The best way to view the world is to stand on the shoulders of giants.

As you can imagine, giants do not like you climbing on them. In order to stand on their shoulders, you have to persuade them to allow it. You have to show them it would benefit them to prop you up and you have to prove you are worthy.

Of course I am not referring to actual giants, unless you could classify them as academic giants. Rather, I am alluding to the professors at the University of Wisconsin.

It is common knowledge that this university is a research-based institution, and this means that nearly every professor has something in the works, a project that you may or may not hear about, and possibly even recruits a task force of students to help complete the project.

What does this mean for you, me and the rest of the students on campus?

At first glance, it means nothing. In fact, it may even mean that the professors care less about teaching and more about their research. While this gives the university something to brag about, it gives students something to rant about. “Don’t professors care”?

But let’s set that aside and take two different looks at it.

It’s more than just showing up

Woody Allen said 90 percent of success is showing up. Well, in some classes, people show up every day and gain little to nothing. Much of academic success is due to the work people do outside of class. This likely holds true for a handful of subjects.

When you go to a lecture and find less than half the class in attendance, it is not because people dropped out or failed. It is because they can be just as successful – perhaps more successful – by not showing up.

The other 10 percent of success is about the real work. That work used to be following instructions to get the end product. Do as the teacher says, and you will get a good grade. Good grades get you a good job. And so on.

Now the 10 percent consists of connecting, creating and compensating for your fear of standing out. It’s still 10 percent but a different kind of 10 percent. Obviously, you can do the old school work without showing up and still get the old school success.

Nowadays, to reach modern success as students, we must connect with our professors.

By a show of hands that I will never see, who has stayed after a class to share an idea or question with a professor? How many students have gone to a professor’s office hours to get input on a project they are working on? Or ask about what project the professor is working on?
Sure, we get credit for participating in class, but real participation is forming a relationship with your professor and making a connection – this often means that you must meet with your professor outside of class.

Participating in class isn’t connecting. Participating when no one expects you to, on the other hand, is connecting.

It’s a two-way street

Realistically, a few students in every class are naturally and independently successful. By “naturally,” I mean highly self-motivated, self-made. They don’t feel the need to connect with giants because they have built a tall enough pedestal themselves.
If anything, professors need to be connecting with them.

It’s true! Too many professors fail to realize the ability of the exceptional, outlier students in their class. By appealing to the majority and focusing on their research, professors miss opportunities that could benefit students, but more importantly, benefit them.

For the teachers reading, give students a chance to really show you what they can do.

For the students reading, give the teachers a reason to show you what they can do.

Redefining the research university

Standing on the shoulders of giants is a Western metaphor that, according to Wikipedia, has come to be explained as “One who develops future intellectual pursuits by understanding and building on the research and works created by notable thinkers of the past.”

I am arguing that it is not the notable thinkers of the past whose shoulders we should be standing on; rather, the notable thinkers of the present – students and professors alike.

Historical data, emotions and actions can be pulled up with a simple Google search. But contemporary research that has an impact on the present or the future calls on us to combine the information of the past with the different perspectives, attitudes and skills of the present.

In this economy, how much you know plays a part, but what is more important is who you know. And I know there are students that some professors will regret not connecting with, and vice versa.

Let’s change that.

Garth Beyer ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in journalism.