Faculty Searches

Ethics of Recruiting and Protocol for Communicating with Faculty Candidates

"The Ethics of Recruitment and Faculty Appointment" was adopted by the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences in November 1992 and jointly by the American Association of University Professors in June 1993. It contains the guiding principles for faculty searches. The full statement is linked here.

Following the principles of this statement, Duke has devised a protocol for communicating with candidates during faculty searches. See in particular the statement's section II, D: "If candidates request information about the progress of the search and the status of their candidacy, they should be given the information."

Within this context of full disclosure, departments should respect the wishes, professional needs, and sensibilities of candidates. This means, for example, that once a short list of candidates has been approved to visit campus, the remaining members of the candidate pool may be informed that their applications are no longer under consideration. Likewise, if a short list of, say, four is further reduced to a shorter list of two, the department may inform the two no longer under consideration of the decision. That said, departments may wish to delay final negative notifications until the position has been filled. This is acceptable, unless individual candidates ask for clarification about the state of the search, in which case the department should provide that information.

In all cases, departments or Deans should deliver negative notifications with as much sensitivity and encouragement for the candidate as possible. It may be helpful to prepare standard responses early in the search so that if candidates inquire about the state of the search before the department is ready to make any formal announcement, they can contain what needs to be said but no more. Written samples and telephone scripts can be found in Appendices B 13 and B14.

Search Plans and Search Authorizations

The Provost carries the responsibility of authorizing schools and University Institutes and Centers (UICs) to conduct searches for the appointment of regular rank faculty. Deans and, in special cases, Institute Directors have the responsibility of authorizing searches for non-regular rank faculty. At least annually, the Provost solicits schools for their faculty search plans. That solicitation describes the information the Provost requires in order to authorize a search. Schools that have departments generally solicit departmental search plans that the Dean analyzes, combines, and prioritizes, submitting them to the Provost as a school plan. Upon receiving the Provost’s written authorization for faculty searches, the Dean or Institute Director undertakes the search or, in turn, sends written search authorizations to department chairs. A copy of the Authorization to Recruit (ATR) is sent to theOffice of Institutional Equality as well. OIE has developed a protocol for aiding departments generate a diverse pool of candidates and for monitoring this progression. Section 3) c) v) below discusses departmental responsibilities for this reporting.

Search Guidelines

Search/Review Committee Formation

Through its Chair, the department nominates to the Dean the membership of its search or review committee, which can and sometimes must include faculty from outside the unit. In cases recommending the granting of tenure or internal promotion to the rank of full professor, the Chair/Dean must solicit from the candidate a brief synopsis describing the candidate’s intellectual interests, including a description of any factors – interdisciplinary or otherwise – that the candidate believes should be taken into consideration when establishing the review committee. The Chair will forward a copy of this statement to the Dean when nominating the review committee.

In schools without departments, the Dean will assure these responsibilities described as the Chair’s as well as the Dean’s own. For initial appointments granting tenure, there will be two separate committees – the first will conduct the search and the second will conduct the tenure review. Although these two functions must take place separately and sequentially, the two committees may have identical compositions if rank and tenure-track requirements are met for the final vote. Initial tenure review committees must include at least one member from outside the primary reviewing unit, appointed by the Dean of the school where the dossier will be reviewed.

While there are no hard and fast rules governing the size of review committees (with one important exception, explained in the next paragraph), it is common practice for them to have three members. In cases where the candidate’s research is unusually interdisciplinary, however, it is may be necessary to appoint a larger committee in order to achieve sufficient breadth.

In cases of initial appointment or internal promotion to the rank of full professor, Duke requires that at least five full professors vote on the case at the departmental level (see Faculty Handbook, chapter 3). If a unit has fewer than five full professors, the review committee must consist of at least five full professors, some of whom will, of necessity, have primary appointments in other departments. The Provost must approve all such ad hoc committees, upon nomination by the Dean.

