ODI Faculty Fellows: Purpose and Description

The establishment of the ODI Faculty Fellows Program provides infrastructure to and resources toward creating a sustainable capacity-building model for diversity and inclusion across academic colleges/schools and campuses at UConn. Toward that end, the ODI Faculty Fellows will be positioned to serve as a resource and platform for innovation and transformation at a local level, with support (both in terms of resources and training) from the University at-large.

Each ODI Faculty Fellow commits to a minimum of one academic year to the role. The position may be renewed at the discretion of ODI and the Faculty Fellow’s dean. Potential candidates can self-nominate but must have a letter of support from their academic deans.

Benefits to the Institution:

Faculty Fellows will serve as DEIJ specialists providing support to strategic efforts to advance DEIJ planning and development within and across academic units. The Faculty Fellow will, through their affiliation with ODI, leverage university-level insights and resources to support institution-wide and unit level DEI efforts and response.

Benefits to the Faculty Fellow:

ODI will provide the Faculty Fellow with compensatory resources, including but not limited to trainings and professional development, cohort meetings and support, a small budget for ODI related meetings, a professional development stipend of $5,000 or equivalent funds to cover a course buyout (at their dean’s discretion), and access to an ODI graduate assistant to support work related to this role. This intentional experience will be structured to support potential readiness for future leadership opportunities.

The Strategic Area of Work

For the upcoming year, we are seeking an additional faculty fellow who will work in support of Middle Eastern Cultural Programs.

Middle Eastern Cultural Programs:

In collaboration with the Director of Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives, this faculty fellow role will provide support for Middle Eastern Cultural Programs.  MECP’s mission includes celebrating the intersectionality of identities, which it plans to achieve in partnership with units and departments like Middle Eastern Studies, Hillel, the Islamic Center, and the Abrahamic Program.

General duties for this strategic area include:

1. Provide advocacy and support for students’ concerns; provide information, referral, and appropriate counsel to individuals seeking support.
2. Liaise with relevant stakeholders and communities external to the university
3. Foster relationships with faculty, academic departments and programs to further the academic mission of the program, and facilitate student support and mentoring services and academically geared programming.

Application Process

If you are interested in nominating yourself for the ODI Faculty Fellow program, we ask that you submit a letter of interest (2 pages single-spaced) in response to the following prompts:

• Briefly explain how this is an area of interest and expertise
• Beyond the scope of this program, what are some of the long-term possibilities for the work you would like to engage in related to DEI?
• What are some potential indicators of success for your participation in this program?

In addition, each nomination must be accompanied with a letter of support from the person’s respective academic dean addressing the following questions:

• How has this faculty member contributed to the advancement of DEI in your unit and/ or UConn more broadly?
• How might this faculty member benefit from participating in this leadership development opportunity?
• Describe your support of this faculty member for the ODI Faculty Fellow program.
• What do you see as some potential opportunities for supporting efforts to advance DEI that would be of benefit to your unit based on the applicants proposed strategic area interests?

Please note that ODI will select only one Faculty Fellow. Both the nominee’s letter of interest and the Dean’s letter of support can be emailed together (if possible, as one PDF) to: Diversity@uconn.edu. Please put “Faculty Fellows” in the email subject line. Deadline for submission of nominations: August 1, 2022. ODI will make decisions and communicate them by August 15, 2022.

Resources

All ODI Faculty Fellows will receive the following during the 2022-23 academic year:

• One course release/buyout in the spring semester (at the discretion of the Dean or unit head) and $5,000 stipend for the fall semester (professional development funds to be put in their PI Account) Additional Stipend may be available for those faculty who are on a 9 month contract.
• Access to funding to support ODI-programming efforts
• Access to an ODI graduate assistant to support the Fellows’ work related to their role.
• DEI and leadership training

ODI Faculty Fellow Expectations

In addition to area focused efforts to advance DEI, ODI Faculty Fellows will be expected to participate in bi-monthly meetings with ODI representatives; participate in training and development opportunities hosted by ODI; and submit a mid-year and annual report detailing their activities, accomplishments, and overall impact. The hours may range as the semester work unfolds, but on average the Faculty Fellow will commit to ~ 10 hours a week throughout the academic year to ODI during their time in the role.