REVISED HIRING POLICY
FOR TENURE TRACK FACULTY
Academic Senate Policy
#F02-158
(Formerly #F88-158)
3.0 HIRING POLICY FOR TENURE TRACK FACULTY.
At its meeting
of
3.1 HIRING COMMITTEES.
Hiring committees
shall be elected by secret ballot of probationary and tenured faculty in the
department from among the tenured faculty. At the discretion of the president
and upon request of the department, these hiring committees may also include
probationary faculty. Departments shall have hiring committees which consist
of at least three members. When there
are too few eligible faculty to serve on the hiring committee within the department,
the department shall elect members from among the qualified faculty in related
disciplines. The department chair may
serve on the hiring committee in addition to the elected members.
Only in the event the department chair does not sit on the Hiring Committee,
will she or he write a separate recommendation.
If the department, after consultation with the dean and Vice President
for Academic Affairs or designee, desires it may elect additional members
from the qualified faculty at large to enhance hiring of women, minority group
members, and disabled individuals.
When in the judgment
of the department faculty concerned it is desirable to combine hiring, retention,
tenure, and promotions functions in a single committee (HRTP) or to separate
committees, this may be done provided both the conditions of this policy and
of the University retention and tenure and promotions policies are met.
3.2 policy
for recruiting and hiring tenure-track faculty.
All tenure-track
positions are allocated by the Vice President for Academic Affairs. Recruitment
for any tenure-track position may begin only after the Vice President for
Academic Affairs has acted upon the dean's/director's recommendation and allocated
a position and after the Faculty Affairs and Affirmative Action Offices have
approved the announcement and recruiting plan for the position.
It is the responsibility
of departmental hiring committees, with appropriate consultation, to develop
the required and preferred qualifications, criteria for screening, and position
descriptions for each allocated tenure-track position. The criteria should
be clearly stated and related to the position; and the announcement written
so as to encourage applications from women, minority group members, and disabled
individuals. (Federal Executive Order 11246 as amended defines
minority group members as: Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Asian
Americans.)
The notice of
the tenure-track position vacancy must be disseminated nationally and regionally,
and posted in the department and other appropriate on-campus locations. To
meet Affirmative Action requirements, the department must actively seek to
recruit a representative number of women, minority group members, and disabled
individuals and be able to demonstrate that it has done so. The position must
be open for a minimum of 45 calendar days beginning with the date the advertisement
is first published or disseminated. Exemption from the 45-day requirement may be
granted only by the Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs.
All applicants,
whether on or off-campus, must be subjected to the same requirements and treated
equally in all phases of the screening process.
The department
shall maintain adequate recruitment records so that a rejected applicant,
upon request, may be given the reasons for non-selection. All applications
and supporting material must be kept in the department for at least two years
from the time of hire. These pre-employment files must be maintained separately
from the personnel files of employed faculty.
Failure to recruit
in accordance with University policy and procedures may cause the search to
be extended or the recommended appointment to be disapproved by the Vice President
for Academic Affairs or designee.
No offer of employment
is official and binding upon the University except for the written offer prepared
by the Faculty Affairs Office and signed by the appropriate school dean/director.
3.3 procedures
for recruiting and hiring tenure-track faculty.
Position Requests Departments will submit written requests for
new tenure-track position(s) to the Vice President for Academic Affairs via
the school dean/director. The dean/director may make a request for a tenure-track
position at any time. However, these requests will normally be made at the
beginning of the academic year and no later than the deadline established
annually by the Vice President for Academic Affairs for considering tenure
track position requests. The Vice President
for Academic Affairs will notify the school as soon as possible after this
deadline of his/her decision, to allow adequate time for a full and thorough
national search.
Prepare a Position Announcement and Recruitment Plan The position announcement shall be consistent
with the Vice President for Academic Affairs position allocation. The announcement should be sufficiently detailed
to provide applicants with essential information and departments with a document
from which to develop screening criteria.
The position vacancy announcement will include:
Position title
Position description
Required and
preferred qualifications
Salary range
Date position
is to be filled
Application deadline
Application procedure
(to whom to apply, documents required)
Information about
the department and University (optional)
Statement that
SFSU is an "Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer" on the
bottom margin.
Departments will
submit copies of position announcements and recruitment plans through the
dean/ director to the Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs and the Affirmative
Action Coordinator. Recruitment may
begin only after both offices have approved the announcement and recruitment
plans and notified the school and department.
