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Chapter 4: Initiating the Search

The Role of Search Committees

1. Developing search strategies
2. Participating in recruitment activities
3. Screening candidates

Search committees are always advisory, since ultimate responsibility for hiring rests with the key administrator. Crucial to the success of any search is a serious commitment to the time and effort required on the part of the search committee members, its chair, and the unit served. Also an important goal of the search committee is to make good faith efforts to identify appropriate women and minority as well as majority candidates, not to be satisfied merely with "what comes in over the transom." The end of such an approach, however, is almost always worth the efforts.

Generally, the first step in forming the committee is for the key administrator, usually in consultation with the department chairperson, head, or other officers, to name the search committee chairperson. Criteria used in selecting the chairperson often include the following:

1. Openness to ideas of representatives of campus constituencies with a direct interest in the position
2. Demonstrated ability in promoting a deliberative process
3. Knowledge of the campus and its surrounding communities
4. Strong interpersonal and recruitment skills

The composition of the committee -- its number, membership, and diversity -- is usually determined by the key administrator or person to whom the successful candidate will report. Search committees should be diversified in gender and race to the extent feasible.

The ideal size for a search committee is five to nine individuals. Smaller search committees may be right for searches with a limited number of available applicants. Search committees with ten or more members are usually unwieldy.

1. Describe the type of job to be filled (such as those requirements discussed earlier in this document)
2. Set a schedule for the search
3. Indicate desirable applicant characteristics
4. Discuss the importance of making a serious effort to attract qualified and diverse applicants and discuss screening tasks (i.e., reviewing applications, choosing and interviewing finalists)
5. Make clear the role of the committee's recommendations in the overall candidate selection process and emphasize its importance and advisory nature
6. Discuss resources available to the committee
7. Explain necessary record keeping

Upon request, the Associate Chancellor or a professional staff member of OAE will be available to meet with the search committee. The meeting should accomplish the following:

Provide an overview of the hiring process
1. Impart the basic principles of nondiscrimination and equal opportunity as well as equal treatment in the search process
2. Explore recruitment strategies which will further the affirmative action goals of the University
3. Explain necessary record keeping

Develop a schedule of activities
1. Agree on ground rules for recruitment of candidates
2. Agree on the review and screening process
3. Decide how to decide
4. Decide how to deal with references
5. Decide what the candidate should be required to submit to the committee for its consideration

The text below discusses these tasks with emphasis on philosophy and "how to" issues. The headings below do not parallel the tasks listed above but combine some and further elucidate others.

One of the first items discussed by the committee will be the general schedule for the search: desired dates of advertisements and solicitation of candidates, a reasonable period for reviewing the candidates, a target date for completing interviews, and an optimal closure date. The optimal closure date should be discussed with the hiring officer. A search could take as little as three months or as long as a year.

The search starts when OAE approves the Position Notice. Once the search is opened, candidates can be solicited or added to the pool for consideration by nomination. The pool of candidates "freezes," that is, cannot be added to, when OAE approves the list of candidates considered acceptable for appointment or when the pool of candidates is one year old (from the last date of advertisement).

An application deadline is helpful to candidates, but may to be too restrictive for a search committee or hiring unit. For example, an arbitrary deadline might disqualify viable candidates who miss the deadline for acceptable reasons. Moreover, the first round of recruitment may not yield desirable candidates. To avoid initiating a new Position Notice or to accommodate an enhanced recruitment effort, it is recommended that the committee or hiring unit provide greater flexibility by using the following phrase or a variant instead of a strict deadline:

For fullest consideration submit [credentials] by [date]
or
Review of applications will commence on [date]

Deadlines must be at least three calendar weeks after the last advertisement for the position appears. If no deadline is published, a search cannot be closed until at least three calendar weeks after the last advertisement for the position has appeared. It remains open for one year after the minimum three-week recruitment period unless a candidate is selected and approved for appointment. In the event that finalists have not been identified at the end of the year and three weeks, the position must be readvertised.

Units receiving verbal approval by OAE staff for advertising and offering positions given in response to faxed application forms and supporting materials are nonetheless still obligated to submit original documentation to OAE.

OAE professional staff will try to review and approve properly documented Position Notices and Search Process Summary forms within two working days of receipt.

Note: The Search Process Summary will be used to submit information about the search and finalists before they are interviewed. OAE's approval of these qualified and recommended candidates obviates the need for further review of offers tendered to candidates from the approved list of finalists. In the event that a finalist candidate from the approved list is not selected, a new Search Process Summary will have to be submitted.

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