I cannot speak with confidence about all colleges & universities in the USA; however, of those that i am aware, tenure committees provide some license to tenure-seekers about how to weight assessment criteria. I think the differential weighting of categories assessed for tenure & promotion is somewhat flexible in most departments, though at research universities, departments may set minimum criteria [e.g., proportional weight assigned to teaching, # of journal articles, quality of journals, books, committee work, outreach, grants, etc]. Many research grants require an "outreach" component, suggesting that "outreach" is valued highly, contrary to the conclusion of the present article. Finally, and, obviously, it is important to consider differential weighting of "outreach" along a continuum of higher-education institutions, from community colleges to large research universities if only because research will occupy a larger proportion of time for faculty at large research universities, leaving less time available for other activities. clara b. jones

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