Core Commitments

Faculty Excellence

The single most important determinant of a university’s success is faculty excellence. The rationale and institutional relevance of pursuing faculty excellence originate in the core tenet that everything we value as a university is impacted by our faculty. This includes teaching and learning to inspire our students and ensure their retention, graduation, and career progression, as well as research, innovation, and creative activities leading to the generation and dissemination of new knowledge and economic impact for the region and beyond.

Faculty members play a critical role as participants in university administration and shared decision-making. In addition, they engage our community partners and build national and global partnerships. Ultimately, faculty members are the foundation for ensuring our institutional reputation. In each aspect of multi-faceted faculty excellence, there is an intimate link to institution-wide key performance indicators that drive USF’s success.

USF is redoubling its efforts to succeed at faculty recruitment, development, rewards, and retention. Working in concert, those efforts will propel our faculty members’ visibility and positive impact on their fields and society. Those efforts will also fuel our aims to foster greater numbers of faculty who earn recognition and leadership roles in their fields (e.g., members of the National Academies and other awards and fellowships in academic, professional, and industry organizations).

Faculty success at USF is the focus of a strategic, holistic approach that is key to multi-dimensional faculty excellence. This includes the significant goal of furthering institutional aspirations of achieving eligibility for membership in the Association of American Universities (AAU) and Top-25 ranking among public universities.