Provost outlines process for 2020-21 institutional hiring plan

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Patrick Phillips, UO provost and senior vice president, announced that the University of Oregon will begin considering proposals for the tenure-track faculty searches to be launched in 2020-21 as part of the institutional hiring plan.

The 2020 institutional hiring plan, known as the IHP, will be created through a collaborative proposal process that begins with faculty members and deans, involves discussion between the provost and individual deans, and concludes with feedback from two advisory groups: the Dean’s Council and the Provost’s Faculty Hiring Advisory Committee, a group of senior faculty members from representative disciplines across campus.

This will be the fourth year that the university has engaged in the institutional hiring plan process to determine tenure-track faculty searches for the following search year. Efforts related to the 2018 plan yielded 45 hires over the 2018-19 search year, and 30 searches are currently in progress as part of the 2019 plan.

Complete details on the plan can be viewed on the Office of the Provost website.

Phillips encourages deans to work with faculty members to develop proposals that reflect the strategic goals of the individual colleges, as well as the comprehensive vision of UO’s broad research and teaching mission.

“Hiring excellent faculty has important foundational connections that must support our vision and mission, link to our goals of adding more diversity to our faculty ranks, and create an atmosphere that enhances the student experience,” Phillips said. “With the deans, we will work together to make the University of Oregon a standard bearer for academic, scholarly and research excellence.”

The hiring plan process will prioritize proposals that best fit the institution’s long-term goals, Phillips said. Each proposal must describe how prospective hires will:

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

Phillips also wants proposals to 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 foster 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 or maintain areas of demonstrated interest for future undergraduate students.
  • Grow or maintain successful graduate programs.

This year, proposal submissions will be guided by the new proposal template. Each dean will solicit proposals from their school or college. Deans must submit 2020 Institutional Hiring Plan proposals to the Office of the Provost on Feb. 7.

Phillips will host an hour-long provost town hall on the institutional hiring plan at 9 a.m. Friday, Nov. 15, in the Erb Memorial Union’s Crater Lake South Room. The UO community is invited to attend.