This conference will benefit faculty, faculty hiring managers or department chairs, academic and faculty affairs leaders, diversity leaders, and human resources managers who provide direct oversight of the faculty recruitment process. Individuals who have indirect involvement with hiring underrepresented faculty, such as chairs or members of the faculty senate, will also benefit from the content of this training.

Day 1 – Wednesday, April 3, 2024
8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. MT (local time in Denver, CO)

Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:30 – 9:00 a.m.

Welcome and Introductions
9:00 – 9:15 a.m.

Group Discussion: Identifying Barriers to Effective Underrepresented Faculty Recruitment
9:15 – 10:30 a.m.
Comparing and contrasting your own institution’s barriers with what other institutions are facing to effectively recruit underrepresented faculty helps us to collectively identify common challenges and trends so that we can problem-solve together. This opening session will give you the opportunity to share and discuss these perceived or actual barriers with the guidance of our experts. We will also address the present-day realities that have made recruiting underrepresented faculty even more difficult. You will also have the opportunity to hear how our experts have begun to mitigate some of these barriers on their own campuses—as well as the areas they are still trying to improve.

Morning Break
10:30 – 10:45 a.m.

Strategic Planning: Forming a Cohesive Effort
10:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Whether or not recruiting underrepresented faculty is a part of your university’s strategic plan, there may be times when your institution loses sight of agreed-upon goals and priorities. We will highlight strategies to keep your campus committed to its institutional goals—such as leading critical campus conversations around issues of social justice and analyzing campus data related to faculty turnover and retention rates, as well as climate survey data. You will have the opportunity to review your current institutional goals to determine where there are opportunities for further education, dialogue, or data sharing.

Lunch
12:00 – 1:00 p.m.

Considerations for Academic Units
1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
As an academic leader providing strategic direction to your department’s recruitment and onboarding efforts, it is critical to facilitate conversations that highlight your department needs, both currently and in the future.

This session will cover the following considerations when engaging with your academic units:

• How to write engaging and realistic job descriptions based on a variety of faculty roles
• How to incorporate current and future student success initiatives into faculty qualifications
• Evaluation of where job vacancies are posted and how to expand outreach
• Mitigating evaluator bias when reviewing application materials, including diversity statements and letters of recommendation
• Communicating expectations to deans and department chairs, and when to involve the provost

Small-Group Discussion: Meaning Making
2:00 – 2:30 p.m.
After discussing common recruitment challenges, how to inspire a cohesive effort on your campus, and best practices specifically for academic units, you will have the opportunity to speak with colleagues at similar institution types, share new learns, and ask questions that you may have for each other in order to encourage “meaning making” of the content that was shared by our experts.

Afternoon Break
2:30 – 2:45 p.m.

Addressing Your Culture Around Recruitment Practices
2:45 – 4:00 p.m.
Changing attitudes and antiquated procedures, implementing new policies, and mandating training can create feelings of resentment or resistance—particularly when change is slow, and the efforts are not yielding any positive results in recruiting underrepresented faculty.

This session will cover such ideas as:

• Aligning practices and procedures with new recruitment policies
• Educational workshops for existing academic leaders and faculty
• Understanding inclusive hiring practices
• Tips for hiring committees to use throughout the hiring process
• Ideas for formalizing the roles of diversity recruitment leaders and advocates
• Utilizing appropriate advertising channels
• Leveling the playing field for underrepresented faculty candidates

Q&A, Day One Wrap-up, & Networking Reception
4:00 – 5:00 p.m.
This informal reception hosted by HireEd Careers, Academic Impressions’ diversity-focused job board, is your chance to decompress, have some refreshments on us, and expand your network of connections. Our programs are intentionally designed for smaller groups, so this is a great time to catch up with attendees and speakers with whom you may not have connected yet.

Day 2 – Thursday, April 4, 2024
8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. MT (local time in Denver, CO)

Continental Breakfast
8:30 – 9:00 a.m.

