Procedures for Recruiting Faculty

Faculty Vacancies and Position Announcements

1. The Division Chair notifies the Dean of Faculty of any impending vacancy as soon as it becomes evident. After discussion with the Dean of Faculty, the Division Chair, in collaboration with a department, oversees the writing of a position request and position announcement. The request and announcement are reviewed by the Division Council in light of other requests from all divisions. A Division Chair will need to plan for sufficient time for this review to occur. The deadline for new and returning/replacement position proposals is February 1 for the next academic year. The position announcement serves as the basis for advertising the vacancy. All full-time vacancies are advertised.
2. Natasha J. Baker, an employment attorney, suggests that departments think about the following before a position announcement is drafted:
   • "Consider the short-term and long-term needs for the position.
   • Will the position change over time?
   • Consider diversity goals.
   • Think about the qualifications of the ideal candidate.
   • State all requirements for the position, even the 'minor' ones."

   She also suggests considering the expectations of the institution. So, the announcement might include:

   The ideal candidate will contribute constructively to the Berea College community and will demonstrate a commitment to carrying out the mission of Berea College.

   Natasha J. Baker, "Managing the Hiring Process," Workshop for Department and Division Chairs, June 7, 2017.

    

3. Current boilerplate, always subject to change, is included here:
   

   Founded in 1855, Berea College is nationally recognized as the first coeducational and interracial college in the South. Berea has a longstanding commitment to interracial education and is one of the most racially diverse private liberal arts colleges in the United States. With an emphasis on service to Appalachia and beyond, Berea enrolls more than 1,500 students from 46 states and U.S. territories and more than 70 countries. Berea College admits students who are unable to afford tuition and provides all of them with a no-tuition promise, valued at more than $204,000. Berea’s students excel in the College’s supportive yet demanding academic environment, and most are the first in their families to attend college. As one of only nine federally recognized Work Colleges, all Berea students are expected to work 10-12 hours weekly in various positions across campus. Berea College is listed #20 in overall ranking in the U.S. by the Wall Street Journal/College Pulse college rankings, 2023. The Washington Monthly ranks Berea College #2 Best Liberal Arts College and #1 in Social Mobility, 2023. Money Magazine ranks Berea #20 Best Overall College and #10 for Best in the South, 2023. Berea College is also the only institution in Kentucky to receive the 5-Star Rating from Money Magazine, 2023.

   Located where the Bluegrass Region meets the Cumberland Mountains, the town of Berea (pop. 16,000) lies forty miles south of Lexington and is approximately two hours from Cincinnati, Louisville, and Knoxville. More information about Berea College is available at www.berea.edu.

   Berea College, in light of its mission in the tradition of impartial love and social equality, welcomes all people of the earth to learn and work here.

4. Write announcements that balance required and desired qualifications, so that the position attracts a wide range of qualified candidates. Announcements are approved by the Dean of Faculty before being released.
5. Include information about electronic submission of materials required for application.  For example: 

   Applicants should submit a cover letter, CV, graduate and undergraduate academic transcripts, statement of teaching philosophy, description of research interests, and three letters of recommendation to: https://tinyurl.com/yxeqqlom. Review of applications will begin on November 1, and continue until the position is filled. Note that you will be asked to provide the email contact for three references after completing step one of the application process online.

6. The NEOED software system is used for faculty application tracking and archival storage for all faculty searches. Upon the Dean of Faculty's approval of the position request, the search committee chair must work with the Office of Academic Affairs representative (currently Shannon Montross) to request the position be posted in NEOED, to learn how to approve the listing in NEOED when it is built, to learn how to access the applications once the posting is launched, and to learn how to manually request the recommendation letters.

7. All search documents will be available in NEOED. Some search committee chairs may decide to copy the applicant’s files into Box for easier access or for the ability to download large visual or audio files. The permanent record of the search files will remain in the NEOED system.
8. Other Protocol

(Academic Affairs Office Step): When the position description is approved by the Dean of Faculty, the Office of Academic Affairs staff support for faculty recruitment (currently Shannon Montross) will work with a search committee chair to create the posting in NEOED and get the unique URL for the position. The work of staff support includes granting all search committee members access to the posting on NEOED and sharing training information with all parties. The Office of Academic Affairs staff support will obtain from the search chair a list of advertising venues for the search (which includes additional diversity sites, websites, professional organizations, listservs, and professional journals), and then purchase these ads.

