Columbian College of Arts and Sciences officials hired 26 new permanent, full-time faculty members to start this academic year, according to a University release published Wednesday.

This addition will raise the number of full-time faculty in the college from 491 last year to 507 this year, with programs like art history, data science and African American studies welcoming new professors, according to the release. Departments like political science, Romance, German & Slavic Languages & Literature and chemistry will also add multiple new faculty members to their staff.

“Columbian College welcomes 26 new permanent full-time faculty this year, adding expertise to disciplines across the sciences, social sciences and humanities,” the release states.

The release states that officials hired a full-time assistant professor of geology, which will leave the geological sciences department with two full-time faculty when Catherine Forster, the director of the program, leaves in August. This hire satisfies Forster’s request made in spring 2022 for a full-time faculty member after officials denied her initial request to hire a tenure-track professor to secure future department leadership.

Officials also hired an assistant professor and visiting clinical coordinator of art therapy, which comes as the program prepares to release specifics this fall on how they will use the $1 million endowment for graduate fellowships received in February, according to the release.

The hires come two years after officials lifted the University-wide Covid-19 induced hiring freeze implemented in spring 2021 to combat financial strains caused by the pandemic. Faculty department chairs expressed difficulties with hiring full-time faculty in winter 2022 because of professors retiring during the pandemic and the University’s lack of available tenure-track openings.