Nationally Recognized Future Faculty Career Exploration Program Welcomes Prospective Faculty to Campus | October 2022
“Impressive, supportive, inspiring and mission-driven.” Those are the words Jessica Oler uses to describe RIT and the Future Faculty Career Exploration Program. (FFCEP)
Oler, a conceptual artist based in Northern California, is one of 14 scholars and artists invited to take part this year by RIT’s Office of Faculty Diversity and Recruitment. It was held September 21-24th. And after two years of hosting the program virtually, this was the first in-person conference held on the Rochester Institute of Technology and National Technical Institute for the Deaf campus since 2019.
This is FFCEP’s 19th cohort and a major goal is to recruit many of them to faculty positions at RIT. This cohort represents universities and institutions from across the country: from Chautauqua School of Art Residency Program, Florida A & M and Stanford to Purdue and Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Donathan Brown, assistant provost and assistant vice president for Faculty Diversity and Recruitment, called this cohort “truly exceptional.” Brown said, “In our presence this week are truly remarkable scholars, hailing from institutions across America, spanning the diversity of our academic portfolio.” Further underscoring the dynamic background of this year’s cohort and the overall competitive selection process, Brown added, “Every year, OFDR receives more applications than the year prior, to join this small cohort of scholars, and this year was no different.”
Their interests range from kinesiology and chemical and biomolecular engineering to communication, rhetoric, and digital media and photography. The program gives them an opportunity to present their research and art, and interact with RIT faculty and staff within the College of Art and Design, Golisano College of Computing and Information Science, Kate Gleason College of Engineering, College of Engineering Technology, College of Health Sciences and Technology, College of Liberal Arts, College of Science, Golisano Institute for Sustainability and NTID.
It is a chance to showcase their work, but it also allows RIT/NTID to also share all that it has to offer.
Lorraine Stinebiser, director, Office of Diversity and Recruitment said, “As part of this program we provide opportunities for participants to engage with our faculty of color. To hear from them about their experiences, from expectations on tenure and promotion to the importance of mentors and sponsors. We also share with them RIT’s programs that are designed to support and retain early-career faculty. It’s not enough to just get them in the door, we need to make sure they are successful in receiving tenure and promotion.”
FFCEP Cohort member Anne Wangari Njathi, visiting from North Carolina State University said, “There is a warmth, a welcoming feeling here and that’s important because people make all the difference, people make the space.”
Sean Jackson, who is at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University echoed that sentiment and said, ‘RIT has positive energy and a welcoming faculty.”
You can read about their areas of interest—and view the names of other cohort members here
During a welcome and coffee hour for the participants, Ellen Granberg, RIT provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs told them RIT is a powerful brand and an exceptional place and said, “Our goal is to recruit and build one of the most diverse and best faculties in the country.”
Since the Future Faculty Career Exploration Program began in 2003, nearly 400 people have taken part. RIT hired dozens of them, most recently Dennis Delgado, MFA, Visiting Lecturer, School of Photographic Arts and Sciences, College of Art and Design who took part in 2021.
The hope is that some from this newest cohort will join Delgado as members of the RIT Faculty.
During the event, OFDR and the Office of the Provost presented the College of Art and Design with this year’s Changing Hearts and Minds award for its work in furthering RIT’s overall commitment to diversity among faculty ranks.
