Inclusive Faculty Searches: Best Practices |
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“Yale’s education and research missions are propelled forward by a faculty that stands at the forefront of scholarship, research, practice, mentoring, and teaching. An excellent faculty in all of these dimensions is a diverse faculty, and that diversity must reach across the whole of Yale — to every school and to every department” – Peter Salovey, President |
Principles |
Diversity is inherent to excellence. Excellence thrives in an inclusive environment where colleagues of varied backgrounds collaborate to create new knowledge to understand and change the world. An open faculty position is an opportunity. New colleagues bring innovations, new areas of expertise, and new discoveries. New colleagues from underrepresented backgrounds add to this rejuvenation through new intellectual directions and critical perspectives. The outcome of a search creates the future of the department or school. |
Initiating a search |
Defining the fieldIn your search posting, is your definition of the field open and inclusive? Are you casting a wide net? Are you explicitly seeking new areas of knowledge? Are you open to emerging fields, or approaches to a discipline, that are not necessarily “proven” yet? Do you intentionally invite expertise from fields in which underrepresented scholars specialize Does the wording in your advertisement create a sense of welcome on this dimension? Strategies for inclusive success: scan the field to see where the emerging and cutting-edge scholarship is coming from. Identify those areas as examples of areas of interest. Challenging tactics: defining the field narrowly (you will have a smaller applicant pool); constructing the scope of the search to replicate the expertise of a departing colleague (focus on the future, not the past). Developing the search posting One way to demonstrate that you are serious about wanting candidates whose research, teaching, or service will contribute to the culture of diversity and inclusion in the department or school, is to say this in the posting. Underrepresented applicants and champions of inclusion may be more likely to apply where search ads indicate a collegial and inclusive climate in the school, department, and section.
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The search process |
The search committee
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Evaluating applications |
Initial review of applicationsDevelop a plan for the initial review of all applications. Examples of successful and inclusive practices include:
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Inclusive practices: measuring excellence |
How do you measure excellence?What you consider excellent, and how you measure it, should be discussed early in the committee’s meetings. Are the measures of excellence different in various disciplines within the search’s broader field? It helps to have agreement on elements of excellence, especially when differing evaluations emerge, of candidates and of various sub-fields. Some appropriate and inappropriate measures of excellence Strong indicators of excellence
Not measures of excellence
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Bias: implicit and explicit |
Implicit biasThe study of implicit bias focuses on the cognitive basis of bias. Educate yourself on implicit bias. An enormous body of literature exists. Where to start? Former Yale colleague Mahzarin Banaji, et al., Blind Spot: Hidden Biases of Good People (Delacorte Press, 2013) and Banaji’s Implicit Associate Test: implicit.harvard.edu Examples of implicit and explicit biases in faculty searchesBias against studying inequity and racism Underrepresented candidates are sometimes seen as not excellent when they study race, class, gender, and inequity. See, for example, how grant funding practices have decentralized of the study of inequity: “Black Scientists Face a Big Disadvantage in Winning NIH Grants, Study Finds” Productivity biases
Biases in letters of recommendation
Citations: 10.1038/ngeo2819, https://doi.apa.org/doi/10.1037/a0016539 Bias toward assimilation
Biased standards Higher standards High potential vs. not ready To whom do you give credit for potential, and who do you say is not ready? Majoritized men tend to be given credit for potential while women and BIPOC are judged on past accomplishments Horns vs. halos Horns: one weakness is generalized into an overall negative rating Biases candidates may have about Yale
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Selecting candidates |
Selecting the long listThe long list typically includes 8 - 10 candidates. All committee members should read the full file of anyone who might be placed on the long list. Approval of the long-listed nominees may be required by the Dean’s or Provost’s Office. How will you review the long-listed candidates? Will you hold short audio/visual (Zoom, Skype, etc.) interviews with each? Will you meet them at a professional association meeting? Selecting the short listThe short list must include at least three candidates, and ideally at least four. All short-listed candidates should receive full interviews on campus (unless precluded by pandemic protocols). The demographics of your short list predicts the outcome of your search, per this article in the Harvard Business Review. |
Interviewing candidates |
The interviewTreat candidates with professionalism: you’re recruiting them Treat them like future colleagues who will be stars in the field: if you’re interviewing them, you’ve already decided they’re among the best Demonstrate your intentions by saying that you care about diversity, equity, and inclusion; ask for examples of what they’ve done to enhance this Common interview behaviors that hurt recruitment: Asking inappropriate or potentially discriminatory questions Interrupting the candidate or your colleagues Putting the candidate on trial with hostile questions Making inappropriate comments, including race- and gender-focused asides Over-using sports metaphors Lack of decorum by interviewers: avoid your cell phone, avoid insider conversations with colleagues that render the candidate invisible Questions not to ask during an interview Discrimination in hiring is illegal on the bases of these categories, so don’t ask about them:
Candidates know this, so will be offended if asked Students who participate in interviews usually don’t know this: tell them
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Resources |
Peer Guides to Best Practices in Faculty RecruitmentBrown University Faculty Hiring Guide https://diap.brown.edu/tools/faculty-hiring-guide Cornell University Best Practices in Faculty Recruitment https://facultydevelopment.cornell.edu/best-practices-in-faculty-recruitment/ Harvard University Best Practices for Search Committees https://faculty.harvard.edu/recruitment-best-practices Princeton University Best Practices Guide for Faculty Search Officers and Search Committees https://dof.princeton.edu/Faculty-Search-Process Stanford University Building for Excellence: Inclusive Practices for Faculty Recruitment and Searches https://facultydevelopment.stanford.edu/recruitment/recruitment-overview
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