Our Ongoing Work:

Foundational Dialogues:

• In his remarks at the September 13, 2021 faculty meeting, the Dean of the Faculty asked that all departments and programs engage in Foundational Dialogues. Originally intended to happen in the 2022-23 academic year, the program has proved fruitful and will continue through 2024-25. The goal of these dialogues is to help units build the intellectual and emotional capacity as well as the background knowledge to begin or continue curricular transformation work.
• A foundational dialogue engages departments and programs on race, power, privilege, white supremacy, and colonialism as they relate to the academic unit’s curricula and pedagogies. The engagements will involve at least a day’s worth of work (8 hours) for departments and programs with a disciplinary expert while addressing one or more of the following topics, according to the needs of the unit:
  1. Begin examining the “historical,” “traditional,” “foundational,” “inherited,” or “colonial” framing of disciplinary content and curricular trajectory.
  2. Discuss predominating mindsets and attitudes within the academic unit and how those relate to the academic unit’s curricula and pedagogies.
  3. Discuss the experiences of students and barriers they encounter in the current structure of the curriculum (including policies and practices within the unit).

Implement a requirement on Race Power, Privilege and Colonialism in the curriculum:

• In April of 2023, the Bates faculty passed legislation to enact a curricular requirement for all students centered on the issues of Race, Power, Privilege and Colonialism. The details of the requirement and its implementation can be found here. This page includes links to the text of the legislation passed by the faculty as well as a link to the support program for academic units developing courses for the requirement.

Develop Curricula that Remove Systemic Barriers:

• In 2018, Bates was awarded a large institutional grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute aimed at transforming the college’s curricula in the sciences and mathematics. The work began in the summer of 2018, and has resulted in significant curricular changes in the departments of Biology and Physics and Astronomy. Other departments are just beginning their work. More details on the grant and its work is on the HHMI Inclusive Excellence web page.
• Also in 2018, Bates was awarded a curricular transformation grant for departments and programs n the humanities and humanistic social sciences from the Andrew W Mellon Foundation. This work is similar to that being performed in the sciences and mathematics. The award is centered around curricular transformation grants for departments and programs as well as faculty development programming. One departmental grant has been awarded, and the committee is working with 4 other units as they develop their proposals. Information on the Mellon-funded work is available on the project web page.
• In the fall of 2022 Bates opened the Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning. The first year of operation for the center was extremely successful. For the 2023-23 academic year we hired and assistant director for the center whose presence will enable the center to expand its offerings and its support of the curriculum.

Hiring Tenure Track Faculty

Consistent with Bates’ mission and values, we seek to cultivate a diverse faculty necessary to educate students for our changing world. Over the past decade we have increased the percentage of tenure track faculty of color. This is the direct result of strategic initiatives to implement active and inclusive search processes for tenure-track hires. 

The Dean of Faculty continues to collaborate with the Vice President for Equity and Inclusion, and our faculty to improve processes to ensure the above trend will continue. After a year of data gathering in 2023-24, the college will create new hiring guidelines for faculty positions in the fall of 2024 aimed at hiring an excellent faculty, as defined in our tenure and promotion criteria (see the Faculty Handbook for details on the criteria).

Growing Efforts to Support our Faculty: Faculty Mentoring:

• In the summer of 2018, Bates purchased an institutional membership to the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD). The center provides third party mentoring services designed to help faculty succeed in the academy. Faculty gain access to these materials through online resources and there is potential for them to attend in-person workshops as well.
• In the past three years, Bates has begun to change how its provides mentoring to its faculty. Until now the dominant model has been an apprenticeship model with very little structure or support from the institution. This approach leaves those faculty unable to find compatible mentors without advocates and guidance as they construct their career at Bates. In the 2020-21 academic year, Associate Dean of the Faculty Krista Aronson has brought support, intention, and structure to the program, and the lessons learned from these initial changes will inform further development in the coming years.
• At the same time, the Faculty Personnel Committee is developing a “Guide to Good Practice” to act as a guide to mentors and candidates alike for faculty reappointment, tenure, and promotion processes. Aimed at both mentors and mentees, this guide will have the goal of explaining the steps of these important processes in a faculty career. It will be available in the fall of 2023.
• Beginning in the fall of 2021, the Dean of Faculty’s Office and the Faculty Personnel Committee will begin work with academic units to create career profiles for candidates in each academic unit. Career profiles provide necessary discipline-specific guidance to faculty candidates. Through their creation, departments and programs can provide specific recommendations to candidates about the types of work and activities needed to thrive in the Bates community and for success in reappointment, tenure and promotion at Bates. Due to the varied nature of faculty work and different conventions in various disciplines, these profiles will be different for each unit.
• All of these items are components of a robust mentoring program designed to illuminate and remove traditional barriers to success for BIPOC faculty in the academy. With continued attention and progress, the program will improve Bates support and development of its faculty.