Scholarship in Action: Valuing Diversity and the Public Mission of the Private University

• In Event: University Leadership in Creating Equity-Oriented Communities of Expertise: Ethical, Epistemic, and Efficacy Issues

Abstract

This paper starts by examining the benefits from fulfilling the public mission of higher education through building an architecture of inclusion, and then turns to one important strategy for building that inclusive architecture – namely publicly-engaged scholarship tuned to the pressing issues of our time – or what we call Scholarship in Action.

We begin by making the argument that valuing diversity inherently means valuing a public mission of higher education, for both public and private institutions – access and opportunity; social mobility – for students and faculty and our disciplines alike. Creating full participation entails more than opening the gates to previously under-represented groups, it involves the active engagement of and success for all participants in the core mission of the institution. It is what the social legal theorist Susan Sturm calls the act of building an “architecture of inclusion” in our institutions (that is really embedding diversity in the infrastructure, in the mission, in the core of the institution).

The public mission resonates along multiple dimensions for the communities inside and outside of the university: Caring about student diversity means creating opportunities and social mobility for the new majority minority America; Changing the face of our faculties and breaking the glass ceiling allows us to tap into a wider talent pool and as such to be more competitive globally at a time when the US is falling behind in many respects (e.g., Rising above the Gathering Storm); Creating a diverse learning environment fosters civic learning and prepares students for the complex global world; Energizing our disciplines with diverse faculty better positions them to address pressing issues of our challenged communities, to connect globally.

Then the paper will address the other side of the coin, namely the argument that valuing a public mission for higher education means valuing diversity, for both private and public institutions – education in the world, for the world; innovation that matters – for students and faculty and our disciplines alike. Educating in the world, for the world authentically and organically widens the value placed on different perspectives, breaks boundaries of race, ethnicity, culture, nationality.
Scholarship that is tuned to the pressing challenges of the world and of our communities – that is, innovation that matters – engages and values the voices and expertise of a more diverse faculty. (Equity via a more deliberate and conscious effort to evaluate and reward a diverse set of contributions to excellence.) Engaged work that is embedded in collaborations that cross sectors and addresses grand challenges locally that resonate globally increase the value placed on diverse disciplines intersecting with impact.

Linking diversity and our public mission creates what we call “institutional citizenship” whereby commitment to full participation goes hand and hand with commitment to publicly engaged scholarship addressing the pressing issues of our day, of our communities, of our world, and in doing so transforms our institutions – both who has a central seat at our table and what we do and how we reward our members.

Author

• Nancy Cantor, Syracuse University