Respecting Diverse Scholarly Work: The Key to Advancing the Multiple Missions of the Urban University

Abstract

Many urban universities are reassessing their tenure, promotion and merit policies in an effort to respect the mosaic of faculty talent and encourage a broad range of scholarly activities that support the diverse urban university missions, including traditional research, teaching, and community outreach. Any effort that enlarges, rather than restricts, faculty roles must address five aspects of scholarship that interact with each other: scholarly activities, expressions of scholarship, motivations for scholarship, and the quality and significance of scholarship. This article offers a comprehensive model of scholarship, as well as practical insights in the specific context of the development and adoption of new promotion and tenure guidelines at Portland State University.