Recently, a senior faculty member emoted that if you have a strong research record, nothing else mattered, because teaching didn’t help your reputation.
At that moment, I wondered about that faculty member’s integrity. Did they satisfice in the classroom? How do they perform on the rest of their job? Were they serious?
Since that moment, I’ve thought a lot about integrity in scholarly life.
Most often, integrity is discussed in terms of scholarship - describing unethical research behaviors – and remedies.
Less often, integrity is discussed in terms of scholarly life - describing ethics and integrity in day-to-day academic work – and how to incite it.
Consider three academic truisms.
Tenure requires N+1 - where the +1 = what you don’t have. +1 is often invoked when an unspoken requirement has not been met – usually one that has nothing to do with publication – suggesting dishonesty on the part of senior faculty.
Committee work is a burden – so some senior faculty offload this work on others or don’t do their work at all – undercutting faculty governance and shifting work to their, often junior, peers.
Teaching is to be minimized – perhaps because universities offer many incentives for publication and few incentives for high-quality teaching – faculty focus on research and leave students’ needs unattended.
These truisms discourage integrity, creating vicious cycles – undermining faculty governance of promotion, taking time from the pockets of young faculty, and evoking discontent among our most important audience – students – yet they are pervasive.
How can we encourage integrity? And build a stronger academic culture?
The first step is choosing to do your work honestly and well – become a role model.
A second step is to become a voice for change. Demand faculty demonstrate integrity in our routine interactions with each other and with our students.
With tenure, faculty need to be honest. Honestly explain expectations for tangible (research & teaching) and intangible (service & collegiality) metrics. Failing to underscore social elements, such as collegiality, necessary for tenure, only compounds vicious cycles of dishonesty.
With committee work and more general service, be a voice for a culture of participation – from endowed chair to assistant professor. Demand that everyone participates in your department's work.
With teaching, honor your obligation to students – they deserve our very best! Be a voice for creating incentives for high-quality teaching. When we do so, we create positive spirals of student and faculty engagement.
By demonstrating integrity in day-to-day scholarly life, you can help build scholarly cultures - populated with better friendships, better scholarship, and better pedagogy at colleges and universities.
Join me in building a better Academy.
