Search Procedures for New Tenured &Tenure Track Faculty in the College

Washington and Lee University

It is the search committee’s responsibility to be familiar with relevant legal obligations and policies. A helpful overview is available online: http://counsel.wlu.edu/tutorial/


(1) A full justification must be provided to the Dean before any position can be filled in the College. The justification must include the full department’s feedback, as well as any departmental review materials that bear on the characterization of the position, including any decision to emphasize particular subspecialties within the field.

(2) A search committee is formed in consultation with the department head and the Dean, ideally including no fewer than 3 tenured faculty members in the department in which the appointment is to be made. The Dean reserves the right to add a representative to any search committee from outside of the hiring department. Senior level searches or those in which we seek to fill an endowed professorship require a Provost’s representative on the search committee. The Provost or Dean may set other requirements for senior level searches.

(3) A draft position advertisement is written which includes
(i) title and rank of the position opening,
(ii) job description (including any areas of particular interest that relate to cross-campus programs),
(iii) application deadline and
(iv) application instructions.

The search may not commence until the constitution of the search committee, identification of its chair, and the draft job description have all been approved by the Dean. The job description must also be approved by the Director of Personnel Services. The search committee chair should notify the Dean at this stage of any plans to interview a short list of candidates at an appropriate professional meeting during the hiring season.

(4) A nation-wide applicant pool is generated through advertising in the appropriate professional journals and magazines (or their online counterparts). The search committee chair should inform the Dean of planned venues for ad placement.

For ads placed in the Chronicle or other major publications (including regional newspapers) it is currently our practice to use the Graystone Advertising website (giving them the text of the ad and the names of the periodicals to run the ads, including the Chronicle of Higher Education). They send a quote, await our approval, and then place the ad for us. Find them at http://www.graystoneadv.com/campus/
In addition to advertising, personal letters to key leaders in the relevant fields and directors of graduate programs may be solicited by members of the department or the Dean. Care is also taken to attract applications from members of underrepresented groups. Potential strategies for reaching a diverse audience should be reviewed with the Dean.

(5) After the application deadline has passed the search committee narrows the pool of applicants to the six to twelve leading candidates. The search committee should report to the Dean at this stage
(i) the total number of applications received in response to the job posting,
(ii) strategies employed to enhance the diversity of the applicant pool for this search,
(iii) the criteria used to identify top candidates including efforts made to determine whether candidates may be members of underrepresented groups AND whether candidates may be able to contribute to particular cross-campus programs or initiatives (e.g. joint hires with the Williams School or Law School, interdisciplinary programs or other key initiatives) at W&L,
(iv) the number who will be phone-interviewed or interviewed at a relevant professional meeting,
(v) and provide the Dean with a photocopy or printout of all ads placed in print or online.

Final selection of the short list is subject to the dean’s approval. Preliminary phone or meeting interviews (which are common but not mandatory) are usually conducted not later than the end of the calendar year. Interviews at professional meetings may not be conducted in the faculty member’s hotel room.

(6) The search committee then narrows the list of top candidates to three to four, consults with the entire department about those recommendations, and informs the Dean about those candidates they wish to bring to campus for full interviews, and about the potential for these candidates to contribute to the University’s diversity initiatives or cross-campus programs or initiatives. Once the Dean has agreed to the list of those who will receive on-campus interviews, candidates are invited to campus by the department head or search committee chair for two day interviews. Check the Dean’s schedule before scheduling candidates’ visits. Tenure track candidates need 45 minutes with the Dean.

(7) Travel arrangements may be made directly by the candidate, who can EITHER be reimbursed for the cost of airfare, OR call Martin Travel’s Lexington office, have the agent reserve the flight, and request direct billing of the airfare to the Dean of the College. A member of the department should reserve a room for the candidate on campus at the Morris House or Castle House, or at one of the local hotels. The Dean’s office will reimburse the department for all lodging expenses and meals associated with the candidate’s visit, up to a MAXIMUM of 6 diners per lunch, and 4 or 5 diners per dinner (including the candidate). Bring all receipts along with a completed reimbursement voucher to the Dean’s office for processing.

(8) On-campus interviews typically include
(i) teaching a class and/or presenting a professional paper (some departments combine these assignments by asking the candidates to teach a class on a topic of current relevance to their scholarship),
(ii) meeting with students, and
(iii) personal visits with all departmental faculty members, the Dean, and in some cases, the Provost (particularly for senior level searches).

Some departments routinely ask a local realtor to show the candidate the area during the visit. Some also gather information about the area from the Lexington Visitor’s Center, and provide it to the candidate at check-in (e.g. in a gift bag that includes a note of welcome from the department, a snack or two and some bottled water).

(9) The full department meets to rank those candidates interviewed on campus. The search committee chair or department head summarizes the department’s feedback, including any minority or dissenting views, and then presents its recommendations to the Dean.

(10) After reviewing the committee's recommendations and the finalists' files, the Dean makes a recommendation to the Provost regarding the hire. The Dean is responsible for making the offer to the candidate. NOTE that the Dean reserves the right to choose the candidate who will receive an offer to join the College faculty, and s/he also reserves the right to cancel the search if it is not proceeding according to his/her expectations or standards.

Record-keeping – Search records, including the candidates’ vitae, cover letters and letters of recommendation, must be retained for 3 years following the conclusion of the search process.

Correspondence – the department directly acknowledges receipt and completeness of applications materials, and notifies all candidates of their status at the close of the search. Candidates who interview on campus deserve a brief phone call to update them if they will not receive an offer. The Dean directly extends the offer and follows up with the candidate on matters related to the terms of their future employment at W&L.