Jared Ward is a highly beloved professor at BYU, with 4.8/5 stars on Rate My Professor and a Chili Pepper

He is an adjunct faculty member, more commonly known as an instructor. Do you refer to your 4th grade teacher as a professor? Because they likely have a masters degree as well.

Think Before You Type wrote:

He is an adjunct faculty member, more commonly known as an instructor. Do you refer to your 4th grade teacher as a professor? Because they likely have a masters degree as well.

Who tf cares? He teaches in college and I'm sure he's referred to as a professor all the time.

I'm just trying to be accurate. I'm not knocking his incredible accomplishments of being an Olympic marathoner (6th place, no less) and teaching in higher education. Very impressive. But the narrative that he is a professor who still actively conducts research WHILE still being a professional runner simply isn't true. He teaches a few classes, as an adjunct, which means he does not mentor any graduate or undergraduate students, does not sit on any departmental/university committees, and does not conduct research. Let's give him credit for his actual accomplishments, and not disrespect others who actually put in 80-100 hour weeks as professors.

Salty, perhaps, but I am the chair of my department's Annual Review Committee, so I'm well-appraised of the validity and effectiveness of various evaluation tools for academic faculty. Even the student evaluation surveys that each university requires every semester are marginally effective. Using Rate My Professor to determine teaching effectiveness is like using the comments of a Youtube video to determine the artistic merit of a song.

Jared Ward very well may be a fantastic instructor. But he also might just be a nice person to his students and teach easy classes, too.

A professor wrote:

Salty, perhaps, but I am the chair of my department's Annual Review Committee, so I'm well-appraised of the validity and effectiveness of various evaluation tools for academic faculty. Even the student evaluation surveys that each university requires every semester are marginally effective. Using Rate My Professor to determine teaching effectiveness is like using the comments of a Youtube video to determine the artistic merit of a song.

Jared Ward very well may be a fantastic instructor. But he also might just be a nice person to his students and teach easy classes, too.

You're supposed to give yourself a bunch of high ratings on that website, that's what other profs do

Yup. He's a prett cool guy. There were a lot of articles about his research and teaching here at BYU prior to his Olympic run.

Think Before You Type wrote:

I'm just trying to be accurate. I'm not knocking his incredible accomplishments of being an Olympic marathoner (6th place, no less) and teaching in higher education. Very impressive. But the narrative that he is a professor who still actively conducts research WHILE still being a professional runner simply isn't true. He teaches a few classes, as an adjunct, which means he does not mentor any graduate or undergraduate students, does not sit on any departmental/university committees, and does not conduct research. Let's give him credit for his actual accomplishments, and not disrespect others who actually put in 80-100 hour weeks as professors.

How do you know he doesn't conduct research? It looks like he's at least co-authored an article (on pacing the St. George marathon) based on his MA thesis. As an adjunct, he doesn't have to conduct research and publish, and you wouldn't expect a lot of publications from a new MA. But has he said anywhere that he's not doing any more research? (Jared, if you're reading this: Please write an article on the best way to pace Provo's T2T 5K.)

I'm an adjunct. I've published more than 20 articles, with another research project underway. Just saying.

ytu wrote:

Went up to talk to him after a speech he gave a while back. He said about 5 words to me and then turned and walked off to talk to someone else. True story.

He is a LDS icon. No doubt he will be tenured at BYU and soon. If he wins a major next year it’s a sure thing.

You've published all of those articles on work you've done WHILE being an adjunct (not counting projects you were wrapping up from before)? Where do you get the funding to continue doing research while being an adjunct? Adjuncts aren't being paid to do research, and I find it hard to believe that someone who can secure their own independent research funding is not able to get a tenure-track position....

So, basically, you're a good enough researcher that you've acquired your own funding, although you're only employed at an adjunct level and NOT being paid to do research, but you continue to do research out of the goodness of your heart?

Jared Ward is a great guy. He came to speak to the cross country runners in my region during the summer of 2016. He seemed super nice and very humble.

