By Caitlyn Meisner | Staff Writer
Baylor announced its plans to hire new faculty members as well as eight endowed chairs and the vice provost for global engagement.
Provost Nancy Brickhouse said in the September newsletter that the university is looking to bring in 175 new faculty members for the 2022-2023 academic year.
This past academic year, Baylor celebrated its most diverse faculty cohort in history. Preliminary data shows the incoming cohort is 36% BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color), 21% URM (underrepresented minorities) and 55% women, according to the faculty meeting on Sept. 8.
Dr. James Bennighof, vice provost for faculty affairs, said part of the reason there is an increase in hiring is to compensate for the slowdown during COVID-19. He said the number of faculty Baylor hopes to hire this year and last year is much higher than it has been in previous years.
According to Bennighof, the annual number of open faculty positions recently has been less than 100, typically around 70 to 80.
Dr. Stephen Reid, vice provost for faculty diversity and belonging, said the pandemic was difficult for higher education. In 2021, 13% of faculty were over the age of 66.
“Over 10% of our faculty are at that point [where] retirement is a possibility,” Reid said.
Reid said these new positions are also due to the growing academic initiatives pursued by the Illuminate campaign, which is led by Brickhouse, President Linda Livingstone and the Board of Regents.
Reid said that with the Illuminate campaign, retirements and the inclusion of more endowed chairs — a position that supports a professor’s research efforts — 175 hires makes sense.
Bennighof said the university is looking for as diverse a pool of applicants as possible.
“We want to find as many diverse and great candidates to have conversations with as possible,” Bennighof said. “We are looking everywhere and striving to find the right people.”
Reid also said his team tries to make sure positions are made available in as many diverse venues as possible.
“[These venues] can be a publication [or] it can be getting in touch with a school that produces a lot of Ph.D.s in the field,” Reid said.
The search process for positions is conducted by means of faculty-based and department-focused search committees, Bennighof said. There is an established committee for each position, and the committees are given different criteria.
Bennighof also said the process of trying to find a new faculty member is long. He said the search committees advertise the position, conduct preliminary interviews and bring the finalists to campus. Then, the finalists participate in more interviews and either teach a class or present research. Subsequently, the finalists interview with the provost and their respective deans before getting approved by the provost, their dean and the chair of their department.
Brickhouse said in an email statement that the hiring plan is a part of Baylor’s Illuminate campaign, as there is a particular commitment to hiring 100 new faculty members over five years.
“The hiring plan continues to support Baylor’s work to keep the student-to-faculty ratio and class size at appropriate levels,” Brickhouse said. “Student numbers have grown — particularly at the graduate level.”
Brickhouse also said the faculty turnover at Baylor is low, especially since Baylor was recently named one of the nation’s most trusted universities. There are 20 faculty members who have publicly announced their retirement for the spring, when they will be honored.
Faculty members seek Baylor out due to the attractiveness of research and the benefits the university provides, Brickhouse said.
“Faculty desire to come to Baylor for our commitment to excellence, rich Christian heritage and outstanding benefits — together with competitive salaries, which are benchmarked against other universities and include an excellent retirement contribution plan,” Brickhouse said. “Our commitment to continue to build our research and scholarship is also key, and within that, our research facilities are and will continue to be a big draw.”
Correction: Sept. 29, 2022.
This story has been updated to reflect that the diversity numbers presented in the Sept. 8 faculty meeting were preliminary data only.
