Published March 7, 2025
Dear University Colleagues:
I am writing to inform you that Professor Robert Granfield has shared his plans to step down from his role as vice provost for faculty affairs this summer to return to his faculty role in the Department of Sociology.
A UB sociology faculty member since 2004 and former department chair, Professor Granfield was named vice provost for faculty affairs in 2014. During his over 10-year tenure as vice provost, Professor Granfield has significantly enhanced programs and services for UB faculty. His commitment to faculty success, recognition and development has greatly advanced UB’s mission to achieve academic excellence.
Under Professor Granfield’s leadership, the Office of Faculty Affairs has provided meaningful assistance to ladder faculty preparing for the promotion and tenure process, coordinated the process university-wide, and facilitated the activities of the President’s Review Board. Since 2014, Professor Granfield has coordinated over 700 successful promotion and tenure cases. To assure that UB’s processes and policies are equitable and inclusive, Professor Granfield co-chaired the President’s Advisory Council on Race Implementation Scholarship, Tenure, and Recognition Subcommittee, which recommended meaningful changes to UB’s tenure and promotion policies. Professor Granfield collaborated with the Faculty Senate to facilitate the revision of the policies, which will go into effect July 1, 2025.
As vice provost, Professor Granfield has led the campus in enhancing faculty recognition and the number of awards and honors received by faculty. He has overseen the faculty application process for SUNY and UB awards, including the promotion of 60 faculty to the SUNY Distinguished Ranks. In support of UB’s Top 25 ambition, Professor Granfield created the director of faculty recognition position to work with faculty, staff and academic leaders to identify and support faculty nominations for prestigious national and international awards. In addition, Professor Granfield facilitated creating a Civic Engagement Fund to support and recognize community engaged faculty research.
As vice provost, Professor Granfield has prioritized professional development for all faculty. He worked with colleagues from across UB to create a culture of effective mentorship, enhance mentorship opportunities, and better train mentors. Professor Granfield also developed best practices and enhanced professional development opportunities for faculty at all career stages—including department chairs—to enable their success and prepare them for advancement and leadership. In addition, he worked with UB’s schools to standardize and formalize the advancement process for non-tenure-track faculty. To ensure the effectiveness of UB’s policies and programs, Professor Granfield improved assessment and led UB’s participation in the national Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education survey in 2017 and 2022.
Professor Granfield is an internationally renowned scholar in law and society and addiction studies, who is particularly recognized for the pioneering “recovery capital” theory he co-developed. He is the author or editor of six books and over 80 articles, book chapters, and reviews, including 13 papers and an edited book published while serving as vice provost. His work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, US Department of Health and Human Services, and Woodrow Wilson Foundation, among others. He has been a visiting scholar at Harvard, Middlebury College, Singapore Institute of Management, and University of Ottawa where he served as the Fulbright Research Chair in International Humanitarian Law and Social Justice. Recently he spoke at the Recovery Capital Conference of Canada, which is devoted to the paradigm-shifting addiction recovery theory he co-developed. Professor Granfield has also served on several editorial boards, and he has been a faculty mentor on over 50 doctoral dissertations, master’s theses and undergraduate honor’s theses.
Colleagues, please join me in thanking Professor Granfield for his dedicated service and in wishing him much continued success in his future endeavors.
Sincerely,
A. Scott Weber Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs