Former University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg questioned the economic sensibility of research-focused institutions Wednesday, highlighting the relationship between human capital and physical resources.

In a column published in The Atlantic, Trachtenberg pinpointed faculty and physical structures as the two highest budget items for universities.

He analyzed the effects of teaching load among research faculty, emphasizing that quantity of output increasingly trumps quality.

“Today, almost across the board at 4-year colleges and universities, the teaching load of 40 years ago has been reduced almost by half. Salaries have increased, and classroom contact has been reduced. This is a difficult fiscal model,” he wrote.

The university professor of public service divided academic faculty into two groups: “those who are the best producers of research” and “those who are the best classroom teachers.”

“While the salaries of each group might remain the same, the teaching load should vary, with the researchers teaching less and the best instructors teaching more,” he said.

To refocus universities’ resources, Trachtenberg proposed an extended academic calendar and called for a new model of faculty retirement.

While speaking at a panel for the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities on Sept. 21, Trachtenberg reflected on the evolution of educational technology in higher education.

Though he recognizes the power of technology in facilitating “open-source learning,” the self-declared social networking guru admits that innovation is key.

“It is the interaction with knowledge, not the mere passive acceptance of information that makes the difference,” he said. “To make a breakthrough in knowledge, you must walk in front of technology, not sit behind it.”