Procedures for New Faculty Appointments—Annotated Version

 

This document contains the section of the Faculty Handbook (III.F) dealing with faculty searches (in regular font), together with suggestions (in italics) for doing the search.  Please direct all questions to the Dean of the College office.  All searches are governed by the following federal laws:  Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Civil Rights Act of 1866, Americans with Disabilities Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Rights Act.

 

The selection of new faculty is one of the most significant responsibilities undertaken in the College, since the excellence of the College is dependent upon the excellence of the faculty.  The process shall take place in accordance with the commitment of the College to Equal Opportunity Employment (Infra, Chapter V.)

 

Note:  Records of all appointments, whether full or part-time, including all candidate materials and notes, must be kept for a minimum of two years by the department chair, in accordance with Equal Opportunity Commission requirements.

 

1.  Full-Time Regular Faculty Appointments and Appointment of Librarians with Faculty Status

 

a.  When a vacancy occurs, the position may be considered for possible reallocation, redefinition or both, as determined by current priorities.  The review of a position shall be carried out under the direction of the Dean of the College.  When a vacancy occurs or is anticipated, the Dean shall request the department chair to provide a written rationale outlining reasons for the continuation of the position as defined or redefined in the context of the department's purpose and current staffing.  A copy of this rationale shall be brought to the Faculty Representative Committee, which will review the request in the context of the overall academic program of the College.  Its advisory recommendation shall be forwarded, with the department's and Dean's recommendation, to the President for a final determination.  In the event that the Dean's recommendation to the President is to discontinue the position, the Dean will discuss that recommendation with Faculty Representative Committee and seek their recommendation prior to making a formal recommendation to the President.  The Dean shall then forward the departmental rationale, the advisory recommendations of the Faculty Representative Committee and the Dean's recommendation to the President for final determination.  The Dean will also report to the faculty the substance of the Dean's recommendation to discontinue the position in the event that the recommendation is accepted.  Should a vacancy occur during the late spring or summer, every effort will be made to follow the procedure outlined to the extent practicable. [Amended:  Faculty, 11/7/94; Trustees, 2/10/95]

 

Please take special note of the role of the Faculty Representative Committee in reviewing the position rationale in consultation with the Dean of the College and President.  You will want to develop this rationale and get it before the FRC as early in the fall as possible.

 

b.  The department to which a position is allocated shall form a Search Committee consisting of the department chair and at least two other members of the department.  In the event that the Search Committee would consist of fewer than two faculty members, because of department size, the department chair should, in consultation with the Dean of the College, invite at least one other full-time faculty member to join the Committee.

 

Search committees may include at least one faculty member from outside the department.  In the case of departments with only one faculty member, two additional members should be selected from outside the department.  Departments also may wish to designate an administrative staff member to serve on the committee.

 

Please prepare a timeline for the search process, taking into account dates of professional publications in which advertisements will be placed, relevant professional meetings at which preliminary interviews might be conducted, and any other considerations that are relevant.

 

c.  The Search Committee shall prepare a position description, clearly setting forth the status of the position and specific qualifications and requirements for the position for approval by the Dean of the College.  Appropriate announcement or advertisement of the position shall be made by the Dean of the College.  Such advertisements should request a letter of application, the names, addresses and telephone numbers of at least three references (or letters of reference), and a current curriculum vitae.  The Search Committee shall also contact other universities and colleges or appropriate colleagues to request the names of possible candidates.  Efforts shall be made to encourage application from minority and female candidates.

 

When writing the job description, be specific not only about the discipline specialties you are seeking, but also about the college’s liberal arts mission, commitment to undergraduate education for women, expectations for individualized attention, equal opportunity employer, etc.  The Dean can provide you with some sample advertisements if you would find that helpful.

 

To facilitate the acknowledgement of applications, we recommend that you ask applicants to enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope.  It is the responsibility of the search committee chair to draft a letter of acknowledgement, but the faculty secretary can handle the actual printing and sending of the letters.

 

The Dean reviews the final job advertisement before it leaves campus for publication.  It is up to the search committee chair and search committee members to recommend places for publication and to communicate these to the Dean.  The Assistant to the Dean will then coordinate the placement of the advertisements.  Because the College is an Equal Opportunity Employer, it may be beneficial to do a block advertisement listing all of our available positions in a publication such as Black Issues in Higher Education.

 

d.  Following a preliminary screening of all candidates, the chair of the Search Committee shall review the files of the top 10 to 12 candidates with the Dean of the College.  The chair of the Search Committee and the Dean of the College will consult about the need for preliminary off-campus interviews at professional meetings or other appropriate locations.  It may also be determined that telephone inquiries should be made about various candidates to those who may have knowledge of the candidate.  Telephone calls to candidates may be an important preliminary step, but should not be used, except in unusual circumstances, as a substitute for an on-campus interview.

 

Each search committee should establish its preferred means of screening applicants.  For example, is every member of the search committee expected to read every application?  What criteria will be used in the initial stages of screening?  The search committee chair should keep a record of these criteria.  The committee should note in the file of each unsuccessful candidate the reason that he/she did not get the position.  A form or a spreadsheet may be used for this purpose.  Sample reasons include: incomplete application, lack of specified qualifications, wrong area, etc.

