Procedures And Guidelines For Conducting Faculty And Staff Searches At UMCP
- Relying on "traditional" or "mainstream" publications to announce a position will typically result in a "traditional" and "mainstream" pool of application. Utilize publications targeted at specific populations.
- People contacts are much more effective in generating candidates than paper contacts. Call colleagues and other professionals to inform them of the vacancy and to request nominations, then follow up with a letter and position announcement that they can share with others.
- Forward the announcement, with cover letter, to professional associations serving specific populations. For example, Women in Engineering, Association of Black Psychologists, etc.). Also, consider recruiting in person at their national meetings. Re member, your presence has a much greater impact than your announcement on a job placement board or in a newsletter. Many national associations also have caucuses for specific populations. Contact them as well, ask them to share the information, and ask for nominations of possible candidates.
- Where applicable send announcements with cover letter seeking assistance to Historically Black Institutions (HBI’s) (see appendix E). Send them to specific departments, rather than to a President’s or Vice President’s office. Again, ask for nominati ons.
- Utilize annual directories of recent Ph.D. recipients. Contact potential candidates by phone to inform them of the position and follow-up with an announcement and cover letter. If the persons contacted are not available or interested, ask for nomina tions of other potential candidates.
- Whenever you ask for nominations, be sure to follow-up. The degree and timeliness of follow-up is perceived as an indication of how serious to are commitment to diversity. Fortunately or unfortunately, this perception is typically generalized to the entire campus, and can affect future searches, so careful attention to this stage of the recruiting process is required.
- Where appropriate, utilize campus based networks, such as the President’s Commission on Women’s Affairs and the President’s Commission on Ethnic Minority Affairs (respective commission chairs are listed in the campus directory).
- For upper level administrative positions, contact the American Council on Education’s National Identification Project in Washington, D.C. The project has a network extending across the country and can both disseminate the announcement and offer nomin ations of prospective candidates.
Remember, effective searches utilize creative and aggressive strategies to identify qualified applicants. The more aggressive the committee’s efforts, the more successful the recruitment.
Previous Chapter Table of Contents Next Chapter
CHAPTER 3
DEVELOPING SEARCH AND SCREENING PROCEDURES
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION MEANS ESTABLISHING A QUOTA SYSTEM FOR WOMEN AND MINORITIES
REALITY:
There is a fundamental difference between goals and quotas. The goal of affirmative action is the inclusion in the job force of certain groups in our society previously excluded or currently underrepresented. Ideally, the percentage of women and mino rities working in a department, college or university should be similar to the percentage of women and minorities qualified for such positions. Affirmative action does not mean showing partiality but rather reaching out to candidates and treating them wi th fairness and equity. Quotas, on the other hand, are typically court-assigned to redress a pattern of discriminatory hiring.
All search committees are required to complete a "Search and Screen Plan" and to submit it to the appropriate Major Unit Head via the Equity Administrator for review and approval. The plan should describe all of the ways in which candidates will b e recruited for the position, as well as special efforts to attract affirmative action candidates. It should also define the criteria by which applicants will be evaluated and the procedures for selecting finalists. Specifically, the plan should address : advertisement related activities; special actions to identify minority or female candidates; and procedures for assessing candidates that give appropriate emphases to affirmative action considerations. The recommended format for Search and Screen Plans is provided in appendix D.
Creating a broad, diverse pool of candidates is one of the most important functions of the search process. To be effective, the committee must be creative and aggressive in seeking to identify candidates. The following points should be considered:
