With an executive charge from the Provost and Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs, Michigan State University seeks to reimagine how faculty and academic staff are recognized and supported in their career advancement.
A university-wide initiative seeks to incorporate Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Community Engagement (IEE) into the existing reappointment, promotion, and tenure (RPT) pillars of research, teaching, and service. The project aims to ensure that faculty pursuing IEE work can have their work assessed rigorously and fairly – and recognized in RPT. The initiative centers leadership in ‘early mover’ colleges to operationalize IEE work within disciplinary contexts and refine university-wide guidance. These early-mover colleges will work with representatives from central administration units to ensure unit- and college-level changes align with university-wide guidance.
Why Do This Work? The Institutional Imperative
- Land-Grant Mission Fulfillment: Aligns directly with MSU’s statutory obligation and contemporary land-grant mission under the Morrill Act and Bayh-Dole Act to translate discovery into public societal benefit and economic vitality.
- National Leadership Alignment: Positions MSU at the national forefront as aligned with the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities’ 'Modernizing Scholarship for the Public Good' Action Framework and the Promotion and Tenure in Innovation and Entrepreneurship coalition.
- Legitimate and Exemplary Scholarship: Affirms that innovation, entrepreneurship, and community engagement research are legitimate scholarly endeavors which support MSU 2030 and which many faculty already pursue. The goal is to establish clear recognition guidelines.
- Fair Assessment and Career Pathways: Provides structured, navigable pathways in RPT for faculty pursuing IEE so they can be evaluated fairly without risking career advancement.
IEE Working Groups and Early Mover Colleges
The IEE initiative will be carried out by a series of working groups and partnerships with early mover colleges. These teams will develop university-level guidance, support college‑level translation and implementation, and generate evidence-based recommendations for sustainable, system‑wide change. This effort will support recognition of IEE work across all faculty and academic staff appointment types.
Specifically, the Work Groups will:
- Develop and issue university-level guidance (in tandem with #2, below)
- Support college-level implementation through college-led pilot programs (in tandem with #1, above)
- Evaluate and refine an implementation support model
- Advise on institutional strategy and sustainability
- Engage governance and stakeholders
Four pioneering colleges have volunteered as early pilot sites to test unit- and college-level implementation: College of Arts & Letters, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, College of Human Medicine, and Lyman Briggs College.
These early-mover colleges will shape the campus implementation support model, inform university-wide guidelines, and lead disciplinary translation guidelines to support IEE in RPT.
View the full charge at the link below for more details.
“Innovation, entrepreneurship and community-engaged work are core to our land-grant mission, and our promotion policies should recognize the faculty who do this work accordingly. By ensuring that faculty pursuing innovation, entrepreneurship and engagement are assessed fairly and held to the same scholarly criteria as other forms of inquiry, we affirm the many ways knowledge is created, shared and used for the public good.” - Co-Principal Investigator Elyse Aurbach, assistant provost for University Outreach and Engagement
Modernizing Academic Appointment and Advancement (MA3) Challenge
Recognizing the value of the early-mover approach, MSU was awarded a $250,000 grant through the inaugural Modernizing Academic Appointment and Advancement, or MA3, Challenge. The national funding initiative supports bold approaches to academic hiring, review, promotion, and tenure systems. It also emphasizes the fostering of more collaborative, transparent, and responsive research environments.
Notably, MSU is the only Big Ten institution included in the inaugural cohort of recipients, underscoring the strength and distinctiveness of the university’s approach.
The MA3 Challenge grant allows the university to align ongoing IEE efforts with a funded, multi-year implementation and evaluation strategy. In August 2026, IEE Work Groups received a charge to expand their work and align with the MA3 project, positioning them as a central mechanism for advancing durable, scalable reform of reappointment, promotion, and tenure practices at MSU.
Timeline and Deliverables
Completed: June 1, 2026
- Final report from the 2025-26 phase, including university-level guidance prototypes and recommendations for next steps.
2026-27
- Active pilot programs in four early mover colleges (College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, College of Arts & Letters, Lyman Briggs College, MSU Medicine); interim guidance refinements; formative evaluation findings.
2027-28
- Refined implementation support model; recommendations for system‑wide scale-up and sustainability; final summary report to the Provost and Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs.
Fall 2028
- Issue approved university-wide guidance.
January 2029
- Approved university-wide guidance and corresponding systems in place.
