Action Item (as stated with DEI strategic plan launch in 2016)
Through this campuswide initiative to increase best-practice-based faculty recruitment and mentorship, the university will maximize the likelihood that broadly diverse, well-qualified candidates for faculty positions are identified, recruited, retained and promoted. These efforts will expand utilization of the U-M ADVANCE Program’s STRIDE (Strategies and Tactics for Recruiting to Improve Diversity and Excellence) training among hiring managers and search committees, and will establish guidelines and support for high-quality faculty mentorship.
DEI 1.0 Evaluation Update
Over the years of DEI 1.0, the ADVANCE Program has produced a number of notable impacts, which include the following:
- 100% of schools/colleges now require some or all faculty search committee members to complete STRIDE training
- 1850+ faculty across the university have attended a STRIDE workshop
- STRIDE continues to emphasize factors that can act to exclude marginalized candidates and has incorporated new material on structures (formal policies, informal practices, reward systems), subfield bias and prestige bias
- Launch Committees have been formed to provide individualized support and guidance to new junior faculty as they begin their careers at U-M, and 352 new faculty have been “launched” in the past five years
- RISE (Respect in Striving for Excellence) Committee facilitated a variety of workshops on unit climate, with 227 faculty and senior staff participating in Year Five alone and released 5 climate case studies to support faculty as they work to create more respectful, inclusive climates in their units
- Conducted studies to better understand faculty departure and retention through exit interview research
- Offered a new series of workshops for campus leaders (chairs, associate deans, directors, deans, etc.) on faculty retention, focused specifically on Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) faculty
- Continued to support faculty in research, teaching, service, and caregiver roles through grants
- Ongoing impact of COVID-19 was described by faculty in a second survey on the pandemic; produced a summary report, Faculty Equity & COVID-19: The ongoing impact on faculty careers, which draws on national and local data and puts forth principles and recommendations for a future with greater equity and inclusion
- ADVANCE Celebrated 20 Years: The ADVANCE 20th anniversary events and symposium identified challenges around equity and inclusion that will drive ADVANCE work going forward
Responsibility: Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and the ADVANCE Program