We will establish the College as a premier institution in the nation for the discovery of new knowledge by recruiting, developing, and retaining faculty who drive national conversations in their respective fields, as well as crossing historic research boundaries to create new frontiers. We will enhance infrastructure and technology, encourage collaborative research, and remove policy and procedural obstacles.
We Will Build and Elevate World-Class Research Faculty
Actions:
- Recruit high-trajectory tenure-stream faculty
- Align faculty salaries with peer and aspirant institutions to ensure competitiveness
- Provide start-up packages that meet or exceed those offered by peer and aspirant institutions
- Support hires and strengthen policies leveraging multi-disciplinary activities
We Will Develop, Reward, and Retain Excellent Scholars
Actions:
- Incentivize excellence through promotion, compensation, and resource allocation
- Address compensation gaps with retention and equity initiatives
- Develop impactful departmental mentoring programs for faculty at all ranks
- Increase the number of endowed positions across the College at the unit level
- Reframe research award programs to increase competitiveness for external recognition
- Create training and workshops for postdocs and graduate students to pursue independent funding
We Will Establish Premier Research Infrastructure and Technology
Actions:
- Create a long-term comprehensive research space renovation plan
- Constitute a standing committee on space, infrastructure, and sustainability
- Cultivate resources to maintain existing and create new, state-of-the-art facilities
- Create guidelines for department space allocations that maximize impact
We Will Facilitate Faculty and Research Staff Success
Actions:
- Enhance resources to interface with centralized services and streamline processes
- Distribute workloads that enable impactful graduate and undergraduate mentoring
- Create a comprehensive College funding program encouraging individuals and collaborations
- Ensure promotion policies that recognize multi-disciplinary research
- Develop and support collaborative teams to lead new research initiatives and infrastructures
Success Metrics and Milestones:
- Departmental faculty salaries at least 90% relative to the market value of salary for all departments by FY27
- Attain 30% of tenured and tenure-track faculty having endowed fellowships, professorships, or chairs by FY36
- Accomplish annual 15% increases in new external funding applications
- Maintain 98% retention rate of faculty exclusive of retirements
- Maintain and continue comprehensive 5-year space renovation plan with associated renovation fund, by FY27
- Establish teaching policies that optimize research, scholarship, and innovative pedagogy by FY27
