Faculty Roles, Faculty Rewards, and Institutional Priorities

Administered by the Consortium for the Advancement of Higher Education (CAPHE), this national competitive grant program enabled institutions to examine the nature of faculty work as it related to enhanced student learning. The 22 institutions were given the opportunity to define those issues related to faculty roles, faculty rewards, institutional priorities, and student learning that they believed were in need of attention, given their unique institutional identities and their past history of work in this area. The program was funded with a $1 million grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts in 1996. Each participating institution was awarded a two-year (1996-1998) grant of $30,000.

Funder: The Pew Charitable Trusts

Program Status: The program officially ended in August 1998.

Participating Institutions

Avila College
California Lutheran University
College of Notre Dame (CA)
College of St. Catherine
The College of St. Scholastica
Connecticut College
Eckerd College
Franklin & Marshall College
Hartwick College
Hamline University
Hampshire College

Heritage College
Illinois Wesleyan University
LeMoyne College
Madonna University
Millikin University
Mount Saint Mary's College (CA)
Nebraska Wesleyan University
Rust College
Salem Academy and College
Stillman College
Whitworth College

Project Activities

The 22 institutions involved in the Faculty Roles, Rewards, and Institutional Priorities program investigated new definitions of faculty roles and rewards in the context of institutional mission. Program participants discussed definitions of faculty work, workloads, and scholarship, and searched for new ways to structure notions of rewards within the institutional goals for student learning. The program enabled institutions historically committed to teaching and learning to reassess the connection between their faculty roles and rewards practice vis a vis policies and institutional mission.

Throughout the two-year grant program participants explored the appropriate balance and nature of faculty scholarship, teaching, and public service responsibilities necessary to help each institution reach new goals. While changing institutional culture does not occur overnight, some of the many important successes witnessed during the grant program were ways to improve student learning and institutional productivity; and concurrently realigning faculty roles and the faculty reward system within each institution’s educational mission.

The Faculty Roles, Rewards, and Institutional Priorities program concluded in August 1998 with a report entitled, Reconsidering Faculty Roles and Rewards: Promising Practices for Institutional Transformation and Enhanced Learning. The report reveals the process for bringing about institutional change as well as providing a framework that helps the reader understand what we have discovered to be important process strategies developed along the way. The report also presents a rich pastiche of ideas, approaches, and suggestions that would be relevant and helpful to virtually any institutional change effort.

The report is available for sale through the CIC publications department for the cost of $15.00 per single copy, which includes postage and handling. Discount prices are available for orders of five or more copies. The full report is also available for viewing as a PDF file through our web site. In order to read it, you must have the Adobe Acrobat Reader, available for free download from the Adobe web site. You are welcome to download, copy, and use the material. As you use the materials, we ask that you include a notation (on each copy) that references the source of the information by using a standard citation format (e.g., APA, Chicago, MLA, etc.), followed by the statement: Reprinted with the permission of The Council of Independent Colleges.