I.4.e. Requesting Faculty Positions and Hiring Faculty

Requesting Faculty Positions

At the beginning of the spring semester proposals for faculty positions for two different time frames will be due with deadlines published in the Faculty and Chairs Calendar.  These two deadlines are for the following:

• Adjunct and Term Requests: The first deadline in January will be for Adjunct and Term positions that will be hired in that spring to work the following academic year.  Typically these positions are linked with needs for sabbatical leaves that were approved by CoF in the fall; however there are other circumstances, such as Family Leaves or resignations that may also cause departments to request adjunct or term positions for the following year.  Departments that have faculty in term positions for which they wish to have an extension should make the request at this deadline.
• Tenure Track and Term Requests:  The second deadline in March will be for Tenure Track and Term position for which the searches would take place the following fall with the successful candidate starting the position in the subsequent academic year (for example, a search for a tenure position in English would take place in the fall or early spring of 2021-2022 and start the fall of 2022).

For both types of requests, CoF reviews all submitted proposals while taking into account a comprehensive review of the college's needs for staffing. CoF makes a recommendation to the President and the Board of Trustees, who make the final decisions about faculty staffing. 

Proposals must include the following items to assist CoF in their evaluation:

1.  An Executive Summary

2.  Rationale for the Position.  This section should include at minimum the items from the following list as needed to provide evidence for the position:

• enrollment demands for courses;
• course loads and faculty schedules;
• number of majors and minors in the department;
• curricular needs that would be met by the position and why these curricular needs are critical to the college's liberal arts tradition;
• how the position would contribute to departmental courses and general education courses.

Departments need to keep in mind that there are no permanent lines in departments and that every request made, even if it results from a resignation or a retirement, needs to be carefully weighed with the overall needs of the college.

3.  Position Description.  This section explains the specifics of the position including (but not limited to):

• area of specialty and why is it critical to the department;
• courses the proposed faculty member would teach;
• how the position would fit with the rest of the department members' teaching and professional development areas of expertise.

4.  Diversity Recruiting.  This section should detail any special efforts the department can make to enhance the recruitment of diverse candidates for the applicant pool.  You may find it useful to consult with the Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion for suggestions. 

Please click here for the Search Procedures Checklist

Detailed Search Procedures for Full-Time Faculty Positions 
2022-2023

A. Obtain permission to search

1. Submit position request information through e-mail as requested by the Provost's call for position requests. 
2. Requests are reviewed by CoF and the President. Positions are then recommended to the Board of Trustees which makes final decisions.  The Department chairs wiil be notified of results by the Provost and approved positions can begin by forming a Search Committee.

B. Form Search Committee

1. The department chair in consultation with the department forwards to CoF a slate of committee members following the guidelines below.  For the members outside the department and for the students, there should be at least three names provided in order of preference.  CoF will respond to the department chair with the approved committee membership.
   • For tenure track searches, the committee usually consists of the Area Chair, the department chair (who usually serves as chair), continuing full time faculty members, a faculty member from a different department in the same area, a faculty member from outside the area, and two students. Large departments may select a subcommittee of the department to serve on the search committee as long as appropriate representation is preserved.
   • For non-tenure track searches, the committee composition is the same as for tenure track searches except there are no outside department faculty members required.  For search committees for Murphy Fellows, the department will work with the Murphy Foundation to have one student from the department and one Murphy Scholar on the committee.  Search committees for Murphy Fellows will also include the Director of the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation. 
   • Once the Search Committee members have been approved, they will receive an appointment memo from the Provost.

C. Search Committee chair submits materials to Academic Affairs and Human Resources

1. The Committee Chair uses the job ad template provided by the Provost or Human Resources, adds the job specific criteria, and proposes any other changes for approval to the Provost and Human Resources.
2. The approved job ad is sent to Linda Buchanan (buchananl@hendrix.edu) in Human Resources. She will set this up in our jobs portion of the website and have the software (Paycor Recruiting) set-up for the committee members and for submission of applications.
3. Linda Buchanan will work with the search committee chair to determine the best sites for placing ads. Normally searches will have two paid ads (one major site and one professional association in the field). Costs for ads will be paid through Academic Affairs or through the Murphy Foundation.  Please note that it is VERY IMPORTANT that no ads are placed prior to receiving approval from Linda.  She will provide tracking links to help us determine which sites give us the best return. Search chairs will also be able to place the ad on list serves and online bulletin boards. Finally the search chair can also contact appropriate graduate programs at other college and universities to help recruit candidates to apply. This can be especially helpful in increasing the diversity of the applicant pool.

D. Search Committee meets with Provost and HR to review search procedures

1. The full Search Committee meets with the Provost, a representative from Human Resources and the Vice President for Inclusion and Diversity (when possible) to review search procedures, including procedures for dealing with internal candidates, appropriate and inappropriate questions, and diversity and equity guidelines and procedures. This step must be completed before the Search Committee begins its review of applications.
2. Internal Candidates
   • To the extent possible, the interview schedule for an internal candidate must be the same as the schedule for external candidates.
   • The Search Committee should ask for course evaluations from any internal candidates so that we can assess their teaching at Hendrix.
     

