from Inquiry, Volume 1, Number 1, Spring 1997, 8-13
© Copyright 1997 Virginia Community College System
Brief Abstract
Community colleges define their roles in higher education through the pursuit of scholarship. In establishing scholarship as a top priority in the Virginia Community College System, the chancellor, college presidents, faculty, and the new journal, Inquiry, will play important roles.
Community college faculty and administrators have experienced some frustrating and challenging times recently. Public funding has failed to keep pace with student enrollments and rising fixed costs; student tuition has risen faster than student aid and faster than the cost of living, while faculty salaries have often lagged behind increases in the cost of living. Colleges are faced with finding replacements for experienced faculty members, many of whom have served their colleges since they opened; and public confidence in higher education as a whole has cooled. Moreover, technology, with its potential to change the very nature of higher education, hovers over the entire educational enterprise like some giant bird, creating new opportunities, new anxieties, and new costs every time it flaps its wings.
With all of these challenges, it might appear that the present is a strange time for the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) to make scholarship one of its priorities. Why should the VCCS, under the leadership of Chancellor Oliver, choose this time in its history to pursue scholarship with renewed vigor and financial support? My answer is that the time is not only appropriate for a renewed commitment to scholarship but also that this commitment is necessary if Virginia's community colleges of the twenty-first century are to surmount the challenges that confront them.
Community colleges have never in their history been in a better position to serve their communities and the nation than they are today. The global economy demands trained workers, many of whom will receive their education at the community college. Communities are seeking ways to bring agencies and organizations together to solve problems and resolve issues. The community college, with its great resources, occupies neutral territory in most communities and is thus the ideal organization to bring groups and organizations together. Community colleges are the only segment of higher education committed to serving all segments of the population, serving as, perhaps paradoxically, gatekeepers of the open door.
The following are some observations that may assist in placing scholarship in its proper perspective as the VCCS renews its commitment to scholarship. Before discussing scholarship specifically, it seems appropriate to identify some of the roles to be played by the chancellor, the college presidents and other administrators, the faculty, and the VCCS's new publication, Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges.
The Chancellor's Role
Chancellor Oliver, it seems to me, has made his stance clear: He is committed to enhancing scholarship in the VCCS. He has shown this commitment by providing for a journal devoted to the scholarly activities of members of the VCCS. He has shown this commitment by agreeing to see that all VCCS employees receive copies of Inquiry. More importantly, he has made professional renewal and leadership development the hallmark of his chancellorship, awarding over 300 research grants worth over $500,000 to VCCS faculty members. Through his leadership, the VCCS has received national attention for its professional development plan, culminating in the awarding of the prestigious TIAA-CREF's Theodore M. Hesburg Award for Faculty Development to the system. Chancellor Oliver realizes that effective, inspirational teachers and administrators must continually replenish their minds and spirits and that scholarly activities are important in this replenishing. The publication of a journal devoted to the scholarly activities of members of the VCCS is the next logical and important step in the system's well-thought-out and progressive professional development plan.
The President's Role
I have argued for a number of years that a primary function of the community college president is to establish a campus climate and culture that enhances the educational process. Obviously, I see a commitment to scholarship as an important part of the community college's culture and climate:
The president must lead the way in establishing a climate on campus that promotes scholarship. To do so, the president must be a scholar. . . . Community college presidents must synthesize their thoughts on the subjects at hand, define problems, offer solutions, share their thoughts in open forums (either written or spoken), and be ready and willing to subject their thoughts to critical analysis by the faculty and other administrators. Community college presidents, then, must lead the way if community colleges are to devote significant time, attention, and energy to scholarship. . . . The president must be the institution's educational leader; as educational leader, the president must understand that the keystone to educational leadership is scholarship (Vaughan, 1988, p. 31).
If scholarship is to assume a prominent role in the VCCS, the presidents, working with the chancellor, must establish it as a system priority, devoting time, energy, and resources to promoting scholarly activities among members of the college community, including themselves.
The Faculty's Role
I once heard a story about President Eisenhower when he was president of Columbia University, prior to becoming president of the United States. The President was discussing an academic matter with an important faculty leader. Ike's comment was something to the effect that “Let's see what the university thinks about it.” The faculty leader replied, “Sir, the faculty is the university.” Although the faculty leader may have overstated the case, the fact is that without the commitment of the VCCS faculty to scholarship, it will never achieve a role of prominence, no matter how committed the chancellor and the presidents are. Indeed, without the faculty's commitment, there would be little reason to pursue scholarship at all, for any system-wide plan of professional development that does not provide for the mental and spiritual renewal of the faculty ultimately will be a failure. I should note that many faculty members in the VCCS are outstanding scholars and need little encouragement from me to continue their scholarly pursuits.
The Role of Inquiry
With the commitment of resources to a scholarly publication, members of the VCCS now have their forum for scholarship. Inquiry will serve as an outlet for those faculty members, administrators, and others who wish to publish the results of their scholarship. What a wonderful collection of scholarly work the VCCS would have if only a small percentage of the 300 faculty members who received a research grant would publish the results of their efforts. Indeed, by publishing the results of faculty and administrators' scholarly activities in Inquiry, this publication might well become the next award winner emanating from the VCCS's continual commitment to professional renewal and development.
