ADVANCE--changing the face of Michigan Tech

The ADVANCE Initiative at Michigan Tech seeks to improve the recruitment, retention and promotion of women in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) by increasing the diversity and quality of the faculty applicant pool, increasing the number of women hired into STEM tenured/tenure-track faculty positions, and assisting all our faculty members in the achievement of successful careers at Michigan Tech.

Aimed at catalyzing change in the gender diversity of the faculty, the initiatives listed below provide innovative and transformative best practices at Michigan Tech and at other university-recipients of the ADVANCE grant, aiming broadly to increase diversity in our applicant pool, create richer and more effective searches, and improve the recruitment and retention of a more diverse faculty who are superior researchers and teachers. Michigan Tech's ADVANCE program encompasses six ongoing initiatives:

  1. Expansion of campus-wide training programs in diversity and unconscious bias literacy. Both the and the training are required of all tenure-track faculty, as well as any adjunct instructors who serve on search and/or promotion-and-tenure committees.
  2. Development of greater accountability in the hiring process:
    1. Development of more transparent and consistent search and hiring procedures
    2. Increased accountability for deans, chairs, committees, and administrators who oversee the implementation of best practices
    3. integration of Human Resources staff, search committees, and administrators in seamless, effective and rapid hiring procedures
  3. Development and introduction of a university-level interdisciplinary cluster-hiring process, parallel to departmental hiring processes
  4. Implementation of a university-wide faculty mentoring program based largely on the currently successful departmental model at Michigan Tech
  5. Development of a restricted-access database online screening tool to assemble applicant materials, committee evaluations, and other information about faculty applicant pools
  6. Development of institutional promotional and marketing materials outlining best practices for hiring faculty, particularly female faculty