(Search Chair Step): The search chair or administrative assistant may opt to set up a Berea Box folder for management of the candidate files, but the permanent record of all search applications will be housed in the NEOED system. Training videos and personal assistance from the Office of Academic Affairs will be available to all parties who need access to the search materials.

The Search Committee

Searching for Diverse Candidates

1. It is important that all search committees make a special effort to seek out candidates from underrepresented backgrounds. Graduate schools with a high proportion of minorities (see list at the end of this section) should be contacted and followed up via personal calls whenever possible. The Office of Academic Affairs can provide search chairs with a list of Department Chair names from the list at the end of the section. Faculty should develop and use personal contacts and networks to identify prospective candidates. 
2. All members of the search committee are encouraged to read Chapter 7, “Best Practices for Improving Faculty Diversity Recruitment and Retention,” in the book, The Chief Diversity Officer [CDO]: Strategy, Structure, and Change Management, by Damon A. Williams and Katrina C. Wade-Golden. Published by Stylus Publishing, LLC. 22883 Quicksilver Drive, Sterling, Virginia. 20166-2102. Copyright ©2013 by Stylus Publishing, LLC.https://inclusion.uoregon.edu/best-practices-improving-faculty-diversity-recruitment-and-retention; and Autumn Reed & Andrew Rosen, "Opinion: Fixing hiring practices to increase faculty diversity, Closing the gap in diversity between an institution's student body and its faculty. https://hechingerreport.org/opinion-diverse-faculty-hiring /.
3. Led by the chair, the search committee should discuss and remain alert to implicit biases and discomfort with difference that often affects the search process for women and minority candidates. Begin with open dialogue so that all members will scrutinize their own biases/prejudices/lack of knowledge/lack of understanding/inexperience with addressing these challenges.
4. Go beyond sending the ad to HBCUs and other institutions serving underrepresented groups.  Myra Gordon suggests that search committees "really search."  The search committee "must (1) review the Chronicle of Higher Education and relevant Websites to find scholars with prestigious fellowships; (2) see who is presenting at conferences and approach them; (3) identify the top degree producers for minorities in their particular discipline and then go directly after their graduates; (4) attend the regional conferences for the Compact for Faculty Diversity; and (5) contact special professional caucuses or interest groups for referrals" (p. 191).
5. One of the best proactive strategies involves going to national conferences with the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. 
6. Offer suggestions for special ads to the Office of Academic Affairs, which has data in reference to which sites applicants visited to view the position announcements. 
7. Where necessary, reach out to other departments and divisions, and even alumni or faculty at other institutions.

Compliance with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act

1. Prospective candidates be given as complete an understanding as possible concerning the kind of college Berea is. Thus, all candidates invited to campus receive the position announcement, a copy of the Great Commitments, and selected brochures in their welcome packet.
2. We make clear in all public announcements that Berea recognizes a special responsibility to seek and give full consideration to candidates who are women or members of ethnic and racial minority groups. The statement most commonly used to make this point is “Berea College, in light of its mission in the tradition of impartial love and social equality, welcomes all people of the earth to learn and work here."     
3. All individuals who express an interest in a vacancy should be given equal consideration. Thus, the same information (e.g., curriculum vitae, application letter, names of references) should be requested from all interested individuals.
4. All files of individuals who express an interest in a vacancy need to be maintained for five years. Such files will be maintained in the NEOED system for the retention period.

Communications with Candidates

All candidates should receive a prompt acknowledgement of their application.  This acknowledgement is designed in the NEOED system and sent to them upon submission of their application.

