A total of 101 George Washington University professors must decide by late June whether to stay at the school or take a buyout offered to them by the administration. The university is offering buyouts to professors in natural and social sciences in an effort to replace them with more research-focused faculty. The move is part of President Steven Knapp’s initiative to improve the university’s standing in the research world. Knapp installed Leo Chalupa as vice president for research in 2009 and created an Innovation Task Force to find ways to invest the school’s money more wisely. The school also has a new science and engineering complex in the works. University spokeswoman Candace Smith confirmed that the buyouts are not the result of financial adversity, but are simply a push for more research. The school offered buyouts to 39 professors in the School of Engineering and Applied Science last October, the university’s student newspaper, the Hatchet, reported. Only six professors accepted that offer, Smith said. Vishal Aswani, a 2010 engineering graduate and former student body president, said he has mixed feelings about the buyouts. “On one hand, the direction President Knapp is going — really trying to push us toward a research-oriented institution — is really beneficial,” he said. “But to have professor with years and years of experience is also valuable.” He said that although many students in the departments affected by the buyouts have been confused because the university has not been forthcoming on the issue, most students support the school’s goal of more and better research. Simon Berkovich, a professor in the Department of Computer Science who has been working at GW since 1980 and who turned down the buyout offered him in October, criticized the university’s approach. “They have the wrong conception of what research is,” Berkovich said. “Research for them is spending money.” He said the university was too often impressed by hefty research price tags rather than substance. Donald Lehman, executive vice president for academic affairs, defended GW. “We highlight research programs and discoveries through various means throughout the year,” Lehman said. “We also need to continue to build and expand on our pastefforts to become a leading research institution.”
