A Model for Directing Scholarly Work at Brigham Young University
Office of Research & Creative Activities
A-261 ASB
Provo, Utah 84602
(801) 422-3841
I. INTRODUCTION
The scholarly work of the faculty at Brigham Young University had very modest beginnings some 40 years ago and has continued to expand since that time. Scholarship is now not only an important but a necessary part of the university’s fundamental commitments. At the same time, some forms of scholarly work are more central to BYU’s institutional mission than are others. This document attempts to describe the preferred forms.
The BYU Board of Trustees has determined that this university should be an “academically selective, undergraduate teaching university offering both liberal arts and occupational degrees, with sufficiently strong graduate programs and research work to be a major university, but insufficient sponsored research and academic doctoral programs to be a graduate research institution.”
To be a “major university” within the meaning of the definition, all of the university’s faculty must be teacher-scholars who are involved in some form of both teaching and scholarly work. The kind of teaching that is desired requires faculty who are active and current in their disciplines—a level of academic professionalism that is not possible without immersion in the world of intellectual discovery.
However, the forms of scholarship the BYU Board envisions should serve a primary purpose of improving teaching and learning, along with serving student and faculty interests in other ways. Not all scholarly work fulfills these objectives: in fact, some forms of that work may divert faculty from their fundamental teaching perspectives and tasks.
The university thus expects its faculty to be more involved in scholarship than would be the case at an exclusively undergraduate college or university with no serious scholarly agenda. At the same time, the university does not seek to be primarily a graduate research institution with such heavy emphasis on scholarly work that the direct teaching and mentoring of undergraduate students is a secondary interest among many faculty. In order to steer a steady course between those two alternative models, the university has adopted this statement of guidelines that attempts to define the purposes and the forms of faculty scholarship and research support, including external research grants and contracts, that are consistent with the kind of institution the Board of Trustees intends to maintain. For example, the Board has placed a limit, summarized in table 1, on the number of certain types of personnel that can be employed through external research funding.
Although the Board of Trustees does not limit the dollar amounts of research funding that BYU may accept, the university administration annually reviews with the Board both the funding level and the nature of externally funded research by BYU faculty. This review reflects the Board’s desire to (1) preserve the strong commitment of the university to teaching and to the welfare of BYU students; and (2) avoid substantial increases in the university’s present level of indirect support for research, whether in space, equipment, personnel, or general overhead. Thus, the Board expects the scholarly projects to have high faculty and student involvement and not decrease the overall faculty commitment to teaching in the classroom. As long as these limitations are met, faculty members are encouraged to apply for external funding to support their scholarly work.
II. WHY SCHOLARLY WORK IS IMPORTANT AT BYU
Scholarship is an important and, indeed, necessary part of the purpose of Brigham Young University. The opportunity to join in the quest for new knowledge and understanding; contribute to the process of artistic performance, expression, or creation; and improve the quality of life should be reason enough for participation—especially when the possibility is there to integrate religious values with the secular. But there are also important practical considerations that justify the involvement in scholarly work and shape the model to be followed. Four principal reasons guide the direction for scholarly work at BYU: (1) scholarly work helps the faculty to remain current in their disciplines and “alive” in teaching; (2) scholarly work contributes directly to the education of the students, both graduate and undergraduate; (3) scholarly work establishes the credibility of BYU and the reputation of the faculty in national academic/professional circles; and (4) scholarly work enables the university to recruit and retain the high quality of faculty it desires to have. At BYU, the first two reasons have increased in significance because of the importance of teaching to the purpose of the university.
Teaching Excellence. The university must have faculty who can successfully meet the challenge of the exceptional students that are now the norm at Brigham Young University. The quality of teaching in an educational institution results primarily from the caliber of its faculty, and the best faculty are those who excel in both teaching and scholarly endeavors. Faculty must specify what is taught, and scholarly work brings the faculty to the frontiers of their disciplines, ensuring that the content of the courses will be intelligently defined. Teaching and scholarly work strengthen and reinforce one another and, indeed, are a part of the same whole. Faculty who engage in both teaching and scholarly work heighten the learning experience of the students they teach. The excitement of learning and discovery obtained from the scholarly activity, as well as exposure to the latest concepts, continually filters down to the classroom. This process, important at all levels of the educational enterprise, is critical to higher education.
Added to the traditional academic pillars of teaching and scholarly work is BYU’s unique perspective that faculty also need to be excellent in “faith.” The best model for BYU is not to hire the “good scholar,” the “good teacher,” or the “faithful academician”; rather it is to obtain and nurture those individuals who have demonstrated excellence, or hold promise of excellence, in all three dimensions.
