TENURE TRACK FACULTY SEARCH PROCESS
Last updated: August 2013
INTRODUCTION
It is the right and responsibility of the full voting faculty of IAS as defined in the Faculty Code to assess
candidates and make a recommendation on all faculty appointments.
1. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
It is imperative that the search process is conducted in a timely and consistent manner. All participating
faculty shall be familiar with these procedures. A written timeline will be provided with this document
and followed as possible.
a. The Search Committee is responsible for generating and circulating a targeted advertisement,
actively recruiting quality applicants, creating search criteria, vetting all applicants, conducting initial
interviews, calling references, and narrowing the pool to three candidates. Their final product is a
recommendation of candidates to interview.
b. The Interview Committee is responsible for carefully interviewing the preferred candidates,
attending presentations and other interview-related events, and creating a final recommendation to
the IAS Faculty listing viable candidates in rank order.
c. The Search and Interview Committee Chair (usually but not always the same individual) is
responsible for facilitating the search and interview processes, recruiting members to committees,
establishing the Interview Committee, setting meetings, and is the main point of communication
with candidates, faculty, staff, and administration. The Chair keeps records of hiring activities and
writes an interim and final report (and any subsequent addenda) to submit to the Director/Dean and
presents the final report to the IAS Faculty.
d. IAS Faculty are responsible for volunteering to serve on committees, assisting in recruitment efforts,
participating (as possible) in interviews (including scholarly presentations, teaching demonstrations,
and informal gatherings), carefully reviewing the material provided in the final report, and voting on
a final recommendation. Selected faculty will be asked to provide time in their classes for candidate
teaching demonstrations.
e. IAS Staff are responsible for assisting the chair in administrative tasks, including facilitating
administrative approval of search ads, posting and managing ads on Academic Jobs Online, assisting
candidates with technical issues, scheduling initial and on-campus interviews (in collaboration with
Chair), and circulating and facilitating the final vote.
f.
IAS Director/Dean is responsible for appointing the Search and Interview Committees, assuring they
have been given proper guidance on these search processes, reviewing and approving search ads,
reviewing and approving requests for on-campus interviews, meeting with candidates (can be
delegated), reviewing and approving final recommendations of the faculty, and negotiating with
viable candidates. They are the main point of communication with Academic Human Resources and
Academic Affairs.
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SEARCH COMMITTEE
2. COMPOSITION OF COMMITTEE & ADVERTISEMENT
a. Once a search is initiated, the Director/Dean of IAS will call for volunteers from the IAS Voting
Faculty to serve on the Search Committee. The Director/Dean will select a Search Committee Chair,
and in consultation with the Chair, Faculty Council and the most closely related Associate
Director/Division Director, a Search Committee will be formed.
b. It is recommended that the Search Committee discuss the terms of the search early in the process.
i.
Some items to discuss include: the goal of the search (specific type of hire), the timing of the
whole hiring process, tentative meeting dates, recruitment strategy (including locations to
circulate advertisement), search criteria (including how applications will be evaluated,
whether all members will review all applications, whether late applications will be
considered, how many recommendations are needed for review, and how to include
students in the process.
c. The Search Committee shall work collaboratively to write a job advertisement in consultation with
the Director/Dean and responsible Associate Director/Division Director.
i.
The Search Committee shall compose all job advertisements in language of sufficient
breadth to ensure a substantial pool of applicants, i.e. a pool from which at least three
qualified candidates may easily be chosen. The Academic Human Resources Faculty
Advertisement Guide can be found at the following web site:
www.washington.edu/admin/acadpers/tools/ad_guide.pdf
ii.
This should be done in a timely manner, with no more than three weeks (refer to the
attached timeline) between Search Committee formation and job ad creation.
d. The advertisement will be circulated by IAS staff to all IAS faculty, who will have approximately 5
business days to submit comments. The Director/Dean will approve the advertisement (with
possible revisions), and send the document to the Director of Academic Human Resources, who will
then seek approval of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and UW Academic Human Resources
(see attached process). This approval process can take one to six weeks.
i.
In most cases, candidates must submit a cover letter, CV, research statement, teaching
statement, demonstration of teaching effectiveness, and recommendations.
ii.
While three recommendations are required by the time of hiring, the Search Committee can
decide on a minimum number of letters that should be submitted at the time of application.
e. The Chair will solicit a list of locations to post the advertisement, which will be reviewed and
approved by the Director/Dean and passed to the IAS Staff for posting. Staff will post the ad in at
least one nationally relevant publication (e.g., Chronicle of Higher Education), approved targeted
sites, and Academic Jobs Online (AJO). Hard and electronic copies of ad postings are kept in the
search file on the S: drive.
i.
The Search Committee shall additionally circulate the advertisements in a range of social
networks, listservs, conference postings, and other outlets to ensure a diverse pool of
applicants. The Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement Faculty Recruitment Toolkit
can be found at the following web site:
http://www.washington.edu/diversity/avpfa/toolkit/index.shtml
ii.
