The National Science Foundation (NSF) ADVANCE Program aims to strengthen the scientific workforce through the increased representation of women in academic science and engineering careers.  (Please see the NSF ADVANCE web site at http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/advance/ for more information).

Michigan State University has undertaken a bold new initiative titled Advancing Diversity through the Alignment of Policies and Practices (ADAPP).  ADAPP expands upon the ADVANCE goal since its focus on women in the STEM disciplines is rooted in strategies designed to attract, retain and promote the highest quality faculty possible across all disciplines.

Kim Wilcox, MSU’s Provost, is the Principal Investigator on the project. The other Co-Principal investigators include:  Estelle McGroarty (Lead Co-PI); Terry Curry, Mark Roehling, Clare Luz, and Tammy Reid Bush.

The Grant Management Team includes the principal investigators plus Melissa McDaniels (Project Director), Karen Klomparens (Provost’s Representative), Paulette Granberry Russell (Special Advisor to the President), and Jan Urban Lurain (Internal Evaluator).

The deans of the Colleges of Engineering, Natural Science, and Social Science (Satish Udpa, Jim Kirkpatrick and Marietta Baba) are leading the ADAPP initiative in their respective colleges.

The ADAPP strategies will ultimately promote MSU’s core values of quality and inclusion. These strategies will enhance the opportunity for all faculty to thrive within a rich, intellectually stimulating and supportive community in which expectations are clear, there is equitable access to resources, and achievement is fostered and rewarded.  This will be achieved in part by increasing the number of, and diversity among, women who are hired, retained and advanced. Recognizing and increasing diversity among faculty and women improves the quality of the whole institution.

Specifically, ADAPP addresses policies and procedures related to 1) reappointment, promotion & tenure, 2) the annual review process, 3) new faculty recruitment/search processes, 4) faculty leadership development, and 5) mentoring. Research has shown that by developing objective, transparent criteria and practices in these five areas and consistently applying them across individuals and units, potential bias, both intentional and unintentional, is reduced. In addition, ADAPP institutes Faculty Excellence Advocates (FEA) who will assist with successfully implementing best practices, and a University electronic portfolio system that will serve as a central repository for information on faculty accomplishments and will provide clarity, transparency and accountability to policies, and practices. Faculty benefits from such a system will also include the ability to enter data just once and automatically generate multiple university forms related to review and advancement.

In total there are 37 Institutional Transformation awardees. The first cohort of grantees (2001) included 9 institutions (Hunter College, University of Colorado-Boulder, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, New Mexico State University, University of Puerto Rico, University of California Irvine, University of Washington, and University of Wisconsin-Madison), the second cohort (2003) included 10 institutions (Case Western Reserve University, University of Montana, Columbia University, University of Rhode Island, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Texas-El Paso, Kansas State University, Utah State University, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Virginia Polytechnic Institute). The third cohort (2005) included 9 institutions (Brown University, California State Polytechnic University, Cornell University, Iowa State University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), University of Arizona, University of Illinois-Chicago, University of North Carolina-Charlotte, William Marsh Rice University). The fourth cohort (2008) included 9 institutions, including MSU (North Dakota State, Northeastern University, Ohio State University, Purdue University, Rutgers University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Washington State University, and Wright State University).

The Provost and members of the ADAPP-ADVANCE executive management team and internal advisory group of faculty (important to say explicitly) look forward to discussions with UCFA and UCFT about the various proposed strategies and implementation of best practices in relation to promotion and tenure.

Department RP&T committees will be expected to define the goals and expectations for faculty and then develop evaluation criteria for RP&T decisions that are aligned with these goals. These goals and connected evaluation criteria will be reviewed by the College Dean's office to be consistent with the college expectations and evaluation criteria. The three colleges are in the process of defining goals and RP&T evaluation criteria aligned with these goals. A personnel administrator in the College Dean's office will work with unit RP&T committees to help them define their goals and align evaluation criteria. When RP&T packages are submitted to the College Dean, each will be reviewed to be consistent with the department and college goals and criteria.

Personnel administrators in the college offices will help develop goals and guidelines that are aligned with the college and university goals and help develop evaluation criteria that are aligned with goals.  These administrators will work with the college promotion and tenure committees to apply these criteria during the college review process.

The new processes will not necessarily impact the level of expectations for reappointment or promotion, but will increase the clarity of expectations for faculty to be reappointed or promoted.

The evaluation criteria will be dependent on the position level, and expectations will be based, in part, on distribution of effort defined by the specific appointment.  Goals and criteria will likely vary by department and college.

The departments and colleges will now have clearly defined goals and expectations for reappointment, promotion and tenure and the evaluation criteria will be clearly defined.  This will improve faculty understanding of expectations for advancement.  In addition, there will be oversight to assure that these goals are appropriately aligned with college and university goals and that the evaluation criteria are applied equitably.

A faculty handbook with guidance on the R&PT process, as well as on mentoring and leadership development, is being developed to assist faculty in career planning. In addition, a listing of workshops and programs for faculty related to career planning will be posted on the Web.

Units will have clearly defined processes and evaluation criteria that will be used in the annual review process for each tenure system faculty. Feedback on performance will be provided in writing, with opportunities for faculty input.

The criteria developed for annual performance review and evaluation will be used in defining the metrics and calculations for annual merit raises at the unit level.

Annual reviews of faculty will include an evaluation of progress toward reappointment, promotion and/or tenure. In addition, as part of the annual review process, guidance will be provided regarding expectations for advancement and advice and help in career planning will be provided.