Faculty Hiring Procedure

Additional resources for faculty hiring are available to those leading searches in the Hiring Guidance Box folder. Also consult the document “Developing and Executing Tenure Track Searches: An Overview."

1. Notification to Department Chair of possible tenure track or contingent[1] (full- or part-time leave replacement) position. Discussion by the Department of needs, criteria, and strategy for attracting a robust applicant pool. In the case of tenure track searches, this generally includes submission of a position proposal by approximately April 15^th in the spring preceding the search.

2. Discussion between the Dean and Division Chair(s) of written rationale.

3. Permission to hire from the Dean to the Department Chair.  For visiting positions, decisions to hire are generally made by the start of the spring semester, following when faculty going on sabbatical must indicate their plans for the following year. For tenure track positions, decisions to hire will be communicated following Commencement and the Board of Trustees meeting.

For contingent positions, once permission to hire is granted, the Senior Associate Dean is the Dean’s designee. Thus, in the remainder of these guidelines, for contingent searches the Senior Associate Dean is the point of contact whenever the Dean is noted.

4. Department Chair completes the “ad posting” form and consults with Dean’s Office on ad publication and closing dates (for tenure track hires, allow at least 30 days after publication before closing a search), advertising sites (including major professional sites and professional sites that focus on expanding candidate pools), the ad’s contents, search timeline, and position outreach.  Wabash is a member of the Consortium for Faculty Diversity (CFD), which is another resource for faculty hiring.  For more information about the CFD, please see description in the Department Chair Handbook.

Job Ad Should Include:

• Name of the college
• Area and specialty
• Type of appointment and rank
• Degree requirements
• Other experience required, if applicable
• Starting date of appointment
• Teaching responsibilities
• Necessity of a commitment to teach all-college courses (for tenure track hires)
• Expectations for teaching and professional development (e.g. applicants must have a commitment to excellence in undergraduate teaching, an appreciation for the broad intellectual community of an excellent liberal arts college, and the ability to work with a diverse student body)
• Description of Wabash’s commitment to promoting inclusion and belonging on our campus: 

​In the midst of a strategic transformation to advance the success of first-generation students, and students from low-income families, Wabash College is committed to attracting and effectively supporting faculty and staff with a demonstrated commitment to supporting student success. Approximately 25% of our students are federal Pell Grant recipients, one-third of our students are first-generation college students, and about 20% of our students identify as domestic students of color. Wabash offers a broad range of academic and cultural programs open to all members of the Wabash community. Wabash is a top-60 Liberal Arts College according to U.S. News, and is a member of Colleges That Change Lives. Many students, staff, and faculty find the close-knit residential community one of the most rewarding aspects of their experience at Wabash. 

• Directions for submission of materials to employment website (www.wabash.edu/employment) along with the application material required (application letter, curriculum vita, teaching philosophy, email addresses for references, and unofficial undergraduate and graduate transcripts; department may also request evidence of teaching effectiveness or teaching evaluations and, in the case of tenure track hires, a sample of scholarship, research, or creative work)
• Closing date/date applicant review will begin
• Name of the search chair and academic administrative coordinator (e-mail address if appropriate)
• Standard EOE line: “Wabash College, a liberal arts college for men, seeks faculty and staff who are committed to providing quality engagement with students, high levels of academic challenge and support, and meaningful experiences that prepare students for life and leadership among diverse populations around the globe. Wabash is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes applications from persons of all backgrounds.”

Upon hire, Wabash requires successful completion of a background check and official transcripts. Notification of this requirement can be discussed during campus interview and included in appointment letter.

Other potential information: availability of summer and start up support, selling points of the department or College, including availability of professional development and BKT funds (when applicable), and other details as determined by the department. Recent sample ads are available in the Hiring Guidance Box folder.

The employment website also allows use of up to five application questions and the identification of ratings criteria. The application questions can be used to collect information such as a URL to a portfolio of scholarly work, whether or not a candidate has completed his/her graduate degree, area of specialty, classes an applicant is prepared to teach or interested in teaching, and so on.  Visiting searches will include questions related to possible need of visa sponsorship (see guideline “e” below).