Evaluation of Candidates

1. According to the timetable established by the chair of the search committee and the Dean of Faculty, the search committee should select the most favored candidates. Typically, a short list of applicants is selected by the committee for brief phone or videoconference interviews to reduce the list to two applicants to invite to campus. Applicants should be asked a consistent set of questions in order to maximize impartiality. Be sure to abide by the Guidelines for Interviewers at the end of this document.
2. Consider constructing a rubric to be used in screening applicants. The Office of Academic Affairs has examples. 
3. Be alert to biases that affect evaluation of minority and women candidates. Myra Gordon indicated that such "biases include inflexible preferences for certain schools over others with the accompanying assumption that no excellence can exist outside of them; distinct preferences for the linear career path when we know that many women and minorities have more circuitous paths; distinct preferences for some types of research while devaluating others." She goes on to say that "we must confront head-on the narrow notions of who is the 'best qualified'..." (p.192).
4. Construct a list of questions that will be asked of all applicants.
5. Prior to gaining approval from the Dean of Faculty to extend invitations to come to campus, a narrative should be submitted to the Dean of Faculty and the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion that outlines the ways that members of the search committee have worked to ensure a diverse pool of applicants.  The goal is that such work will result in a candidate from an underrepresented group being among those recommended for a campus visit.
6. The Dean of Faculty will carefully examine transcripts and other credentials. The dossiers for each of those selected will be accessible in NEOED for examination by the Dean of Faculty and the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The Dean of Faculty and the chair of the search committee will then discuss the candidates before anyone is invited for a campus interview. A complete dossier normally consists of curriculum vitae, transcripts, letters of recommendation, and all correspondence with the candidate.

On-Campus Interviews

The invitation to visit the campus will generally be issued by the Office of Academic Affairs after consultation with the chair of the search committee. Candidates will generally be asked to spend one and one-half days on the campus.

1. (Search Chair Step): The search committee chair contacts the Office of Academic Affairs staff support for faculty recruiting to hold potential dates for campus visits on administrators’ calendars while the Dean of Faculty is reviewing the files and deciding on which candidates to bring to campus for interviews. Timing is critical in scheduling the campus visit as administrators’ calendars fill quickly, and finding dates when they are available for interviews is the first step to setting the date for the candidate visit.

2. (Office of Academic Affairs and Search Chair Step): When the search committee chair has forwarded the top candidate names to the Dean of Faculty and the Dean has approved campus visits for these candidates, the search chair should work with the faculty recruiting staff person in the Office of Academic Affairs to begin the process of inviting candidates to campus. An invitation to campus is generally initiated by the search committee chair or the Office of Academic Affairs (depending on the preference of the search committee chair). Transportation to and from the airport is the responsibility of the search committee chair. If no search committee members are available to meet the flights, the candidate will be asked to procure a rental car, and the fees for the rental will be reimbursed after the visit. (Note: Only under extreme circumstances does the Office of Academic Affairs purchase airline tickets for a candidate.)

3. (Office of Academic Affairs Step): After the candidate interview dates are confirmed, the Office of Academic Affairs staff person starts the itinerary skeleton for each candidate’s visit. The itinerary skeleton will include:

• Reservations for accommodations at Boone Tavern;

• Interviews with the Dean of Faculty; the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; and the Associate Provost. 

• A dinner meeting with the search committee (customary practice is to have the meeting with the search chair or this dinner be the first meeting on the itinerary);

• Meetings with departmental faculty, search committee members, and the Division Chair;

• A teaching presentation for faculty and students, the topic of which should be determined by the search chair, and communicated to each candidate by the search chair;

• A lunch meeting with students (typically at PapaLenos. This is paid for by the Office of Academic Affairs, and the chair can work out the details with the faculty recruiting staff person). To prepare for this lunch, the search committee chair compiles a list of students to meet with all candidates and communicates the details of the meeting with the students; and

• An historic tour of campus, scheduled by calling the Visitors Center and College Shoppe at extension 3145. Note that campus tours are scheduled at set times depending on student guide availability, so please work with the Visitors Center to find out times that tours are available.

6. Other Protocols

• In preparing the itinerary, please keep in mind that campus visits can be tiring. Try to provide candidates with one or two breaks during the day; time to gather one’s thoughts may be especially important before making a presentation.

• Candidates invited to the campus should be informed that we would be pleased to have their spouses/partners accompany them to Berea. The College will provide lodging and meals for the spouse/partner, but it cannot pay for the spouse’s/partner’s transportation. Spouses/partners who do accompany the candidates generally appreciate being informed of the campus tours and special events of interest. If there is any possibility that they may be interested in College housing, advance arrangements should be made for them to meet with the administrator in charge of rental property.

• Meal reservations at Boone Tavern are made by the Office of Academic Affairs staff;

• Meals at Boone Tavern can be charged to the candidate’s room bill (that is tied to an Office of Academic Affairs p-card), but always remember to inform the server that the meal is for Berea College and is tax exempt. Meals can also be charged to the Provost Account.

