The University is undertaking a large faculty hiring initiative in response to high faculty retirement rates and a need to match growing enrollment.
This initiative, funded by the Faculty Forward campaign, aims to bolster the University’s academic and research strengths over the long-term, College Dean Ian Baucom said.
“The moment that we’re in is quite unprecedented,” Baucom said. “The breadth of hiring opportunity is unlikely to be repeated on this scale for quite some time to come.”
The hiring push at the University is mirrored by institutions around the country, which has resulted in serious competition and a need for large fundraising, Baucom said.
Faculty Forward is campaigning to raise $130 million to cover faculty hiring, curricular innovation and engaged learning for students, as well as philanthropic financial support for faculty and students.
So far, the initiative has raised $100 million in gifts and pledges, mainly from alumni and non-alumni parents, College Foundation President Eugene Schutt said.
In the next seven years the College alone will hire between 250 and 300 new faculty, filling positions in nearly every department, Baucom said. The College hired 60 new faculty members last year, and has hired 48 new members this year so far. Searches are underway for 47 more faculty members for this year and next. Three years from now about a quarter of the College’s total 600 faculty members will be newly hired.
The College has increased net enrollment by 840 students from 2011 — an 8.5 percent increase — meaning that faculty growth has to be roughly parallel, Baucom said. He said the ideal faculty to student ratio is roughly 18 to one.
“We want to hire faculty commensurate with that student enrollment,” Baucom said.
The program is centered around three strategic pillars — exceptional teaching, engaged learning and strategic research.
“Fundamentally, a university is composed of its students,” Baucom said. “In order for us to achieve our educational mission, we have to have the best faculty in the world.”
Craig Benson, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, said interdepartmental collaboration is a vital aspect of the hiring initiative.
“We’re trying to find ways to really develop clusters of excellence that are interdisciplinary in nature,” Benson said. “The goal is to build the intellectual capacity between schools.”
These collaborations include research into topics like renewable energy, traumatic brain injuries and big-data analysis, all of which are taking place simultaneously at several University schools.
“The future is all about building between traditional departments,” Benson said. “That’s really where innovation starts — you bring faculty together that have different parts of training in the same thing.”
The departmental model of faculty organization is an old one, Benson said. New innovations will be organized around big themes in order to tackle some current problems. SEAS plans to expand to a total of 175 faculty members, which means hiring 50 to 60 new members. The hiring could take five to 10 years, and would result in 50 to 60 percent new faculty by the end of the period.
“I think people are really excited,” Benson said. “This is an opportunity for growth and change and renewal.”
Faculty Forward and the College Foundation have been working to fundraise for the hiring initiative since spring 2012. The campaign will conclude at the end of this academic year.
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