Recognition and Reward: SOTL and the Tenure Process at a Regional Comprehensive University

This paper presents the results of one regional comprehensive institution’s efforts to implement an infrastructure that provides both recognition and reward for research into the scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL). The authors offer an intensive analysis of Western Carolina University’s experiences with adopting the Boyer model of scholarship through the transformation of its tenure and promotion documents. The changes wrought at WCU suggest a path that may be particularly instructive to similar institutions that may be contemplating the use of a more expansive definition of scholarship into their institutional culture.