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MU-ADVANCE Initiatives Impact University Recruitment, Faculty Development, and Policy Efforts The National Science Foundation developed the ADVANCE program to transform universities by helping them become more inclusive of female faculty, and the Marshall University ADVANCE Program has started to do just that. Although the program’s mission is to increase the number of female faculty in the STEM disciplines, the Program has also reached out not only to male candidates, but to the university as a whole. The three initiatives that drive this program will benefit all faculty. Faculty Development: An ad-hoc
University Best Practices Committee is developing
recommendations for Tenure and Promotion, as well as
encouraging Colleges to outline the T&P process for
their faculty and to hold mid-tenure reviews. MU-ADVANCE strongly
believes that providing the appropriate information
and proper feedback to pre-tenure faculty will
heighten the likelihood of both promotion and
tenure. The ad-hoc committee
also will address best practices for new faculty
themselves. This effort has grown
from MU-ADVANCE’s collaboration with the Center for
the Advancement of Teaching and Learning to improve
the orientation and acculturation of new faculty. New female STEM faculty
now meet with MU-ADVANCE staff to discuss their
obstacles and successes while adjusting to a new job
and a move to an unfamiliar area. This information
has been used to drive suggested best practices. MU-ADVANCE
has also built resources for STEM faculty. Our
weekly updates include a news item, a faculty
profile, and a resource, the latter of which
typically focuses on faculty development. The resources include
books on the grant writing process; articles from
the Chronicle of Higher Education telling real
stories about real faculty members and their
journeys through higher education; and books about
recent statistics or studies conducted in and about
higher education. The updates are
circulated to more than 400 people across numerous
disciplines.
Recruitment:
Recruitment is a high priority for MU-ADVANCE , and
we are continuing our efforts to better Marshall’s
recruitment practices. It is vital to have the
most experienced, qualified recruits looking toward
Marshall for their future successes. However, it is
impossible to attract high quality faculty without
high quality advertisements in many venues. To facilitate this
process, MU-ADVANCE has purchased a campus-wide,
yearly subscription to HigherEdJobs.com. HigherEdJobs.com
provides space to profile the university and
highlight the open positions – this allows users of
the site easy access to the disciplines in which
they are seeking employment, and also allows them to
browse through disciplines that might be important
to a partner or spouse. With more informative
recruitment as a goal, MU-ADVANCE partnered with
Career Services to enhance job advertisements, so as
to better showcase MU’s academic departments and the
duties the successful applicant will need to
fulfill. In an effort to assist
search committees, MU-ADVANCE developed a
Candidates’ Resource web page where applicants can
obtain information about Marshall University and the
Tri-state area, as well as job opportunities for
partners or spouses.
MU-ADVANCE’s
Recruitment Committee establishes and maintains
contact with hiring departments as they go through
the process of recruiting for a position. The
committee chair is Dr. Judy Silver, Professor of
Mathematics, and she may be contacted for answers to
recruitment-related questions (silver@marshall.edu).
The committee has
developed a Best Practices guide for search
committees, and will provide a liaison for ongoing
searches in order to encourage diversity while
hiring. To
request a copy of the guide, contact Heidi Williams
(willi143@marshall.edu). Policy Change: The Policy
Change Committee is working on policies that will
impact every faculty member at Marshall. It is the sincere hope
of both the committee and the MU-ADVANCE Program
that these policy changes, once implemented, will
make the trek from Assistant Professor to Full,
tenured Professor a smooth voyage. The committee is
currently drafting family-friendly policies to
submit to the University Policy Committee for
review. The committee acts in an
advisory capacity to the other initiatives by
identifying areas where “best practices” guidelines
are needed. They have helped coordinate the dual
career efforts, as well as suggested best practices
for tenure and promotion.
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