A professor wrote:

Salty, perhaps, but I am the chair of my department's Annual Review Committee, so I'm well-appraised of the validity and effectiveness of various evaluation tools for academic faculty. Even the student evaluation surveys that each university requires every semester are marginally effective. Using Rate My Professor to determine teaching effectiveness is like using the comments of a Youtube video to determine the artistic merit of a song.

Jared Ward very well may be a fantastic instructor. But he also might just be a nice person to his students and teach easy classes, too.

Only in the non-accountability world of academia is customer satisfaction completely discounted (and even mocked in this case).

John Utah wrote:

A professor wrote:

Salty, perhaps, but I am the chair of my department's Annual Review Committee, so I'm well-appraised of the validity and effectiveness of various evaluation tools for academic faculty. Even the student evaluation surveys that each university requires every semester are marginally effective. Using Rate My Professor to determine teaching effectiveness is like using the comments of a Youtube video to determine the artistic merit of a song.

Jared Ward very well may be a fantastic instructor. But he also might just be a nice person to his students and teach easy classes, too.

Only in the non-accountability world of academia is customer satisfaction completely discounted (and even mocked in this case).

John Utah is dumb as a brick. Ignore him.

Think Before You Type wrote:

You've published all of those articles on work you've done WHILE being an adjunct (not counting projects you were wrapping up from before)? Where do you get the funding to continue doing research while being an adjunct? Adjuncts aren't being paid to do research, and I find it hard to believe that someone who can secure their own independent research funding is not able to get a tenure-track position....

So, basically, you're a good enough researcher that you've acquired your own funding, although you're only employed at an adjunct level and NOT being paid to do research, but you continue to do research out of the goodness of your heart?

Yep, all published off the tenure track. Only possible because I'm in the humanities, of course, where research can be done cheaply. I had a nice postdoc a while back and held some full-time visiting appointments, but now I'm a part-timer with the publication list of a full professor. (Why, yes, I did publish two books with a university press you've heard of, in addition to the articles.) I admit I don't know how much longer I'll still be able to find time for research.

No trolling, no exaggeration. Honest truth here. The job market in my field is just that bad. At some point I figured out that I wasn't publishing just to get a job, but because I really was interested in the research I was doing. So I've kept going. What's the research equivalent of a hobby jogger, someone whose research habit doesn't pay for itself? That's me.

What are you researching in the humanities field?

Think Before You Type wrote:

I'm just trying to be accurate. I'm not knocking his incredible accomplishments of being an Olympic marathoner (6th place, no less) and teaching in higher education. Very impressive. But the narrative that he is a professor who still actively conducts research WHILE still being a professional runner simply isn't true. He teaches a few classes, as an adjunct, which means he does not mentor any graduate or undergraduate students, does not sit on any departmental/university committees, and does not conduct research. Let's give him credit for his actual accomplishments, and not disrespect others who actually put in 80-100 hour weeks as professors.

Academic types are extremely sensitive about their perceived positions of authority/position/status. I guess that’s all they have.

John Utah wrote:

Think Before You Type wrote:

I'm just trying to be accurate. I'm not knocking his incredible accomplishments of being an Olympic marathoner (6th place, no less) and teaching in higher education. Very impressive. But the narrative that he is a professor who still actively conducts research WHILE still being a professional runner simply isn't true. He teaches a few classes, as an adjunct, which means he does not mentor any graduate or undergraduate students, does not sit on any departmental/university committees, and does not conduct research. Let's give him credit for his actual accomplishments, and not disrespect others who actually put in 80-100 hour weeks as professors.

Academic types are extremely sensitive about their perceived positions of authority/position/status. I guess that’s all they have.

You are so incredibly needy and insecure, it's pathetic. Please stop pestering people. You only reveal your own poor personality traits.

I have experienced the track you're on, as well as the tenure-track you're obviously aiming for. Everything you've stated is not only plausible but expected of someone trying to break through from PHD and post-docs to the tenure-track.

Rash-putin wrote:

John Utah wrote:

Academic types are extremely sensitive about their perceived positions of authority/position/status. I guess that’s all they have.

You are so incredibly needy and insecure, it's pathetic. Please stop pestering people. You only reveal your own poor personality traits.

I think you are projecting, bro. Don’t do that.