Employment website questions are ideal for collecting information that is desired on all candidates and can be incorporated into a live excel sheet, thus assisting Academic Administrative Coordinators in their organization of the search. However, being mindful of the unintended implications of hidden or implicit bias, these questions should not include year of degree completion or name of undergraduate or graduate institution.

Ratings criteria such as “Overall” evaluation, “Relevant experience,” “Teaching Experience,” “Quality of Teaching” and others can be used by the search committee in evaluation of candidates.  Application questions and rating criteria must be set up at the time a position is posted on the employment website and should be noted on the ad posting form.

Additional Guidelines for Advertising Contingent Faculty Positions:

a. When emeritus faculty are available to teach, they may be hired as contingent faculty on approval of the Dean and Division Chair and without advertising a position.

b. Practitioners or professionals in a specialized area of instruction (law, accounting, music, studio art) may be sought locally and through professional networks. New positions should be advertised on the College website in addition to actively recruiting individual candidates. Departments undertaking a search that it anticipates will result in the hire of a practitioner or professional without a terminal degree in their discipline will, prior to posting a position description, determine in writing what equivalent experience would provide satisfactory faculty qualifications and how the evaluation will be determined. The utilized criteria and documentation that the hired candidate possesses equivalent professional experience must be submitted to the Office of the Dean of the College. For full details, see “Faculty Qualifications” in the Faculty Handbook.

c. Contingent faculty positions should be advertised on the College website. These positions may also be advertised regionally by directly contacting appropriate graduate programs at Purdue University, Indiana University Indianapolis, Indiana University Bloomington, and University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and more widely by using professional listservs and other electronic media outlets. When appropriate, full-time contingent positions may involve a national search. 

d. Advertisements should follow the institutional guidelines for regular faculty hiring but should clearly specify duration of appointment and that the position is not tenure track.

e. The college does not provide H-1B sponsorship for initial appointment to short-term contingent positions. If this is likely to be relevant, the position advertisement should include the following statement: “Wabash College does not provide H-1B or other immigration case sponsorship for short-term visiting positions.” Relatedly, the employment website includes the following two application questions: Are you legally authorized to work in the United States? (yes or no) Will you now or in the future require sponsorship for employment visa status (e.g. H-1B visa status?) (yes or no).

• If an applicant answers “yes” to the first question and no to the second question, they are eligible for any position and no further questions may be asked about immigration status.
• If an applicant for a visiting position answers “yes” to both questions and is selected for a short list interview, the following questions may be asked:
  • What is the basis of your current employment authorization?
  • When does that employment authorization expire?
  • Have you ever been on a J-1 visa?
• If a candidate answers “no” to the first question and “yes” to the second question and is selected for a short list interview, the following questions may be asked:
  • What is your current immigration status?
  • When does your current immigration status expire?
• If a candidate answers “no” to both questions, the candidate is not eligible for employment. The candidate likely misunderstood the questions and additional follow-up with the candidate is permissible.

Answers to follow-up questions should be shared with the Dean and Director of International Programs if the hiring committee would like to proceed with potentially inviting the candidate for an on-campus interview.

f. In addition to posting on sites covering the academic discipline, whenever possible new positions also should be advertised on sites that cater to expanding candidate pools.

5. Ad, drafted by the Department and approved by the Dean, is placed by the Dean's Office in the agreed upon advertising sites.

6. Applications will be received via the Wabash employment website (http://www.wabash.edu/employment/).  Applicants receive an automated confirmation email upon submission of their application.  EOE survey information is collected electronically in the employment website. Academic Administrative Coordinators have the ability to upload additional and updated candidate materials.

7. The appropriate Department Chair and Academic Administrative Coordinator are assigned as the manager of the application pool and give search participants access to necessary files. Review of candidate materials takes place via the employment website: www.wabash.edu/employment/admin/. Instructions and information about the system is on the login page and Academic Administrative Coordinators maintain a user’s guide for the employment system. 

8. Prior to beginning review of applicants, search committees should review materials on implicit bias and establish a set of criteria for candidate review. Some materials are available in the Department Chair Handbook with additional resources in the “Hiring Guidance” Box Folder.

