A boost to major faculty hiring plans at Syracuse University is possible because of a cost-sharing measure in which individual schools and colleges are helping pay for the hiring of 200 new faculty at SU, Vice President for Research John Liu told The Daily Orange.

SU is set to hire 200 new faculty members, doubling an initial hiring promise, Chancellor Kent Syverud announced during his “Winter Message” last month.

Last June, SU detailed a plan — called Signature Hires — to hire 100 new faculty over the course of five years to strengthen SU’s research programs. The university last year also introduced its Cluster Hires Initiative, a second hiring push to bring in 53 new faculty across seven research domains.

Both initiatives will be paid for by Invest Syracuse, SU’s $100 million academic fundraising plan, and the university’s 11 schools and colleges, Liu said. The increase to 200 hires is possible because of that cost-sharing plan, Liu said. Invest Syracuse pays for 50 percent of the total cost of the 200 faculty hires, and the schools and colleges pay for the other 50 percent, Liu said.

 The 200 positions announced by Syverud will include hires through both the Signatureand Cluster Hires Initiatives, Liu said.

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 Hiring for the initiatives will be completed in the next four years, Liu said. Searches for faculty positions typically take up to one year, and the searches may not begin until 2020 or 2021, he said.  

 Because there are multiple positions in each cluster, the Cluster hires may take two to three years to be fully approved, Liu said.

 “The goals of both programs are to provide 21st century education to our students, and to enhance research and scholarly output from our schools and colleges,” Liu said.

 The Signature Hires Initiative works to find talent in select research fields, while the Cluster Hires Initiative uses “multidisciplinary approaches” to make new hires, Liu said. The cluster hires will be made in seven different focuses, five of which are from STEM fields.

 Thirty-three positions were approved for the first round of Signature Hires, Liu said. Fifty-threepositions in all 11 schools and colleges were approved for the Cluster Hires Initiative in November.

 Signature Hires is meant to enhance SU’s R1 research classification, Provost Michele Wheatly said in an SU News release.

 “As an international, student-focused research university, we are committed to growing the research enterprise; increasing discoveries, innovation and impact; diversifying our faculty; and enhancing our national and international reputation,” Wheatly said.

Published on February 3, 2019 at 8:56 pm

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