New round of cluster hires set to begin

The university plans to hire 25 new faculty in its latest round of cluster hiring as part of the Madison Initiative, Provost John Wiley says.

The cluster-hiring program recruits new faculty in new and emerging academic disciplines that cross traditional departmental and college lines. So far, the university has hired 34 new professors in cluster-hiring positions, and several other searches are under way.

Overall, the university plans to add 100 to 150 new cluster-hire faculty as part of the Madison Initiative.

“The plan is intended to better support the expansion of knowledge that is, increasingly, arising from more than one discipline,” Wiley says.

Funding for the program comes from the Madison Initiative, the university’s innovative public-private partnership to broaden educational opportunities for students and strengthen Wisconsin’s economic development.

The university is two years into the four-year plan to raise $57 million in additional state support and match it with $40 million in private funding from alumni and donors through the University of Wisconsin Foundation and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

State lawmakers approved the first $29.2 million in public funding for the plan in the 1999-2001 biennial budget, and the university will seek the remaining $28 million in state support in the 2001-03 state spending plan. Private support for the Madison Initiative will be ongoing at $10 million a year from income raised by a $200 million endowment.

New cluster-hire professors are already teaching and conducting research in several diverse areas of knowledge, including genomics, international public affairs, computer sciences and engineering, and religious studies.

Successful cluster-hiring proposals must meet several criteria, according to Wiley: quality; relevance to the mission and vision of the university; timing related to emerging areas of knowledge; potential for success; and potential for enhancing faculty diversity.

The timeline for the next round of cluster hires starts with the official request for pre-proposals, which will go out to academic departments on July 1. Pre-proposals must be completed by Nov. 1, and finalists will be announced on Dec. 1.

Finalists will then have until March 1, 2001, to complete their full proposals, and the selections will be announced in May 2001. The searches for the new positions will take place during the 2001-02 academic year, with the new faculty beginning work in the 2002-03 academic year.

Wiley says his office will create a web site so departments can electronically submit their pre-proposals and executive summaries of full proposals.