REVISED HIRING POLICY FOR TENURE
TRACK FACULTY
Academic Senate Policy #S03-158
(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.
Candidates applying
for joint appointments shall be reviewed by faculty from each department in
which the individuals are considered. The review may be conducted by each
department separately or by one committee with representatives from each
department.
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.
Faculty hired for
joint appointments shall be provided with a description outlining their
appointment time in each department, RTP committee structure, and departmental
expectations for RTP criteria.
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 Academic Senate Policy #S94-120.
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 BY THE ACADEMIC SENATE ON