Incorporating Community Engagement Language into Promotion and Tenure Policies: One University’s Journey

Abstract

This case study describes the campus context and process for successfully including community engagement language into promotion and tenure policies at Virginia Commonwealth University, a high research, urban public university. The paper also describes barriers our campus faced during the promotion and tenure policy revision process, especially myths that emerged surrounding community-engaged work in the academy. We describe key supports that facilitated a successful process, including the important champions who played roles on our campus.