Professors in major universities across the country live by those words, knowing their careers may depend on being published. Doctoral degrees might get professors in the door at a university, but being published will keep them there, possibly with tenure.

However, it is not so much the fact that being published is vital to tenure promotions, as well as notoriety within their chosen field; most professors agree their being published is just as vital to the education of their students.

James Norris, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, believes publishing is connected “intimately” with teaching.

“It’s the process by which we as professors continue to learn. It makes us better teachers, and the real winners are the students,” he said.

Norris said he believes it is the students who benefit most from a professor’s “professional obligation” of being published because of the fact that professors stay current with the status and advances in their field. In turn, they can pass that valuable knowledge and their experience on to students.

Norris estimated that nearly all of NIU’s liberal arts and sciences faculty, excluding some of the more recently hired members, have been published. “It’s very rare to find a faculty member who has not been published,” Norris said.

The writing of NIU professors, as many people might think, is not limited to textbooks. Aside from the numerous textbooks NIU professors have written and published for use in their own classes, as well as classes at other universities, the Holmes Student Center Bookstore has a collection of more than 80 general books authored by NIU professors.

Diane Schlosser, a clerk in the general book department at the student center bookstore, said sales of the NIU-authored books are steady. Schlosser also cited the poetry writings of NIU English Professor Lucien Stryk to be one of the most popular sellers.

Stryk’s work is highly regarded and critically acclaimed in his field, and he currently serves as a writer-in-residence in NIU’s English department. In addition to teaching several courses in creative writing and Asian literature, Stryk has written more than 30 books including the soon-to-be-released collection of poetry “Of Pen and Ink and Paper Scraps.”

Stryk, who has had several poems published in anthologies of modern poetry, attributed his work at NIU chiefly to his writing. He also agreed his writing has not only benefited his career “profoundly” but has had significance for his students.

“It’s good for a student to feel his teachers are involved in what they are teaching. As a professor, you’re learning and you share that learning with your students,” Stryk said.

He summed up the importance of being published best by saying, It’s what got me here and what kept me here.”