PHN Research Agenda

27 January 2013

Hiring Faculty For the Uninitiated

Our department has not hired any new tenure track faculty for nearly a decade. We have been waiting for retirements and the accompanying salaries, and then we were waiting for the economic downturn to turnaround. Finally, and almost despite the dire state of our State's retirement fund, we are hiring junior faculty.

The hiring process within academe has its own rhythm and rituals.  We do follow all legal requirements applicable to hiring, but those human resource practices are only a small part of the process. The hiring process is closely tied to the academic year, which determines the timing and time limits.

As with any open position, a job announcement is developed. Academic job announcements function as job descriptions.  Unlike a job description, the faculty announcement tends to be created for each faculty opening, as though to explicitly explain how each new faculty will fill a unique niche within that academic unit. I don't recall ever seeing a faculty job description developed by HR and then distributed. That just seems like a weird idea in academia.

The work of developing the job announcement falls to the Search Committee. A group of faculty are chosen by the Department Chair, in the case of a departmental faculty opening, or by the Dean in the case of Department Chair search.  The group of 4-6 faculty do a considerable amount of work.  After drafting the position announcement, they develop criteria by which to select the top candidates. After reviewing the cover letter and curriculum vitea of each applicant, they list the top tier of candidates.  We  had over 125 applications; that's a lot of reading. The search committee then conducted phone interviews with the top12 applicants. From that pool, they invited 6 to come for a visit.


Notice that I said candidate visit, not interview, but calling it a "visit" is rather euphemistic. The applicant comes to meet with faculty, students, the search committee, the department chair, and to give a formal presentation on his/her program of research.  For the candidate, it can be a grueling day or day and a half agenda that includes breakfast, lunch and dinner meetings with key and interested individuals. During the visit, the candidate will also be on the "buying" side while the faculty, implicitly or explicitly, "sell" the position, themselves, and the academic unit.

In the end, the search committee gathers the impressions from faculty and submits a recommendation to the Department Chair. Then the salary and non-benefit befits negotiations begin. In the ideal situation, the Department hires the faculty's favorite candidate. But, there is no guarantee that the ideal happens. Worst case scenario is that no new faculty are hired and the whole process starts over the next academic year.

As you can see, this is not a quick process. It is a process that exemplifies the historical independence and self-governance of faculty, at least in the US and UK. It is a process intended to be democratic and deserving of a secure future. It is a process that can generate excitement and enthusiasm among a stably stagnant faculty body. It is a process that is long over due in my academic unit and about which I am hopeful.