Scholarship Reconsidered: Past, Present, and Future

Abstract

THIS ISSUE OF ABOUT CAMPUS celebrates a milestone: 20 years of engaging conversation on student learning in the college environment. Likewise, another landmark publication is approaching a milestone worth celebrating. The year 2015 will mark the 25th anniversary of Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate by Ernest Boyer. Written by Boyer and his team at the Carnegie Foundation with then Senior Fellow Eugene Rice, Scholarship Reconsidered argued for coherence in the academy for the common good and sought to shift the paradigm of scholarship to value community, service, and teaching, in addition to original research. This enduring and seminal work in higher education has sold more than 35,000 copies since Jossey-Bass took over its publication in 1997 and has been cited over 6,675 times, according to Google Scholar. Rarely does such a work achieve these heights in both sales and citations. Beyond statistics, the ideas put forth by Scholarship Reconsidered remain at the forefront of conversations surrounding higher education reform in the United States. Its 25th anniversary provides an opportunity to explore, refl ect upon, and critique Boyer’s views and their impact on the academy, including their usefulness for future generations of higher education practitioners, policymakers, scholars, and graduate students. The Academy in the 1980s