Scholarship Defined
It is important that the VCCS define scholarship in ways that are compatible with its mission and in ways that enhance faculty and administrators' ability to achieve that mission rather than attempt to fit scholarly activities under the research umbrella as interpreted by the university and the graduate experience of most faculty members and administrators. As a starting point, I offer the following definition as one that is compatible with the community college's mission and philosophy:
Scholarship is a systematic pursuit of a topic, an objective, rational inquiry that involves critical analysis. It requires the precise observation, organization, and recording of information in the search for truth and order. Scholarship is the umbrella under which research falls, for research is but one form of scholarship. Scholarship results in a product that is shared with others and that is subject to the criticism of individuals qualified to judge the product. This product may take the form of a book review, an annotated bibliography, a lecture, a review of existing research on a topic, or a speech that is a synthesis of the thinking on a topic. Falling under the umbrella of scholarship are original texts designed for use with the computer, inventions on which patents are obtained, art exhibits by teacher-artists, musical concerts with original scores, essays, short stories, poems, and scholarly articles in journals, newspapers, and other publications that are not research based. Scholarship requires that one have a solid foundation in one's professional field and that one keep up with developments in that field (Vaughan,1988; Vaughan,1991; Vaughan,1994).
Scholarship, unlike research, does not require that others be able to replicate the results of one's scholarship, nor does scholarship have as its sole objective the discovery of new knowledge. While both research and scholarship are vital to the academic enterprise, most community college professionals should be scholars and not researchers.
Benefits of Scholarship
What can scholarship bring to the VCCS that might be missing, or at least lacking in visibility, at this time? First, teaching without scholarship is simply brokering information. Let me illustrate: I recall that when I was a child, we had a print of “The Man With the Golden Helmet” (sometimes referred to as “The Man in a Golden Helmet”) in our home. I later learned that the original painting was by Rembrandt, or at least that was what the experts said. In 1979 some questions were raised regarding the painting. By 1985 it was concluded that the painting was not by Rembrandt at all, but rather came from someone working under him. For the illustration, consider the actions of the art teacher. After reading about the painting in Time or some other publication, the information was shared with the students that the painting was a “fake” and the subject was dropped. The teacher using this approach would simply be brokering information. On the other hand, a teacher-scholar who treated the discovery as an opportunity to further her or his own scholarship and that of the students would explore a number of avenues. Who, for example, did the painting? What does the discovery tell us about the ethics of the time or about the business practices of the day? The teacher-scholar would never be satisfied with simply telling students that the painting is a not a Rembrandt. The teacher-scholar would have to know more about the painting and share the information with students.
Second, engaging in scholarship is a wonderful way for faculty and administrators to renew themselves as professionals. Outstanding community college professionals—teachers and administrators—require constant professional renewal. This renewal comes from constant learning. Since most community college professionals do not engage in original research, they are denied the intellectual satisfaction and stimulation that comes from the research process; they must gain their satisfaction and stimulation from scholarship if they are to remain intellectually vibrant. Moreover, once one fits scholarly activities (beyond what is absolutely required to teach courses) into one's schedule, it becomes apparent that scholarly activities are not only rewarding but delightful. Publishing the results of one's scholarship or presenting the results in public do much to renew the spirit as well as the intellect (and occasionally the ego).
A third reason for engaging in scholarship is that scholarship defines, in part, what the community college is and what its faculty and administrators do. Indeed, scholarship is the life blood of any institution of higher education, including the community college:
Scholarship . . . is the avenue through which we stay in touch with the academic enterprise; it constantly pulls us back to learning, back to the college's mission, back to the core of the enterprise. Scholarship, perhaps more than any other characteristic, distinguishes teaching in an institution of higher education as a unique profession in our society, a profession that cannot settle for a snapshot of current or past knowledge but views knowledge as dynamic and views effective teaching as requiring constant inquiry, constant learning, and constant interacting with new and existing knowledge.
Scholarship gives us legitimacy in the world of higher education, the world we have chosen as our own. Scholarship in academia is truly the coin of the realm, for without it, we might as well be working with the local bank or department store (Vaughan, 1988, p. 31).
Finally, community college faculty members and administrators must engage in scholarship if they are to continue to survive and thrive during the gradual shift from the printed page to electronic communications. Once most of us leave the comfort of established refereed journals and authors who are recognized as expert sources in our field, we are lost. As we move to the Internet, we must use the same critical skills and awareness of the literature in our field to evaluate Internet sources that we use to evaluate written sources. As more and more information is obtained over the Internet, we must determine what is genuine and what is nonsense. We must be able to tell the experts from the charlatans. By engaging in scholarship regularly, community college professionals can use their critical skills and knowledge to keep up with their field, recognizing reliable authors, sources, and ideas based on truthful information. The reading and thinking involved in scholarship can keep us on the edge of knowledge, whether that knowledge is on the Internet or in a scholarly journal. Those faculty and administrators who are not aware of this situation are likely to be stuck in a time warp while the world moves on to the next century.
Closing the Gap
The VCCS is taking an important step toward closing the gap that exists between teaching and scholarship on many community college campuses. As the System's commitment to scholarship moves forward, every faculty member and administrator should share the joys (and frustrations) of being scholars. Scholarship should be celebrated much as winning teams in sports are celebrated. Each college in the Virginia System should recognize scholarly contributions, and the chancellor should consider a system award for the outstanding piece of scholarship completed each year. If VCCS professionals make scholarship a top priority, they will lead the way into the next century for all of the nation's community colleges. The Virginia Community College System should settle for no less.
References
Vaughan, G.B.(1988). Scholarship in the community college: The path to respect. Educational Record, 69(2), 26-31.
Vaughan, G. B.(1991). Scholarship and the community college professional: Focusing the debate. In G.B. Vaughan & J. C. Palmer (Eds.), Enhancing Teaching and Administration Through Scholarship, (pp. 3-15). New Directions for Community Colleges, no. 76. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Vaughan, G. B. (1994). Scholarship and teaching: Crafting the art. In M. Reynolds (Ed.), Two-Year College English: Essays for a New Century (pp. 212-221). Urbana, Il: National Council of Teachers of English.
George B. Vaughan is professor of higher education at North Carolina State University. He served as president of both Mountain Empire Community College and Piedmont Virginia Community College in Virginia.