NACU Recognizes Nancy Cantor’s Contributions to Higher Education

The New American Colleges and Universities (NACU) recently presented the 10th Annual Ernest L. Boyer Award to Rutgers University-Newark Chancellor Nancy Cantor at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities in Washington, DC. The award honors the legacy of  Ernest L. Boyer for his contributions to higher education, including the founding of NACU, a consortium of private, comprehensive institutions that integrate liberal arts, professional preparation, and civic responsiblity. 

Beth Harville, NACU board member and provost of Drury University, delivered the award presentation and cited Dr. Cantor’s many efforts — both as a leader and a scholar — to recognize and reward publicly engaged scholarship, cultivate reciprocal relationships between the university and its community, and diversify the student body and faculty. Dr. Harville also noted Dr. Cantor’s influence on numerous colleagues “who have gone on to reflect her tireless commitment to civic engagement and social justice at their institutions.”

In her acceptance, Dr. Cantor said, “It is of course an extraordinary honor to accept this award, given to recognize the legacy of one of our great heroes, Ernest Boyer. I do so on behalf of my amazing colleagues at my dear institution, Rutgers University-Newark and our many partners in the great city of Newark, as we all work as a team to instantiate a seamless two-way street between the university and community in the service of impact and equity. For, if there is one thing that I have learned over my career it is about the collective nature of our work and any progress we make in it.”

Following the award presentation, Dr. Cantor delivered the Boyer Lecture in which she reflected on the legacy of Ernest Boyer’s book, Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate, which was published 30 years ago and called for a broader definition of scholarship and an effort to re-commit higher education to the public good.