ADVANCE BU

Advancing and Maintaining Equity

ADVANCE BU Mission

A wealth of scholarship demonstrates that women and minority faculty in higher education face barriers to equity, inclusion, and advancement. At every career transition point, increasing numbers of women and underrepresented minoritized (URM) scholars leave the academy, and their departure comes at great cost to the individuals who have invested heavily in their academic careers and to their institutions and fields. Consistent with national trends, women at Bradley University lag behind men in tenure-track appointments, and these disparities increase with rank. Likewise, minority faculty are underrepresented across the university, particularly in STEM fields. In 2019 and in 2022, institutional research by Bradley's Faculty Gender Equity Task Force identified equity issues pertaining to campus climate; tenure, promotion and retention (TPR) processes; annual review mechanisms; teaching and service loads; hiring practices; and remuneration.

Bradley University's ADVANCE BU program addresses these equity issues, with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF Award # 2303732). The NSF ADVANCE program aims to increase gender and intersectional equity among faculty through evidence-based initiatives. Designed to foster a campus culture of inclusivity, fairness, and mutual respect, ADVANCE BU aims to achieve more equitable professional outcomes for women and URM faculty at the university.