E. Search Committee reviews application materials

1. Search Committee chairs should remind committee members (including students) that all deliberations from the search committee meetings are confidential and should not be discussed outside of committee meetings at anytime.
2. At a minimum, each application should include: a cover letter, graduate transcripts (these don’t need to be official), a curriculum vita, and a statement of teaching interests, a statement of scholarly or creative interests, and three letters of reference.  
3. Specify the criteria the Search Committee will use when evaluating applications before the committee begins its work reviewing individual applications. The search committee may assign applications to categories, such as Yes, No, or Maybe. However, please note that committee members should not use numerical scoring of applications as part of the process.  The Committee may also consider using the following method
   • preliminary sorting of applications by department members;
   • initial recruiting conversations with selected candidates at professional meetings attended by members of the Search Committee must be approved in advance by the Provost (Note that these conversations are not part of the formal interview process).  If approval is granted, the Committee may also request funds for a two-person team, which will be granted pending the availability of funds. Recruiting meetings may not be held in hotel bedrooms.
   • telephone, teams, or e-mail contact by the Search Committee chair to answer specific questions about candidates;
   • Teams interviews of semi-finalists by the entire Search committee or a subcommittee.
4. Prepare a short note on the reasons for actions taken at each step.  Limit all notes and comments on applications to specified criteria.  All phone or teams interviews and e-mail communications should be documented to help with the selection process.
5. It is recommended that committee members provide confidential and independent assessments without influence from early readers. For this reason, if search committee members wish to annotate the materials in Paycor Recruiting (the application software), they should use "mark private" for their comments.
6. If the Search Committee conducts prescreening interviews of candidates, by Teams or some other online process, it should prepare a consistent strategy for questioning each candidate. 

F. Search Committee recommends to the Provost candidates for on-campus interviews

1. The Search Committee must obtain permission from the Provost before inviting candidates to campus for an interview.
2. For tenure track searches, the Search Committee should:
   • Contact the references for the two (or three – see the next item in the list) candidates they would like to recommend
   • Submit to the Provost information about the two candidates for an interview (although in some cases three candidates may be requested and approved) including 
     1. strengths and weaknesses, 
     2. the information gained from contacting the candidates’ references,
     3. and an explanation of how these candidates address the issue of diversity for this position.  It is  not necessary to rank order the candidates at this point.
3. For term searches, candidates will be interviewed one at a time. If the first candidate is not viable, the committee may receive permission to proceed to the second candidate.  In order to begin this process, the Search Committee should:
   • Submit to the Provost a rank order of the top two or three candidates for an interview including 
     1. strengths and weaknesses, 
     2. the information gained from contacting the candidates’ references,
     3. and an explanation of how these candidates address the issue of diversity for this position.
   • References for the approved first candidate can be contacted once approval has been granted.
     

G. Search Committee chair makes plans for on-campus or Teams interviews

1. The decision whether to have an on-campus or Teams interview will be determined in consultation with the Provost. After receiving authorization to proceed with interviews, plans should be made for a one-day interview that serves both the need to recruit the candidates to Hendrix and to allow the Search Committee to assess the candidates. Administrative assistants have a template interview itinerary with a uniform set of activities including meetings with:
   • CoF, 
   • a representative of Human Resources, 
   • the President for all tenure track positions (make sure to check with Donna about his availability when you are considering interview dates). He would like to meet with candidates for term positions if he is available so these interviews are not dependent on his availability,
   • For Murphy Fellows searches, the Director of the Murphy Foundation should be included for an individual meeting,
   • and a group meeting with members of the Search Committee.  
2. Interviews should also include some type of public presentation and/or teaching session as well as direct contact with students. Please have your administrative assistant let the helpdesk know when and where the presentation will take place. The Search Committee should make sure to get feedback from the students who attend the public event.
3. In most cases during on-campus interviews there is an opportunity for some members of the Search Committee to have an evening meal with the candidate.  To facilitate conversation while controlling expenses, the college will cover the expenses for the candidate and no more than four members of the Search Committee.  Please note that only one alcoholic drink per person will be covered for such meals. 
4. Approved search expenses are paid through the Academic Affairs Office. The Search Committee chair or the area administrative assistant makes housing and meal reservations.  Flight arrangements are made by the candidate and the expenses for travel (including parking and meals during travel) are reimbursed by the college from receipts. Any expenses, including airfare, borne by the candidates are reimbursed after the visit. Note that the Business Office requires that candidates provide a completed IRS Form W-9 with reimbursement requests.
5. Refer all questions regarding salary, faculty development, and instruction/research support to the Provost, and all questions regarding Hendrix College benefits to Human Resources. 

H. Search Committee makes its hiring recommendation to CoF 

1. After each candidate’s visit to campus, the Search Committee should:
   • Gather opinions from persons who interviewed or observed the candidate. This should include students who have lunch with candidates and students who attended presentations. Please remember Human Resources staff are not included in this part of the process.
   • Determine the strengths and weaknesses of the finalists, including how they address the issue of diversity, identify if each is acceptable or not, and consider relative rankings.
   • Present the information from item 8.a.ii. in writing via e-mail to the Provost for review by CoF.
2. The Provost will take the recommendations from CoF and the Search Committee to the President.   The Provost will make the offer of appointment to approved candidate.  The amount of time given for the candidate to make a decision may vary but typically is a week to 10 days.
3. After verbal acceptance of the position, the Provost will send an appointment letter.  Once the signed letter is received by the Provost, the Search Committee chair should notify individually the other candidate(s) who visited campus who were not given an offer.  All other candidates will be notified of the search conclusion by Human Resources.

I. Chair of search committee makes arrangements to archive search materials

1. All electronic materials submitted by all candidates will be archived by Human Resources. 
   
2. Any notes from meetings or individual committee members should be destroyed once the search is completed.