VPA Faculty Recruitment Hiring Guidelines Nov 2022 PDF
Hiring and retaining exceptional academic colleagues is one of the most important things we do as faculty members. We strive to attract world-class artists, designers, scholars, and students to an environment that is stimulating, welcoming, and diverse. With that in mind, our goal of recruiting talented colleagues should not be limited to the formal search process but at every opportunity we must connect with colleagues: at conferences; through national associations; through ongoing benchmarking; through inviting rising or established scholars, including graduate students, to present lectures, masterclasses, and other-related activities on campus. It will only be through intentional and sustained efforts that we will be able to recruit and retain outstanding faculty with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Identifying candidates of various identities must always be a priority as we seek to diversify our faculty in support of the University’s efforts to address matters of bias and create a more diverse and inclusive campus.
A copy of these procedural guidelines should be provided to the search chair, search committee members, and the staff assistant providing administrative support to the search chair.
The search process can begin after the dean has informed the department chair or school director that their searches have been approved by the Office of Faculty Affairs and the University Office of Budget and Planning. The next step in the process involves the chair or school director establishing a search committee.
The role of the chair of the committee is that of a facilitator/coordinator of the process. The chair facilitates discussions that lead to the draft of the position description, evaluation rubrics, ads, ad placements, and other pertinent documents. Working in collaboration with committee members and the department chair/school director, the chair of the search committee is responsible for writing the final draft for all relevant documents in the search including interview questions. The chair of the committee is also responsible for facilitating and documenting reference checks and writing the final committee report. With committee consultation, the chair also drafts all communications with candidates, their department chair and/or school director, faculty, and other relevant constituencies.
The search committee chair will work with the search committee, unit administrative assistant and their department chair and/or school director to establish a campus itinerary, including overseeing all travel-and hosting logistics for the campus visit, including facilitating communication with all internal and external constituents.
Please note: the dean must approve the final ad copy before it is posted.
Given that search committees must be involved with the crafting of the Faculty Search Proposal Form, committees must be approved by the dean prior to submitting the Faculty Search Proposal Form, available in the PDF version of this document, to the dean with a copy to VPA’s Office of Academic Affairs (Martha Sutter, mlsutter@syr.edu and Betsy Henderson, eaparis@syr.edu).
Every member of the search committee must attend the first meeting to receive the dean, director, chair charge.
During this initial meeting, the dean will elevate the importance of diversity and the need to identify outstanding underrepresented individuals as candidates for the position and to reiterate selection criteria. VPA’s Office of Academic Affairs will also provide department-specific data regarding the percentage of females and of underrepresented minorities among tenured and tenure-track faculty and students.
The committee should create a search plan, including broad outreach. Committee membership should not change during the search; all committee members should be present for all candidate meetings to guarantee consistency.
If your advertisement is too prescriptive, you may have inadvertently circumvented the basic principles of affirmative action. Every time you state something specific, you eliminate other options. For example:
Concerning application deadlines, our standard practice is to allow for maximum flexibility in most searches, with language such as “applications will be accepted until position is filled; however, candidates who apply by (date) are guaranteed priority consideration.” This verbiage sends a strong message that the process is moving forward while encouraging potential applicants to expedite the application process. At the same time, it allows us to consider particularly strong applicants no matter when their materials arrive.[1]
All position announcements are forwarded to the dean for final approval.
VPA’s Office of Academic Affairs (Betsy Henderson, eaparis@syr.edu) will work with HR and the Graystone Group, the firm retained by the University, to place ads and secure institutional pricing. In most cases, the Office of the Provost will mandate ad placements in publications targeting underrepresented minorities.
After consulting with the chair or director, Chris Eiffe will approve the final advertising budget.
[1] Adapted from materials developed by the STRIDE Committee at the University of Michigan and Columbia University’s Best Practices Faculty Search Hiring.
All applicants will be initially screened by the search committee to determine which individuals meet the qualifications of the position. Each committee member will review the completed applications and materials (including a Diversity and Inclusion Statement) according to the criteria for assessment as developed by the search committee. Committee members will rate each finalist and complete a rating sheet with comments. (A sample rating sheet template is available in the PDF version of this document.)
Applicants must submit the names and contact information for a minimum of four (4) references. Preliminary reference checks should be conducted by the search committee prior to campus visits. A set of questions for reference checks will be prepared by the search committee so that similar questions are asked of each reference, though often there are areas for discussion that surface during phone call interviews with references. The search committee chair may enlist the assistance of search committee members in conducting reference checks. If the candidate’s direct supervisor is not listed as one the four references, with written permission from the candidate, the chair of the department or school director should contact that person and document their response, which will be included with the hiring proposal. In some cases, supervisors will not be contacted until the candidate receives a final offer (verbal or written from the dean), depending on the situation. As such, communication between the dean and the department head is crucial at this point in the process. (In the case of a chair/director search, the dean will call the candidate’s direct supervisor.)
If references not listed by the candidate are sought, you must first receive written authorization from the candidate before proceeding to check additional references. The following statement from the candidate via email satisfies such authorization: “I hereby give express permission to Syracuse University to contact the references I have provided and anyone else familiar with my job performance at any of the institutions listed in my work history.”
Responses from references should be well documented as they will be included in the final report to the chair or director and the dean.
In preparing the itinerary, please note the following:
The chair of the search committee will submit the hiring proposal, with a hiring recommendation to the chair or director. This report must include the names and titles of each reference and their documented responses to the questions posed by a member of the search committee. The chair or director will make an independent assessment of the eligibility, strengths, and weaknesses of candidates. Chairs and directors may opt to conduct additional reference checks prior to forwarding the final report to the dean. Upon receiving the search committee’s report, the dean will meet with the chair or director to review the recommendations. Lack of adequate representation of diversity may require extending or ending the search if efforts to seek additional qualified candidates form a wider pool is not possible. The dean will make the final hiring decision.
After consulting with the Office of the Provost, the dean will negotiate the terms of the offer: salary, relocation expenses, and other as needed.
Once the dean receives a signed letter of offer, all applicants (not just the finalists) should be notified in writing by the chair or director, to thank them for their participation and confirming that the search is closed.
It may be productive to conduct a post-search debrief to review how the process went for the search committee, chair, and hire, including discussion of any candidate who turned down offers and what might have been done to make their recruitments successful.
The following forms can be found in the VPA Faculty Recruitment Hiring Guidelines Nov 2022 PDF: