Faculty Hiring Manual 2023–24
Section 3: The Applicant Review Process
3.1 Reviewing Applications
Search committees will vary in their procedures for interviewing and selecting candidates. While there are no set processes for reviewing applications, several strategies can help search committees assess the applicant pool.
As a preliminary matter, all applicants who are to be considered for a position must be qualified for that position. Search committee members must assess which qualified applicant is the best candidate for the position advertised.
Reviewing applicants to select a short list of candidates for interviews is a critical step in ensuring that the final list includes a diverse pool. Below are several best practices for assessing applications and candidates who will proceed to the interview stage:
- Before reviewing candidate materials, search committees should discuss and agree upon fair, objective, and uniform procedures with which to evaluate candidates and undergo training on implicit bias.
- Search committees should try to set out in clear and specific terms the various achievements and credentials of the competing candidates, rather than relying on holistic appraisals or assessment of some amorphous “fit” with the department.
- Search committees are encouraged to use uniform rating sheets and rubrics that evaluate candidates to reduce implicit bias and produce a more equitable outcome to searches. Such rubrics may consider academic credentials, teaching experience, expertise in discipline or subdiscipline, professional/scholarly record, potential for future significant scholarship, experience in working with diverse student populations, and contributions to the diversification of the faculty, of research interests, and/or of pedagogy in the unit. Rating sheets and rubrics may also evaluate professional efforts toward advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the academy or at their institutions and any new skills, perspectives or approaches that may contribute to innovation and creativity. All components in rating sheets and rubrics must directly relate to the functions and responsibilities of the position.
- Search committees should not eliminate candidates based on where they did their undergraduate, graduate, or postdoctoral work. Do not assume that only candidates from top graduate programs should be considered without examining their credentials to see if there are some well-qualified candidates from other programs.
Search committees should develop and follow a clear protocol for notifying applicants who will not be advancing any further of their status. Failure to notify unselected applicants in a timely and sensitive way is not only disrespectful to applicants, who have made significant efforts to apply but can damage the reputation of departments and the university. Search committees are advised to send a brief personal email in advance of the auto-generated ROCS email. Authorizers may disposition candidates such that ROCS does not auto-generate an email.
Search committees should be mindful that the candidate’s interest may be confidential and should not disclose the candidate’s name and interest to individuals outside of the university unless the candidate is aware of the committee’s intent to do so.
Search committees should also develop consistent messaging for those candidates who are being invited to advance to an interview.