Work Groups
The IEE Work Groups include representatives from Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs, University Outreach and Engagement, Research and Innovation, Institutional Research, Human Resources, participating colleges, and allied academic and administrative units. Membership may be adjusted to ensure representation from early-mover and emerging colleges, and colleges may add members as necessary.
Each early-mover college will be asked to charge a subgroup, and the Central Support Team and IEE Advisory Group will oversee university-level guidance.
- Elyse Aurbach, Assistant Provost, University Outreach and Engagement (UOE), Co-PI
- Kate Birdsall, Director, Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs (FASA), Co-PI
- Charley Hasemann, Associate Vice President for Innovation and Economic Development, MSU Innovation Center, Co-PI
- Diane Doberneck, Director of Faculty and Professional Development, UOE
- Jennifer Rennick, Evaluator, College of Social Science/Psychology
- Kelly Hodges, Assistant Director for Faculty Development, FASA
- Alexandra Rockhold, Project Support, FASA
- Monique Chittenden, Human Resources
- Bethan Cantwell, Institutional Research
The IEE Advisory Group provides university-wide guidance and engagement. They are the primary points of contact for each early mover college.
- Evangelyn Alocilja, Professor, College of Engineering
- Delia Fernandez-Jones, Director, Diversity Research Network, Inclusive Excellence and Impact
- Emily Bouck, Associate Dean for Research, College of Education; Council of Research Deans
- Derrick Fox, Associate Dean and Faculty Excellence Advocate (FEA), College of Music
- Angela Hall, Associate Dean and FEA, College of Social Science
- Amanda Holmstrom, FEA, College of Communications Arts and Sciences
- Rosa Leon-Zayas, FEA, College of Natural Science
- Emilia Marcyk-Taylor, FEA, MSU Libraries
- Artemis Spyrou, FEA, Facility for Rare Isotope Beams
- Georgette Russell, Assistant Vice President of HR, MSU Medicine
- Antomia Farrell, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs
- Sinem Mollaoglu, Faculty Excellence Advocate (FEA)/CCSIT
- Cedric Gondro, ANS, CANR RPT Committee Representative
- Lissy Goralnik, CSUS, CAC Representative for Community Engagement
- Dave Douches, PSM, CAC Representative for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
- Kang Xia, Associate Director, MSU AgBioResearch
- Deanna East, MSU Extension Associate Director
- Jennifer Lee Johnson, CSUS, Director, Toxic Action Lab
- Mojgan Nejad, Forestry
- Dana Infante, Chair, Fisheries and Wildlife
- Kirk Domer, Interim Associate Dean for FASA
- Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Associate Dean for Research
- Senta Goertler, FEA
- Tama Hamilton-Wray, FEA
- Ruth Nicole Brown, Chairperson, AAAS
- Danielle Nicole DeVoss, Chairperson, WRAC
- Ryan Sweeder, Associate Dean for FASA
- Megan Halpern, Associate Professor
- Jerry Urquart, FEA, Professor
- Isaac Record, Senior Academic Specialist
- Jamie Alan, Former UCFA Chair
- Wanda Lipscomb, Senior Associate Dean and FEA
- Nara Parameswaran, Senior Associate Dean for Research
- Dawn Misra, Chairperson, Epidemiology
- Charles C. Hong, Chairperson, Medicine
What This is and What This is Not
What this is:
- Formally recognizing exemplary, mission-aligned work.
- Creating navigable pathways for scholars who want to pursue IEE.
- Disentangling IEE from service by expanding explicit recognition in research and teaching.
- Providing tools for faculty, review committees and external evaluators.
What this is not:
- NOT a new RPT pillar or a separate, standalone evaluation track.
- NOT an additional obligation or burden imposed on faculty.
- DOES NOT create new mandatory expectations for all faculty across the university.
Contact Us
Learn more about project team members at the links provided. Please reach out if you have questions about the MA3 Challenge and ongoing work.
- Co-PI: Elyse Aurbach, assistant provost for University Outreach and Engagement
- Co-PI: Kate Birdsall, director for Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs
- Co-PI: Charles Hasemann, associate vice president for innovation and economic development
- Co-PI: Jennifer Renick, assistant professor, Department of Psychology
- Co-investigator: Diane Doberneck, director for faculty and professional development, Office for Public Engagement and Scholarship, University Outreach and Engagement
MSU to reimagine faculty promotion and advancement through national MA3 Challenge grant
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