Teaching and learning are at the heart of City College's mission as an
institution. It follows that, as faculty, our most significant institutional
contributions are through the learning experiences we construct for students.
However, along with many other colleges and universities, we are struggling
with an inconsistency between our educational mission and the predominant
faculty reward structure. These practices have focused rather narrowly
on certain forms of research, drawing faculty attention and energy away
from teaching, service, and other professional accomplishments.
At a national level, Ernst Boyer of the Carnegie Foundation and others have
argued persuasively for a broader definition of scholarship which recognizes,
in addition to discovery, the integration, explication and application of
knowledge. This expanded definition has already been adopted at many other
institutions and has been the focus of discussion by several groups concerned
with personnel issues at the College. Over the past two years, the academic
deans and faculty groups, principally the Faculty Committee on Personal
Matters, have committed a great deal of energy toward the goal of incorporating
the emerging national consensus of broadened scholarship into the processes
of faculty promotion and tenure here at City College. These groups have
developed a document which will be presented to the Faculty Senate in the
1997-8 academic year. While there may be points of disagreement in the
details of the proposal, I urge you to work in support of the key recommendations
within this very significant document.
As Provost, one of my highest priorities has been to strengthen and enrich
our capacity to offer excellent learning experiences to our students. Through
the sequence of budgetary crises we have weathered, the College faculty
has remained an amazingly resilient and powerful ally in this undertaking.
Exciting new teaching approaches and curriculum materials have emerged
which have given their faculty developers both local and national prominence.
The opening, early in 1998, of our Center for Teaching and Learning will
serve to accelerate and extend this process of curricular innovation and,
at the same time, provide critical support as revised promotion and tenure
guidelines are implemented. I encourage both new and long-time faculty
members to use the Center and its opportunities for collaboration and innovation.
Dr. David Lavallee, Provost
Office of the Provost
Administration Building, Room A217
(212) 650-6638
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