9. Department reviews applications and identifies short-list candidates (generally 6-10), ranked and with rationale and including candidate review criteria, for the Personnel Committee to review. The Personnel Committee (Dean and Division Chairs for tenure track searches; Senior Associate Dean and relevant Division Chair for contingent searches) looks at the appropriateness and strength of each candidate's credentials, the potential for contribution to the department and to the College based on teaching, research, and service, and contributions to campus broadly conceived.  The Dean or Senior Associate Dean gives approval for short-list conference, video, or phone interviews. Please allow at least a week for the Personnel Committee and Dean to give this approval. Preliminary interviews should be scripted. Notes should be added to the department’s files on the candidate. Interviewers should review guidelines on inappropriate interview questions. The Department Chair invites candidates for short list and on-campus interviews, and AACs schedule the interviews.

10. Following any short-list interviews, Department Chair identifies the best qualified candidates (generally 3-5), who will be considered for campus interviews.  Personnel Committee reviews recommendation and candidates.  Dean approves candidates to be invited for interviews. (The number of candidates to be interviewed on campus will be determined in discussion with the Dean. For visiting positions, candidates are typically invited to campus one at a time.)  Copies of the approved candidates’ vitas and recommendations are kept in the Dean's office.  Answers to follow up immigration questions should be shared with the Dean’s office before an interview invitation is issued and visit is scheduled.  An employee should generally not participate in searches for which their family members are applicants.

11. Department identifies interview dates in consultation with the Office of the Dean of the College, and Academic Administrative Coordinator schedules interviews. Academic Administrative Coordinators have access to a shared Outlook hiring calendar that is used to organize candidate visits.  Scheduling needs to be done in consultation with the College's calendar and the appropriate Division Chairs’, the Dean's, and, in the case of contingent hires, the Senior Associate Dean’s schedules. Seminar or presentation times should be arranged to allow these people to attend and so as not to conflict with scheduled business such as APC and faculty and division meetings. This also means, to the extent possible, considering implications for previously scheduled events. Department search committee members, Deans, and Division Chairs receive access to candidates’ materials via the employment website. Outside faculty generally receive only cover letter and CV; departments may supply teaching philosophy at their discretion.  Campus Ambassadors do not receive access to the candidates’ materials, as the goal of the Campus Ambassador Program is for the candidates to converse with campus members outside of and apart from the candidate evaluation process.  Student participants generally do not receive candidate materials. All involved in the interview process should be given a copy of the document “Interviews – What’s Inappropriate to Ask?”  Academic Administrative Coordinators should record outside faculty participating in a search on the running log kept in the Hiring Guidance Box folder. Departments should consult this list when making selections so as not to overburden a handful of faculty members.

12. When faculty candidates come to campus, the dinners should include department members but not spouses or partners.  Department Chairs are strongly encouraged to keep the per person meal cost below $40 and to consider Bon Appetit as an on-campus meal alternative to area restaurants.

13. Academic Administrative Coordinators (AACs) arrange transportation from the airport, lodging, meals, and rooms on campus, as well as set up appointments with faculty, administrators, and students. (Job candidates generally arrange flights themselves and are reimbursed for their expenses. If needed, flight arrangements can be booked by the Travel Coordinator.) AACs also provide the job ad and candidate’s schedule to on-campus interviewers. Academic Administrative Coordinators should send a general memo to the entire faculty announcing a search in progress, giving the candidate’s name and the time and place of any public presentations. With temporary hires, the outside Division Chairs and Dean should still receive copies of the candidates’ paperwork.

Interview Scheduling

The following events and appointments need to be arranged:

Faculty Hiring Procedure

BKT/Tenure Track	Temporary Appointments
Public Presentation	Public Presentation
Students (6-8 meal or class)	Students (6-8 meal or class)
Faculty (3 from other dept/div)	Can Substitute Campus Ambassadors
Chair Initial and Exit Interview	Chair Initial and Exit Interview
Dean of the College	Senior Associate Dean of the College
Campus Tour	Campus Tour
Teaching Demonstration Strongly Recommended	Teaching Demonstration Strongly Recommended
Other Division Chairs
Offer to meet with a Campus Ambassador

All interviews must produce one or more ways to evaluate teaching ability and potential. A preferred mechanism for this evaluation is a teaching demo using an existing class or a teaching experience constructed for the interview. If a teaching demo is not used, the department must require a portfolio of material demonstrating teaching effectiveness as part of the application materials and/or request that at least one letter of recommendation be requested from a recommender who is able to insightfully comment on the candidate’s teaching.