• Please heed the regulations about paying for alcohol, which state (See: https://www.berea.edu/vpf/policies-and-procedures/):

Entertainment/Hosting Expenses

The College recognizes entertainment/hosting as an appropriate expenditure if the activities contribute to or result from a College-related business activity.

The College will cover the costs for alcohol served at Boone Tavern for business related meals/meetings if the meals/meetings include at least one individual who is not a Berea College employee. Normally, if alcohol is ordered with a meal/meeting, those charges should not amount to more than 30 percent of the total charge.

Additionally, use of College funds for the purchase of alcoholic beverages or reimbursement for such purchases also includes business meals/meetings with a donor(s).

The purchase of alcoholic beverages for any other event is not permitted. Any exceptions must have prior approval from the appropriate Administrative Committee Members or Associate Vice President.

Any additional meals and airport travel can be reimbursed to the faculty who incurred the charges by submitting a travel expense report via Chrome River.

The search administrative assistant will maintain the itinerary in the Berea Box folder for the search so that the Office of Academic Affairs staff person has access to the completed version. When an itinerary is completed, the search committee chair or administrative assistant shares it, along with the Guidelines for Interviewers (see below), with each person who will meet with the candidate. The search chair will work with the Office of Academic Affairs support person for faculty recruitment to decide who communicates with the candidate to share the final version of the itinerary.

________________________________________________________________

Guidelines for Interviewers

The issues of equal opportunity and discrimination in the hiring process have led to heightened awareness of the possibility of discriminatory intent in questions that are asked of candidates for employment. Questions that were once innocent and commonplace may be inappropriate or illegal. This information may help faculty interviewers negotiate these unfamiliar waters. The list below identifies areas of inquiry that are common in employment interviews. All inquiries related to these questions are potentially troublesome in legal terms. Inquiries into these areas are safe only if they relate to bona fide occupational qualifications.

The issues involved here are not only legal ones. Candidates for faculty positions, and especially women and members of minority groups, are increasingly and correctly sensitive to subtle and unconscious discrimination. Our hiring process will be far more effective if our candidates are comfortable with their reception on campus and have no reason to wonder about our intentions.

Do NOT ask questions about: 

• Age

• Religion

• Children

• Child Care

• Marital Status

• Spouse’s Job Plans

• Previous Work Under Another Name

• Spouse’s Maiden Name

• Mother’s Maiden Name

• Names of Relatives

• Foreign Languages Spoken Fluently

• How Language Fluency Was Acquired

• Race, Color, National Origin, Gender

• Sexual Orientation

• Type of Discharge from Military Service

• Ownership of a Car

• Residence in a House or Apartment

• Disabilities or Health Status

• Birthplace

If you have questions, please contact the Office of Academic Affairs (extension 3487).

1.  Search committee chairs should also:

• Oversee the development of a list of questions that will be asked of all candidates. 
• Ensure that all search committee members are knowledgeable and comfortable talking about diversity.
• Ask the candidates whom they might like to meet with during the visit.

2. 10 Best Practices When Conducting an Interview

    Natasha Baker suggests the following items to keep in mind:

1. “Follow a standardized interview process;
2. Provide training for the individuals…who conduct interviews;
3. Avoid asking any director or indirect questions about an applicant’s protected characteristics even if the applicant raises the subject;
4. Prepare…interview questions in advance and be consistent throughout all…interviews;
5. Recognize that you will never see better from this individual than you do at the interview;
6. Do more listening than talking;
7. Take care to ensure that any notes you write in the interview will not be misinterpreted later;
8. Clearly discuss…tenure policies;
9. Do not imply a[n] extra-contractual right to employment;
10. Accommodate applicants with disabilities and applicants requiring religious accommodations.”

   Natasha J. Baker, “Managing the Hiring Process.”

Post-Interview Actions

1. Travel Reimbursements

(Office of Academic Affairs Staff): After the candidate’s campus visit concludes and they have turned in all receipts and their W-9 to the Office of Academic Affairs staff person, a travel expense report is completed and sent to Accounts Payable as reimbursement for their travel expenses.

2. Recommendations for Evaluating/Rating Candidates

• Review and assess the needs of the position, as well as the diversity of the department, both now and five to ten years from now.
• Select the best candidate for the position: quality and diversity are very important criteria. 
• Ratings are more helpful than rankings. Instead of rankings, please convey "profiles of excellence based on the unique configurations of talent exhibited" by each candidate to the Dean of Faculty (Gordon, p.195).
• After all candidates to be interviewed have visited the campus, the chair of the search committee will solicit the views of the search committee. The chair of the search committee, the Dean of Faculty: the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; and the Associate Provost will then confer and agree on a candidate.