See attached document regarding recruitment suggestions.
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iii.
All committee members and participating faculty should notify the Chair of recruitment
efforts for inclusion in the search report.
3. REVIEW OF FILES
a. The application deadline must be at least 30 days after the date of initial publication of the
advertisement in print in a national professional journal, usually the Chronicle of Higher Education
(print or online).
b. All files will be managed on AJO. Committee should review applications as agreed upon in step 1b.
i.
The committee should decide whether all members review all files once the approximate
number of applications is known. While it is desirable for all committee members to review all
files, it is not feasible in searches with a large number of applications. Under such a scenario, it is
important at least two committee members review each file.
ii.
IAS Staff will monitor an established email address to answer technical questions of applicants,
referring questions as necessary to the Chair.
4. INITIAL INTERVIEWS
a. The Search Committee should meet to select candidates for initial interviews (phone, Skype, or
conference interviews or equivalent).
b. The Chair shall notify selected candidates about the interviews, and refer them to IAS staff who will
schedule the interviews.
c. The Search Committee should determine a set of questions to be asked of all candidates in the initial
interviews. See attached list of suggested questions.
d. After all candidates are interviewed, Search Committee should agree upon top candidates to invite
for on-campus interviews.
e. The Search Committee should agree at the start of the process on when to call references. There are
various models. Given the need to move forward, references need to be called in a timely manner.
This needs to be done consistently for each candidate. It is recommended to call references prior to
on-campus interviews.
i.
Calling references is the responsibility of all committee members, and should be coordinated
and documented by the Chair.
f.
Search guidelines from the Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs state that in general no more than
three candidates can be invited for campus interviews, although exceptions might be made in
special circumstances (i.e. a fourth candidate is local).
i.
If more than three candidates are being recommended for on-campus interviews, the
committee must rank them and receive approval from the Director/Dean in consultation with
the Vice Chancellor.
ii.
Only in highly unusual circumstances will fewer than three candidates for a tenure-track
appointment be invited to a campus interview. If a Search Committee prefers to invite fewer
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than three candidates, it must receive permission from the IAS Faculty Council in advance of
making any invitations.
g. Once candidates for campus interviews have been identified, the chair will submit an interim report
to the Director/Dean of IAS with CVs and complete form A-3: Permission to Invite Candidates to
Campus. A sample report and A-3 form are available with this document.
i.
The Chair should allow for at least five business days for this approval.
h. Once the request for campus interviews is approved by the Director/Dean, the Chair will work with
IAS staff to schedule campus visits.
i.
The Chair and responsible IAS staff should meet at this point to plan the logistical
aspects of the interview.
ii.
IAS staff will generally handle logistical aspects of the visit, and schedule meetings with
administrators. The Chair will work with the staff and the faculty at large to ensure
broad faculty participation (including escorts between meetings), and to plan the
scholarly and teaching parts of the interview, including finding a time for a teaching
demonstration. All faculty are expected to help find an appropriate class time for a
demonstration.
iii.
Communication between the Chair and staff is critical for a smooth interview; it is most
efficient for the Chair to be the only committee member to communicate with staff.
Only the Chair and IAS staff should communicate with candidates, and should copy each
other on email correspondence.
iv.
IAS staff will produce and circulate an official interview schedule as early as possible.
INTERVIEWING COMMITTEE
5. ON CAMPUS INTERVIEWS AND SELECTION PROCESS
a. Once the Search Committee has identified the applicants it will invite for on-campus interviews, the
Chair will call for other members of the faculty to participate actively in the interview process. All
IAS faculty should be invited to attend. Together, the respondents to this call and the members of
the Search Committee will constitute the Interviewing Committee.
i.
At this point, the Search Committee has been dissolved and replaced with the Interviewing
Committee. The Chair of Search Committee shall usually chair the Interviewing Committee.
Members of the Search Committee can leave the process at this point if necessary.
b. Membership in the interviewing committee is open to all voting faculty members as specified in the
Faculty Code.
i.
Membership in this committee carries with it the obligation to participate in the interview
process to the fullest extent, including, at a minimum, reading the dossiers, meeting each
candidate in person, and attending at least one live presentation for each candidate.
ii.
It is recommended to include at least one member from outside of the relevant
discipline/Division, and if appropriate, someone from outside of IAS.
iii.
Staff and students may participate in the Interview Committee. They may vote in the final
recommendation of the Interview Committee, but not in the faculty vote on final appointment.
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c. The interview process shall be open to all faculty. Written feedback from faculty who are not
members of the interviewing committee but have attended presentations or otherwise participated
in the process will be invited.
i.
Interview Committees are encouraged to include students in this process as much as possible,
including having students serve on the Interview Committee, scheduling a coffee break with
students, or having students escort candidates between meetings.
d. Each candidate should have a teaching demonstration and a research or creative presentation. The
teaching demonstrations should be in similar classes (i.e. large lecture classes vs. small classes, 200level vs. 400- level). These events should be announced to IAS faculty via e-mail, with an open
invitation for the research or creative presentation sent to the campus as a whole.
i.
Candidates should be given sufficient material by the Chair to adequately prepare for the
interview. Efforts should be made to avoid last minute changes.
ii.
If the Interview Committee decides, a teaching demonstration can be substituted with a
reasonable alternative, such as a general seminar or a teaching demonstration for faculty. This
should be consistent among candidates.
iii.
Student feedback is usually solicited with a paper survey (example included with this document).
e. Interview schedules should include at a minimum individual meetings with the Chancellor,
Director/Dean of IAS, Associate Director/Division Director, and the IAS Program Administrator, or
their designees. If appropriate, the candidate should meet with the Director of Sponsored Research.
All candidate schedules should include the same meetings. Meetings with other groups or
individuals may occur at the discretion of the interview committee.
i.
Informal gatherings such as meals with faculty have been cited by recent hires as the most
influential recruiting tool during interviews. An effort should be made to include a wide range of
faculty in such activities.
ii.
A campus tour is usually part of interviews. Recent hires have cited a Tacoma tour as a
memorable and positive part of their interviews and greatly influenced their decision to accept a
position at UWT.
iii.
In many disciplines, it is customary to have candidates meet individually with faculty for half
hour meetings. The Interview Committee should discuss expected norms in the discipline, and
be thoughtful about the structure of the interviews.
iv.
An opportunity for faculty and staff feedback from individuals not on the Interview Committee
should be provided. This is easily achieved with a Catalyst survey (example included).
f.
After the completion of campus interviews, the committee should convene as soon as possible to
discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate. The committee chair should monitor all
events to ensure that any faculty member who is eligible to vote is aware of the meeting and has an
opportunity to give feedback.
g. The committee should vote on the viability of each candidate separately.
i.
“Viability” implies that if hire ranked candidates were not to accept the position, the committee
would invite the candidate to join the faculty without further discussion.
h. The committee should then rank the viable candidates for its hiring recommendation. Once viability
and rank is determined, the committee should then vote on the recommendation as a whole.
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i.
ii.
In the event that, following the on-campus interviews, the committee determines that none of
the candidates is viable, the interviewing committee may consider additional applicants in the
current pool after consulting with the Director/Dean.
The committee should recommend further action should all viable candidates not accept the
position (e.g., return to the pool, end the search, etc.).
i.
The Chair will write a report to the IAS faculty on the process and deliberations with the
recommendation of the interviewing committee included. An example is provided with this
document.
i.
Before submission, the report should be circulated among committee members. Any member or
members of the committee not in agreement with the majority may submit minority reports.
ii.
In the event that the chair of this committee finds him or herself in the minority, the
recommendations portion of the report shall be written by a member of the majority chosen by
his or her peers.
iii.
IAS voting policies stipulate that the report(s) should be distributed at least two days before the
vote of the eligible IAS faculty.
j.
Following the committee’s presentation of its recommendations, and the appropriate questions, the
faculty as a whole will vote on the Committee’s recommendations. This will be done in accordance
to the IAS policy on voting and IAS bylaws.
i.
The Chair should provide relevant documents to voting faculty, at a minimum candidate CVs,
but also recommendations and other application materials as found on AJO. IAS staff will work
with Chairs to make this material available (preferably via Catalyst).
ii.
If the faculty should not approve of the Committee’s recommendations, general discussion of
individual candidates’ qualifications may ensue. Following this discussion, the faculty may either
select a candidate(s), or ask the Interviewing Committee to identify and interview more
candidates, or suspend the search
k. In the unusual case where the Director/Dean of IAS (in consultation with the Division Director) does
not concur in the recommendation, he or she may communicate objections to the Chancellor and
may also submit a separate recommendation to the Chancellor from among the candidates who
have been considered by the program.
APPOINTMENT PROCESS
6. NEGOTIATIONS
a. Once a recommendation or recommendations have been made to the Chancellor, the work of the
Interviewing Committee is done. The appointment process is then a purely administrative one that
will be managed by Academic Human Resources and the Director/Dean.
i.
Until the appointment is complete, all appointment-related communications with the selected
candidate shall be approved by the Director/Dean.
ii.
The Chair and relevant Associate Director/Division Director will be consulted and updated as
needed during this process.
b. Once the candidate has accepted the position, the Interview Committee is dissolved. Director/Dean
will alert IAS Staff that the candidate has accepted and that it is time to remove the advertisement
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from AJO, which will automatically send a notification to all applicants who were not offered the
position.
i.
It is recommended that Chairs directly contact all interviewed candidates that were not offered
the position.
c. If no viable candidates accept the position, the Director/Dean will consult the final report for next
steps and the search will either be suspended, or the Interview Committee will return to the pool for
another round of interviews.
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