Student Participation. At the core of the university experience for the student is exposure to an atmosphere of inquiry, reasoning, creation, and critical thinking with an opportunity to synthesize and integrate what is learned. This experience is best achieved through close and direct contact between the student and faculty member; a scholarly work provides one of the best vehicles for this interaction. Through such discussion and give and take, the student learns how to reason, to plan, and, indeed, to think.
Student learning should be more than amassing facts and figures. It must involve development of a capacity for lifelong discovery and use of information. Involvement in scholarly work is an essential part of such a learning experience at BYU. Scholarly work makes students more active participants in their disciplines. While this scholarly activity may differ in amount and intensity for the graduate or undergraduate student, nonetheless, it is an important aspect of the learning process for all students.
Scholarly work is a major and necessary component of graduate education, whether its focus lies on basic, applied, or creative efforts. A graduate degree is awarded not simply for the completion of a course of study, but additionally for the completion of a successful project, an acceptable thesis or dissertation, or presentation of a creative work. Ideally, each graduate student is mentored by a major professor who works in a one-on-one relationship with the student to teach principles and techniques of scholarly inquiry or creation; to share in the discovery of new knowledge, invention, or aesthetic expression; and to guide the student to the successful conclusion of the scholarly effort. Often, enduring bonds and friendships are forged between student and mentor that last a lifetime; often, lifetime directions for scholarly inquiry are established.
On the undergraduate level, a faculty-student scholarly work interaction provides close relationships between student and teacher, provides a unique learning experience, and helps to compensate for the large classes that are necessary in some disciplines, especially in initial courses. With this interaction, the faculty member often becomes a friend, consultant, advisor, and mentor. The one-on-one interaction in the laboratory, field, studio, or office provides a teaching/learning experience that cannot be duplicated in any other way.
Conviction and belief are best expressed and felt through personal interaction, which makes scholarly involvement between faculty and students, whether on the graduate or undergraduate level, an excellent way for students to learn how to blend their religious convictions with their aspirations for professional competence. Here students may see the faculty member as an example of a believer in Jesus Christ whose testimony has been strengthened by inquiry, reasoning, and acquisition of knowledge. Here is the unique opportunity to integrate outstanding scholarship with the building of faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In many cases, a scholarly project provides financial support for the student; often, academic credit is also given for the scholarly work. Both of these factors can assist the student in moving through the university more quickly and more effectively, especially on the undergraduate level.
University Recognition. President Spencer W. Kimball has said, “We expect (we do not simply hope) that Brigham Young University will become a leader among the great universities of the world.” We seek recognition as a quality university in national/professional circles because a positive reputation increases the influence of the university, adds to the stature of the Church as perceived by others, attracts high quality students, and helps these students obtain the best possible opportunities for employment and for admission to leading graduate and professional programs.
The regard with which the university and the faculty are perceived by others rests to a large extent on scholarly accomplishment. The credibility and reputation gained in this manner will ultimately be much more significant than the fame obtained by other university programs. To accomplish this purpose, the focus of the scholarly effort must be more on quality than on quantity and must be reported and evaluated through publication and presentation.
The university’s institutional interest in national recognition is of major importance; however, this policy statement also recognizes that some forms of high quality scholarly work, such as in applied areas, in certain forms of artistic expression, and in pedagogically oriented projects, can strengthen one’s teaching, stimulate one’s professional growth, and make significant professional contributions without necessarily achieving original research breakthroughs of national stature. Thus, as described more fully below, BYU’s policies recognize and encourage many forms of scholarly and creative work, all of which enhance the quality of faculty teaching and professional development. To ensure the quality of such work, peer review in its various forms is always essential.
Faculty Recruitment and Retention. A university commitment to scholarly work is necessary to attract the caliber of faculty the university needs and seeks. Imaginative, dynamic, and enthusiastic faculty members cannot be recruited without clearly anticipated assurances from the university administration of a commitment to scholarly work within the framework of scholarship established by the Board of Trustees. Most were trained at a university where scholarly work is a major part of the university activity.
Faculty recruitment is especially critical during the next decade as nearly half the present faculty retire, both at BYU and at many other universities that will be competing for personnel. The replacements hired will set the direction for the university well into the next century.
III. NATURE OF SCHOLARLY WORK AT BYU
The direction for scholarly work at BYU results from an emphasis on faculty recruitment and improvement and from the importance of direct student-faculty interaction in scholarly work as well as in the classroom. All faculty should be involved in both scholarly work and teaching, but the nature of the scholarly work may vary markedly from discipline to discipline and from faculty member to faculty member. Scholarly work as defined here may be of several types: the discovery of new knowledge and original insights that expand human understanding; the application of existing knowledge in one discipline with that of others; the finding of new and better means for describing, understanding, and presenting what is already known; or the creative work that includes artistic performance, expression, or creation. Whatever the nature of the scholarly process, the focus at BYU must be on quality work with student involvement wherever possible. To meet the test of excellence, scholarly work must undergo the refining trial of critical review and acceptance by the scholar’s discerning peers at this and especially at other institutions. The review process needs to include the submission of written works (books, articles, reports, papers) for presentation through reputable presses, journals, and conferences, or similarly demanding juried review of artistic and other creative works. The students can, and should, participate in the scholarly activity as well.
