The NDSU FORWARD project has received supplemental funding from the National Science Foundation through its Career Life Balance initiative. The funding will complement the creation of a Dual Career Fund funded by the Office of the Provost. The proposal is based on a commitment by the provost to add two new tenure-track positions to a Dual Career Fund each biennium. The fund will allow NDSU to address the growing need for dual career facilitation with tangible resources.
The National Science Foundation supplemental grant funding must be used to hire the spouse or partner of a woman faculty hired in a science, technology, engineering and mathematics field, known as STEM, for the 2013-14 academic year.
In the proposal, NDSU makes a commitment to develop a formal, centrally implemented process for dual career hires. Canan Bilen-Green, vice provost for advancement of faculty, will serve as the point person to coordinate the requests in order to ensure dual career partner accommodations are handled uniformly across campus. According to the proposal, the Commission the Status of Women Faculty will develop detailed procedures for the positions funded through the Dual Career Fund.
Information about dual career considerations will be integrated into existing FORWARD workshops and programs such as Search Committee and Promotion, Tenure and Evaluation Committee trainings as well as Ally training to ensure that faculty members are aware of the NDSU family-friendly policies, including the Dual Career Fund. In addition, a session on dual career considerations will be included in one of the provost’s monthly forums for academic administrators.
At least one of the two initial dual career positions will be used for the recruitment and retention of a woman faculty member in a STEM field. Provost Bruce Rafert said, “This supplemental funding provides an additional impetus to put into place a formal system by which NDSU will address the widely recognized need to accommodate dual career couples. We know that designating resources for the Dual Career Fund will enable us to attract and retain faculty that we might otherwise lose.”
NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.