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Provost's Office
Green Hall
35 Campus Avenue
Kingston, RI 02881-1303
Phone: 401-874-4410
Fax: 401-874-7844

Goals and Mission Statement

Goals for the URI Cluster Hiring Initiative - Spring 2012

The cluster hiring initiative emerged from the President's Transformational Goals and the University's Academic Plan, Charting Our Path To the Future, to help position URI as a prominent learning-centered research university relevant to societal issues of the 21st century.

Some of the most exciting and important advances in the globally connected world are at the interface among disciplines and require inter- and multi-disciplinary collaborations and the integration of concepts from many different areas. The University of Rhode Island continues its commitment to advancing learning and discovery by building on our strengths in core disciplines, while also seeking to advance new and exciting ways to work in cross-disciplines at the forefront of student learning and research, scholarship and creative activities. The University’s new Cluster Hiring Initiative is intended to support the expansion of knowledge and its application arising increasingly from more than one discipline, enhance cross-disciplinary student learning, and benefit our state's economy.

The Cluster Hiring Initiative is not a replacement for our regular strategic hiring process, but an incentive process to facilitate interdisciplinary strategic hiring by providing salary support for clusters of faculty positions that relate directly to important interdisciplinary themes.

The overall goal of the URI Cluster Hiring Initiative is to:

Strategically invest in faculty in areas of extant and potential university strength and prominence, and further enhance the magnitude and impact of learning and discovery in areas critical to student learning and important to address contemporary and future societal challenges and opportunities. Cluster hires will enhance the magnitude and impact of URI research, scholarship, and creative work as well as academic quality and value in relation to the student experience.

Specifically, the objectives of the Cluster Hiring Initiative are to:

Strategically invest in cross department/college interdisciplinary areas that reflect and strengthen the interests and expertise of existing faculty and focus on challenging, emerging, and relevant societal issues that transcend borders among disciplines.
Bring together URI faculty and expertise in a collaborative manner to build strong clusters of teacher/scholars in areas that are of ongoing vital importance to Rhode Island, the nation, and the world.
Enhance the visibility of URI in the higher education marketplace by promoting a model of investment aimed at elevating the university's competitive position in areas of academic strength and societal importance.
Create new interdisciplinary and experiential learning opportunities and curricular offerings at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

(Funds for this initiative are allocated in the FY 2013 budget).