Guidelines for Faculty Searches

Search Timetable (to be approved as part of the Faculty Search Report I)

The timetable should estimate the important dates-e.g., the dates for advertising, receiving applications, screening, and on-campus interviewing-for the search. Some of these dates (such as when an offer is to be made) will no doubt be hopeful projections

Job Advertisement (to be approved as part of the Faculty Search Report I)

Job ads require candidates to submit a letter of application, a transcript, curriculum vitae, three letters of reference, a discussion of research plans. A statement of teaching philosophy is optional. Ads should also include a sentence such as: "The department is particularly interested in candidates who have experience working with students from diverse backgrounds and a demonstrated commitment to improving access to and success in higher education for underrepresented students"; or "Candidates should describe previous activities mentoring women, minorities, students with disabilities, or other under-represented groups," or "Pomona College is committed to increasing excellence through diversity and welcomes applications from women and members of underrepresented groups."

• Ads should also include a sentence such as "Complete applications received by [date] will receive full consideration."
• Please mention that Pomona is one of the Claremont Colleges.  There is no need to mention graduate teaching.  It leads to unrealistic expectations and a misplacement of effort.

Outreach and Advertising Plan and Budget  (to be approved as part of the Faculty Search Report I)

Every search prepares an outreach and advertising plan with the aim of ensuring as large and diverse a candidate pool as possible. This may involve special efforts to attract qualified candidates who can provide diversity, such as placing advertisements in national publications and in some cases in publications directed to members of underrepresented groups; sending personal letters to department chairs, mentors of graduate students, and potential candidates of color; and making telephone calls to elicit responses from these letters. Whenever possible, personal connections are used to identify and recruit excellent prospects. To help recruit minority candidates, members of The President's Advisory Committee on Diversity may be contacted through the committee members. The Dean's Office may send names of additional possibilities.

The Dean's Office will need an abbreviated version of your ad by August 1 in order to place it in the Chronicle of Higher Education as part of a joint Claremont Colleges listing.  If your ad is too late for the Chronicle listing, you must place it in at least one venue that will come out in print as opposed to electronic-publication.

The advertising plan is accompanied by a budget in order to provide one checkpoint for making sure that the whole search process will stay within budget.

Search Committee (to be approved as part of the Faculty Search Report I)

The department selects a search committee, including a chair and student representatives.  Normally at least two students will sit on a search committee for a tenure-track position.  However, if there are three or fewer faculty members on the committee, then just one student may be selected.  The process for selecting students is to be developed by the faculty and liaisons in the department. We also strongly encourage all departments to include one faculty person either from a Pomona department outside the searching department or one from the other Claremont Colleges to the search committee as a full participating member. This person should be chosen in consultation with the Dean and Diversity Officer.

Faculty and student members will discuss departmental concerns and needs relevant to the search, as well as standards of confidentiality to be maintained for the search.  Student members are not to discuss the contents of confidential letters in the candidates' files with anyone other than faculty members in the department.

Collecting Diversity Data

Faculty Search Report Part II asks for data on the composition of the candidate pool in terms of gender and ethnicity. This data is easily complied via Academicjobsonline.  If an applicant submits a paper application, please contact Rhonda Beron for a metered postcard requesting information on gender and ethnicity. In order to receive the proper postage, the cards must be a particular size. Cards may be folded to fit into an envelope. Be sure to put the name of the search in the card's upper right hand corner (e.g., "Math 3-year position") and enclose the postcard in an outer envelope when mailing it to the applicant. It is preferred that a postcard be sent as soon as an application is received so that the information might be received by the time Faculty Search Report II has to be completed.

Applicants then complete and return the metered, self-addressed postcards to the Human Resources Office.   The department administrative assistant or the chair of the search should contact Human Resources to obtain the tabulated results for inclusion in Faculty Search Report II. The department should request these results a day or two before it is ready to submit Faculty Search Report II. The process is entirely voluntary and anonymous on the applicants' part.

Narrowing the Pool

One or more search committee members interview candidates by phone, by videoconferencing, (to reserve a speaker phone or video conferencing, contact Joe Brennan at ext. 77355) or at professional conferences; the committee should be the only group to interview candidates prior to the selection of finalists. Student members of the search committee will become involved in the search at a point determined by the committee, but no later than the point at which the applicant pool has been narrowed to about 20 files. Student members will read files and be expected to consult with other students to gain a broad student perspective.

