Provost announces new Institutional Hiring Plan searches

New tenure-track faculty member searches have been announced for the 2019-20 academic year as the UO released the results of its Institutional Hiring Plan last week.

Provost and Senior Vice President Jayanth Banavar unveiled the plan to authorize 38 tenure-track faculty member searches across the university, including 25 new searches and 13 that will continue from the current academic year, if needed.

The positions in the Institutional Hiring Plan cover a variety of fields, including eight that fall under the Presidential Initiative in Data Science. Other academic areas represented include math, psychology, environmental science, music performance, art and architecture.

Details about the hiring plan and a complete list of the searches at UO are available on the Office of the Provost website.

“I am proud of the collaborative work we did at the university to create this critically important Institutional Hiring Plan,” Banavar said. “The plan reflects our academic priorities and promotes the scholarly vision that will improve how we serve our students and conduct vital research.”

The provost’s announcement authorizes units to launch the specified searches, which includes creating position descriptions, forming search committees, writing job advertisements and developing active recruitment strategies for the jobs.

The 2019-20 Institutional Hiring Plan was developed based on proposals from faculty members and academic leaders, in consideration of the needs of individual units and the goals of the UO. Each proposal was reviewed and final decisions were made in consultation with the Deans Council and the seven-member Provost’s Faculty Hiring Advisory Committee.

“I am grateful to the deans and the other academic leaders for their collaborative efforts in helping to establish this plan,” Banavar added. “Despite the difficult financial picture, we continue to build a strong foundation for academics and the important initiatives we have on our campus.”

The plan builds on the momentum of last year’s Institutional Hiring Plan. As of mid-April, 41 tenure-track faculty members had been successfully hired through efforts related to the 2018 plan.

The Office of the Provost is seeking feedback on how to further refine the hiring plan process for future years via an online survey.