VITAE hiring program on pause due to University budgetary constraints

The Valuing Inclusion To Attain Excellence hiring program, which seeks to attract new faculty members from underrepresented groups to UNC, has been paused until further notice, Provost Bob Blouin announced on Jan. 25.

Blouin said the program, formerly known as the Target of Opportunity program, is on hold due to fiscal challenges that UNC is facing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The program will eventually be reinstated, he said.

“We are absolutely committed to continuing the VITAE program,” Blouin said. “It's just a matter of getting through these next few months, so that we get a clear understanding of how the University will deal with all of the budgetary issues that are in front of it.”

Most hiring has been paused across University departments due to financial issues, Blouin said, but there are some exceptions. Blouin said in instances where hiring cannot be delayed, the chancellor must personally review hiring proposals.

But some faculty are worried about what the pause on the VITAE program will mean for UNC's diversity and inclusion efforts. 

“These aren’t ordinary budgetary considerations; these are infrastructural gaps that are going to produce a downturn in our ability to be innovative because we lack diversity,” Sharon Holland, chairperson of the department of American studies, said. 

According to data from 2019, 73.2 percent of tenured and tenure-track faculty were white, while 58.8 percent of undergraduate students were white. But only 5.5 percent of tenured and tenure-track faculty were Black or African American, compared to 8.1 percent of undergraduate students. 

Sibby Anderson-Thompkins, special adviser to the provost and chancellor for equity and inclusion and interim chief diversity officer, said despite the pause on the VITAE program, the Carolina Postdoctoral Program for Faculty Diversity will continue. 

Postdoctoral Program for Faculty Diversity

The CPPFD, which began in 1983, is one of the oldest diversity fellowship programs in the country, and it attracts fellows from across the nation. UNC has committed to accepting at least six new fellows as part of the CPPFD, Anderson-Thompkins said.

Ron Strauss, executive vice provost, directs faculty retention programs. Strauss said the CPPFD has been a pipeline for recruiting new faculty and is often used in tandem with the VITAE program to hire new faculty from underrepresented groups.

“The postdoc helps them understand the culture and the community,” Strauss said. “And then we come in and offer them a job when they're finished with their postdoc.”

Holland said the CPPFD program has been hugely beneficial for the Department of American Studies.

“We've had three postdocs in our department, and we have hired all of them,” Holland said. “It really has made such a huge impact on our faculty and our ability to do work in American Studies, which is about American Indian Indigenous Studies, and about studies of Blackness and social inequality, identity, migration and immigration.”

William Sturkey, associate professor in the Department of History, was a fellow in the CPPFD. 

“The Carolina postdoctoral program is a pioneer in using a postdoctoral fellowship to recruit faculty of color,” Sturkey said. “But, it's like 30 years old, and we're still patting ourselves on the back.”

Sturkey said in relation to peer institutions, UNC has been surpassed in terms of progressive hiring.

“We think everything we're doing is progressive just because we've never done it before,” Sturkey said. 

But when you compare UNC's hiring practices to Pennsylvania State University's cluster hire of nine people — including a former UNC faculty member — it looks insignificant, he said.

Cluster hiring occurs when a group of faculty members are hired into one or more departments based on shared research interests. 

Strengths of the VITAE program

The VITAE program allows for an active hiring process that differs from the normal hiring process, Sturkey said.

“You actively seek people who can help you diversify your faculty,” Sturkey said. “And so that's one of its great strengths.”

But, Sturkey said, the timing of the pause on the VITAE program is concerning. 

“One of the particular issues with the timing is that we are, right now, a little bit behind," Sturkey said. "And as long as we're not trying to move forward, then we're going to keep falling further behind."

Strauss said the VITAE program has resulted in 204 faculty hires at UNC since its inception in 2000, almost two-thirds of whom are still on campus and are still tenured.

“All existing commitments are being covered," Strauss said. "We're just pausing and taking a breath before we make new commitments."

Holland said diversifying faculty is necessary infrastructure for the University.

“Diversity drives innovation,” Holland said. “We actually need to do this work right now. Because we're 10 years behind everybody else anyway."

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