Faculty Engagement Imperative

The Faculty Engagement Imperative (FEI) represents a growing movement among faculty members, communities and institutions of higher learning towards clear and consistent valuation of community engaged scholarship in the promotion and tenure process. With support from foundations, universities and community-based organizations, FEI brings together academic professionals, community-based organizations and philanthropy to promote health equity across disciplines by giving engagement its due.

There is an urgent need for change in how universities recognize faculty for promotion and tenure.

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The Work

The Faculty Engagement Imperative (FEI) seeks to make the most of a moment in which a pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement, and a crisis of higher education converge; these times present an opportunity to reconfigure how universities recognize, reward, and promote their faculty. Reconfiguring the promotion and tenure process is especially urgent for land grant institutions, whose charters emphasize bringing scholarly research to all citizens through engagement and “extension” activities.

  • Learning Initiative Partnerships

    For university-based researchers, tenure can be a dual-edged sword. On one hand, the protection of tenure can free scholars to engage in meaningful, community-based research and advocacy. Such activities, however, tend to be discouraged by the academy. Especially at the pre-tenure stage, promotion and tenure committees undervalue research that involves community stakeholders from disadvantaged communities, an activity that can be time-consuming and fall outside of traditional notions of rigor and scientific inquiry.

  • Community-Based

    While university leaders may laud efforts to invite subjects to participate in guiding inquiry, interpreting results, and advocating for change, these efforts receive scant credit—relative to scholarship that yields high counts of peer-reviewed publications—in the promotion process.

  • Community Engagement Training

    FEI positions faculty members to drive the process of developing new understandings of community leadership through community engagement trainings focusing on the Structured Dialogue Method (SDM). These trainings prepare and enable faculty to facilitate a series of local community dialogues that serve as learning experiences to engage people, organizations and networks who are catalyzing change.

  • Coaching

    Negotiating a faculty rank promotion, especially if it comes with tenure, can be a daunting and confusing task. Standards are often unclear, even within academic units, let alone more broadly to one's college, university, or field. FEI provides coaching for those who are considering application for promotion or tenure and can help address challenges including:

    * Reviewing promotion materials

    * Addressing perceived weaknesses in one's record

    * Identifying potential external reviewers

    * Satisfying the disparate expectations of reviewers

    * Offering support in a trying, uncertain time

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