Campus Visits by Candidate

The department should first make certain that the President and the Dean are available for interviews.  (For three-year positions, only an interview with an Associate Dean).  The department should also arrange for Division II candidates-and Division I and III candidates as appropriate-to meet with Associate Dean Jonathan Wright about obtaining start-up funds.  Start-up funds are normally allocated to tenure-track faculty only.

The department should upload the files for the top ten candidates to Sakai, and give the Dean and Associate Dean permission to view the files.  The President should be provided with hard copies of these files.  The President and the Dean (for three-year positions, the Associate Dean) must each be given a hard copy of the interviewing candidate's complete dossier, including the cover letter, curriculum vitae, transcript, and letters of reference.  The department should bring these two copies of the candidate's complete dossier to Alexander Hall at least two days before the candidate meets with the President and the Dean or the Associate Dean.

Student members of the search committee should meet all candidates brought to campus.  The candidate should be given the opportunity to meet with the Work-Family Commission.  Pardis Mahdavi is the commission's contact person.

To help recruit minority candidates, members of the President's Advisory Committee on Diversity may be contacted.  The chairs of Asian American Studies (Professor Kathleen Yep, Pitzer), Black Studies (Professor Sheila Walker, Scripps), and Chicano Studies (Professor Rita Alcala, Scripps) should also be contacted as appropriate to arrange meetings with minority faculty.

The department should make sure that all other interested parties are aware of the campus visit schedules and have an opportunity to see the candidates.  This is especially important in the case of candidates with interdisciplinary interests.  Please advertise your candidate lectures in the Claremont Colleges events calendar (http://www.calendar.claremont.edu).

Pomona College adheres to all federal guidelines regarding recruitment and interviewing.  We are currently in the process of updating our interview guidelines, and are referring to pp. 18-19 of Dartmouth's recruitment manual [pdf] as a model.  These pages, which list acceptable and unacceptable areas of inquiry, are posted for your reference.

At the end of the visit, the department/search committee chair gathers opinions from those who interacted with the candidate.

It is important to maintain consistency throughout the search process. Each candidate who comes to campus should be asked the same questions and required to perform the same tasks, allowing, of course, for the inevitable minor variations resulting from a candidate's particular profile.  Please contact the Dean of the College's office for interview guidelines to ensure that none of the questions posed to candidates constitutes discrimination according to fair employment laws.

Recommendation to the Dean

After all campus visits have been completed, the department meets and arrives at a recommendation. Student members of the search committee will participate in the meeting at which the final candidate is selected; they are to be included in voting, depending on the style of the department, and in the proportion or percentage they and the faculty members of the search committee have determined in advance. As part of Faculty Search Report III the department should prepare a two-part recommendation, indicating,

1. which of the candidates who have visited campus are acceptable, how the department ranks them, and,
2. who is unacceptable and why.

Employability

As noted above, it is important to determine in advance of an invitation to a campus visit if the candidate will be able to provide the necessary documentation regarding employability. During the search, the search committee is allowed by law to ask candidates if they will be able to prove eligibility to work upon commencement of employment should an offer of employment be made. If the successful candidate is not a citizen or permanent resident and does not have a permit allowing him or her to work legally in this country, or has only a temporary permit and is filling a permanent position, the college will assist the candidate in obtaining employment authorization. The successful candidate may, however, face serious immigration difficulties in the long term if the position was not advertised in a print publication (see p. 4, above).

The College will not provide such assistance for candidates filling two- or three-year positions. These candidates need to arrive with papers in hand.

In order to make sure that such work papers can be acquired by the beginning of the academic year, the department must immediately notify the Dean's Office once the candidate accepts the offer. The department needs to be aware that contingency plans may be required should such papers not be obtainable by the beginning of the school year. In the case of short-term positions this may mean offering the position to another candidate.

After the Search

Once the department has hired a candidate, please supply the Dean's Office with the person's address(es) and phone number(s) for the period extending until his/her move to Claremont.

If the department has hired a tenure-track candidate, please send a copy of the full page on which the position advertisement appeared. Please highlight the ad in yellow. For all others, we suggest that you observe the following schedule:

• Keep all search applications/dossiers for at least one year.
• Keep the applications/dossiers of finalists for tenure-track positions (i.e., the three or four candidates who visited campus) for at least four years.
• Keep the applications/dossiers of successful candidates for non-tenure-track positions (e.g., one-, two-, or three-year contracts) for at least four years.