Recruitment Procedures for Tenure-track Faculty

Conducting Affirmative Searches
The Recruitment Plan (Affirmative Action Form A)
Collegiate Advertising of New Faculty Positions
Search Committees for Faculty Positions
Pre-interview Audits (Affirmative Action Form B)
Candidate Interviews
Dual Career Couples
Reimbursement for Advertising and Other Costs of Recruiting
Payment for Candidates’ Visits

Conducting Affirmative Searches

The College conducts strongly affirmative searches. In authorizing searches, the College uses the University’s Affirmative Action Plan and the most recent Underutilization Reports from the University’s Office of Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity to determine which departments need to take special measures to make it more likely that they will attract women and/or underrepresented minorities to the candidate pool.

Early each fall the College conducts a workshop for all DEOs and chairs of search committees, to review the steps to be taken to ensure that the pool of candidates contains members of minority groups and women in at least the proportion in which they are represented among recent recipients of terminal degrees in the field.

The DEO should share with the search committee information from this website as well as from the University’s Affirmative Action Recruitment Manual for Faculty and Professional and Scientific Searches, so that each committee member will become familiar with the principles and procedures for announcing the position, for evaluating and selecting candidates, and for record keeping. The DEO may set up a meeting with the Office of Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity to discuss strategies for recruitment. All other communication about Affirmative Action matters is addressed to Dean Curto, who coordinates with the Office of Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity. For information about the recruitment process or the status of searches, contact Mary Lou Doyle (240 Schaeffer Hall, 335–3015).

The Recruitment Plan (Affirmative Action Form A)

The DEO reports the Recruitment Plan on Affirmative Action Form A, which is sent to Dean Curto for review and forwarding to the Office of the Provost and the Office of Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity. The Office of the Dean will call to notify the department of approval or to consult about problems.

The actual text of the advertisement to be published in professional journals or newsletters must accompany the Form A and must be approved before it can be used to advertise the position. The Office of Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity requires that advertisements include the statements “Minorities and women are encouraged to apply” and “The University of Iowa is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.” The Form A must specify in which professional publications the position will be advertised and other ways in which the search will be publicized.

Collegiate Advertising of New Faculty Positions

Each fall, the College places an advertisement in the Chronicle of Higher Education that lists all authorized tenure-track, clinical-track, and lecturer searches in the College. Departments are asked to supply a one- or two-line position description for this ad. Unless the Chronicle is a primary source of information on faculty positions in a particular discipline, the department need not place a separate advertisement in the Chronicle.

The College places general advertisements in several publications that reach members of underrepresented minority groups. These ads refer readers to the College website, where the list of positions is available. The College also advertises faculty positions on the website HigherEdJobs.com.

Search Committees for Faculty Positions

If an individual who applies for a tenure-track or clinical-track faculty position wrote his/her dissertation or MFA thesis under the supervision of a faculty member serving on the search committee, that faculty member must recuse him/herself from the search committee's discussion of and vote on that application.

If the applicant becomes a finalist in the search, the faculty member must withdraw from membership on the search committee.

In such a case, the faculty member retains the right to participate in departmental discussions of the candidates for the position and the right to participate in departmental votes concerning the candidates.

Pre-Interview Audit (Affirmative Action Form B)

Before inviting candidates to campus, the DEO sends Dean Curto:

• two copies of the curriculum vitae for each candidate proposed for interviews (usually up to three candidates), and
• two copies of three letters of recommendation for each candidate.

The DEO also sends Dean Curto the following documentation for the Pre-Interview Audit (PIA). The department must allow 3–4 working days for administrative offices to process these materials.

• A copy of Affirmative Action Form B, filled out as specified in the Affirmative Action Recruitment Manual.
• A letter addressed to Dean Curto that makes the case for the candidates the department wishes to interview, comparing their qualifications with those of other candidates who meet the required and desirable qualifications for the position, especially those who are women or who are known to be underrepresented minority candidates. If applicants who are not proposed for interviews have ratings of “1” or “2” and more years of experience than those who are proposed for interviews, the letter must briefly explain why those candidates are not as qualified for the position advertised. The Office of Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity will not approve the interviews without this explanation.
• Current information, if available, about the percentages of women and underrepresented minorities finishing terminal degrees in the field (tables or summaries with complete bibliographic reference).

The Pre-Interview Audit ensures the affirmative nature of the search early in the recruitment process. At the end of the search, the paperwork completed in the Pre-Interview Audit speeds up the processing of the request to offer an appointment.

Candidate Interviews

When the Pre-Interview Audit has been completed, the Office of the Dean notifies the department that it can arrange interviews. In the schedule of each candidate to be interviewed, the DEO includes a meeting with Dean Curto, or one of the Associate Deans, or (in the case of candidates for whom a tenured appointment would be proposed) with Dean Maxson. Prior to deans' interviews, the department must send a copy of the candidate's CV and the candidate's interview schedule to the Office of the Dean (240 Schaeffer Hall).

Dual Career Couples

If a candidate to be interviewed has a spouse or partner who would also seek employment, the DEO or search committee chair should contact the Dual Career Network in the Office of the Provost. Joan Murrin, Coordinator of the Network, will assist the spouse or partner in a non-academic job search. (Dean Curto should be contacted regarding a spouse or partner who may be seeking a faculty position.) The department should notify the Network as early as possible of the partner’s qualifications and of any contacts he or she has already made in the area.

Reimbursement for Advertising and Other Costs of Recruiting

The College gives an allocation to help defray the costs related to candidates' travel (roundtrip airfare at the most economical rates), lodging, meals and advertising. It does not pay for the meals of faculty members or students during a candidates visit. The MFK for the portion of the advertising costs to be reimbursed by the College should use the organizational account number 220. The DEO, when anticipating exceptional costs for advertising, discusses the department’s recruitment plan with Dean Curto to see whether these costs can be shared with the College. The College does not reimburse departments for postage, duplication, or clerical costs.