Strategic Hiring Initiative
UPDATE: At the request of those engaged in the proposal process, the Deans and Directors were notified on March 8, 2011 that the new deadline to submit proposals is now Friday, April 8, 2011.
February 22, 2011
Aloha!
During our second century, UH Mānoa is poised to strengthen our service as a major generator of educated citizens, creator of new of knowledge and a work force resource for Hawaiʻi. A major way to accomplish that is increasing investment in the core of our university—our faculty—whose efforts are crucial to teaching students to become future leaders and making discoveries to improve our world.
I am pleased to announce a new “Strategic Hiring Initiative” to seek outstanding faculty in the teaching and research community to join UH Mānoa in fields directly related to identified priorities for the campus. I anticipate this program will have multiple approaches (e.g. partner hires, outstanding scholars, Native Hawaiians and other minority groups) to insure we recruit the best faculty to Mānoa. The first pilot of this initiative will include two hiring clusters, i.e., at least three to five new members per cluster who can strengthen our efforts in high priority areas based on their professional excellence and on their interdisciplinary capacity. These hires will be permanent FTE and will be evaluated according to normal tenure and promotion guidelines.
The practice of Cluster Hires may be continued across a number of years (or more than one year) but the success of the partnerships will be evaluated as to their progress annually. As I indicated earlier, I have selected two campus priority areas identified in our campus strategic plan:
Sustainability programs
Sustainability studies and research, particularly in the areas of energy, water and the environment, are essential to the survival of our islands and Hawaiʻi’s future economic viability. UH Mānoa needs to expand its leadership role for Hawai'i in this area.
Native Hawaiian Scholars
Mānoa is a Hawaiian place of learning and this truly distinguishes our university from any other on earth. We must provide more opportunities for Native Hawaiian scholars across all disciplines, including mentors and role models for Native Hawaiian students to nurture their educational success which strengthens Hawaiʻi’s future.
Both of these campus priorities are crucial to defining the future greatness of UH Mānoa as a destination of choice, a global leading research university and a respectful, inclusive community. In partnership with our deans and directors, we are creating a fund to finance the hiring of these new faculty members at UH Mānoa.
The Faculty Senate Executive Committee has worked with administration on a process to be used in this initiative. Following many of their recommendations, I want to move these two forward this semester, because there is a sense of urgency in addressing these two priority areas for the campus. The goal is to reach decisions regarding the proposals before the end of the semester. There is also a need for us to test and assess aspects of this approach for the future.
To expedite this pilot, I have asked Dean Maenette Benham of Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge (Native Hawaiian cluster) and Professor Peter Mouginis-Mark, Director for UH Mānoa Sustainability Initiatives (Sustainability cluster) to serve as campus coordinators for the two clusters. The goal is to solicit proposals in these two areas from the schools/colleges/research units and the coordinators serve as a resource for the proposers and also provide input to me. A campus committee will review the proposals and make recommendations to me; that committee will include: the four vice chancellors; chair or vice chair of Senate committees (the Senate Executive Committee, Campus Academic Policy and Planning Committee, Committee on Administration and Budget and the Committee on Research); ASUH representative; GSO representative; and a representative of Kualiʻi Council.
Proposals (2-5 pages) will need to include:
- Identification of how the proposal advances the campus’ Strategic Plan in the areas of Sustainability and Native Hawaiian Scholars.
- Contribution to the University of Hawaiʻi’s performance goals. www.hawaii.edu/ovppp/uhplan. Measurable, achievable outcomes must be stated.
- Identification of cross-disciplinary initiatives/efforts related to the proposal.
- Information on how the proposal advances education, research and/or outreach/public service.
- Identification of personnel need, salary requirements, locus of tenure and expectations for faculty evaluation procedures in the event of joint positions involving more than one college.
- Identification of and responsibility for providing space, administrative and operational costs.
- Identification of existing or proposed resources available to cost match/leverage the initiative.
- Information on how the overall success of the proposal will be evaluated.
The proposals should be submitted to the Office of the Chancellor by March 28, 2011, to allow sufficient time for evaluation. The overall objective of this effort is to identify great ideas to strengthen UH Mānoa—not all can be funded from this effort, but worthy ideas may well become the priorities for funding by the units themselves and/or private donors. There is great creativity here at UH Mānoa and this effort will be driven by those ideas.
Mahalo.
Virginia S. Hinshaw
Chancellor, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
vhinshaw@hawaii.edu