Fall 2021 Updates to the Faculty Diversity Initiative

With a publicly-committed $185 million investment towards supporting faculty recruitment, development, and pathways from underrepresented scholars, the Faculty Diversity Initiative includes several efforts to recruit faculty from historically underrepresented groups. We are pleased to provide an update about new pieces to the portfolio, including the Provost’s Initiative to Support Faculty Cluster Hiring that targets faculty and faculty pathways for historically underrepresented groups:

• Race and Racism Scholarship initiative: This program advances the recruitment of outstanding faculty members engaged in race and racism scholarship. During the summer of 2021, Professors Robert Eschmann and Naeem Mohaiemen joined the School of Social Work and School of the Arts respectively. Two additional faculty will join in 2022, with an additional eight authorized positions.  
• Research Support to Accelerate STEM Cluster Hiring: This program provides research funding to facilitate STEM cluster hiring across the university.
• Enhancements to Target of Opportunity Hiring: In addition to these new cluster programs, we have increased and accelerated our Target of Opportunity hiring ​​of faculty of Black, Latinx and other historically underrepresented tenured or tenure-track faculty. 

These efforts enabled the successful recruitment of the most diverse group of new tenure and tenure-track faculty in Columbia history (29% Black, Latinx and Native hires) as well as the second highest year for the recruitment of ladder women (47%).

Columbia University Black, Latinx and Native Tenured and Tenure-Track Hires, 2012-2021

Columbia University Women Tenured and Tenure-Track Hires, 2012-2021

For more information about Columbia’s faculty diversity data, please visit https://provost.columbia.edu/content/faculty-diversity.  

Additionally, the new Inclusive Faculty Pathways Initiative creates opportunities for talented students from underrepresented groups to pursue Columbia's graduate programs, with a particular emphasis on pathways to the professoriate. Part of this program includes the recruitment of outstanding postdoctoral scholars from underrepresented groups to reflect the composition of the national pool of qualified candidates. We are pleased to announce that the first six postdoctoral positions for the Provost's Postdoctoral Research Scientist and Scholar Program have been awarded to the following units: the Climate School, Columbia Law School, the School of Social Work, Arts and Sciences, the Division of Natural Sciences, the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and the Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.

Finally, the Addressing Racism Seed Grants initiative funded 57 faculty projects with the goal of collaborative dialogue, action, and insight for systemic change towards racial equity. The deadline for applications for seed grants is Thursday, November 4. For more information please visit our website.

Please contact [email protected] with any questions or concerns.