Dear Colleagues,
The Next 150 Strategic Plan identified growing the number of excellent faculty on our campus as a top priority and set aside significant resources to help address that objective. Those plans were put on hold to deal with the effects of the pandemic. It is now time to reinvigorate our commitment to increasing the number of tenure-stream faculty on our campus.
I am excited to announce that the university is launching a multi-year $50 million strategic faculty hiring initiative. Under this initiative, colleges will have opportunities to request non-recurring support for additional hires in strategic areas that advance the university’s mission. We expect that these resources will be used to pursue faculty who enhance research and innovation, accelerate the discovery of solutions to complex global challenges, drive excellence in teaching, contribute to a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community and foster collaborations between the University and the Discovery Partners Institute, the Illinois Innovation Network and other external partners.
You should expect to hear more information about these opportunities from your deans in the coming weeks.
Faculty are one of the university’s most important assets. It is imperative that we attract the most excellent and diverse faculty to our campus to meet our objective of being the pre-eminent public research university with a land-grant mission. These additional investments in faculty will help us maintain and extend our university’s position as a leader in teaching, innovation, and discovery.
Sincerely,
Robert J. Jones
Chancellor