Colleagues,

We recently concluded our fifth round of the High Impact Hiring Plan, one of the many campus initiatives to expand UCI’s impact locally, nationally and worldwide. I am proud to announce that, to date, the HIHP is on track to yield nearly 30 new UCI faculty: Four primary faculty and three cluster faculty have been hired, and another 22 highly qualified prospective faculty members are in active recruitment.

Four proposals were submitted in response to the spring 2016 HIHP call; two were new, and two were resubmissions. As is our practice, these proposals were thoroughly vetted by campus deans, the ADVANCE Program Advising Committee and the Academic Planning Group. I appreciate the time the reviewers took to rate them and to engage in rich conversations that led to the recommendations they ultimately provided for me. While none of these proposals were compelling enough for immediate funding through the HIHP, I look forward to working with you all on innovative faculty hiring programs in the coming year.

UCI aims to recruit new general-campus faculty who are most likely to have a transformational effect on the quality, reputation and impact of our academic mission. I encourage all faculty to think seriously about participating in the HIHP when the next call for proposals is released. Because HIHP proposals reach for high goals, they are also difficult to realize; not all proposals will be funded, and not all recruitments will be successful. Nevertheless, this program has achieved multiple successes, as shown by the faculty numbers cited above. We will continue to consider all proposals and to fund those with robust connections to the HIHP’s spirit and criteria.

Sincerely,