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Strengthening the Quality of the Faculty
Investment in faculty through “smart” hiring and intensive faculty mentoring lies at the heart of Arts & Sciences’ success. Continued excellence in teaching and research begins with the recruitment of new faculty who are working at the frontiers of their disciplines. While many leading universities froze or sharply reduced their recruiting plans this year, Arts & Sciences remained an active player in the academic labor market. We moved forward with plans to strengthen CAS by not just replacing faculty who retire or leave, but by expanding the faculty toward our goal of adding as many as 100 new positions within the decade.
Twenty-three departments submitted 57 search requests, all of which represented important elements in our teaching and research mission. The College carefully reviewed the requests and identified its 34 highest priorities for the coming year. After screening hundreds of applications and inviting more than 100 candidates to Boston for interviews, our ambitious faculty acquisition program has paid off. We are closing the recruiting year with:
- 32 new hires as part of our regular recruitment program, typically our first choice candidates. These include:
- 13 hires for faculty expansion
- 1 special hire under the University’s interdisciplinary faculty program
- 7 searches deferred until the next academic year because we held out for higher standards than the pool of applicants supplied
Our impressive new faculty come from top universities, including University of California–Berkeley, Brown, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Michigan, and Princeton.
Tenure and Promotion
Tenure and promotion are the tangible outcomes of an intensive program for the mentoring of our faculty. Peer review by department colleagues is at the heart of this mentoring process and is reinforced by a new College mentoring initiative and creation of a University-level position of Associate Provost for Faculty Development.
All newly hired junior faculty members now have their own designated senior faculty mentor to help them navigate the first year of what we hope will be a long and productive career at Boston University. This mentoring program includes an annual review of teaching, research, and service of all faculty members and, for junior faculty, a thorough “mid-tenure” review designed to ensure that professional development is on track.
This fall we are celebrating the 12 assistant professors who were awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor during the past year, and 6 associate professors who were promoted from associate to full professor. Together, these newly promoted faculty refresh our senior ranks and academic leadership.
Retentions and Resignations
While smart hiring, effective mentoring, and career recognition enhance our teaching and research programs, they also showcase our talented faculty and invite job offers from other top-notch schools. Even in the current weak academic marketplace, 21 faculty members received offers from schools such as Brown, the University of Southern California, the University of British Columbia, and Notre Dame. We successfully retained 13 of these faculty members, but at a great price: the attractive offers these excellent professors received from other universities meant that we raised their salaries by an average of more than 24 percent to meet the competition.
Retirements
Every year we have the opportunity to salute colleagues who have given long years of service to Boston University, and have now decided to move on to the next stage of their lives. This year, seven faculty members stepped down from their full-time academic responsibilities. In recognition of their distinguished careers at the University and in expectation of a continued scholarly affiliation with their departments, each of these faculty members has been elected to emeritus status.
Awards and Achievements
We are never surprised to learn that so many members of the Arts & Sciences faculty are recognized each year by highly competitive fellowships and grants, prizes, and membership-distinguished academic societies. Here are some examples of the achievements of the past year.
Warren Professorships
Last year, an ad hoc committee of the Faculty Council recommended the establishment of the William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professorships as a way of recognizing the University’s most distinguished faculty. President Brown accepted this recommendation and declared the awards to be the highest honor bestowed upon senior faculty members who will continue to be involved in research, scholarship, and teaching, as well as the University’s civic life. Of the five Warren Professorships awarded in the first year, three went to CAS faculty members: Nancy Kopell, the William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of Mathematics and Statistics; Larry Kotlikoff, professor of economics; James Winn, professor of English and director of the BU Humanities Foundation.
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Book Awards from African Studies Association
Two works shared the 2008 Melville J. Herskovits Award from the African Studies Association for the best book in African Studies for 2007, and all three authors are CAS faculty. Parker Shipton (Anthropology, African Studies) won the award for The Nature of Entrustment: Intimacy, Exchange, and the Sacred in Africa (Yale University Press). Linda Heywood and John Thornton (History, African American Studies, African Studies) won the award for Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles, and the Foundation of the Americas, 1585-1660 (Cambridge University Press).
Pardee Center Director Tapped for United Nations Role
Adil Najam, professor of international relations and geography and environment and director of BU’s Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, was appointed a member of the UN Committee for Development Policy (CDP). The 24-member CDP advises the UN Economic and Social Council on issues ranging from the role of technology in development to the effectiveness of aid programs in Africa.
Professor Ricks Receives High Honor
Christopher Ricks, the William M. and Sara B. Warren Professor of the Humanities, was granted a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth. He joins Professor of Biology Hans Kornberg, who was knighted in 1978, as the two Arts & Sciences professors receiving one of highest honors of a British citizen.
Leadership
Running the College effectively requires that a remarkable number of our faculty step forward each year to accept leadership positions of many sorts. They devote considerable time and effort to these tasks, and take the opportunity to develop and apply important leadership and managerial skills.
Full list of CAS department chairs, committee chairs, directors, and administration