Chapter 4 - Academic Goals and Strategies to Build Distinction
Strategies for the Faculty Enhancement Initiative include:
- Enable accelerated and cluster hiring for school and university strategic priorities
- Support strategic hires through startup funds
- Foster shared searches between schools and institutes and centers
- Promote diversity through faculty hiring, retention, and program development
- Facilitate the integration of research and teaching
- Develop leadership skills in tenured faculty through mentoring
- Provide initial support for programs, institutes, and centers that advance university strategic priorities
- Facilitate cutting-edge research through support of shared facilities
Enable accelerated and cluster hiring for school and university strategic priorities
The centerpiece of this initiative will be to provide bridge funding to encourage hiring in areas of strategic importance, thereby accelerating the process of faculty renewal. The first criterion for accessing these resources is that the hire substantially contributes to a strategic objective of the schools and/or institute, in the latter case bringing to life the intersections between school priorities and the signature university themes. Additional possibilities include whether the hire could facilitate an important change in the direction of a discipline; bring important collaborations to the department, program, or institute; leverage resources; or bring cutting-edge research on a pressing problem into the classroom. In any case, a necessary condition is for the hiring unit to have strong leadership and a clear vision of what it is trying to achieve.
Hiring costs will be directly mortgaged to anticipated growth, future retirements of current faculty lines, or new endowed chairs committed but not yet fully funded. The actual number of lines available annually will vary based on the availability of support and the rate at which mortgaged positions are closed. The Provost's support ends when the slot budgeted in the school becomes available; the school or department then will be fully responsible for the line. In this way, resources from the central administration will be leveraged to accomplish long-term goals more quickly and effectively.
Support strategic hires through startup funds
Providing startup support is one of the major budgetary challenges faced in hiring faculty, particularly in science and engineering. Often the school has the faculty line, but is unable to meet the startup requirements needed to attract to Duke a faculty member of the highest distinction. To enable schools to recruit the very best faculty, the Provost's office will create a startup fund, from which significant contributions to the one-time startup support for strategic hires can be made. This startup support is also available to those hired using the bridging support mechanism described in the previous section.
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