Resources for faculty search committees

This page provides links to various resources for conducting a faculty search, with emphasis on best practices for recruiting diverse candidates. For a more complete description of these resources, see Resources for Search Committees. A concise list of search manuals and places to advertise positions is found in Search Resources

Search instructions available from ISU Human Resource Services:
Faculty recruitment and hiring procedures
Faculty recruitment and employment

Resource guide for recruiting excellent and diverse faculty from ISU Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost

Search manuals from other universities that include helpful tips:

Case Western Reserve
Cornell University
Penn State University
University of Arizona
Univ. Calif. Riverside
Univ. Illinois at Chicago
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota
University of Rhode Island
University of Wisconsin
Virginia Commonwealth

Annual summaries of numbers of potential candidates in specific fields:
National Science Foundation
NSF Science and Engineering Indicators
Survey of Earned Doctorates (NORC, University of Chicago)

For places to post job openings, see Advertising Sources for Recruiting Diverse Faculty.

Information on unconscious bias and gender and racial schemas:

• Tutorials for Change (Hunter College) presents four tutorials on gender schemas and science careers. They can be taken online or downloaded for later use.
• The Implicit Association Test (Havard University) measures the strength of association between concepts, and is based on the premise that associated concepts will be easier to categorize together than unassociated ones. Brief tests on a variety of subjects, including gender bias, can be taken.
• "Bias Literacy: A review of concepts in research on discrimination" by Ruta Sevo and Daryl Chubin is a 25-page digest of the evidence for discrimination, especially with reference to women in science and engineering. It can be downloaded as a PDF and freely distributed with proper attribution.
• Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering (National Academies Press) is a recent national report that can be purchased as a hardback book or as a downloadable PDF.

Brief (1- to 2-page) guidelines for specific aspects of the search process:

• Administrators' Checklist of Best Practices for a Diverse Search (overall guidelines)
• Strategies for Recruiting Women Faculty (overall guidelines)
• Best Practices Checklist for Running a Faculty Search (focus on early steps of process)
• Tips and Suggestions for Broadening the Candidate Pool (brief tips)
• Tips for Creating an Inclusive Position Description (wording and content)
• Tips for the Interview Process (focus on on-campus interviews)
• Guidelines for Effective Interviews (tips for before, during, after interviews)
• Evaluating Letters of Recommendation (how to evaluate [and write] letters)

Questions to ask (or not ask) candidates and their references:

• What to Ask?  What Not to Ask? (allowable and not allowed questions)
• Human Resources Interview Questions (questions for various types of jobs)
• Sample Interview Questions (questions for candidates)
• Sample Questions for Phone References

Sample evaluation forms available in PDF or Word Document format:

• Sample Form for Initial Screening of Applicants (for search committee screening step) - PDF or Word document
• Teaching Seminar Plan (to send to candidates to prepare teaching seminar) - PDF or Word document
• Teaching Seminar Evaluation Form (matches seminar plan) - PDF or Word document
• Sample Form for Obtaining Feedback on Finalists (for feedback from various audiences) - PDF or Word document
• Candidate Evaluation Tool (University of Michigan) - PDF or Word document
• Candidate Evaluation Rubric Form (with rubrics to describe characteristics) - PDF or Word document

Short documents to facilitate discussion of unconscious bias:

• Top Ten Rationalizations (excuses not to hire women/minorities)
• Reducing Stereotypic Biases in Hiring (Cornell University)

Forms to evaluate the search process available in PDF or Word Document format:

• Evaluation of the Search Process (search committee's comments) - PDF or Word document
• Evaluating a Search (department chair's report on why candidates did/did not accept offer) - PDF or Word document