Advertise Position Departments
and schools are responsible for recruitment.
Tenure-track position vacancies must be advertised nationally and regionally
in appropriate media for the discipline, and must be posted in relevant department
and school offices for a minimum of 45 calendar days prior to closing the
search. The recruitment effort should
include at a minimum: 1) a mailing to colleges and universities, and other
institutions or organizations appropriate to the discipline; 2) announcements
in newsletters or journals; and 3) a mailing to organizations and individuals
that can refer qualified women, minority group members, and disabled individuals.
Specialized mailing lists and/or media information may be obtained
from the Affirmative Action Office.
Acknowledge Applications Departments must send all applicants an acknowledgement
of their application which also requests additional information if needed,
and includes the Sex and Ethnic Identification and Referral Information Form
AAO-11/88 and a return envelope self-addressed to the Office of Planning and
Analytic Studies. The bottom portion
of this form must be forwarded to the Affirmative Action Office as the top
portions are sent to applicants.
Screen Applicants Applicants shall not be either excluded or included
solely because of their geographical proximity to
Departments shall
notify applicants of the status of their candidacy as the screening process
proceeds. Applicants who do not meet
the minimum qualifications or who are
otherwise rejected in the first screening should be notified in writing at
the conclusion of this screening. At
subsequent points in the search at which the department is no longer interested
in a candidate, the candidate shall be notified. After the pool of semi-finalists (group from
which finalists will be selected for interviewing) has been agreed upon, the
Department shall submit to the Affirmative Action Office a list of the semifinalists,
along with the selection criteria for the position. Any candidate whose candidacy remains viable
shall not be notified until a final offer has been made and accepted.
Check References Hiring committees are responsible for checking
references of top candidates prior
to on-campus interviews. Before obtaining
information from references or any other sources, the committee shall contact
the candidates and obtain their permission. Members of departmental hiring committees who
are contacting references are responsible for insuring that the questions
asked and information obtained: relate
to the position, are nondiscriminatory (e.g. comply with San Francisco State
University's Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity policy), and are summarized
in writing as part of the applicant's file.
Request Recruitment Funds The department shall request recruitment funds
from the school dean/director for travel expenses to bring candidates to the
campus.
Interview Finalists Only the top candidates for a tenure-track position
should be interviewed. Departments
shall consult with deans/directors regarding finalists to be interviewed prior
to interviews being conducted. The interview process shall be consistent for
all candidates.
Recommend Candidates When the department hiring committee and department
chair (when not a member of the committee) agree on the recommended candidate(s),
they shall forward their joint recommendation to the dean/director.
If the dean/director concurs with the recommendation, he/she shall
forward the recommended appointment(s) to the Associate Provost for Faculty
Affairs along with supporting documentation.
Supporting documents consist of the vita, the hiring committee report
including Recruitment Process Report Form #89-003, and Faculty Appointment
Transaction Form #110. Simultaneously,
the completed Recruitment Process Report Form #89-003 shall be submitted to
the Affirmative Action Office.
After the Vice
President for Academic Affairs or designee has reviewed and approved the recommended
appointment, an official and binding offer letter is prepared in the Faculty
Affairs Office for the dean's/director's signature. Any commitments made to prospective faculty
beyond the terms stated in this letter are not binding upon the University.
The policy and
procedures for requesting credit towards tenure at the time of hire are contained
in Section ___________ of this Manual.
3.4 procedures
in the event of disagreement over hiring recommendations
In the event
of disagreement within the hiring committee or between the hiring committee
and the department chair, the chair and the hiring committee shall meet to
attempt to resolve the disagreement prior to forwarding the departmental recommendation
to the dean/director. If the disagreement
cannot be resolved, separate recommendations shall be forwarded to the dean/director.
If the dean/director disagrees with the departmental recommendation,
he/she shall meet with the department hiring committee and chair to explain
the basis for his/her disagreement. If
differences in recommendation(s) cannot be settled at the school level, the
matter may be forwarded to the Vice President for Academic Affairs at the
request of the department or dean. In
the event the Vice President for Academic Affairs disagrees with the hiring
recommendation, he/she shall meet with the dean/director, the department chair,
and the hiring committee to explain the basis for the disagreement and attempt
resolution. In instances where agreement is not reached
among the Vice President for Academic Affairs, the dean/director, and the
department, the hiring decision will be sent back to the department and new
candidates will be sought.
***APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY BY THE ACADEMIC SENATE