Utopia University: A Faculty Member Reflects on Recommendations for the Future of SoTL.

I am fortunate. I work in a department where the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) is actively pursued and has been for over 20 years. Colleagues have presented at several teaching conferences within the discipline of psychology, and many have published articles on subjects ranging from working with undergraduates in research partnerships to the effects of using different technologies in the classroom. In addition to departmental support, my small midwestern university’s promotion and tenure policy has a statement that specifically recognizes peer-reviewed SoTL as counting toward promotion and tenure. This statement includes a web link to the first Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Report, Rethinking What it Means to be a Scholar (Rice, 1990). 2 This does not mean the fight for SoTL has ceased on my campus. As stated by Hutchings, Huber, and Ciccone (2011), sometimes the battle is not with the university, but with individual departments that hold onto the notion that only discipline specific scholarship is worthy of praise. Although I often encouraged faculty who developed new pedagogical techniques to write about these experiences and submit manuscripts to relevant teaching journals in their discipline, they often replied, “Why would I do that, it won’t count?” and “It’s not real scholarship.” It appears the greater concern about the role of SoTL does not come from the university, or even the college, but often starts with each faculty member. One of the highlights of Hutchings et al. (2011) is the authors’ discussion of Utopia University. They describe a campus of the future where faculty members’ SoTL has gone on to change departments and as the departments changed, so did the institution. The goal at Utopia U is to assist students in becoming “expert learners” (p. 113). The University does this through first year seminars, capstone courses taken by juniors, and ongoing programs designed to help each student understand the learning process that best works for him or her. Faculty also strive to learn by conducting research in their own classes. These outcomes are then used in changing courses to best respond to current and even future students. Those same faculty feel encouraged to conduct this research because they know that, if published, it will count toward promotion and tenure. The administration at Utopia U is happy to financially support this work because they know that one way to guarantee the accreditation crucial to their existence is to have excellent, productive faculty who inspire their students to perform at their best. Hutchings et al. (2011) go on to make several recommendations for institutions to follow if they want to integrate SoTL into their climates. The goal of