HIRING – TENURE-TRACK

The hiring process has two important parts. About half of it is finding excellent people, enticing them to apply and convincing them that Carleton is a great place to work (“selling”), and the other half is the evaluation of candidates (“buying”).

We are continuing a strong emphasis in every search on recruiting from under-represented populations. Top candidates have choices. We deserve nothing but the best. Let’s find the best and convince them that Carleton will be their best opportunity.

Here are some particular tips we’ve developed:

• All faculty in the department and relevant interdisciplinary programs should get involved in the search, use their connections and imaginations.
• Look at universities who graduate a high proportion of minority candidates and look internationally.
• In addition to new Ph.D.’s who are likely to apply, look for people who are “better than the colleges or universities in which they now work.” Ask first-rate Ph.D. advisors about their good students of a few years ago and whether they know of anyone we might “pick off.”
• Use the phone. Don’t just rely on letters, although an informational letter as a prelude to a phone call may be a good idea.
• Consider traveling to meet candidates (at a meeting or meetings in the home campus if there are several prospects). Make a proposal to the Dean for support.
• Write your ad broadly to attract a range of candidates.
• On “selling” Carleton: What is it that we’re offering that should entice people here (and reward them after they come)?
  • Better students than they’ll have almost anywhere else,
  • Strong departments and majors,
  • Interesting interdisciplinary opportunities,
  • Better support for faculty development than many places,
  • Wonderful colleagues.

Partner Issues - A large percentage of candidates for your position will be struggling with joint location issues associated with their partners. You and your colleagues, of course, cannot ask them directly about their personal situation, but you can be attentive and helpful when candidates bring it up voluntarily. It is important for you to be clear with them that the College will try to be as helpful as possible with the co-location issue.

The Upper Midwest Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (UMW HERC) lists faculty and staff job openings at many colleges and universities in our area (click here). We also keep our ears open for leave replacement positions at nearby schools and can be a little more proactive if we know the qualities of a specific person. We can sometimes maneuver a Carleton leave replacement position so that it fits with a partner's interests.

It is also important to be very clear that any partner of a Carleton faculty member interested in a tenure-track position at Carleton can expect to be considered for that position on an equal basis with any other candidate. The fact that a candidate is a partner of an existing faculty member will in no way count against that candidate. Chairs will be very careful to make sure this policy is enforced.

Following are detailed instructions about the hiring process. Please note that the items listed in bold print are those that need to be done by you or someone in your department.

• Submit requests for tenure-track hires to the Dean of the College. Do not assume that every retirement or resignation will lead automatically to a new hire in your department. Any vacancy must be the occasion for re-examining the overall distribution of faculty FTE among departments. Therefore, you will need to make the case for the position in your department. Requests should include:
  • nature of the position,
  • area(s) of expertise required and hoped for,
  • intersections with interdisciplinary programs or other departments,
  • opportunities/efforts toward diversity,
  • source of FTE* (new or replacing a retirement, etc.),
  • curricular justification for the position,
  • enrollment justification for the position.

Requests will be reviewed by the Faculty Curricular Planning Committee (FCPC) (which advises the Dean). The Dean’s Office will notify Department Chairs when positions are approved.

• Schedule a meeting for Associate Dean Pósfay, Dean Nagel and the Department Chair to develop strategies for attracting a diverse pool of candidates.

• Submit advertisement copy to Associate Dean Pósfay for review and approval (see samples). Be sure to include:

• Starting date and nature of the position (i.e., tenure-track)
• Rank (entry level; in extraordinary circumstances, higher rank will be considered),
• Qualifications you are seeking, e.g., "Ph.D. completed or substantially completed", "near-native ability in Spanish," etc.
• The position's duties and benefits,
• Commitment to teaching and scholarship in a liberal arts college,
• Fields and subfields needed,
• Additional capabilities desired,
• Application materials required (e.g., statement on teaching philosophy, c.v., letters of recommendation),
• Deadline for applications,
• Complete name and address of whom to contact about the position,
• At which conferences the department will be interviewing.

Also include the following statements:

"We are particularly interested in candidates committed to teaching a diverse student body."

“Carleton is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. We are committed to developing our faculty to better reflect the diversity of our student body and American society. Women and members of minority groups are strongly encouraged to apply."

The Dean will return the ad copy to you with any changes. Be sure Associate Dean Pósfay has a copy of the final ad.

• Advertise your position

• Place ads in specialized journals or newsletters for minority and women's caucuses within the appropriate professional organizations, and in professional journals and electronic media of potential interest to those with one or more specialties you are seeking.

If you anticipate that your total advertising budget will be over $1,000, consult with the Dean. Click here for information on recruiting expenses.

The Dean's Office will place tenure-track openings in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education, and Diverse (formerly Black Issues in Higher Education), so do not send ads to these publications (see sample). They will also place your ad on the Dean of the College website with a link to your department's web site, run a listing of your ad in Inside Higher Education, and post your listing on the Upper Midwest Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (UMW HERC) Web site.

