Wanted: 100 of Academe’s Best
Bold initiative aims to attract top faculty

Dean of USC College Joseph Aoun has unveiled a bold new plan to add 100 additional new faculty—most at the senior level—to the College over the next three years. This is nearly a 25-percent increase from the current number of 409 tenured and tenure-track faculty.

The Senior Faculty Initiative will leverage two of the College’s current advantages to attract premiere faculty who will dramatically raise the visibility and quality of existing programs.

These resources, Aoun explained in an announcement to the faculty in mid-September, are primarily two in nature: “First, we have an existing faculty of high-caliber professors. Our faculty has widespread connections and can approach as peers the world’s greatest academics to acquaint them with the virtues and excitement of our programs at USC College.

“Second, we are positioned well financially—especially vis-à-vis our competitors. Many major private research universities have suffered great losses in their endowments because of the downturn in the stock market. And public research universities are seeing their subsidies from state governments sharply curtailed because the states are experiencing sharply reduced tax revenues.

“It is not a happy situation for academe, but it is an opportunity for us to march ahead—not on the backs of the less fortunate, but by utilizing our current advantage.”

As news of the initiative spread, support was spontaneous and almost uniformly enthusiastic. E-mail poured in to the dean’s office. One professor likened the situation to one facing the New York Yankees a few years back. The owners had a cadre of great players, but the team wasn’t winning. The owners, however, used their resources to sign the best players they could find. The Yankees began to win and continue to do so.

At a recent universitywide meeting of senior faculty serving on an advisory committee, news of the initiative was greeted with excitement. The sense was palpable that USC—and USC College—are launched on a major upswing.

Aoun challenged the faculty to “think outside the box and work with your department chairs to bring the best possible candidates to the College—whether they are looking for a change or not.” He continued, “We will provide the necessary resources to bring outstanding faculty to campus to give seminars and meet with peers in the College. We will invest in promotion to raise the visibility of the initiative.”

Historically, new faculty are hired on a department-by-department basis. The department recognizes a need for a professor in a particular discipline or field, and requests the dean to authorize a position. Under this system, searches have been formed for 46 faculty openings over the past two years. Many already have been filled.

Under the Senior Faculty Initiative, the new hires will not be targeted by department. The goal is simply to get the best people from all fields for the College. The focus will be to hire in three strategic areas: life sciences; urban studies and globalization; and language, mind and culture. Cutting across these foci will be considerations on whether an appointment augments computation and information capabilities, whether it contributes to an improvement in diversity and whether it meets the College’s intention to increase interdisciplinary appointments.

“This is truly a marvelous opportunity for the College,” Aoun says. “We are fortunate to have the strong support of the university administration behind us. And we are especially indebted to Provost Lloyd Armstrong whose vision guided that support almost from the moment that I first proposed this initiative to him.”