Disrupting the Status Quo: Forging a Path to Promotion that Explicitly Recognizes and Values Faculty Work Focused on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Abstract

This article focuses on the importance of creating new pathways to promotion and tenure that explicitly recognize and reward excellence related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). We explain the approach we have taken at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Challenges to the status quo related to faculty systems of evaluation are reviewed, as well as the urgency afforded by the interconnectedness of a global pandemic, an economic recession, and a national reckoning with respect to race that could accelerate reforms in higher education. We reflect upon eight critical lessons learned when implementing a new pathway to promotion that recognizes integrated excellence in DEI activities. We hope the lessons we learned will inspire other institutions to lead similar transformational change efforts aimed at disrupting systems that historically have created inequities in the retention and advancement of faculty from marginalized groups.