• Send Fliers or Letters to Graduate Schools

• Develop a flier including a description of the position you have available that is more complete than your ad copy. Include more details about duties, benefits, the department, and some description of the College and community. Include a web address and phone number where more information can be obtained.

• Consult with your departmental colleagues, draw up a list of the top dozen graduate schools in the field, and send the expanded description to the deans and chairs of the appropriate departments at those schools.

• Send to the chairs of departments most likely to produce minority Ph.D.'s.

• Personal Contacts and Other Correspondence

• Ask department members to write to colleagues and enclose the above flier.

• Call professional acquaintances.

• Call the chair or placement officer in leading departments to make a pitch for Carleton and to get evaluations of candidates and ask for recommendations of excellent prospects whom you could contact directly.

• Consider making a visit to one or two graduate schools with excellent departments in your field to meet with possible candidates. Consult with the Dean to decide if this would be cost effective.

• Attendance at Professional Conferences and Conferences aimed particularly for Minority Faculty Graduate Students

• Decide which meetings and conferences might be most fruitful to attend and plan to go to interview. The Dean will pay expenses for two interviewers. Expenses for meals will be reimbursed at the same rate as those mentioned in the “Recruiting Expense” section of this document.

• Consult with colleagues, especially former chairs and search committee members, about how to prepare for, conduct, and assess interviews.

• Minority Recruitment

We are very serious about attracting strong minority faculty. Work with Associate Dean Pósfay to identify women and minority scholars in appropriate disciplinary networks.

Note Well: Department members and internal candidates for tenure track positions may seek your counsel about letters of recommendation. Normally, department members do not write letters on behalf of internal candidates. We want to avoid situations in which our faculty are placed in complicated advocacy roles, prior to their evaluation of all candidates in a search.

• Acknowledge every inquiry and application. Let applicants know what's still needed to complete the file and when to expect to hear from you next (see sample). Write all correspondence with the idea that, when the search is over, unsuccessful candidates will believe they were thoughtfully considered and that Carleton is as good a place as they thought it was when they applied. Send more information about the job, the department and the College to those candidates you hope to interview at professional meetings or on campus.

• Schedule a meeting for the regular members of your department with Associate Dean Pósfay and Dean Nagel to discuss diversity hiring before you begin screening candidates.  Please schedule this meeting as early as possible.
  

• Screen candidates and choose semifinalists. In some cases this can be done by a search committee that is not the full department. Search committee members should be sure to keep their discussion of candidates confidential. Determine early the appropriate role of a retiring faculty member in the search for his or her successor. This person knows their field best, but they should play the role of a consultant and should not be invited to meetings at which ranking and votes will be on the agenda.

It is important to establish within your department what the role of students will be and to make the rules clear. Their input is important, but their role is strictly consultative. Students should not be invited to departmental meetings to discuss the final candidates and they should not be informed of the departmental decision until after the appointment is made.

• Determine the role of junior faculty in hiring decisions. The responsibility for hiring ultimately rests with the tenured faculty, the Dean, and the President, but most departments also involve the tenure-track faculty in hiring as full partners. Be deliberate about whatever you do and talk with junior colleagues about it so that your and their expectations will be clear.

• Apply to the Dean’s Office for funding. If the department wishes to screen candidates at a professional convention, the Dean of the College will normally pay all reasonable expenses for the Department Chair or the head of the department's recruitment committee plus one additional member of the search committee to make such a trip. Colleagues who want to attend the meeting anyway and who might help interview may apply to the Headley Fund for help.

• Write to candidates who have been eliminated. Select 8-15 semifinalists and then write to those applicants who have been eliminated (see sample). The courtesy of an early letter allows them to concentrate on their other applications and leaves them with respect for Carleton.

• Reserve interview times. Contact Peggy Pfister to reserve interview times for tenure-track positions on the Dean and Associate Dean's calendars.

• Send copies of the application materials of your top six to eight finalists to the Dean (indicate which are your top three or four and why) for review. Schedule a conversation with the Dean to discuss the finalists. You must obtain approval from the Dean’s Office to invite finalists to campus. NO CANDIDATE SHOULD BE INVITED TO CAMPUS WITHOUT PRIOR APPROVAL.

• Write to the semifinalists who aren’t chosen for interviews. Tell the semifinalists they are not being invited at this time, but that there is still interest in their application. Indicate when you'll be back in touch with them (see sample).

• Contact the finalists and set the date for their interview. A faculty member should make the first contact with the finalist. Provide the information to the Dean's office.

• Make arrangements for transportation to and from the airport and for accommodations. Also, please pay attention to the guidelines on recruiting expenses.

