Hiring Faculty

Introduction

The opportunity to hire new faculty can occur for several reasons.  For tenure-track positions, the most common is through retirements, although open positions also occur when new positions are added to departments that are growing or are developing new programs.  New fixed-term instructor or adjunct positions can also be necessary when faculty retire or leave the University, but are usually created to staff class sections or to fill other needs.  It should also be noted that not all retirements are replaced within the department or unit in which the retirement take place, since the administration made chose to move the open position to another department or unit with greater need or, in times of budget reductions, to eliminate the position to save money.  There must be funds available in the departmental budget before any new hire can be made.  All tenure-track hiring must be approved by the Dean's Office before applications to hire are made.

Tenure-Track Positions

The hiring process for tenure-track positions is long and complicated, and requires the approval of the Dean's office, the Provost's Office, the Budget Office, and the Affirmative Action Office at several stages.  Departments are also expected to have their own written and approved hiring procedures that conform to the Faculty Governance Guide.

The Department Responsibilities

The primary responsibility for hiring rests with the department.  While the administration must approve budgets, beginning salaries, and expenses for recruitment, the academic departments ultimately know their field of study and are in the best position to make the hiring decision.  The formal process by which the department proceeds with the search should be in the departments by-laws. In some departments hiring is performed by a standing committee, in others by an ad hoc committee.

Departments are advised to start the hiring process as soon as possible, ideally a year in advance.

Getting Started:  Things to think about.

• Subject area or focus:  Departments tend to think that they must replace kind with kind, but a retirement or new line can be seen as an opportunity to explore new areas or to move the department in a new direction.  Remember that a job announcement that advertises for a very specific set of skills or expertise will limit the range and number of applications you receive.  This may be desirable, but you may also be missing some good candidates by taking this approach.
• Departmental plan:  As the item above suggests, new hires should be in areas that are consistent with the department's developmental plan.  That is, departments should know where they are going and the new hires should be in areas that support that plan.  
• Rank:   Most new hires are at the beginning level, that is, an assistant professor who has just finished, or is finishing, her Ph.D.  This may be desirable, since newly minted Ph.D.s bring much needed energy and new ideas to the department.  However, there are situations in which faculty with more developed skills or experience may needed, either at the associate or professor level.  It may even be desirable to bring in a senior faculty member to become chair of the department.  In all cases, particularly when seeking to hire an external chair, there must be discussion with and ultimately approval from the Dean's Office, since these decisions have budget implications.
• Salary:    It is common practice not to include a specific salary in position advertisements, but to describe a salary range.  A specific salary will eventually be agree upon in negotiation with the candidate.  In considering what salary range to list, the department needs to consider both internal and external factors.  The internal factors include the current salary distribution of the department and, of course, what the Dean will allow (generally, the Dean's Office and OAA assume that retirements will be replaced with new assistant professors producing salary savings for both offices).  In deciding salary levels, most departments attempt to hire new assistant professors at a salary at or below the lowest paid faculty in the department.  Doing so keeps current faculty from being upset and reduces salary compression.  However, while this is the easiest solution, it is not always the best.  PSU salaries are unusually low by any standards, and using our salary structure to determine beginning salaries may restrict the applicant pool. In addition, by continuing to hire at the lowest salary level, departments are perpetuating the low salary structure.  External issues include market considerations.  What will you have to pay to get a top scholar to come to Portland State University?  

Hiring Steps:

Permission to Recruit:  Once the department has the OK from the Dean to proceed with a hiring, the department applies for permission to recruit.  The Permission to Recruit form is available on the Human Resources website.  To complete this form departments must know the rank, salary range, starting date, FTE, title, position number, and where the salary for the new hire will come from.  In addition, the form asks for a position description and a draft of the position announcement that will be used to advertise for the job.  A list of what needs to be included in the position description and the position announcement can be found on the Human Services Website at Position Description. The form also asks for the names of the members of the hiring committee, the search chair, and the search coordinator.  Also, the form asks the department to specifically identify an affirmative action outreach strategy to ensure that the search produces a diverse pool of candidates. 

In addition to this information, OAA asks the department to answer a series of Preapproval Questions.  These questions should accompany the permission to recruit form.  The questions ask for a current departmental profile and about the role of this new position in the department's future.

The Permission to Recruit then needs the signatures of the Dean, the Budget Office, Affirmative Action, the Provost, and Human Resources.

Affirmative Action:  Human Resources will contact the department once the Permission to Recruit form has been approved to review the affirmative action process.   At this stage the department may begin recruiting for the position. However, before any candidates apply, the Affirmative Action office will contact the department to arrange a meeting to review the affirmative action procedures.  These procedures are listed on the Affirmative Action Search Process Check List and on the Affirmative Action Search Process Description.  

There are three basic goals in the affirmative action process: promoting an affirmative search that reaches minority candidates, ensuring a diverse candidate pool, and making sure that the final selection process is done so as not to disadvantage minority candidates.  These steps will be explained by the Affirmative Action officer that meets with the search committee, but, in brief, the Affirmative Action Office monitors the search process by collecting data cards (known as the blue cards) from each candidate. 

Portland State University Affirmative Action Employment Data Card (Blue Cards)
These cards are used to collect data regarding the ethnic and gender composition of the candidate pool. The data is then aggregated in the Search and Screen Report.

The search committee secretary obtains blank blue cards from the Affirmative Action Office and sends one to each applicant. Prior to mailing the card, the search committee secretary must complete Section I at the top of the card. Submission of the card is voluntary on the part of the applicant. Because of the confidential nature of the information submitted on the blue card, such as race, gender and disability status, the cards come from the applicant directly to the Affirmative Action Office by return mail and remain in the search files held in the Affirmative Action Office.

Affirmative Action Search and Screen Report
The Search and Screen Report is available from the Human Resources Office Website.

After reviewing applications, the Search Committee must complete the Affirmative Action Search and Screen Report before inviting candidates for the interview. This report summarizes outreach efforts to minorities and women and provides information about the ethnic and gender composition of the candidate pool. With this information the Committee Chair and the Affirmative Action Director can assess whether the applicant pool is reasonably representative of available ethnic minorities and women. The committee may reopen recruitment if a satisfactory pool was not achieved.

To complete the Search and Screen Report, the search committee chair or search committee secretary completes Part A of the report and attaches an alphabetized list of all applicants for the position, indicating with a check mark which applicants met the minimum qualifications, and noting which applicants the Committee wants to interview. The Chair signs the report and submits it with attachments to the Affirmative Action Office. Affirmative Action staff will use information provided on the Employment Data Cards to complete Part B (the data section) of the Search and Screen Report. Once the data section is completed, the Affirmative Action Director will review the report.

If there are no women or people of color in the group of candidates to be interviewed, the Affirmative Action Office may request that the search committee reconsider other dossiers in the pool and select additional candidates to interview, unless it is clear that there are no qualified candidates available who are women or people of color.

When the Director signs the Search and Screen Report, the committee may proceed with interviewing candidates. EXCEPTION: If the position is tenure-related in an area reporting to the Provost, the Dean must first meet with the Provost to discuss final candidates before inviting them to interviews.

Affirmative Action Hiring

The Affirmative Action Hiring Report is available from the Human Resources Office Website (click on the "Forms" link).

Upon selecting a final candidate, the committee or department completes the Affirmative Action Hiring Report. The Affirmative Action Hiring Report requires that the committee examine and report the selection decision and its choice of the final candidates in detail. It identifies who was interviewed, who was chosen to fill the position and describes the final selection criteria. The report also includes the ethnic and gender status of all interviewed candidates.

The Hiring Report is submitted directly to Affirmative Action after it is signed by the committee chair, and must be approved before any negotiations take place with the chosen candidate.

After the Hiring Report is approved, the search committee submits the Proposal for Appointment. The Proposal for Appointment names the Candidate selected and provides information for Budget and Academic Affairs.

Letters of Offer:

After a final candidate has been selected, the department may need to negotiate the salary and other starting conditions of the position.  These conditions might include salary, teaching load, a start up package, space, TAs, expectations for promotion and tenure, prior service, labs, etc.  The negotiator is generally the department chair, but in some cases others, for instance the hiring committee chair, may take on this task.  Also, it may be necessary, especially if additional expenses are being negotiated, to seek the approval of the Dean's Office.  After the agreement has been reached, two letters of offer are sent to the candidate.  The first letter is the standard "boiler plate" letter that outlines the basic facts of the hire (see Letter of Offer.)  Departments should always use this letter form, putting the specific information in the sections set off with brackets.

The more specific information is to be spelled out in the "second letter."  This letter is usually considerably longer than the first letter and is intended to specify in as much detail as possible the specifics of the hire, including both what the new hire will get, i.e., office, start up package, teaching load, lab space, etc., and what the department expects from the new hire, i.e. publications, grants submissions, etc.  This letter should specify what the candidate must do to receive tenure, and, if they are beginning as a new assistant professor, what the department expects of them by the third year review.  All second letters must include a section that sets specific expectations for external funding applications, including the amount, and, in some cases, expectations that the new hire receive external funding before tenure will be granted. 

The second letter should also make explicit other expectations of the job, including teaching, advising, committee work, and the like.

The second letter may also include prior service.  Faculty who have taught at other institutions of higher learning may request that they receive credit for some or all of those years.  Prior service may be granted, but it should be done carefully. No more than three years of prior service should be granted.  All sides should remember that prior service counts towards tenure.  Therefore, a new faculty who is given three years of prior service will come up for tenure after three years at Portland State University. 

Both letters must be approved by the Dean's Office before they are sent to the candidate.