalism.
The same can be said for professors teaching the subject.
This may not be a problem in fields like literature, history, science, and math, as in those subjects, information does not evolve at the same rate as media, which reacts to the constant changes in society.
Material taught in chemistry, biology, statistics, and other related majors generally remains true across decades, and there is little difference in what a professor may have taught 20 years ago and what they would teach now.
But in a field like journalism, which changes day by day and is not the same as it was 20 years ago, professors of modern experience are required.
To prepare students for today’s workforce, professors with modern qualifications, especially in digital and multimedia areas, are necessary.
Especially in journalism, teaching the subject as it was 20 to 30 years ago is a disservice to students and puts them at risk of entering the field, where experience and adaptability are vital, with outdated methods.
In the department of journalism and media at FIU, this is already the case.
On average, as of Fall 2021, full-time faculty members have nearly 20 years of professional experience before joining the department and about 11 years of full-time college teaching experience.
While this shows exemplary expertise, it does imply that many professors are teaching from outdated professional experiences.
The same applies to majors in business, marketing, advertising, public relations, technology, and other evolving fields.
How can a professor who excelled several decades ago in their field be expected to accurately and consistently teach a subject they have not actively participated in modern day?
However, at the end of the day, the experience levels of older professors are important and equally crucial to modern knowledge.
Often, older professors are a well of knowledge, encouragement, and advice. There is immense value in learning from their professional experiences and stories.
In my few years at FIU, I have already learned a lot from my older, experienced professors, often details I feel I couldn’t have gotten from younger professors. In fact, some of my favorite classes and the most personally impactful ones have been taught by older professors.
Perhaps the goal is to find a balance between modern awareness and lived experience, where professors can offer both current industry expertise and decades of depth that come from watching the field evolve, to prepare students to be the future.
DISCLAIMER:
The opinions presented on this page do not represent the views of the PantherNOW Editorial Board. These views are separate from editorials and reflect the perspectives of contributing writers and/or university community members.
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