Diversity Hiring Fellows Program

Description

As past faculty recruitment data shows, though some progress has been made, the faculty body at Sac State does not yet reflect the depth of diversity among Sac State students, alumni, and the Sacramento region communities from which Sac State draws the bulk of its student body and with whom Sac State partners as an Anchor University. In order to inform and empower faculty search committees to adopt evidence-based best practices for recruiting diverse faculty candidates and making decisions through review and deliberation processes that counteract bias, IE has developed the Diversity Hiring Fellows Program to provide a greater level of support to search committees and deeper engagement in the recruitment process through consultation and research.

As an extension of IE’s work in the area of recruitment, retention, and success of underrepresented faculty, the IE Diversity Hiring Fellows Program seeks to resource and leverage the expertise of Sac State faculty members in service of Sac State’s ongoing commitment to fostering an actively anti-racist and inclusive campus. The program invites Faculty Diversity Hiring Fellows to:

Deepen knowledge and skills in bias prevention and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) advising/coaching,
Develop relationships through a professional cohort of fellow scholar practitioners
Engage directly in the work of DEI in faculty recruitment and retention,
Help broaden the capacity of faculty search advising and consultation offered by IE,
Build and implement a cohesive faculty recruitment and retention data collection, analysis, and reporting protocol.

Eligibility

This Fellowship is open to all Tenure Track (Probationary) and Tenured Full-Time Faculty at Sac State.

*** Applicants must secure written approval (letter, email) from their Department Chair and the Dean of
their College prior to submitting the application. Written approval will be requested as part the application
process.

Details and Responsibilities

The Fellowship takes place over one Academic Year (AY) and is renewable for one additional year upon written agreement of IE, the Faculty Fellow, and their Academic Department and College.

IE Diversity Hiring Fellows are responsible for full participation in the following:

An three hour onboarding meeting in late May
Three non-consecutive days of Fellowship Orientation Training in August (dates TBD). Orientation sessions will include some pre-work and post-work.
5-7 hours each week during the academic year spent engaging in the work of the fellowship, including but not limited to search committee appointments, cohort meetings, research/analysis, reading or writing materials and search committee resources, additional learning and development activities.

Faculty participating in the Fellows Program are compensated with:

6 Total Units of Reassigned Time, 3 WTUs per semester
$750 payment for the Fellowship Orientation Training ($250/day)
Provision of all materials and texts necessary for the Fellowship cohort to engage in relevant
learning on equity in recruitment and retention

Application Process

A call for applications is usually sent out by the Office of Faculty Affairs in Mid-May. If you have any questions about the program and its goals, please email Lina Rincón at lina.rincon@csus.edu

How do Diversity Hiring Fellows Support Search Committees?

The Diversity Hiring Fellows are faculty members that work with the Division of Inclusive Excellence for a year to deepen knowledge and skills in bias prevention and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) advising/coaching and to support faculty search committees to embed inclusive practices in the search process.

Each fellow works with 5 – 6 different search committees and facilitates conversations on the goals the committee has to diversify their faculty, how to use inclusive language in posting materials, how to review applications from a DEI lens and how to connect recruitment with intentional faculty retention efforts.

The fellows meet with the search committees at four different check-in points

Before posting your job announcement

Check-in # 1 -What does it mean to diversify faculty in your department?
Check- in # 2 - Use of inclusive language in pre-posting and interviewing materials, and rubrics.

Before reviewing applications