Other Considerations:

a. Tenure track candidates will need to spend about 1 1/2 days on campus to allow enough time to schedule the necessary appointments; for visiting appointments, one day visits are generally sufficient.

b. All persons involved in the interview process should be invited to attend the candidate’s public presentation and to report their comments to the Department Chair, with the exception of the Campus Ambassadors.

c. Department members should generally have individual interviews of 20-30 minutes in length with candidates, although in some circumstances interviews in pairs may be preferred. It is at the department’s discretion whether to include current visiting faculty members (however they should not be included if they were a candidate at any stage of the search process).

d. Meetings with students and with outside faculty shouldn’t include departmental faculty. Candidates should be provided with the names of the students and faculty they are seeing. In the case of faculty, their department and rank help the candidates know to whom they are meeting, and an email address provides an opportunity to ask follow up questions.

e. If possible, the outside faculty group should include at least one untenured faculty member. Please consult the list of outside faculty who participated in other searches in the Hiring Guidance Box Folder to minimize the number of faculty participating in multiple searches.

f. Candidates may also be offered time with Campus Ambassadors in addition to meeting with outside faculty (for temporary appointments, Campus Ambassadors may replace the outside faculty at the discretion of the Search Committee Chair). The Campus Ambassador Program is designed to give candidates a time during the interview to ask their own questions about the variety of ways faculty and staff live, work, and volunteer in Crawfordsville and surrounding areas. Ambassadors are chosen by the candidate rather than the search committee, and Campus Ambassadors do not attend the candidate’s public presentation or offer written feedback to the committee chair. Campus Ambassadors cannot ask personal questions or otherwise depart from best practices on appropriate and inappropriate questions for interviews, but Ambassadors can volunteer information about their own experiences at the College and in central Indiana.

g. Department Chairs should offer candidates an opportunity to schedule other tours and meetings to the extent interested, e.g. realtor, library, Advancement or other.

h. Candidates should be provided breaks, including one before their presentation.

i. To the extent relevant to the search, departments should review the College's statement on “Spouse and Partner Employment” and the “Faculty Shared Position Policy.”

14. Following campus interviews, Department Chair gathers commentary from faculty, staff, and students. For tenure track searches, Division Chair provides written feedback from Personnel Committee to Department Chair. After considering outside and inside commentary, Department discusses and ranks the candidates according to previously discussed search criteria in determining who is best qualified for the position.

15. Department Chair sends candidate ranking and rationale to the Dean, who then discusses with the Division Chairs.

16. Dean determines the outcome of the search, notifies Department Chair.

17. Offer made to candidate by the Dean.

18. After a candidate has verbally accepted the position, the Dean sends an appointment letter. A signed and returned appointment letter from the candidate confirms the appointment.

19. After a signed appointment letter is returned, Department contacts other finalists to tell them the outcome of the search. Academic Administrative Coordinator sends e-mails to all other applicants notifying them that the position has been filled. (Notification may be sent earlier to applicants who didn’t make the first cut.)  Sample “position has been filled” letter is available to departments and academic administrative coordinators. Request this sample language from the Director of Human Resources. Notifications sent by AACs should be via the employment website.

20. All applicant files will be stored electronically and access will be restricted to the Dean's office.

Hire Information - What to Retain in Job Searches

1. Copy of the academic administrative coordinator’s files related to the search, including any merge file that was created pertaining to the search and substantive communication about the search or with applicants.  Simple informational communications with applicants do not need to be kept.

2. Documentation of the Departmental decision-making process.

• Any written notes that may exist on the selection process. Why applicants made lists, why others did not.
• Short list of applicants, interview list(s).
• Copies of the interview schedules.
• Any written notes on the final selection.

The Academic Administrative Coordinators have agreed to electronically bundle all of this information for storage for a period of three years, as is required, after which time it should be deleted. Information will be kept in confidence, to be used only in the case of a complaint.