AKRON—The University of Akron has filled 25 full-time faculty positions for the fall 2019 semester.
Seventeen of those positions are tenure-track and eight are nontenure-track, according to a news release. These hires are in areas the university has identified for investment, which include polymer science.
In June, UA announced the results of its Voluntary Separation or Retirement Program, which had been offered to certain faculty who did not work in those areas of strategic investment. Forty-one faculty members will leave the university at the end of the next academic year as part of the program.
The university went through an academic review in 2017 and 2018, emerging with a plan to cut some of its less viable degrees and degree tracks and to invest in areas of strength. It then built on that review with a new three-year action plan, which gave its goals more structure and helped drive the budgeting process.
For fall 2019, UA said, it will add four tenure-track faculty members in the College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering. Meanwhile, the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences will see the biggest boost with 10 tenure-track faculty members and three nontenure-track faculty members.
Two tenure-track faculty members will join the College of Engineering and one tenure-track faculty member in the School of Law.
The university has hired two nontenure-track faculty members for both the College of Business Administration and the College of Applied Science and Technology, while adding one nontenure-track faculty member in the College of Health Professions.
Additionally, there is an unfilled position in the LeBron James Family Foundation College of Education, according to the release.