The Institute has launched a nationwide search for someone to fill the newly-created position of vice provost for Institute diversity.
A campus search committee, chaired by Vice Provost Tom Apple, will work in concert with a private search firm to identify candidates for the position.
“We’re looking for someone who can, across the campus, direct our efforts in diversity,” Apple said.
The new vice provost will take on the task of increasing the school’s diversity in four areas: ethnic, gender, intellectual—strength in disciplines other than engineering—and geographical.
The Rensselaer Plan places importance on improvement in these areas.
“I believe we’ve made some great strides,” Apple said, “but we also have a tremendous way to go.”
In the past two and a half years, the Institute has aggressively recruited women and minority student and increased enrollment efforts in more geographical areas in order to increase diversity. Similarly, the Institute has made efforts to hire women and underrepresented minorities at the faculty level and is working to make sure these new hires succeed through the promotion and tenure process.
RPI has also sponsored diversity and sexual harassment awareness training for students, faculty, and faculty leadership, including the post-9/11 seminar series.
The new vice provost’s job will be to coordinate these efforts, expanding programs and curricula to accommodate a more diverse set of viewpoints, creating an environment that welcomes a diverse community, and securing funding for new faculty positions.
Apple says the committee is looking for someone who is dynamic, able to energize others, and dedicated to the cause of diversity at RPI.
He says they would also prefer someone with faculty experience, to help them understand the kinds of mentoring program that new faculty—particularly women and ethnically diverse faculty—will need to become acclimated to the school.
“We want someone who’s been there, done that,” he said.
The Institute search committee members include Apple; Alan Balfour, dean of architecture; Luciano Castillo, assistant professor of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering; Teresa Duffy, dean of enrollment management; Isom Herron, professor of mathematical sciences; Cynthia McIntyre, chief of staff and assistant secretary of the Institute; Sandra Nierzwicki-Bauer, professor of biology; Rita Richardson Salley, interim assistant vice president of human resources; and Lisa Trahan, dean of the First-Year Experience.
Over the next few months, the committee will be reviewing the credentials of applicants to create a short list of candidates that will be invited to campus for interviews. Apple says he expects there to be someone in place by next fall.
Though only in the early stages of the search, Apply said the committee is already receiving inquiries. He takes this as a positive sign. “I think we’re going to get a great pool of candidates,” he said.