Search Committee Procedures and Requests to Interview Candidates

After discussing the department's affirmative action goals with the Dean and the Office of Institutional Equality, the search committee drafts an advertisement inviting applications and nominations. The ads must contain a description of rank, beginning date, tenure-track status, teaching expectations, application deadline, name and address of search committee Chair, and the Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity statement. (The statement in the sample ad below has been approved by OIE). The advertisement must be approved by the appropriate school officers and placed in appropriate publications. A sample search advertisement follows:

Sample Search Advertisement

Duke University. The Department of Cultural Anthropology invites applications and nominations for a tenure-track position at the assistant professor level to begin September 2022. Candidates must combine promise of theoretical contributions in their field with a commitment to empirical research and teaching.

Send vitae and names of references to Chair of the Search Committee, Department of Cultural

Anthropology, Duke University, Box 90091, Durham NC 27708-0091. Applications received by December 1, will be guaranteed consideration. Duke University is an Equal Employment
Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. We value diversity in all of its many facets and meanings.

The committee may contact colleagues at other universities to identify possible candidates, contact promising candidates directly for expressions of interest and, when appropriate, interview potential candidates at professional meetings. The committee should acknowledge all applications and at the same time request that candidates complete an Equal Employment Opportunity Form. This process varies from school-to-school. Contact your Dean’s office for this form and process.

The committee develops dossiers for candidates under serious consideration. These dossiers include a current curriculum vitae, the candidate's intellectual development statement or application letter, and any materials such as course outlines or sample course evaluations that are likely to illuminate the effectiveness of a candidate's teaching. In the case of candidates who have just completed graduate school, the department/school will request, at least, the candidate's placement dossier containing a minimum of three letters of recommendation. In the case of candidates with several years of teaching experience, the committee will request other evidence of professional development and activity, such as significant articles and books published, papers read before learned societies, and research in progress. The committee may solicit, when desirable, additional evaluations of specific strengths and weaknesses of the candidates with respect to research, teaching, rank among peers, and potential, supplementing the letters with written notes of any telephone conversations. It is recommended that search committees solicit these opinions by using the approved APT solicitation letter in order to avoid having to contacting these same evaluators for additional information if the candidate is eventually reviewed for a tenured appointment.

The committee narrows the list of candidates to the three normally invited to interview on campus and, following the procedures prescribed in the unit’s bylaws, prepares a written report to the faculty. This report should recapitulate the search process and attach a copy of the published advertisement, give a candidate-by-candidate assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates on the short list, and justify to the faculty its recommendation for the top candidates.

In schools with departments, the Chair seeks the Dean's approval to invite the candidates for a campus visit. In schools without departments, the Dean receives the committee report and supporting documentation and approves the visits, if appropriate.

The Chair should attach to the request all supporting documentation: candidate CVs candidate professional statements or application letters, the committee report to the faculty described above, and EEO Reporting Form for Faculty Positions (see here).

Search Conclusion – Final Steps

Once the interview process has been completed and the department or school faculty has deliberated on the candidates, following the procedures contained in the unit’s bylaws, a final recommendation on the proposed candidate will go to the Dean. The Dean will approve or not the recommendation and, if appropriate, begin to negotiate the appointment terms with the candidate and, if tenure is involved, begin a formal tenure/appointment review.

Joint Searches: Types & Procedures

Preliminaries: Because of the potential complications of joint appointments at the moment of the tenure review, it is preferable that assistant professors not hold joint appointments. The Deans and the participating departments and programs should negotiate and establish at the outset how a joint position will count toward the department's or program's strategic development plan. The template for a MOU between the two units can be found in Appendix B 16.

Types of Joint Searches

Procedures

For type A searches, when the jointness becomes a concluding consideration: The unit that conducts the search should approach the second unit, proposing a joint appointment. If the second unit agrees, then both should conclude the extensive MOU identifying the sources of funding. Perhaps the originally authorized department will cede half the line to the second department (even if only for the appointment of this incumbent), or perhaps the second department will need to devote half a line to the position (maybe in the form of a retirement mortgage), allowing the originally authorized department to conserve half a line for future use.

