Identification and Recruitment Activities

Programs focused on identifying and encouraging STEM graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, particularly women and women of color, to consider faculty positions have been successfully implemented at many institutions with ADVANCE programs, including the University of Houston, Northeastern University, Texas A&M University, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and Virginia Tech (VT). These future faculty programs encourage individuals from a wide range of backgrounds to consider academia as a career. They host multi-day workshops to introduce attendees to the campus, the faculty recruitment process, and the expectations for tenured faculty, and they offer assistance in preparing their materials for the search process.

The ASPIRE² Identification and Recruitment committee will be
hosting a two-day future faculty workshop to introduce prospective candidates to the UT Dallas campus, explain the faculty recruitment process, and share expectations for the tenure/tenure track process.

For more information about the event, please visit the website.

Under the auspices of their ADVANCE program, the University of Washington (UW) introduced On-Ramps as a recruitment strategy for attracting highly-trained female scientists and engineers to the professoriate. UW found that the one-way pipeline to academic faculty positions was a missed opportunity to recruit more female engineers and scientists. With our On-Ramps program, we propose to host an annual workshop for scientists and engineers with PhDs and an interest in transitioning to academic faculty positions from their current jobs in industry, consulting or national/research labs. We will recruit from underrepresented groups to attend this workshop. Sample workshop topics might include the job application, the interview process, startup negotiations, and funding the first years in academia. Among the 150 current tenured-system faculty in the Jonsson School are 17 who joined directly from positions in industry or at government labs. Given UT Dallas’ proximity to over 20 Fortune 500 companies and 100 additional companies, the On-Ramps Program makes sense as part of ASPIRE².

The On-Ramps program is offering a one-day workshop for scientists and engineers who have earned their PhD degree and are interested in transitioning to academic faculty positions from their current positions in industry, consulting, or national/research labs.   

For more information about the event, please visit the website.

Similar to programs at RIT and VT, we will establish recruitment grants to support creative and innovate recruitment activities outside the usual process. These grants will support departments’/programs’ efforts to attract applicants from underrepresented groups who fall outside the traditional one-way pipeline to academic faculty positions. Proposals will be accepted two times during the academic year, with five, six and six recruitment grants available in years one, two and three, respectively. Examples of activities that could be supported through this initiative include hosting scholars to present their research; hosting receptions for scholars at national conferences focused on diversity in STEM (the National Society of Black Engineers [NSBE], Society of Women Engineers [SWE], Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists [ABRCMS], Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers [SHPE], National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers [NOBCChE], National Society of Black Physicists [NSBP]); and hosting targeted events to scout and recruit qualified women and women of color candidates. The UT Dallas Internal Steering Committee will manage the recruitment grant selection process and recipients will be required to submit a brief report summarizing their activities. Grant recipients and grant funds are awarded and applied in compliance with nondiscrimination laws and policies.

We will recruit one-to-two tenured faculty from STEM disciplines to serve as ASPIRE2 Liaisons who will undergo  training so that they can: train STEM faculty who will serve on search committees; assist search committees in developing an evaluation process to ensure that all candidates are judged on their merits and are treated similarly; meet with candidates to provide a confidential environment for them to ask questions about the campus climate and work/life balance initiatives/policies; and assist in creating opportunities for candidates to meet with faculty from their demographic to reinforce a culture of inclusion.

ASPIRE² Liaisons will make use of the Faculty Recruitment Handbook/Toolkit created by the UW ADVANCE Program to receive and deliver training. Training topics are expected to align with the search process as defined by UW (scouting, preparation, outreach, assessment, recruitment and retention), advertise broadly for diversity and will include tips on developing candidate assessment rubrics to aid in the assessment of applications to ensure that all candidates are judged on their merits and are treated similarly. Additional topics are expected to include activities that enhance or limit the pool of women applicants and their success in the pool; information and advice about practices that make searches more successful in recruiting underrepresented candidates; and guidance to counter potential evaluation bias during the search process.

Similar to the Liaison initiative at VT, ASPIRE² Liaisons will provide no input into the search process. AdvanceVT found that liaisons were able to direct candidates to other individuals or groups within the university or the community as needed, depending on candidate interests Liaisons serve as a gateway to other university resources and groups that convey a welcoming and supportive community during recruiting. Upon conclusion of the funded AdvanceVT program, the Liaison program was expanded to all VT colleges. Liaisons will be expected to maintain confidentiality of sensitive personal concerns and questions raised by candidates.