The model for scholarship described above, emphasizing individual faculty participation with student involvement, is essentially the one now in place in the university. Each year, the faculty publish over a thousand peer-reviewed scholarly papers and present about a hundred juried artistic works. They also publish over a hundred books and make about two thousand scholarly presentations at universities, research institutes, or professional meetings throughout the world. Over half of the faculty produce at least one peer-reviewed publication or juried artistic presentation each year. Students, both undergraduate and graduate, are active participants in many of these scholarly projects, which often result in their being coauthors or copresenters of the work. Most of the external funding that supports this scholarly effort is in the form of grants or contracts of modest size administered by individual faculty members.
IV. FUNDING SCHOLARLY WORK AT BYU
The level of scholarly accomplishment at BYU is impressive considering the heavy teaching responsibilities and low levels of external funding as compared to most other universities of a similar size, type, and commitment to scholarly work. This relatively high productivity in spite of low external funding levels results from the exceptional dedication of the faculty, the focus of the work, the type of scholarly work being done, the integration of this scholarly work with teaching, and the internal support received. The university, through funding from the Board of Trustees, provides strong internal support for scholarly work. Examples are computer support, a scholarly library, technical support staff, student fellowships, assistantships and internships, faculty release time and professional development leaves, equipment and supplies purchases, travel funds, waved indirect costs on external grants and contracts, and the Special Research Appropriations Budget that is used to provide the faculty with small, but flexible, grants for support of their scholarly work. These types of university support alone are sufficient to enable faculty in some disciplines to do quality scholarly work. What are generally required by those faculty members are computer sources, library support, funding for travel to professional meetings, and available time.
However, faculty in many areas require external funding in order to achieve excellence in their scholarly work. This external funding provides necessary financial support for the project but, in addition, benefits the university beyond the individual support in many ways, such as salary support for students (undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral fellows), spring/summer salary support for the faculty, and additional funding for travel, supplies, computer time, and equipment.
At Brigham Young University, research funding is accepted from granting agencies only if a report, product, device, creative work, new technology, research related training, or some equivalent return is obtained. With this quid-pro-quo delivered, the university gives something in return for this funding and should feel justified in receiving the support. Given the opportunity, the faculty should be encouraged and rewarded for seeking outside funding, as long as it does not overtax facilities and cut into faculty time devoted to assigned instructional responsibilities, and is of the type that supports the goals of developing quality faculty and providing quality teaching. Within this model, the major thrust for funding should be for projects by individual faculty members and programs (usually interdisciplinary in nature) by collaborative groups of modest size. In addition, a limited number of interdisciplinary centers or programs that involve several faculty in the university and that may include subcontracting to other universities or research institutes are acceptable and encouraged, as long as the major effort occurs at BYU and the focus is on faculty participation and student involvement.
The funding of large research organizations essentially independent of the teaching effort is unacceptable. Pass-through grants in which the university acts principally as a research contractor issuing subcontracts to other research organizations are also unacceptable. Also absent from BYU’s programs is funding for specific academic units which focus on research efforts. Examples at other universities include a medical school, an agricultural experiment station, or an extension division. Proprietary grants or contracts in which the results are supplied only to the granting agency are generally unacceptable unless such grants support other research projects in some direct way, since they do not allow for peer review and publication in the open literature. In general, BYU seeks research funding that is in harmony with the scholarly and teaching mission of the university and that supports faculty and student participation in the scholarly effort as described earlier in this document.
No limits have been placed by the Board of Trustees on the amount of external research funding that can be accepted at Brigham Young University as long as the guidelines outlined above are followed. There are limitations, however, on the number of university personnel that can be supported from external grants and contracts. They are summarized in table 1.
In summary, the university seeks funding for research projects that lead to student and faculty involvement. These are the types that have the stimulation, enrichment, and renewal that are important to the university and are most cost effective.
Table 1. Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Limitations on University Positions Supported by External Research Funding
| Position |
Maximum FTE |
| Permanent faculty supported by faculty research offset during the academic year |
6 |
| Part-time and temporary teachers supported by faculty research offset |
15 |
| Research support positions (technicians, research associates, etc.) |
40 |
| Students (undergraduate, graduate, or post-doctoral fellows) |
no limit |
| Research support for faculty during spring or summer term |
no limit |
|
