The University is allocating 60 new faculty positions that will provide critical mass in key research areas while also addressing teaching needs, Provost Kevin Carman announced on Aug. 14.

"We specifically encouraged proposals for 'clusters' of faculty lines that would be filled over the next 2-5 years and that would provide critical mass in key research areas while also addressing teaching needs," Carman wrote in an email to the campus. He said after receiving many "compelling proposals," a committee that included representation from the Faculty Senate, ASUN, University administration, VPRI, and the Graduate School then tendered recommendations to Carman. Carman conferred with President Marc Johnson in making the final decisions.

"There were many more meritorious proposals than positions, but I am very pleased to inform you that we are allocating 60 new faculty positions," Carman wrote.

Full text of Provost Carman's email to the campus is below:

Dear Colleagues,

You will recall that we requested proposals in the spring of 2015 for the allocation of new academic faculty positions.  We specifically encouraged proposals for "clusters" of faculty lines that would be filled over the next 2-5 years and that would provide critical mass in key research areas while also addressing teaching needs.  Not surprisingly, we received many compelling proposals.  The proposals were reviewed by a committee that included VPRI Mridul Gautam, ASUN President Caden Fabbi, GSA President Kylie Rowe, Faculty Senate Chair David Sanders, Associate Vice President for Budget and Planning Bruce Shively, and Vice Provosts Stacy Burton, Joe Cline, and David Zeh.  The committee members tendered their recommendations to me, and I conferred with President Johnson in making the final decisions.  There were many more meritorious proposals than positions, but I am very pleased to inform you that we are allocating 60 new faculty positions as described below.

Cluster initiatives:  We will support 20 positions in FY17 that will be associated with the following cluster initiatives:

(1) Dryland Agriculture, 9 positions over 4 years.  Includes departments of NRES, BMB, and ANVS;

(2) High-Performance Computing, 5 positions over 3 years.  Includes departments of CSE, CME, and ME;

(3) School of Public Health, 13 positions over 5 years (CHS);

(4) Statistics PhD program (MATH), 1 position in FY17 with additional positions to be determined.

(5) Pavement Materials, 2 positions over 2 years (CEE).

(6) Neuroscience, 8 positions over 4 years.  Includes departments of PSYCH and BIOL.

(7) Big Data, 4 positions over 2 years.  Includes departments of CSE, IS, and ANTHRO.

(8) Autonomous Systems, 4 positions over 2 years.  Includes departments of ME and EBE.

(9) Doctor of Musical Arts, 4 positions over 4 years (Music).

(10) Cybersecurity, 3 positions over 2 years.  Includes CSE and IS.

(11) Musical Theater, 3 positions over 3 years (Music and Theatre)

(12) Human Development and Family Studies, 3 positions over 2 years (EDUC), one position joint with UNCE.

Anticipated future commitments associated with clusters are: 25 positions in FY18, 16 positions in FY19, 8 positions in FY20, and 2 positions in FY21 (total 52 positions for the future).  While we have every intention to fill these positions in the future, annual decisions will be based on available budgets.  You will be hearing more about these clusters in the near future.

Additional tenure-track positions. An additional 17 tenure-track faculty lines will also be allocated that were not part of cluster proposals.

Lecturers.  15 full-time lecturers were allocated to programs with high teaching demand.

Collectively, the 2017 allocation of academic positions among colleges will be: CABNR-3; Liberal Arts-16; Business-6.5; Science-10; DHS-3; Engineering-8; Education-1.5; Journalism-1; Libraries-2; UNCE-1.

Spouses/partners.  As part of a new and ongoing initiative, we have allocated 4 faculty lines that will support academic positions for spouses and partners of new hires and current junior faculty.  We have developed a policy to guide our use of these positions and will be working with deans to identify candidates.  We were also able to address a few spouse/partner opportunities through positions allocated through the regular RFP.

Department chairs.  We have allocated 4 lines for external department chair searches.  We are working with deans to identify the most impactful opportunities for the new chair positions.

Classified staff.  We will be allocating 11 new classified staff positions to academic programs.  Deans will be asked to submit brief proposals for these positions later this month.

Graduate Teaching Assistants.  41 new GTA lines will be allocated for FY17.  These new positions will be distributed to programs in a manner that is consistent with the allocation of new faculty lines.

Thank you for all that you do to make UNR a great place to learn, discover, and engage.

Regards, Kevin C.