Frequently asked questions about this initiative.
- Should efforts aimed at improving equity and inclusion be treated as a “fourth bin” of faculty activity in addition to research, teaching, and service, or should it be integrated into these other areas of faculty work?
Answer: The categories "service," "teaching," and "research," reflect language in IU policy about faculty promotions. Currently, discussions have proposed two different ways to highlight diversity efforts. First, a special designation within CVs for promotion and tenure (similar to markings for student co-authors), with opportunities to elaborate on this work in the Candidate Statement and within Digital Measures Academic Insight (DMAI) for annual reviews. Second, there is general support for framing an "integrative" (rather than a "balanced") case based on diversity, equity, and inclusion to meet standards for "excellent overall performance."
- How will external reviewers know how to evaluate our candidates, particularly if most reviewers tend to focus on “publication counts” and other quantitative metrics?
Answer: It is essential that we communicate clearly to external reviewers that our institution deeply values activities and achievements aligned with diversity, equity, and inclusion. External reviewers are to focus on the quality of the faculty member's scholarly contributions. Internal committees should interpret external reviews as one part of the whole case and its documentation; one that is essential for assessment of scholarly impact, but which necessarily cannot adequately assess the entirety of the faculty member's overall performance.
- What if I teach in a Purdue program?
Answer: Per the Constitution of the Indiana University Faculty, the faculty has legislative authority to develop policy and to determine procedures for governing the teaching, research, and service aspects of the academic mission. This includes having legislative authority for standards and procedures for promotion and tenure as well as compensation. All faculty at IUPUI are IU faculty, even if they teach in a program that confers Purdue degrees. Thus, the faculty have the authority to alter standards and criteria related to promotion as well as tenure. Purdue criteria value "maintaining and inclusive environment," and "accomplishment and demonstrated excellence in at least one of the mission areas, with the understanding that, ideally, strength would be apparent in more than one." Proposed changes to IUPUI criteria will fit within the overall Purdue guidelines.
- Will all faculty need to be evaluated as an “integrated case”?
Answer: No. Faculty can continue to seek promotion based on excellence in a single area of activity such as research and creative activity. However, we encourage schools to thoroughly consider how to appropriately recognize activities and achievements that improve equity, increase diversity, enhance inclusion, and to consider how an integrative approach could more accurately reflect their faculty member's value to the unit.
- How can we move away from categorizing faculty work when eDossier forces faculty to sort their work into “bins.”
Answer: It is a responsibility of campus leaders to advocate for changes to systems, such as eDossier, to ensure that our campus values are able to be reflected in the tools used to capture faculty work. Changes can be made in Digital Measures Activity Insight (DMAI), the eDossier structure, and the promotion and tenure CV format to reflect criteria decided upon by faculty. - What does this change really solve?
Answer: When promotion and tenure criteria take into account only one specific range of activities, reviewers and mentors can implicitly, and sometimes explicitly, discourage anything outside those areas. Since efforts to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion have not been visible within the promotion and tenure process, such activities can end up being discouraged actively by chairs and/or deans. Faculty who engage in this work may never have this work recognized despite the fact that they engage in it on top of their other responsibilities. Given the importance of this work to our campus strategic plan, it is time to create ways for it to be recognized in reviews of faculty work. - How is an "integrative" case different from a "balanced" one?
Answer: In our current “balanced case” scenarios, most of the focus is necessarily on ‘distributing’ a fairly precise and similar number of countable items into all three areas of faculty work. An integrative case moves away from counting. It acknowledges that for many faculty, particularly those that engage in diversity, equity, and inclusion work, the work is all of a piece rather than fitting neatly into categories. Their research, teaching, and service activities complement and enrich one another. An integrative case encourages and rewards faculty who articulate their role without parsing it into categories; it allows for varying strengths in various areas of endeavor. That is, instead of EITHER one area of excellence and only satisfactory performance in the other two OR three areas of highly satisfactory activity which have to fit within very careful parameters, it allows for a holistic view of endeavors that advance the individual's career as well as the reputation of the unit and campus. - Will faculty be penalized if they do not engage in diversity, equity, and inclusion work as a result of these changes?
Answer: Higher Education in the 21st century demands that we actively and effectively attend to creating more inclusive institutions. In particular, given the values undergirding IUPUI, our mission, and the needs of our students, all faculty should reflect on how they are pursuing the missions of their departments, schools, and IUPUI through work that advances diversity, equity, and inclusion. Discussion on how to reward this core value within annual merit reviews (all faculty, not just those preparing for promotion or tenure) is scheduled for 2021-2022. Much as all faculty are expected to exhibit effective teaching and diligent professional service, all faculty will be expected to contribute to greater diversity, equity, and inclusion at IUPUI.
- What are some examples of work that enhances diversity, equity, and inclusion contributions?
Answer: Ample opportunities for professional development related to equity and inclusion are available through the Center for Teaching and Learning; the Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; the Office of the Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Diversity and Inclusion; Project EPIC (IUPUI's NSF-supported ADVANCE grant project); the Graduate Office; and the Division of Undergraduate Education. As an urban campus, faculty at IUPUI have opportunities to engage in public scholarship and community-engaged teaching and learning through the Office of Community Engagement and the Center for Service Learning. This document, created by the Faculty Council Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, offers clear definitions and examples of significant work and how it might be disseminated and assessed.
- What about faculty who were hired before the proposed modifications go into effect?
Answer: When tenure standards change during the probationary period, candidates have the option of either choosing the standards in place at the time of hire or choosing to be reviewed under the new standards. Promotion is sought on the basis of standards in effect at the time one applies. As the IUPUI Faculty Guide notes, "conditions of work can change" (p. 72). Clarifying how IUPUI faculty address essential campus values such as diversity, equity, and inclusion is part of the natural development of faculty life and expectations at IUPUI.
