“The Iowa State University ADVANCE program is […] designed to create an infrastructure at ISU for transforming structures, cultures, and practices in ways that enable and support recruitment and retention of a diverse, highly qualified and cohesive faculty. This infrastructure is designed to include “top down” university policies and procedures as well as “bottom up” initiatives involving departmental work climate and strategies for improving recruitment, retention and promotion of faculty” (Bird and Hamrick 2008).
To this end, ISU ADVANCE: • collects base-line quantitative data on the faculty recruitment, retention and promotion, and on faculty work issues such as satisfaction with departmental work climate and resource distributions, • supports policies designed to enhance faculty productivity and job satisfaction, • has implemented new programs such as faculty networking events and a mentoring program for faculty of color, • supports three Equity Advisors in the three focal colleges, • provides training to STEM faculty and department Chairs about subtle biases and how they operate, • supports ADVANCE Professors in each of 9 focal departments who work with the ADVANCE Leadership Team, focal department Chairs, and fellow faculty members to develop and implement department-level transformation strategies as part of a process called “Collaborative Transformation.
