Presidential Diversity Hiring Initiative far surpasses its seven-year target

With the launch of the Presidential Diversity Hiring Initiative in September 2021, we pledged to invest $30 million over seven years to accelerate Indiana University's efforts to hire faculty with diverse backgrounds and perspectives.

Today, I am proud to announce that we have already met—and exceeded—our seven-year target. Thanks to outstanding faculty leadership and collaboration from across IU, we have invested nearly $37 million toward this initiative in less than two years. This significant investment covers multiple years of salary and benefits for these new faculty members. With this, IU will ultimately welcome 87 exceptional individuals university-wide, further enriching our world-class faculty with new appointments: 55 at IU Bloomington, 14 at IUPUI, nine at IU School of Medicine, five at IU Northwest, two at IU South Bend, one at IU East, and one at IU Southeast.

These talented individuals bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to support our campuses' academic needs and goals. Their disciplines span a variety of fields—including computer science, machine learning, pediatrics, Spanish linguistics, and music history—and they come from a broad range of institutions, including Yale University, Mayo Clinic, University of North Carolina, and University of Michigan. We are thrilled to welcome the array of experience they bring to IU.

Having exceeded our initial $30 million goal, we are actively working to identify additional resources to sustain and expand our Presidential Diversity Hiring Initiative.

Thank you to everyone contributing to the initiative's success, including the IU Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Multicultural Affairs and the faculty hiring leaders on each campus. Most importantly, thank you to the faculty members across our campuses who have embraced this initiative by identifying and successfully recruiting these outstanding new colleagues.

To our new faculty, welcome to the IU family. We look forward to your extraordinary accomplishments and to the positive impact you will have on our students’ educational experience and IU’s reputation for academic excellence.

Together, we are building a brighter future for IU.

Pamela Whitten

President
Indiana University