Patrick Phillips, UO provost and senior vice president, announced the timeline and processes for the 2022 institutional hiring plan, which will designate the tenure-track faculty searches for the 2022-23 academic year.

New this year are opportunities to submit proposals tied to the Provost’s Strategic Initiative on Environment or the Provost’s Strategic Initiative on Sport and Wellness, along with traditional proposals. This will be the sixth year that the university has engaged in the institutional hiring plan process.

The 2022-23 plan, known as the IHP, will be created through a collaborative proposal process that begins with faculty members and deans. It involves discussions between the provost and individual deans and concludes with feedback from advisory groups, including the deans, the Provost’s Faculty Hiring Advisory Committee, and provost initiative leads. All final decisions related to the IHP are the responsibility of the provost.

Because of the uncertainties of the COVID-19 situation, the number of searches that will be approved in the 2022 IHP has not been defined.

“Despite the operational challenges we have faced because of COVID, I am proud of the focus and strides we have made as a university as we continue our pursuit of transformational research and teaching,” Phillips said. “I look forward to seeing proposals that build upon our successes and move us toward our 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, and contribute to the inclusive mission of the institution across the areas of teaching and student success, service, and research and creative activity.

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.

Proposals tied to the Provost’s Strategic Initiative on Environment or the Provost’s Strategic Initiative on Sport and Wellness must describe how the search will contribute to the development and success of that specific initiative.

The Office of the Provost is hosting a workshop on at 1 p.m. Nov. 3 to outline the process, review changes to this year’s template, discuss the criteria for the initiative proposals, and provide guidance on creating proposals aligned with the institution’s long-term goals.

Faculty members intending to draft proposals for this year’s IHP are encouraged to attend. Registration is available through the MyTrack Learning Library.

Deans will solicit proposals from their school or college and submit 2022 institutional hiring plan proposals to the Office of the Provost by Feb. 4, 2022.

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