We live in a time in which knowledge has been devalued. Ahistoricism is a central tenet of the current administration, and research-based evidence in both the social and natural sciences is regularly disregarded.
Our elected officials propose and pass legislation for policies that run counter to what research suggests would best serve the public, which has negative repercussions in the present and for future generations. Postsecondary institutions are centers of knowledge production, and the undermining of knowledge has thus made higher education increasingly susceptible to legislative attack.
We must not forget that such short-sighted and misinformed actions by politicians were enabled by those who voted them into office, many of whom consider higher education to be an elitist and exclusive enterprise. In this anti-knowledge moment when it may be tempting for members of the academy to feel resentment toward the masses and retreat, it has never been more important for our colleges and universities to engage.
Effective engagement will require institutions to interrogate their practices, identify opportunities and act strategically.
One norm which must be interrogated is the underappreciation (and sometimes stigmatization) of faculty participation in public outreach.
Tenure criteria typically include public outreach in the service category, which is often given less importance than teaching and research. “Service” includes many activities that are done within academic contexts, such as participating on committees, serving as a reviewer for publications and advising student organizations. All of these activities hold importance, but unfortunately, public outreach is often drowned out.
In many cases, academics who are interested in public outreach are explicitly discouraged from participation by their colleagues and mentors, who believe it is a distraction from more important professorial responsibilities. These norms have been passed down from generation to generation within the academy, and are tied both to tradition and to financial incentives within the ecosystem of higher education such as the interrelationship between research production, prestige and national rankings.
