Local Impact

Motivation

The State of Hawaii is unique in many ways: environmentally, historically, geographically, and culturally. As the major research institution in the State, the University of Hawaii has a unique role and obligation, because it is literally the only resource for addressing many of our community's problems, both now and in the future.

Unfortunately, "local impact" is rarely incentivized for faculty. Indeed, tenure and promotion policies often explicitly (or implicitly) disincentivize work on "local problems", which might not lead to high profile publications, or extramural funding, or the national or international recognition that lead to professional mobility and upward career changes.

Making matters worse, it is hard to define and measure "local impact". What should count, and how should it be measured?

Despite these challenges, if a Department Dashboard does not provide some means to measure local impact, however flawed, then the dashboard becomes yet another disincentive for working on issues with local impact.

If successfully designed, this measure will incentivize faculty and departments to perceive "local impact" as simply one additional obligation of academic life, similar to the dual and simultaneous obligations of excellence in both teaching and research. It doesn't mean that a faculty member can't, or shouldn't, make a national or international impact with their scholarly efforts. It simply means that the privilege of living in Hawaii and having a salary and being part of an institution that is funded by state taxpayers incurs an obligation to allocate a portion of one's work life to addressing the problems of this community.

Rollup

It is likely that each department will need to develop its own custom measure of "local impact".