Group Share-Out: What Is One New Learn from Yesterday?
9:00 – 9:15 a.m.
As we kick off day two of this conference, we will reflect on the learning and ideas from the previous day and how you can apply them to your current recruitment processes.

Training Faculty Search Committees
9:15 – 10:30 a.m.
One of the most critical tools in helping to build awareness around behaviors or attitudes that influence hiring practices is training. We will showcase effective training practices used for faculty search committees, as well as how to ensure that conversations with and around an underrepresented faculty candidate can be more inclusive. Our speakers will walk you through sample activities and provide a sample training agenda that you can use for your own faculty search or hiring committees. You will also learn how to identify the appropriate campus facilitator, when the training should take place, which topics would be most useful to discuss, and the pros and cons of making the training mandatory.

Morning Break
10:30 – 10:45 a.m.

Effective Strategies for Partnering with Human Resources
10:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
The Human Resources (HR) office is one of the most critical offices to partner with to effectively recruit and onboard underrepresented faculty. Knowing your campus’s faculty demographics, including whether or not faculty are unionized, impacts how you will need to approach your recruitment efforts. A coordinated effort with Human Resources not only yields more efficient processes in your search process, but it also enables consistent and reliable messaging with prospective and newly hired underrepresented faculty. In this session, you will learn how to meaningfully collaborate with your Human Resources colleagues to yield the best outcomes for your search process.

Lunch
12:00 – 1:00 p.m.

Onboarding Underrepresented Faculty
1:00 – 2:30 p.m.
Now that your institution has successfully recruited underrepresented faculty, what are some meaningful initiatives you can implement to ensure that faculty have a smooth transition to your campus? How might you intentionally involve other critical campus partners, including students, to create an authentic experience for your newly hired faculty? Here, we will highlight ways campuses can provide realistic and necessary initiatives to onboard underrepresented faculty. In small groups, you will discuss the limitations or shortfalls in your current onboarding process and identify at least 1-2 new strategies to improve it.

Afternoon Break
2:30 – 2:45 p.m.

Bringing It All Together: Identifying Short-Term Goals
2:45 – 3:30 p.m.
In this closing session, you will have the opportunity to reflect on the core themes presented at this conference as they relate to your campus. Using the resources, tools, and strategies you have learned at this conference, you will create a list of short-term goals to boost your efforts in recruiting underrepresented faculty at your institution. You may also use this time to share ideas and solicit feedback from your peers, as well as from our expert speaker panel.

Final Q&A, Evaluation, & Closing Remarks
3:30 – 4:00 p.m.

Attend any three in-person conferences for $5,000 for Members ($5,500 for Non-Members) – or $1,667 dollars per registration for Members ($1,833 for Non-Members) – with a Conference 3-Pack. There’s no one way to use your 3-Pack!

• Send 3 people to the same conference
• Send 3 individuals to different conferences
• Experience 3 different conferences yourself

Learn More

The training will be conducted in person at Academic Impressions’ Denver-based office at:

5299 DTC Blvd, Suite 1400, Greenwood Village, CO 80111

Nearby hotel suggestions:

Hyatt Place Denver Tech Center – 3-star hotel
8300 E Crescent Pkwy, Greenwood Village, CO 80111
303-804-0700
Distance from office: 0.5 miles if driving, 0.3 miles if walking

A room rate of $114/night is available if you book your room using this link.

This reduced rate and room availability are subject to general hotel availability and not guaranteed. So, we recommend booking as soon as possible!

Denver Marriott Tech Center – 4-star hotel
4900 S Syracuse St, Denver, CO 80237
303-779-1100
Distance from office: 0.9-1.2 miles, depending on route

Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center – 4-star hotel
7800 E Tufts Ave, Denver, CO 80237
303-779-1234
Distance from office: 1.1 miles

Conference binders include all presentation slides, worksheets, action plans, and additional resources from the conference. Conference binders are shipped upon receipt of payment within 2-4 weeks of the conclusion of the event.

BUY THE CONFERENCE BINDER

Note: This binder is included in the conference registration price. If you are attending the conference and wish to purchase an additional binder, please give us a call at 720-488-6800.