Marist Announces Largest Faculty Hiring Effort in the College’s History

Marist President Kevin C. Weinman. Courtesy of Marist College.

President Kevin C. Weinman recently announced plans to begin hiring searches to fill vacant faculty positions across the College. Weinman and Vice President of Academic Affairs Thomas Wermuth authorized 22 new nationwide searches in an effort to begin filling the 36 vacant positions in schools and departments across Marist, making it the largest hiring effort in the College’s history.

With the challenges brought by the pandemic taking precedence on the College’s agenda, a hiring freeze was instituted on filling the vacant positions last year to allow college officials to assess the potential financial impacts the pandemic could have on the College. Though Weinman emphasized that COVID-19 is still an ongoing concern, it is necessary to begin the process of filling these positions to further enrich the academic curriculum and environment on campus.

“It is clear to me that we must address some important needs now, in advance of this longer-range exercise, so that Marist can continue to provide the very best education and support for its students,” Weinman said in an email sent to faculty members.

The searches are currently underway, and the College aims to have the positions filled by July 1, 2022. The hiring efforts will focus on finding candidates to fill 15 tenure-track positions and 7 term positions. These new hires will be distributed across six academic departments, including the Communications & Arts, Computer Science & Mathematics, Liberal Arts, School of Management, Science and Social & Behavioral Sciences departments.

One of the focuses of the new hiring push is on increasing the diversity of Marist faculty members to include professionals with a wider range of experiences and identities, with emphasis on hiring more people of color.

“I look forward to active and focused efforts in every search to assemble diverse and broadly-inclusive candidate pools through exhaustive nationwide recruitment,” Weinman said.

SGA President Tenzin Tsundu ‘22 expressed his support for the new hiring efforts. “It’s definitely a nice time for the college to bring a lot of diverse expertise,” he said. 

The hiring searches come at an opportune time to address student concerns surrounding the lack of course options available during registration. Many students expressed frustration during registration season as they struggled to find spots in the classes they need to take to fulfill their degree requirements. 

“I hope that they start getting more faculty members so students can get into classes that they really need,” Tsundu said, also noting that more full-time faculty members may help the registration process go smoother overall. 

Both Weinman and Tsundu mentioned the positive impact the hiring push will have on current Marist faculty members as well. The vacant positions have prompted many professors to take on the responsibility of teaching more courses and caused them to deal with growing class sizes. Adding additional, well-qualified faculty members will relieve some of the pressure weighing on current professors.

“It’s a very opportunistic moment,” Tsundu said.