American higher education has recently embraced a new tool for advancing its commitment to "diversity, equity, and inclusion" (DEI). Many colleges and universities are now engaged in "DEI cluster hiring," a practice which ultimately embodies higher education's turn toward political and social activism. Unfortunately, it has…

While colleges and universities have been lauded for increasing student diversity, these same institutions have failed to achieve any comparable diversity among their faculty. In 2017, of the nation's full-time, tenure-track and tenured faculty, only 3 percent each were Black men, Black women, Hispanic men, and Hispanic women. Only 6 percent were…

Amid continued concerns regarding faculty engagement, along with heightened challenges associated with recruitment, retention, teaching and learning, and student success, this status report provides an update based on the June 2023 Faculty (Re)engagement Institute (FRI). During the edition of the June 2023 FRI, participants examined barriers…

Program administrators must be intentional when hiring faculty and selecting electives in order to hire faculty the students will be able to relate to, perceive as role models, and who will be able to provide students in higher education in prison (HEP) programs with knowledge about racial issues in our society often from personal experience.…

Most studies of academic inbreeding have focused on assessing its impact on scholarly practices, outputs, and outcomes. Few studies have concentrated on the other possible effects of academic inbreeding. This paper draws on a large number of studies on academic inbreeding to explore how the practice has been conceptualized, how it has emerged, and…

Successful honors programs inspire and sustain a vibrant and committed faculty. This essay presents an established honors program which demonstrates, through varied faculty commitments over time, honors as a valuable asset in identifying, recruiting, supporting, and rewarding a strong, creative, loyal faculty that benefits the entire institution.…

All students, regardless of race or ethnicity, benefit from having teachers and school leaders of color. Since principals of color are often more likely to hire and retain teachers of color, increasing school leader diversity is a key lever for addressing educational inequities. To provide advocates and policymakers with context on this important…

Over the last 50 years, the US has experienced significant shifts in its racial and ethnic makeup, making it a much more racially diverse country than it was a half century ago. The racial and ethnic composition of the higher education system has shifted too. In spite of this progress, various forms of racial bias, socioeconomic inequality, and…

To best train and support school leaders in their evolving roles, they require high-quality preparation and in-service pipelines that both address the changing demands on their positions and acknowledge the cascading effects that well-prepared leaders have on both student outcomes and in school culture and retention. Including school leaders in…

The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) wanted to gather the STEM higher education community to imagine new futures in implementation and research on creating and supporting an inclusive and diverse STEM professoriate. Ideally, they wanted to develop a community-built agenda on how to move forward in tackling complex, systemic…

This report synthesizes the work of the APLU INCLUDES STEM Pathways Taskforce and the Technical Advisory Committee to document how the pathways to faculty careers in STEM can be better strengthened and understood to enhance the diversity of the STEM professoriate. Making change is difficult because (a) we have not reckoned with the complexity of…

Faculty recruitment and PhD student placement have become increasingly competitive over the past decade. The emphasis of graduate student training--research above all else--often means a difficult transition into the professoriate, where expectations for faculty are broadened to include teaching and service. In response, we offer a model of an…

Virginia Tech has intentionally moved beyond the traditional policy-heavy approach to department head orientation to employ a robust leadership development program for new and aspiring academic leaders and faculty. The annual program begins with a full-day workshop in mid-August, and continues throughout the fall semester with a series of shorter…

The article reports on a study that explored the personal narratives of two female travelling academics at a Swedish University who had moved from Australia. To complement previous accounts of difficult migration and enculturation within the research literature, this article focuses mainly on the successful experiences of the academics and how…

Identifying and maintaining talent is important in any organization, but in a low-performing school, it is perhaps "the" most important component to achieving turnaround. Given the importance of teachers and leaders for students and schools, districts and states are wise to hone their efforts related to identifying, attracting,…