BLOOMINGTON — A huge investment aimed at the initiative of diversifying the faculty at Indiana University was announced by IU President Pamela Whitten on Tuesday.
A total of $30 million is being invested in hiring a "more diverse mix of faculty" at IU, the university wrote in a release.
"Indiana University is taking a critical and bold step forward," Whitten wrote on her "Written by Whitten" blog post about the investment.
IU's "Presidential Diversity Hiring Initiative" seeks to hire from groups traditionally underrepresented in higher education. The projected seven-year process is aimed at all seven of the university's campuses.
The first-of-its-kind fund for the Bloomington-based university will allocate the money to more than just filling open positions among IU's faculty. According to Whitten, the funds will also go toward adding new faculty positions, including researchers. The new hires will cover a broad range of academic disciplines at all IU campuses.
"Now is the time to provide our students with access to world-class teachers and researchers from multiple perspectives," Whitten said in the announcement. "As a university, we have already taken important steps toward greater diversity, and our resolve will now be matched by significant investment."
The initiative is using reallocated funds from non-academic services and external gifts, according to IU. The office of the vice president for diversity, equity and multicultural affairs will manage the initiative.
A webinar to go over the process of the diversity hiring initiative will be held sometime in October for those leading the charge at each campus.
"Our collective commitment to a more diverse faculty will have a positive impact on our university, as well as on our state and beyond," Quinn Buckner, chair of the IU Board of Trustees, said in a release. "This ambitious initiative sparked by President Whitten will advance a new generation of scholars, and we will all be better for it."
