Scholarship, Tenure & Recognition Subcommittee

The President’s Advisory Council on Race was established to help guide the university's progress in realizing the ideals of equity, diversity, inclusion and social justice in its educational, research, and engagement missions.  To enhance the retention, advancement and recognition of faculty from underrepresented minority (URM) backgrounds, the Council has recommended undertaking a review, and potential revision, of UB’s tenure, promotion, and recognition policies. The purpose of this subcommittee is to determine if UB’s current practices and policies regarding tenure, promotion, and recognition create conditions that pose singular challenges for faculty, especially for URM faculty, to succeed in their scholarly endeavors and advance in their professional ambitions.

The Scholarship, Tenure, and Recognition Subcommittee will investigate and make recommendations on the best practices for re-imagining faculty tenure, promotion, and recognition at UB that ensures equity and instills the principle of anti-racism within the university’s policies, practices, and traditions.  The subcommittee will review tenure and promotion processes and policies to foster the advancement of racial equity and follow best practices for inclusive excellence. In doing so, the subcommittee should address the following:  

• Review tenure and promotion processes and policies to determine to what extent they foster the advancement of racial equity and follow best practices for inclusive excellence, including considering:
  • To what degree is the principle of diversity, which is central to UB’s mission, embedded in promotion and tenure criteria, expectations, and guidelines across departments, units, and central administration?
  • Is diversity-related scholarship, teaching, and service valued, recognized and rewarded across UB to the same extent as non-diversity-related work?
  • To what degree should community work and community-based research be addressed in promotion and tenure criteria?
  • Should UB require anti-bias training for members of unit APT committees and the President’s Review Board?
• As we increase diversity, consider which issues need to be addressed and what supports are needed to ensure faculty success.
• Consider what efforts should be undertaken to promote the scholarship of diversity across research, teaching, and service.
• Examine the procedures at UB used to recognize faculty to establish consistent practices across the university based on best practices.
• Review of the practices and policies regarding internal (SUNY and UB) and external faculty awards at UB in an effort to identify the potential for bias and to recommend changes to the nomination processes that seek to enhance racial equity and are based on best practices.
• Develop specific recommendations that would have widespread support across the university and could begin to be implemented immediately.
• Frame recommendations within requirements stemming from applicable curriculum, state, SUNY, accreditation, and similar policies and guidelines.
• Recommend roles and responsibilities for each recommendation.

• Patricia Diaz, Co-Chair, Empire Innovation Professor of Oral Biology, Director of UB Microbiome Center, School of Dental Medicine
• Robert Granfield, Co-Chair, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs
• Diana Aga, Henry M. Woodburn Professor of Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences; Director of UB RENEW Institute
  
• Rajan Batta, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Diversity, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
• Laina Bay-Cheng, Associate Dean for Faculty Development, Professor,  School of Social Work
• Suzanne Dickerson, Division Chair – Biobehavioral Health and Clinical Sciences, Professor, School of Nursing
• Cecil Foster, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Africana and American Studies, College of Arts and Sciences
• Joseph Gardella, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences
• Yoly Gonzalez-Stucker, Interim Department Chair and Associate Professor of Oral Diagnostic Sciences, School of Dental Medicine
• Fabiola Henri, Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Romance Languages and Literatures, College of Arts and Sciences
• Makau Mutua, SUNY Distinguished Professor, Margaret W. Wong Professor, School of Law
• Krishna Rajan, Erich Bloch Chair, Professor of Empire Innovation, Materials Design and Innovation, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
• William Solomon, Interim Department Chair and Professor of English, College of Arts and Sciences
• Henry Louis Taylor, Jr., Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, Director of Center for Urban Studies, School of Architecture and Planning
• Miriam Thaggert, Associate Professor of English, College of Arts and Sciences