Patrick Phillips, UO provost and senior vice president, announced that the University of Oregon will begin considering proposals for the tenure-track faculty searches that will launch in 2021-22 as part of the latest institutional hiring plan process.

The 2021-22 institutional hiring plan, known as the IHP, will be created through a collaborative proposal process that begins with faculty and deans. It involves discussions 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 fifth year that the university has engaged in the institutional hiring plan process to determine tenure-track faculty searches for the following search year. This year, as a result of the unprecedented challenges of 2020, units will resubmit all search proposals, regardless of previous search approval status.

While tenure-track hiring efforts in recent years have launched around 40 searches per year, it is unclear how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect the number of searches and eventual hires from this year’s process.

Phillips said he wants the deans to work with faculty members to develop proposals that reflect the strategic goals of the individual schools and colleges. He also is putting an emphasis on how proposals encompass the comprehensive vision of the UO’s broad research and teaching mission, and the university’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.

In addition to the hiring plan, the provost has convened a separate and complementary process to create a Center on Racial Disparities and Resilience.

“Now is a perfect time to start looking toward the future, especially in terms of how we envision strengthening the university and contributing to the recovery of the state as a whole,” Phillips said. “Through all that we have faced and all that lies ahead, we have kept our focus on our core mission of transformational research and inspiring teaching. Faculty are at the center of this mission, and I look forward to seeing departmental proposals and working with deans to learn of their shared vision of how we can best accomplish these goals.”

The IHP 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 the 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 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 or maintain areas of demonstrated prospective undergraduate student interest.
• Grow or maintain successful graduate programs where there is faculty capacity for building areas of excellence or new programs of particular institutional need.

Each dean will solicit proposals from their school or college. Deans must submit 2021 institutional hiring plan proposals to the Office of the Provost by Feb. 26, 2021.

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