AY2021-22 Institutional Hiring Plan

Provost and Senior Vice President Patrick Phillips unveiled the AY2021-22 Institutional Hiring Plan (IHP) in May 2021. The 2021 IHP designates all approved tenure-track faculty searches that will be conducted in the 2021-22 academic year. This plan reflects faculty perspectives and each dean’s academic vision, as well as areas of synergy among schools and colleges, and the president and provost’s priorities for the university.

The Institutional Hiring Plan continues the university’s efforts to hire tenure-track faculty who will enhance the UO’s scholarly profile and academic excellence, and who share our commitments to diversity and student success. The IHP was designed to bring our campus together in conversation to strategically address needs and institutional priorities. This year’s IHP showcases the strengths of this process, supporting areas where there is great need, as well as investing in cross-campus collaborations in Brand Strategy (LCB) and Brand Responsibility (SOJC); in Psychology, an area of strength, educational impact, and research excellence where the department faculty have created an ambitious plan to grow a focus on diversity; and in the emergence of Native American and Indigenous Studies, a group of searches that were proposed through creative collaboration across units, with a cluster emerging through the advisory committee process.

To see the finalized IHP, click here.

The IHP is developed through a collaborative process that begins with our faculty, involves discussion between the provost and individual deans, and balances the needs and strategic vision of individual units with the goals of the University of Oregon. Provost Phillips asked deans to prioritize proposals that best fit the institution’s long-term goals. In consultation with the Provost’s Deans Hiring Advisory Committee, the Provost’s Faculty Hiring Advisory Committee*, and the Active Recruitment Team, Provost Phillips considered each proposal carefully before making his final decision. For more information on the process that created the 2021-22 IHP process, see below.

Information on individual searches will be available on the HR website. As is always the case, evolving fiscal demands may force us to cancel or postpone some of these searches, but for now we are continuing our determined effort to strengthen our tenure-track faculty ranks.

* The Provost’s Faculty Hiring Advisory Committee is a rotating group of seven senior faculty members from representative disciplines across campus.

 

For documents and other links from the 2021-22 IHP process, see below.

Scope of the 2021 IHP
Timeline
Evaluation Criteria
Proposal Template and Considerations
Applying Metrics and Data
Process
Documents and Links

Scope of the 2021 IHP

As a result of the unprecedented changes and challenges of 2020, this year’s process will re-establish the IHP; units will be required to resubmit all search proposals, regardless of previous search approval status. At this time, because of the uncertainties of the COVID-19 situation, we cannot predict the number of searches that will be approved in the 2021 IHP.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are essential to the mission of the university, and as such are foundational in all of the work we do. As is reflected in the criteria section below, IHP proposals will continue to be expected to address diversity, equity, and inclusion, and will be evaluated on that basis. In addition to the IHP, the provost has convened a targeted effort to create a Center on Racial Disparities and Resilience; this is a separate and complementary process.

It is expected that most new searches in the 2021 IHP will be funded at the level of assistant professor. Deans interested in hiring at the associate or full professor level will be required to work with the provost to identify resources to pay for the difference in salary.

Costs related to renovations and startup will also be serious considerations in decisions about the 2021 IHP.

All final decisions related to the IHP are the responsibility of the provost.

Timeline

  • November 2020: Provost launches the 2021 IHP process, directing deans to work with their faculty to develop hiring proposals for the 2021-22 search year.
  • November 2020 – February 2021: Deans work with faculty to identify needs and generate ideas for faculty searches. Questions about internal school or college IHP processes should be directed to the respective dean’s office.
  • February 26, 2021: Deadline for deans to submit school and college-level proposals to the Office of the Provost.
  • March 2021: Provost reviews proposals and meets with deans individually.
  • March - April 2021: Provost drafts proposed plan, discusses with Deans Council and Provost’s Faculty Hiring Advisory Committee, reviews** proposed plan for potential diversity impacts, finalizes IHP.
  • May 2021: Announcement of the 2021 IHP.

