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Phase 1 - Search Committee Formation
Search committee must include tenure track faculty members, elected chair & Employment Equity Facilitator (EEF). The committee chair and the EEF must be different. Probationary faculty members and FERP faculty may serve on search committees with the permission of the dean; department chairs may serve only if department policies allow them to (but best practice is to have the department chair serve as a separate level of review).
Best Practices for Committee Formation
Consider embedding your departmental needs and our campus value around DEI into the position's job description, including your listing of required and preferred skills, and making mention of existing cluster hire programs or any other DEI-related searches.
- Prior to search, it may be a good idea to evaluate departmental search policies and/or practices to assure equitable participation in the search process (e.g., some policies may limit search committee participation to senior faculty, thereby unintentionally decreasing impact of junior faculty voices, etc.). Changes can only be made to departmental policies at the beginning of the year, so looking into these early would be necessary.
- Pay attention to composition; this is one of the first steps to demonstrating and enacting a commitment to an equitable search (Pitts et al., 2020). Diverse committees also yield a more diverse pool of applicants (Kazmi, 2021).
- Consider adding members to your search committee from outside your department who have expertise in your area or perspectives/experience that may add to the search's success.
- Pay attention to where diversity exists within your ranks (e.g., more diversity with regard to race, gender, or areas of specialization focusing on DEI issues, may be present in probationary faculty ranks).
- Consider asking everyone on the committee to take Employee Equity Facilitator (EEF) training so that the committee's knowledge in this area is up to date.
- Additional DEI-related trainings for search committees are available; check with Academic Personnel, OUDI, and/or your college for options.
