START

START: Support for Talent Attraction, Retention, and Transition

Beginning for Hiring Appointments after July 1, 2018

The Office of Academic Affairs recognizes that an institution’s commitment to inclusive excellence is demonstrated through its ability to recruit and retain diverse faculty talent. The START program is designed to encourage and assist schools and departments at IU Indianapolis in the hiring of outstanding underrepresented  tenured/tenure-track faculty and librarians who will enrich our intellectual environment and serve as potential role models and mentors for our students. Salary support is provided to the academic unit for the first two years of the appointment. A research fund to help support the success of a new faculty member through the promotion and tenure process is also provided.

ELIGIBILITY: START is for recruitment purposes only (for retention efforts, please see KEEP). It is not intended for faculty members who are currently employed at IU Indianapolis. However, START funds may be used occasionally to recruit faculty with visiting appointments into tenure track positions if the faculty member has also participated in the national search process for an IU Indianapolis position. Dual career recruitment initiatives (e.g., hiring an eligible partner or spouse) may also be funded through START.  

PROCEDURE: To ensure equitable distribution of available funds across the schools, the number of sponsored candidates is limited. Therefore, all requests for START funding must include the following:

• current curriculum vita of the proposed candidate
• statement of demonstrated need or underrepresentation in a particular disciplinary area
• specified plan of retention for the candidate, developed by the chair/director and endorsed by the dean
• record of most recent and successful cases of retention and/or mentorship of junior faculty (school or department level; within the last 5-10 years)

Schools that have never applied for START funding (or Support for Recruitment of Underrepresented Faculty [SRUF]) are particularly encouraged to apply. START is also available to programs based at IU Columbus and IU Fort Wayne.

Requests for support should be made to the associate vice chancellor for faculty diversity and inclusion in the Office of Academic Affairs. If recruitment proceeds to the offer stage, a complete offer packet is required, as for any other hire.

SALARY SUPPORT: First-year salary support comes in two parts:

1. $10,000 is placed in a research subaccount for each tenure-track START hire, to be managed by the dean’s office. This funding is provided to the START recruit for research preparation, conference travel for presentations or research development, statistical support, consultation for grant applications, in support of their progress toward promotion and tenure. This is intended to augment (rather than replace) start-up funds provided by the department or school.
2. Direct salary support or start-up package support is provided to the school in the amount of 40 percent of the base salary, not to exceed $30,000.

In year two of the hire, additional support of 20 percent of the base salary, not to exceed $20,000, will be transferred to the school’s budget, assuming that the underrepresented faculty member or librarian remains on the tenure track at IU Indianapolis. An additional $10,000 will be transferred to the school’s budget upon the successful promotion and tenure of the START hire. If a START-supported faculty member or librarian leaves IU Indianapolis during the support period, all funds will be returned to the central START pool.

STRATEGIC HIRES: Schools that are able to make the case for hiring to redress severe underrepresentation by building capacity in a disciplinary area or as a means of advancing specific campus strategic and diversity plan goals may utilize START funding to engage in cluster hiring (maximum of 2 hires at one time). Such strategic hiring requests must receive special approval from the executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer.

MENTORING: Each START tenure-track appointee is to be assigned at least one mentor, and this assignment must be reported to the associate vice chancellor for faculty diversity and inclusion within the retention plan for the new hire. START hires will also engage in regular networking and discussions facilitated by the associate vice chancellor for faculty diversity and inclusion as well as the vice chancellor for diversity, equity, and inclusion. The dean should assure mentoring effectiveness and progress by monitoring the appointee’s progress with the mentor. Every effort must be made to protect the tenure-track START appointee’s time and focus on promotion and tenure success. First-year course release time is strongly encouraged. Consistency in teaching assignments is a must.

REPORTING: The effectiveness of the START program will be monitored through annual submission of each START faculty’s annual reappointment reviews throughout the tenure-probationary period by the deans of all schools receiving START funding. This report is to be sent to the associate vice chancellor for faculty diversity and inclusion.

  START