A large part of a college's prestige is based on the quality of research its faculty provides. If a faculty member invents a new cure or a new technology, her college gets some credit for the achievement and will tend to attract more and better students as a result. Because professors are required to research and publish new information in their fields, students learn the most up-to-date information and therefore may have an edge in their careers.
Consumer satisfaction in a college is largely dependent on the quality of teaching and the amount of faculty attention available to students. If faculty is spending too much time researching and not enough assisting students and forming creative, engaging lesson plans, students and others may have a poor view of the college. Students unimpressed with college faculty have higher dropout and transfer rates. Because most college funding is paid by student tuition, faculty members have a responsibility to spend time teaching students and making sure they comprehend the instruction so they will be more likely to stay in school.
While students want professors to keep up with lesson quality and take time to answer their course-related emails, administrators want professors to publish research and increase the prestige of the college. In 2003, Lucas Carpenter, a professor at Oxford College of Emory University, wrote a critique of the "Research versus Teaching" dilemma. The article criticized both Emory's Commission on Teaching and the university's Commission on Research, each of which saw the other as detracting from its own work. Carpenter expressed frustration with the way research and teaching were pitted against each other, and said a professor can be skilled in and devote time to both equally.
One issue related to teaching vs. research in the college community has to do with school incentives for professors who obtain large federal grants or make innovative discoveries. Because much of the high-paying research is in the mathematics and science fields, math and science undergraduates sometimes suffer the most when a university puts greater emphasis on research, because professors looking for lucrative grants tend to spend more time with graduate students and on research.