Going Public: The WPA as Advocate for Engagement 

In the last decade or so, as the discussion of community engagement and public scholarship in higher education has expanded its reach and deepened the articulation of its philosophical foundations, conceptions of college and university faculty work have begun to change. Though the traditional divisions of faculty work into research, teaching, and service constitute a still familiar triad, many universities and colleges are strategically revising the rhetoric that sharply distinguished among the three elements and contributed to a division of labor among faculty.  In addition to that familiar rhetoric, higher education faculty and administrators are developing descriptions of their work that emphasize integration of these elements and articulating rationales that argue for the contributions their work makes to the public good.