 

It is desirable for the search committee chair or search committee to do some additional screening of candidates when the list is narrowed to ten or twelve, either through interviews at a professional meeting, conference phone calls, or some other mutually agreed upon method.  When the list is at ten or twelve, the Dean should be given the candidates’ files to review.  The chair and the Dean also should have a conversation to document our compliance with the College policies as an equal opportunity employer.

 

 

e.  From the final group of candidates, the Search Committee, with the advice of the Dean of the College, shall normally select a maximum of three candidates for on-campus interviews.  Such candidates shall be requested to have an official transcript or transcripts sent to the Dean of the College.

 

Search committees should plan to bring three candidates to campus.  In exceptional cases, two or four candidates will be acceptable.  It is important that the campus interviews be scheduled to span as short a period of time as possible.  The chair of the search committee should talk to candidates about the department’s search timeline to ascertain if the timeline will work for the candidates.  Any candidate for whom the timeline will not work should not be invited to campus.

 

The Assistant for the Dean will be glad to assemble information packets about the College that we will give to the candidate when they are here for the interview. We usually include sample admissions materials, calendars of events, Maier Museum of Art information, a copy of the Sundial, etc.  You should send each candidate the interview schedule in advance, along with the names of the search committee members and identify other members of the College community whom they will meet, as well as your expectations for their visit to campus, e.g., that they will teach a class, give a lecture or demonstration, etc.

 

f.  Interviews of candidates shall be conducted whenever practicable by the department chair, other members of the department(s), the Dean of the College, and the President of the College (in the case of tenure-track positions).  Students should also be invited to meet the candidates for a formal or informal presentation or discussion when possible.

 

The on-campus interview must include some occasion that allows the search committee to assess the candidate as a teacher.  Please involve students in this part of the interview.  It helps to make sure that you have a good number of students involved.  This may require using a class time, depending on the department.  It also helps if the same students see all the candidates.  In addition, it is helpful to have some students meet informally with the candidates; usually meeting at lunch or dinner is the best time. 

 

The President and the Dean should meet the candidate: the President should have a half hour; the Dean should have forty-five minutes to an hour.  The Dean will talk with candidates about salary and reappointment, tenure and promotion procedures and policies.   You also should schedule a time for the candidates to meet with the Director of Personnel to discuss the College’s benefits package.  It is preferable to allow the Director of Personnel to handle benefits since frequently candidates raise issues or reveal information that we cannot legally ask them about and really are better off not knowing about during the selection process.

 

It may be useful for the candidate to meet with other staff members, such as the Director of Corporate and Foundation Giving, the International Programs Advisor, the Director of the Lipscomb Library, the Director of the Ethyl Center, and the IT Coordinator.  These meetings are for information purposes for the candidate.

 

Most campus interviews should take an entire day or slightly longer and will involve arrangements for housing, air or auto travel, and meals.

 

·        Housing arrangements during the candidate’s stay can be made through my office.  In case we cannot house the candidate on campus, contact Jan Ramsey to discuss alternatives.

·        Flying into Lynchburg from some locations can be quite expensive.  When possible try to bring candidates from more remote locations at times when air rates are lower or arrange to have a candidate come in over a weekend.  Candidates will need to purchase their own airline tickets.  We will reimburse them completely; we can even do it when they are on campus for their interview.  Candidates make their own arrangements so that if they decide to cancel their interview, the College will not lose the money for the ticket.  We reimburse at $.27 per miles for travel by automobile.

·        Please use the dining hall for some meals and limit the number of people who take the candidate to dinner at a Lynchburg restaurant.  Ordinarily, you should not include spouses or partners in the meals with candidates in order to maintain an exclusive business purpose.  The College will reimburse the cost of up to one alcoholic drink (including wine) per person; if you order wine, please choose a moderately priced one.  Excessive expenses will not be covered.

 

g.  The recommendation of the Search Committee, including advice as to the length and rank of the appointment, shall be forwarded to the Dean of the College.  The Dean, after consultation with the President, shall be responsible for making the appointment, setting the salary, and concluding the appointment procedures.  The Dean shall inform the department chair in writing of the terms of appointment, except for salary.

 

In the event of disagreement among those making the recommendation to the Dean of the College, or between the Dean of the College or President and those making the recommendation, the parties involved shall meet and attempt to resolve their differences.  No offer of appointment shall be made to a candidate without the mutual consent of the Search Committee, the Dean of the College, and the President of the College.

 

Following the campus visit, the Search Committee should gather input from those faculty and students who were part of the interview process and then meet to discuss the candidates.  The committee should eliminate any candidate whom they judge to be unacceptable and then rank order those who remain.  Next, the committee should send a letter to the Dean that presents the decision of the Committee and its rationale.  The Dean may request to see the student evaluation of the candidates.  In all cases, the Dean will do a minimum of two telephone reference checks on the candidate of choice, or on the final two candidates if there are questions to be resolved prior to the final selection.

 

The Dean makes the recommendation for hiring to the President and, once the hiring is approved, make the job offer to the candidate.  Following the acceptance, the Dean will notify the campus community of the new appointment.

 

All application materials must be kept for a minimum of two years by the College in accordance with the Equal Opportunity Commission requirements.  Again, please make sure that the file of each unsuccessful candidate contains information as to why they were not chosen for the position.  Once the appointment is completed, the chair should bring these materials to the Dean’s Office for storage.