Henry Rutgers Professorships and Term Chairs

One of the initiatives announced by Dr. Barchi as part of the implementation of the University Strategic Plan was the establishment of two initial groups of chairs created from central administration resources to assist in faculty recruitment and retention: Henry Rutgers Professorships and Henry Rutgers Term Chairs. Proposals for recruitment areas for these chairs were solicited in spring 2014 and were selected after evaluation and prioritization by Executive Vice President Richard L. Edwards and the chancellors of Rutgers University—Newark, Rutgers University—Camden, and Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. 

Henry Rutgers Professorships, which initially numbered five, were used to recruit, or in some cases retain, preeminent senior scholars to the Rutgers faculty. Priority for appointments were given to areas and disciplines that aligned with the goals of the strategic plan, and that fell within the areas covered by the plan’s Integrating Themes. Ideally, the interests of the proposed recruitment were to span several disciplines and/or schools. As resources became available, the goal was to create a total of 30 Henry Rutgers Professorships over five years.

Recruitment areas for the initial Henry Rutgers Professorships included:

  • Arts and humanities
  • Earth, marine and coastal, and atmospheric sciences
  • Emergency and disaster preparedness
  • Big Data
  • Bioethics

Henry Rutgers Term Chairs, which also initially numbered five, were used to recruit and retain outstanding faculty entering the middle phase of their careers, and targeted newly tenured or comparably positioned individuals of equivalent stature with high potential for future development. Again, as resources were identified, the plan was to expand to 25 Henry Rutgers Term Chairs over five years.

Recruitment areas for these initial Henry Rutgers Term Chairs, some of which overlap the professorships for strategic purposes, included:

  • Big Data
  • Ethics and Bioethics
  • Global Health
  • Digital Filmmaking
  • Hispanic and Latino/a Studies

Greater detail on each of these recruitment areas and a brief description of the search process were provided in Executive Vice President Edwards’ June 2014 message to the community.