Western Carolina University makes rural community contributions part of tenure process

At American colleges and universities, tenure is the ultimate prize for professors. At Western Carolina University, faculty members have a new way to earn tenure and promotions -- how they apply their scholarship to real problems in the rural areas near its campus.

With an enrollment of 9,055, WCU is located near Cullowhee, N.C., a small community about 50 miles west of Asheville, N.C. It is one of the 16 universities in the North Carolina system, and the first to adopt the reward system that recognizes multiple forms of scholarship, especially those with real-world applications. The system is based upon the “Boyer Model of Scholarship,” a system named for Ernest Boyer, former president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, as its recognition of the "scholarship of application” connects with university’s vision, said WCU Chancellor John W. Bardo.

“The scholarship of application is not merely service to the community,” said Bardo. “Instead, it is a rigorously designed project of scholarship or research that is intended to answer critical questions in the surrounding community. It requires faculty members to engage with the broader community, to understand the community’s needs, and to gain sufficient knowledge of the situation so that they are able to design and execute research to address those specific needs.”

Examples include a program from WCU psychology professors that is designed to curb childhood obesity, as well as the work of business professors who are guiding students as they help Canton, N.C., recover from flooding in 2004. Biologists are working with Cherokee scholars to restore rivercane, which has long played an important in the tribe's culture. WCU's program, and others like it, could spark good things for rural areas, especially since the work will have more than just intrinsic rewards for those on the academic side.