Procedures And Guidelines For Conducting Faculty And Staff Searches At UMCP
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- Obtaining approval from the Major Unit head to conduce a search.
- Appointing the members to the Search Committee.
- Developing a position Description.
- Developing a Search and Screen Plan.
- Advertising the position and generating a pool of applicants.
- Evaluating the applicant’s credentials.
- Conducting interviews and selecting finalists.
- Recommending candidates to the Major Unit Head.
The order of these activities, particularly those required for initiating a search (items 1-4), may vary dependent on the particular college or division. All of these steps are considered essential to the process of conducting a search.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY ARE ONE AND THE SAME
REALITY:
Equal Employment Opportunity means that all individuals must be treated equally in the hiring process and in advancement once on the job. Each person is to be evaluated as an individual on her or his merits and not on stereotypic conceptions of their gender, racial or ethnic characteristics. Affirmative Action is a more proactive concept than Equal Employment Opportunity. It means affirming that employers will actively and aggressively seek to overcome the effects of past discriminatio n against groups such as women and minorities by making a positive and continuous effort in recruitment, employment, retention, and promotion practices. The concept also means that a university must actively remove any barriers that artificially limit th e professional and personal development of women and minorities. Ultimately, the goal of affirmative action is complementary to the mission of a university: to give each individual the opportunity to realize her or his maximum potential and to rise as hi gh as one’s talents will permit.
This document has been prepared within the context of the campus’ standing commitment to diversifying its faculty and staff. Emphasis is placed on strategies designed to attract women and minorities for campus position. Goodwill notwithstanding, chronic misperceptions and myths persist (see appendix D) which continue to pose barriers to effective and successful searches.
This brochure offers strategies which circumvent those barriers. The order of change sought via our commitment will not develop of its own accord and will not happen overnight. Rather, it requires diligence on the part of all of those who are involved i n decisions affecting the composition of our campus community. It requires more than opening doors a little wider. Sensitivity and consistency in identifying and overcoming intentional and unintentional bias in the ways in which we select new faculty an d staff is necessary. It requires understanding that every phase of the search process has the potential to improperly screen out otherwise deserving candidates from consideration. From the careless wording of a position description, to homogeneous comp osition of a search committee, to the haphazard screening of candidates, each step of the process can have a pronounced and chilling effect on our ability to attract and retain candidates from previously underrepresented groups, whether they be persons of color, women, the physically challenged, etc...
A significant body of literature exists which details strategies for mediating the effects of bias, intentional or unintentional, in the hiring process. The campus procedures have sought to incorporate the important steps recommended by the literature.
The procedures prescribe the monitoring of critical phases within the search and selection process by an Equity Administrator. They also require some level of uniformity across searches and across department. Finally, the guidelines require the completi on of some paper work. All of these elements: the monitoring, the uniformity, and the "paper trail" are essential to conducting searches which will yield the most qualified and diverse pools of candidates and will assist us in meeting the objective of ca mpus diversity and the goal of campus excellence.
In general, the following steps are involved when conducting a search:
