UTSA launches Strategic Faculty Hiring Initiative for 2020

(Jan. 29, 2019) -- UTSA Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Kimberly Andrews Espy today announced the Strategic Faculty Hiring Initiative for 2020. The initiative will support and accelerate UTSA’s 10-year vision to become a model for student success, a great public research university, and an exemplar for strategic growth and innovative excellence.

“I am reminded every day of the truly talented and dedicated faculty we have in every discipline across the university,” said Espy. “The faculty is essential in reaching the destinations laid out by President Eighmy and the reason why this initiative has been developed.”

The initiative is composed of five complementary programs:

Clustered and Connected Hiring Program

This program will better align UTSA capabilities with federal, foundation and industry research opportunities and enable collaboration among faculty to address society’s grand challenges. Although UTSA has initiated several cluster hires in recent years to recruit researchers in targeted areas, this new Clustered and Connected Hiring Program calls for engagement of current UTSA faculty members to propose concepts for the concurrent hiring of multiple positions across colleges. The goal is to form transdisciplinary teams of leading or promising scholars to augment existing expertise. Full details on this call for proposals, which are due March 8, 2019, can be found on the Strategic Hiring Initiative website.

Advancing Academic Excellence through Accelerating Faculty Diversity Hiring Program (FDP)

Innovation, critical thinking and problem-solving are greatly enhanced in a diverse and inclusive academic community that supports the participation and success of all its varied members. To advance institutional excellence and student success, the FDP will promote a diverse and inclusive faculty by supporting flexible recruiting and hiring procedures to hire additional faculty who are under-utilized in the academy and reflect the diversity of the student body and communities. A complement to ongoing efforts to increase the diversity of UTSA faculty hired through traditional search processes, this program will utilize the more flexible Special Opportunity Hiring mechanism to enable additional hiring of diverse tenured/tenure-track faculty who will advance academic excellence at UTSA.

Dual Career Academic Partners Hiring Program (DCP)

To aid in faculty recruitment and retention at UTSA, the Dual Career Academic Partners Hiring Program (DCP) will create a more transparent framework to assist highly qualified partners of tenure-stream faculty in identifying and pursuing employment opportunities both at UTSA and in the San Antonio academic community. The DCP is intended to simplify partner hiring for deans and departments chairs and make UTSA an attractive destination for dual-career academic couples.

Advancing Academic Excellence through Accelerated Hiring of Nationally Recognized Faculty Program (NRP)

Similar to the FDP, the Advancing Academic Excellence through Accelerated Hiring of Nationally Recognized Faculty Program (NRP) will complement traditional search processes by utilizing the Special Opportunity Hiring mechanism to enable additional hiring of highly accomplished faculty that address specific needs. Prospective candidates will be evaluated on their ability to enhance national/international pre-eminence in a priority area, increase sponsored, foundation and/or industry funding to meet institutional goals and promote disciplinary collaboration across departments and colleges to advance academic excellence at UTSA.

Voluntary Separation Incentive Program

UTSA is fortunate to have many tenured faculty with long-standing service to the university. The Voluntary Separation Incentive Program is intended to support eligible tenured faculty who may be interested in making a career or life change by removing common barriers that can prevent taking the next step in life and pursuing new opportunities in career transition. Faculty who are eligible to participate in the current program are being notified this week and will have the opportunity to attend information sessions to learn more about the program.

“Combined, these programs within the Strategic Faculty Hiring Initiative for 2020 will serve to further elevate UTSA’s intellectual community of scholars,” said Espy. “I invite faculty and staff to learn more about the entire initiative, and specifically to consider submitting a proposal for the Clustered and Connected Hiring Program.”

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