Being well-versed in research does not mean a professor will bring any additional benefit to the students in their classes ("PSU Research: Spending benefits professors, students," Jan. 26). This is especially true because graduate students teach so many classes at Penn State.

Professors are supposed to be experts, as they are expected to possess a Ph.D upon hire. Whether they have any government or corporate-sponsored research experience is irrelevant to their teaching ability.

The impact of professors possessing research experience might increase the profile of Penn State in the annual "Best Grad School" edition of U.S. News & World Report, but few other places. And, if one wants to increase Penn State's prestige, even a mediocre football season with a victorious bowl game, is far more effective.

Research is one of the things that attracts graduate students to a professor, but funding is the thing that keeps them there. And teaching is, sad to say, one of the things those graduate students sometimes have to do while their professor is in the lab doing research.