** Diversity Portfolio Analysis of the draft IHP will be conducted by a team convened by the Office of the Provost and the Division of Equity and Inclusion.

In addition, the Office of the Provost will host an opportunity for the deans to discuss collaborations across the IHP (approximately January 2021).

Evaluation Criteria

The IHP process will prioritize proposals that best fit the institution’s long-term goals. With that in mind:

Each proposal must describe how a hire in the designated area would:

  • Clearly map to the strategic vision and needs of the university and college or school.
  • Contribute to the diversity, equity, and inclusion goals of the unit and the university.
  • Contribute to the mission of student access, success, and experience, including through high-quality instruction and mentoring.

Proposals should also describe how a hire would do one or more of the following:

  • Contribute to growth in national and international leadership of the university within the proposed field.
  • Help catalyze excellence in new areas of research or creative activity; maintain or strengthen established premier areas of research or creative activity; or draw together multiple areas of research or creative excellence.
  • Grow and/or maintain areas of demonstrated prospective/future undergraduate student interest.
  • Grow and/or maintain successful graduate programs where there is faculty capacity for building areas of excellence and/or new programs of particular institutional need.

Proposals are reviewed by the provost and are provided to both the Deans Council and the Provost’s Faculty Hiring Advisory Committee for discussion. This year's Provost’s Faculty Hiring Advisory Committee members are Dan Tichenor (CAS-SS), Jenn Pfeifer (CAS-NS), Jen Reynolds (Law), Kent McIntosh (COE), Kim Sheehan (SOJC), Courtney Thorsson (CAS-HUM), and Ryan Wilson (LCB).

Proposal Template and Considerations

Units will be required to resubmit all search proposals, regardless of previous search approval status. All proposals must use the 2021 IHP Proposal Template; please see Documents and Links for the current version of the template, and for guidance on how to fill it out.

Proposals are expected to provide persuasive rationale to address the quality or degree of excellence of the program or department in which a hire is being proposed. Consider the following when developing proposals:

  • The provost will consider clusters of positions if they are proposed by all participating deans and if the cluster clearly supports a substantial and tangible increase in the excellence of the university.
  • Proposals in areas with declining student demand are more likely to be successful in the IHP process if the focus of the position’s research or creative activity is critical to maintaining a well-established excellence in an area that remains central and relevant.
  • Proposals that connect with the Presidential Initiative in Data Science (DSI) should be developed in consultation with DSI (datascience@uoregon.edu).
  • Units should generally have a plan outlining how they will ensure that new faculty are successful at the UO and ensuring that they have a climate that promotes faculty retention (ex. a plan for mentorship, successful faculty onboarding and transition into the unit and the university). Before submitting an IHP proposal, units with historical challenges regarding unit climate and/or faculty retention issues should work with their deans to ensure that a well-articulated plan is in place that will allow new faculty to succeed.

Deans are expected to review their school/college’s proposals, and to prioritize them before forwarding to the provost for IHP consideration. This year, the provost requests that deans forward only those proposals that warrant provost review.

Applying Metrics and Data

The IHP process is intended to be data-informed. Reference data for the IHP process is hosted on the Institutional Research website and will be updated in November.

The provost expects each proposal to be developed based on institutional metrics, including operational metrics, graduate and undergraduate metrics, and scholarship and excellence (“mission”) metrics as defined by the relevant unit. The Office of the Provost and the IHP advisory groups use these metrics during the proposal review process.

Units are expected to include field availability estimates in their proposals. Provided by Human Resources and Institutional Research, field availability estimates give domestic context for the terminal degree field in which a unit is searching. Some disciplines maintain data sources that might better represent the likely pool of applicants; these data may be referenced if provided with the unit’s proposal.

Process

The Office of the Provost has provided dean’s offices with additional instructions regarding the IHP submission process. College/school proposals are due to the Office of the Provost by Feb. 26, 2021. Questions about a particular school/college IHP proposal process should be addressed to the leadership of that school or college.

Documents and Links