Academic Affairs Policy Manual

Section 1: Faculty

1.08 Recruitment of Faculty

When a full-time position is to be filled, a search and screening committee normally will be formed and charged by the appointing authority. Its composition should reflect the diversity of the unit and the institution. Procedures for discharging committee responsibilities may be included in the charge or developed at the discretion of the committee chair. Where there is procedural discretion, the committee should commit its operating procedures to writing prior to any recruiting effort to assure responsiveness to the charge and to assure uniform treatment of all applicants. Members of the committee should:

• prepare for approval a description that summarizes both the needed qualifications for and the responsibilities of the position.
• prepare for approval an advertisement. A copy of the approved draft advertisement/position announcement should be forwarded to the Equal Opportunity Office for its review and concurrence. Regents' policy also requires listing position vacancies with the Applicant Clearinghouse.
• place the advertisement in national media appropriate for the discipline. Every recruitment ad must carry the statement, "The University of Georgia is an Equal Employment/Affirmative Action Institution" or its abbreviated version.
• adopt aggressive affirmative action steps for minority and women candidates such as telephoning colleagues at other institutions, calling prospective candidates to encourage application, obtaining good prospect names from lists of grantees from granting agencies.
• screen applicants for the position.
• identify a pool of candidates.
• arrange interviews (Finalists for positions of department heads and professors must be interviewed by the Vice President for Academic Affairs.)

1.08-1 Announcement

Applications for each vacancy should be invited from the widest possible audience. While this fulfills affirmative action guidelines, its value is deeper: both quality and diversity are more likely to be enhanced with completely open, widely advertised searches. In addition, be as general as possible in describing qualifications and areas of scholarly expertise. Quality and diversity are adversely affected to the extent that position descriptions are narrowly defined. Ads should make clear that (with the exception of Cooperative Extension) all tenure track appointments include responsibilities for both instruction and disciplinary scholarship.

1.08-2  Interviews

Before a position is advertised, job-related screening criteria should be developed based upon the position description. These criteria must be applied equally to each applicant. If two applicants seem equally qualified, there must be identifiable determining factors which will make the final selection one that can be justified. Formal interviews should avoid questions that are not related to the applicant's skills, qualifications, or other job-related factors. Neither the interviewer nor any other pre-employment inquiry should seek information which might be viewed as the basis for a biased hiring decision. The following subjects of inquiry may be regarded by compliance agencies as evidence of discrimination:

• race, national origin, religion, age, sex, disability, or veteran status;
• marital and family status - including child care problems;
• plans to have children;
• height or weight (unless this information is job-related);
• friends or relatives working for this institution;
• arrest records;
• applicant's credit rating;
• other financial data.

1.08-3 Recruiting the Finalist

Faculty must be assured that teaching responsibilities are comparable to those of the best public research universities. In order to get a young faculty member off to a good start, consider a temporary reduction from the standard teaching responsibilities for one year. This will allow more time for refining course materials, setting up a laboratory, modifying dissertations for publication, learning the ropes at the university, etc. The package, in short, should be one designed to attract the best candidate available to The University of Georgia.

Candidates should be made fully aware of career development opportunities here. See the OISD Website for information: http://www.isd.uga.edu/faculty/publications/keys/index.html

1.08-4 Hiring in Underutilized Job Groups

Before offers are made in any of the previously targeted areas, the hiring unit must demonstrate to the Dean or the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs that special steps were taken to expand the applicant pool and to include among the finalists qualified applicants from the under-represented groups. The responsibility of the Dean or the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs is to review documentation to be satisfied that aggressive and thorough affirmative action steps were taken before an offer of employment is made. Offers should not be tendered until the Dean or the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs has written to the unit executive officer specifying that the relevant documentation has been reviewed and they are satisfied that the appointment should be made.

1.08-5 Appointment of Dean Search and Screening Committees

A majority of the membership of any Dean Search and Screening Committee shall comprise of tenure and tenure-track faculty members from the school or college for which a new dean is being sought.  Such faculty shall be appointed by the Provost from a list of nominees generated through an open process that ensures the consideration of any interested faculty member from the school or college.  Members of the search and screening committee may not be considered as candidates for the deanship.  Each school or college shall adopt and maintain on file with the Provost’s Office a written procedure for the nomination of faculty to search and screening committees.  The procedure may involve the school’s or college’s representative body, such as a faculty senate, but it must allow all faculty in the school or college to be considered for inclusion on the list of nominees.

Dean Search and Screening Committees shall also include at least one member from the current staff, and one current student.  Such staff member shall be appointed by the Provost from a list of nominees generated through an open process that ensures the consideration of any interested staff from the school or college.  Such student member shall be appointed by the Provost from a list of nominees generated through an open process that ensures consideration of any interested students from the school or college.

Source:  University Council, February 2006