While good scholarship is a necessary, though not sufficient, condition for excellence in the teaching-learning process, our definitions of scholarship should not be overly restricted. Each makes its own contribution to development of the discipline and the University if it is modeled and demonstrated within the context of a university focused on student learning. Each type of scholarly productivity can be assessed and included in a review for tenure, promotion, or merit. This campus is blessed with many excellent scholars. Many faculty have a primary commitment to research that is very beneficial to the University.
Students best learn by doing.
Moreover, working closely with students on defined projects, and bringing these joint projects to publication, exhibition, or performance, can be some of the most professionally rewarding experiences a researcher can have. Finally, we should recognize that the structure and pressures on higher education are changing nationally. Increasingly, universities must demonstrate that their faculty are serving the needs of the students. As this process of change in the pressures on higher education continues, the value of the types of scholarship being suggested here will be in greater demand. All too often faculty here and elsewhere note that, while we say we are interested in student learning, we do not reward excellence in teaching.