Vassar College
PA-7: Support for Future Faculty Diversity

Vassar’s postdoctoral fellows programs actively support the mentoring and professional development of future faculty from diverse backgrounds. Vassar has an explicit goal of recruiting faculty from diverse backgrounds. This policy extends to the recruiting of postdoctoral fellows for two additional postdoctoral programs. The Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Program recruits a postdoctoral fellow each year for a two-year term. This program, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon foundation since 1998, is now supported by a $3,025,000 endowment, jointly funded by the Mellon Foundation and Vassar College. In addition, a second Andrew W. Mellon postdoctoral program, the Mellon Curricular and Career Transitions (CCT) program, an $850,000, multi-year program is supporting postdoctoral positions in three departments in 2010-2012. Vassar College is actively seeking funding to expand this program. Vassar College’s $1,000,000 Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Minority-Scholars-in-Residence Endowment supports faculty of diverse backgrounds early in their careers. At Vassar, the endowment has funded annually at least one Consortium for Faculty Diversity at Liberal Arts Colleges (CFD) postdoctoral fellow since 2004 and has, on occasion, been able to support two fellows. The consortium’s explicit commitment to building the diversity of faculty on liberal arts campuses has allowed it to develop an effective and efficient mechanism for matching postdoctoral or predoctoral candidates (who are close to finishing their dissertations) with liberal arts colleges. Vassar College has been a founding member of this consortium of liberal arts schools, and has actively recruited its applicants since 1987. Since 2008, the Christian A. Johnson Endowment funds have been matched by internal funds from the President’s Office, which allows the College to hire CFD Postdoctoral Fellows on a two-year appointment. Since 1990, the college has hired 23 Postdoctoral Fellows from the CFD ranks. Since 2002, at least one fellow per year was hired; five have been appointed on tenure track lines at Vassar and four are now tenured at the associate level.