3. Reference Checks

Once the candidate is approved by the Dean of Faculty, the chair of the search committee or the division chair should call reference checks before the Dean of Faculty makes an offer.  It’s also a good idea to tell the applicant that “the next step in the process is to speak with the references, whose names you have provided.” The person doing the reference checks should communicate all findings with the Dean of Faculty.  Specifics:

• Contact all references provided. 
• Be wary if a reference does not reply, refuses to talk, or provides only a stock reply, such as “Yes, this person worked at our institution between August 2015 and May 2016. That is all I can tell you.” Do not call anyone not on the candidate’s references list without permission from the Dean of Faculty.
• Good reference-check questions include:  Tell me about this person. What is it like to work with ___________? What is the most significant strength of this person? Can you suggest an area of improvement that you might have observed?
• Always ask due this diligence question: “Is there anything else I need to know about this applicant?”

If the search committee elects to do Internet searches for information not provided by the candidate, they should do so with discretion and consistency.

4. Appointment Offer and Background Check

As part of the appointment process, after obtaining permission from the candidate, a background check will be conducted through the College's Office of Human Resources at the request of the Dean of Faculty. Hiring any employee, particularly a member of the faculty, is one of the most important decisions an institution of higher education can make. A background check is a search for "public" records--including relevant civil judgments and arrest and conviction records at the local, state, and federal levels. Hence, it is not intrusive in the sense of seeking private information about a candidate. In accordance with federal and state laws, adverse information about an applicant will not automatically disqualify the individual from consideration from employment with the College. In such instances, the applicant will be given an opportunity to review the background check results, correct the record, if applicable, and submit an explanation. A determination of whether information obtained from a background check should disqualify a candidate from further consideration would be the responsibility of the Dean of Faculty, in consultation with the Division Council.  Once the Dean of Faculty has initiated a background check, the Dean of Faculty will draft and send an appointment letter to the candidate once a verbal commitment to accept the offer is received (generally, 48-72 hours is given for contemplation by the candidate). An appointment is official ONLY after 1) a satisfactory background check is received, and 2) a signed appointment letter is received. Once this is done, the Dean of Faculty will notify the Office of Academic Affairs staff that a search has concluded.

5. Acceptance of the Offer

After the candidate accepts the offer, the Dean of Faculty acknowledges acceptance.

6. When a search is complete

Once a search is complete and the Dean of Faculty has made the appointment and informed the chair that process is complete, the chair of the search committee should communicate personally with the candidates who were brought to campus, with the text below. When that is done, the search chair can ask the Office of Academic Affairs support staff or administrative assistant to send the remaining candidates an email from the NEOED system notifying them that the search is closed. This step removes the posting from the Human Resources webpage. 

The following text will be sent to remaining candidates via the NEOED system:

As Chair of the Search Committee, I wish to inform you that an appointment has been made for [name of position]. Your application is no longer under consideration. I thank you for your interest in Berea College.

There is a great temptation in writing such letters to include words and phrases like “I regret to inform you…” or “It was a very difficult decision…” or “You are a very qualified candidate, but…” These gestures are well-intended but can be (and have been in some cases) distorted by unsuccessful candidates. Such statements should always be avoided.

7. If a search is cancelled

If the search is cancelled by the Dean of Faculty, the chair of the search committee should work with the Office of Academic Affairs staff support to notify formerly active candidates via the NEOED system that the search has been cancelled. The following text is recommended for these letters:

As Chair of the Search Committee I wish to inform you that the search for [name the position] has been cancelled. The position is not being filled at this time. Your application is no longer under consideration. I thank you for your interest in Berea College.

8. Final Step

At the end of the search (successful or failed), the chair of the search committee should submit an updated narrative, including information about the on-campus visit, to the Dean of Faculty that discusses the Committee’s efforts to ensure diversity throughout the search process.

Graduate Schools Ranking High in the Number of Minority Doctorate Research/Scholar Degrees Awarded for All Disciplines Combined

Source:  Diverse:  Issues in Higher Education – analysis of U.S. Department of Education data for 2021-2022 as reported at https://top100.diverseeducation.com