The MOU should outline the privileges and expectations for the recruited faculty member in each unit. The tenure review will be conducted by faculty from both units, although the tenure-home unit will probably have heavier committee representation. Both units will vote on the tenure dossier. Care should be taken when external APT letters are solicited to inform the evaluators that the candidate is being considered for appointment with tenure in XX and a joint appointment in YY. This way, the letter writers can know who will have access to the confidential evaluations, just in case they had something uncomplimentary to say about someone in YY.

For type B searches, where jointness is intentional from the beginning: Success requires broad departmental participation throughout the process. After conversations with appropriate Chairs, the Dean will identify those departments to be involved in a particular search and solicit nominations for search committee members from the relevant Chairs. From these suggestions, the Dean will nominate a committee to the Provost, including its Chair. Or, if the second department is open to a competitive process, the Dean will solicit interest and, after determining which departments will participate, will nominate a committee, including its Chair, to the Provost.

The Dean will endeavor to have all the departments likely to be potential appointment homes represented on the search committee. In cases where this practice would render a committee so large as to be unwieldy, the committee Chair will meet regularly throughout the search with relevant departments not represented on the committee. When extra-departmental units are affected by the search, their participation will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis.

In cases where one department is the tenure home or one unit will lead the search, that unit will provide the search's clerical support. In cases where the tenure home is open to competition, the Dean will provide clerical support in a central location, as well as reading space and a meeting room, or the Dean’s office will approve an alternative support mechanism.

The committee will solicit names of candidates from participating departments, generate names from other sources, and advertise nationally. The committee will review the candidates and arrive at a preliminary short list.

Procedures may follow two paths from this point:

In the first and before proposing interview candidates to the Dean, the committee Chair will send the names and files of potential short-listed candidates to the departments in which they would ultimately hold tenure or joint appointments. The departments will then, in an expeditious manner, deliberate on the candidates and indicate whether they would agree to consider the candidate for tenure/joint appointment. In cases where departments find it unlikely to recommend appointment, that candidate will not be invited to campus to interview.

For the second process and prior to having departments thoroughly vet a candidate, the search committee will send a short-list of recommendations directly to the Dean, and departmental consultation will follow these steps:

Faculty from all departments concerned with the search will be invited to all the candidates’ on-campus presentations. The potential tenure-home and joint departments will be given the opportunity to schedule (and staff) its regular search processes and meetings with candidates.

After the visit and in a timely manner, the relevant departments will follow their normal procedures for deciding on the merits of the candidate and send a report to the search committee Chair.

The search committee will report to the Dean, appending the reports of the individual departments’ recommendations, pointing out the strengths and weakness of all those recommended.

The Dean will select the candidate for the position, and the formal tenure/appointment review will commence, one hopes resulting in a recommendation to the Provost.

The second process for vetting candidates permits the search committee to seek the Dean's approval to bring candidates to campus prior to full departmental vetting. Once this has been done, the search committee has made its report to the Dean, and the Dean has given preliminary approval, the full file will go to the targeted department, which will vote on whether to go forward with a full appointment review or not.

Only after the last step in the process will the candidate be informed that she or he is the top choice of the search and will be offered the job, contingent on all normal appointment review.

For type C searches, where a competitive search results in a single-department appointment: Despite this search’s not resulting in a joint appointment, success requires broad departmental participation throughout the process.

After conversations with appropriate Chairs, the Deans will identify those departments to be involved in a particular search and solicit nominations for search committee members from the relevant Chairs. From these suggestions, the Deans will nominate a committee to the Provost, including its Chair.

The Dean will endeavor to have all the departments likely to be potential appointment homes represented on the search committee. In cases where this practice would render a committee so large as to be unwieldy, the committee Chair will meet regularly throughout the search with relevant departments not represented on the committee. When extra-departmental units may be affected by the search, their participation will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis.

Because the tenure home is open to competition, the Dean will provide clerical support as well as reading space and a meeting room, or an appropriate alternative support mechanism.

The committee will solicit names of candidates from participating departments, generate names from other sources, and advertise nationally. The committee will review the candidates and arrive at a preliminary short list.

