INCREASING THE DIVERSITY IN THE FACULTY AT A GROWING EMERGING RESEARCH INSTITUTION

STEM fields are challenged to increase the diversity of the full-time faculty. The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) is a Hispanic Serving Institution that located in the southernmost counties in Texas along the US Mexico border. The university is a distributed university with many campus locations and it has over 28,000 students. The geosciences oriented environmental sciences program started in 2006. About two thirds of the graduates of this program have gone on to successful employment with state and local government agencies, conservation oriented NGOs, and teaching high school science. The remaining third went on to earn graduate degrees in geosciences. Clearly, UTRGV is contributing to diversity in the pipeline.

Additionally, UTRGV recruits heavily for all faculty positions. Faculty attending conferences are sent with materials for recruiting potential applicants. We search for a diverse pool and require that the pools be certified as diverse prior to short listing. Also, short lists must be reviewed with an eye toward diversity. Candidates are invited to meet with a group of faculty who are not part of the search committee or department to offer the opportunity to ask questions that they might be reluctant to ask the decision makers. We hear from our new hires that this meeting was very influential in their decision to join our faculty.

UTRGV does not leave the faculty to fend for themselves. We have a two-year long new faculty program that includes monthly meetings with the new faculty. The faculty form a strong cohort. The topics covered in these sessions are designed to help the faculty transition from graduate students or post-docs to successful tenure-track and contingent faculty. This program has helped with retention of our faculty.

This three pronged approach has helped increase the diversity in the faculty at UTRGV and other institutions.