• Develop the interview schedule. Things to think about when planning the schedule:

• Include meetings with department faculty as appropriate, with majors (maybe over breakfast or lunch), and with non-department faculty and staff if appropriate (i.e., if they have interdisciplinary interests).
• Ask candidates if there are particular people outside of your department that they would like to meet. Keep in mind that candidates may want to meet faculty, staff or students with similar or different backgrounds and interests from themselves. Emphasize that we are a diverse community, and that we’d be happy to arrange meetings that give them a better feel for the climate and culture of Carleton.
• Most departments schedule a research presentation and also ask the candidate to teach a class. You will need to coordinate this carefully with the instructor and the candidate. You will also want to make sure that a couple of faculty attend the class. Click here for some friendly advice from the Educational Studies Department about the "Job Talk" that you may wish to share with your applicants.
• Publicize the dates and times of presentations to students majoring in the department, particularly those on the Departmental Curriculum Committee, the President, the Dean, and the Director of the Office of Intercultural Life, and as widely across campus as is feasible (e.g. in department or interest newsletters). One of the best recruiting tools is having a room full of engaged students at a candidate's presentation.
• Allow time for tours or information about relevant resources (library, teaching labs, etc.)
• Schedule an exit interview for an hour or so before the candidate leaves campus.

It is very important that internal candidates experience the same kind and number of communications and interview days that external candidates experience. Err on the side of conformity to the itinerary used for external candidates. A casual tone or makeshift scheduling for internal candidates may send the signal that their candidacy is being treated differently or taken less seriously.

• Send two copies of each candidate’s interview schedule, CV, cover letter and reference materials to Peggy Pfister in the Dean’s Office. The Dean's Office will e-mail candidates a list of links to Carleton's webpage, Northfield, the Twin Cities areas and Greater Minnesota and provide them with a packet of information when they arrive for their interview.

• Schedule two conversations with the Dean - one after the final interview but before the department meeting to discuss the candidates, and another after the department meeting.

• Make certain faculty understand what is expected.

• All finalists should meet with all available regular faculty members in the department and all appropriate adjunct faculty members.
• Every member of the department meeting the candidate should read the candidate's work before the candidate arrives for the interview.
• Every member of the department who meets the candidates should attend the scholarly presentations and the classes.

• Make certain candidates understand what is expected.

• Schedule candidates for a job talk or talks in keeping with the culture of your department. Be explicit with the candidates about the expectations for the talk(s): audience, levels of sophistication, uses of classroom technology, and length of presentation. Explain your department’s assumptions about the “sample” class, conference paper, or public lecture presentations – if these are the relevant distinctions. The presentation is often the most stressful part of an interview. Between the invitation and the actual interview day, encourage candidates to be in conversation with you so that they can “test their assumptions” about the talk(s). We want to decrease the chances that otherwise acceptable candidates put themselves out of the running because they misunderstood our expectations for the job talk(s).
• Check with the candidate to see whether he or she will need maps, computer, an overhead projector, or other equipment.

• On the day of the visit:

• Offer the candidate a chance to visit the classroom or lecture room before the presentation. Make sure all technology necessary is in the room and is functioning.
• Allow the candidate a free period of time before the presentation so he or she can review notes and prepare.
• Find out his or her timetable for making a decision, telephone numbers in the next few weeks, and interest in the job.
• Tell the candidate what YOUR timetable is and when to expect a telephone call from you.

The Dean will talk to candidates about salary, benefits, the tenure process, etc.

See list of Interviewing Do's and Don'ts.

• Get reactions from others.

• Talk with students who attended talks or meals with candidates. Many departments have developed survey forms they ask students to fill out.
• Call others who met the candidates.
• Call a department meeting to discuss what you've learned from others and determine which candidate will best meet your needs. Be sure to assess the "fit" of the candidates with your department and Carleton in addition to their scholarly strengths.

• Determine the action you will recommend for each finalist. Determine which candidate to recommend for an offer, the second candidate, etc.

• Obtain approval to make an offer. Recommendations for hiring must be approved by the Dean before an offer is made. You will call the candidate first and tell them that an offer will be forthcoming. The Dean will make the formal offer. Give the candidate a reasonable amount of time to consider the offer - probably about two weeks - but try to be flexible. Tell the candidate to call the Dean's Office to make a phone appointment with the Dean to discuss the offer.

• Send additional information to your top candidate about Carleton and Northfield, or call to solicit questions about the position, benefits, etc. You may now also ask about the candidate's personal situation. Maintain similar contact with the other finalists in whom you are still interested.

• Notify the Dean’s Office when the offer has been accepted. The Dean's Office will draft the formal contract letter.

• The College will provide assistance in obtaining valid visa status for faculty who have non-citizen or non-permanent resident status. The College will choose an immigration attorney to work with the faculty member, and the Dean of the College Office will initiate the process. For tenure-track hires, legal expenses associated with obtaining a valid work permit will be paid for by the College. In addition, the College will pay legal expenses associated with pursuing permanent residency status. The College's legal assistance and financial obligation will terminate if a faculty member resigns or isn't reappointed after the third-year review.

• Inform your department and celebrate!

• Call the other finalists and tell them the situation.

• Write to the other semi-finalists. Let all semi-finalists know that you value their applications, but the search is over (see sample).

• Thank all those involved in the search process.

• Take the bundle of applications and supporting materials to your favorite storage area. This material should be saved for at least three years. After that, it should be shredded.