Before proposing interview candidates to the Dean, the committee Chair will send the names and files of potential short-listed candidates to the departments in which they would ultimately hold tenure. The departments will then, in an expeditious manner, deliberate on the candidates and indicate whether they would agree to consider the candidate for tenured/tenure-track appointment. In cases where departments find it unlikely to recommend appointment, that candidate will not be invited to campus to interview.

Faculty from all departments concerned with the search will be invited to all the candidates’ on-campus presentations. The potential tenure-home departments will be given the opportunity to schedule (and staff) its regular search processes and meetings with candidates.

After the visit and in a timely manner, the relevant departments will follow their normal procedures for deciding on the merits of the candidate and send a report to the search committee Chair.

The search committee will report to the Dean, appending the reports of the individual departments’ recommendations, pointing out the strengths and weakness of all those recommended.

The Dean will select the candidate for the position, and the formal tenure/appointment review will commence.

Opportunity Hire (Target, Essential Research Collaborator, Spouse)

Occasionally an unplanned appointment opportunity presents itself. If the opportunity hire is to receive a regular rank appointment, the Provost must approve the recruitment. The initiating department submits an opportunity search proposal to the Dean, outlining how this appointment fits the department’s development plan, how it will be financed, how the physical needs of the appointment will be met (laboratory, office space, equipment and personal support), and any other pertinent issues. The Dean reviews the approval and, if the Dean approves it, forwards it to the Provost, requesting a formal, targeted search authorization.

If the opportunity hire is to be offered a non-regular rank appointment, the officer with budgetary authority – Chair, Dean, or Director of a Center or Institute – will review the proposal to appoint and, upon approval, make the appointment. The appointing unit will forward a copy of all pertinent documents, including the appointment letter, to the next highest office, usually to the Dean (for schools with departments) or to the Provost (for schools without departments).

Affirmative Action Plan (AAP) reporting

Departments and schools are required to report a demographic profile of the candidate pool of each regular-rank faculty search conducted. Based on the requirements of Duke’s Office of Institutional Equity, this profile should describe the race, ethnicity, and gender of those who applied for the position, for those who interviewed for the position, and of the successful candidate.

Some schools and UICs have developed web-based procedures that other schools may investigate, an action OIE and the Provost’s office encourage. Using this system, when faculty candidates apply for a position, the search committee acknowledges the application and refers the applicant to a website to complete a web form providing the requested information. Units that use www.academicjobsonline.org or www.mathjob.org have this data-gathering and reporting capability as well.

When the search committee/department submits its report to the Dean, requesting approval for candidate visits, it attaches a summary form reporting the composition of the candidate pool. When the position has been filled, the department/school completes the form with specific information about the successful candidate, again submitting copies to the Dean as well as to OIE.

Once budgetary permission has been received, departments recruit non-regular rank faculty through a variety of means that need not (but may) include a national search. Documents in the file of the successful candidate will include, at a minimum, a letter of application, a CV, and a transcript from the university having granted the candidate's highest degree. It may include other scholarly items and letters of reference as determined by the department.

Department Chairs and Program Directors (Deans in schools without departments) issue appointment letters to candidates for non-regular rank positions that state the appointment's title, length, and compensation, describe the appointment's duties, and set a precise reply deadline. (See the various templates in Appendix B). The appointment letter should either have appended to it or sent soon after its acceptance a full description of the courses faculty will teach, including the requirement that the instructor prepare course outlines and submit them to the Chair (or his/her designee) for review one week prior to the beginning of classes each semester, unless the course has a syllabus predetermined by the department. Offers are contingent upon a successful outcome to a mandatory background audit and candidates are responsible for satisfying all Immigration and Naturalization requirements as well as all requirements of the Internal Revenue Service in order to become eligible to receive pay.

Part-time faculty and some non-regular rank faculty do not qualify for university benefits. In order to receive anything other than federally mandated benefits (e.g., Duke contribution to FICA), faculty must be employed full time and receive pay over, at least, nine consecutive months.