Standard III. Faculty

III.3 The school has policies to recruit and retain faculty from diverse backgrounds. Explicit and equitable faculty personnel policies and procedures are published, accessible, and implemented.

At the iSchool, diversity is defined in two ways. One is to have faculty from a variety of professional and scholarly backgrounds covering the multiplicity of sectors and specialties of the information professions. At present the LIS program faculty have research expertise and interests in academic and research libraries, archives and records management, children’s and youth services, collection development, cyberscholarship and digital humanities, digital libraries and digital stewardship, health resources and services, information behavior and information literacy, information retrieval, intellectual property, library management, professional education, school libraries, science and technology studies, and social informatics. In addition to regular faculty, a broad group of librarians, archivists, and other information professionals teach on the program, supplementing and strengthening coverage to ensure a rich and comprehensive curriculum. Adjunct appointments are reviewed by the faculty and approved by the Provost’s Office, based on their qualifications to teach and direct graduate study at all levels in accordance with the objectives of the degree programs. The use of Teaching Fellows also adds to the diversity of instructors in the program in terms of disciplinary background, professional experience, or research interests.

Another definition of diversity is the more traditional, meaning recruitment and retention of faculty from underserved populations.  Here, the University and the School have devoted substantial resources to attract faculty from such demographic groups. The University of Pittsburgh Office of Affirmative Action, Diversity, and Inclusion (OAADI) has overall responsibility for providing leadership, resources, coordination, and oversight for the University's voluntary diversity initiatives as well as ensuring equal opportunity and compliance with related governmental requirements. The University has developed a comprehensive set of guidelines and resources to increase the success rate in attracting diversity candidates for faculty positions. All position announcements state that the University of Pittsburgh is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action employer and strongly encourages women and candidates from under-represented minorities to apply. This information is available at http://www.hr.pitt.edu/diversity. Through the OAADI, the iSchool has expanded the advertising for faculty positions to include publications and Web resources specifically targeted to diverse populations.

While these efforts have been pursued with commitment and energy, the School and the University would like to see an increase in the number of faculty from underrepresented groups. In 2012, the School successfully recruited a new female faculty member in the Information Science and Technology program, the first since Toni Carbo retired in 2009. Unfortunately, there is an insufficient number of diversity candidates for faculty positions. This is true in all of the disciplines encompassed by the iSchool, and this is the underlying reason for the creation of the innovative iSchool Inclusion Institute (i3), a multi-year diversity initiative funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and hosted by the School of Information Sciences on behalf of the iSchools community. The purpose of the i3 program is to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups in iSchool graduate programs and to encourage them to consider careers in academia.  It is imperative to increase the diversity of the student body and faculty, to better represent the people in – and impacted by – the Information Professions.

The increased efforts to attract diversity candidates for faculty positions have seen some success. The school has seen an increase in the number of diversity candidates applying for our positions; however the number is still statistically insignificant. It is hoped that enhanced and directed advertisements will better inform candidates from underrepresented groups about the opportunities available to them at the iSchool. The potential increase in the number of candidates, due to programs such as the i3 project, will increase the likelihood of diversifying the Information Science disciplines in years to come.

To ensure that our community is as inclusive as possible, the University created the OAADI, to provide the following services:

  • coordinates and facilitates the development and implementation of equal opportunity, nondiscrimination, and diversity policies, procedures, and guidelines for the University;
  • monitors progress in implementing diversity initiatives and realizing objectives for enhancing inclusion;
  • prepares institutional and governmental reports including, but not limited to, the University's affirmative action plan;
  • conducts studies and undertakes research projects;
  • participates in a variety of training events;
  • handles or coordinates the handling of internal complaints of discrimination or discriminatory harassment;
  • serves as a link between the University and other institutions, governmental agencies, or community groups with related concerns; and
  • maintains the centralized job posting website for faculty positions

The policies administered by this group are located at http://www.cfo.pitt.edu/policies/procedure/02/02-02-15.html

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