1. Faculty Searches 2015-2016 September 30 and October 1, 2015 Julie Sandell, Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs jsandell@bu.edu Steven Marois, Faculty Actions Manager and Research Specialist smarois@bu.edu 1

2. We have developed an on-line Search Manual that suggests best practices and includes many resources. Available at: http://www.bu.edu/apfd/recruitment/fsm/http://www.bu.edu/apfd/recruitment/fsm/ We have also provided each search committee chair with a hard copy of the parent search manual: Searching for Excellence and Diversity 2

3. Outline COMMUNICATION IS CRITICAL – Attend to this throughout the process SEARCH BROADLY and AIM HIGH – We need to recruit from above, not below SCREENING – Establish criteria on which to assess all candidates – Be aware of unintended bias RECRUITING – Tips for a successful on-campus visit – Interviewing – Problem questions vs. Need-to-Know (and how to help) MAKING THE DECISION – Best practices and hiring the best, final steps 3

4. Communication: Plan Ahead & Follow Up – Acknowledge receipt of materials check up often if a support person is tasked with this – Respond to questions develop a “party line” for anticipated questions know your timeline – this is a very common question – Confidentiality – Don’t forget to contact unsuccessful candidates 4

5. Search Broadly We automatically advertise for you in Inside Higher Ed, Higher Ed Jobs, BU HR, Monster.com, and HERC – Let us know when your job is filled Know your market and availability – we must reach great candidates in all markets – Does diversity of the pool reflect or exceed the market? Steve Marois is your main contact in the Provost’s Office for help with the search process itself. – smarois@bu.edu smarois@bu.edu – 617-358-4843 5

6. Without a diverse applicant pool we may overlook great candidates There are general compendia of potential applicants, such as the CIC Doctoral Directory – https://www.cic.net/students/doctoral- directory/introduction You will need extra effort to enrich your pool Specialized advertising venues/job boards: – See list at: http://www.bu.edu/apfd/recruitment 6

7. Keeping Track of your Pool You enter applicant e-mail addresses into an on- line tool called AARF (See http://www.bu.edu/provost/ao/fas/instructions /recruitment-2/aarf-instructions/) AARF sends an e-mail to applicants, asking them to self-ID by race/ethnicity and gender There is a firewall that prevents us from matching responses to any individual; legal requirement The sooner you do it, the more responses we get Waiting until the end is not acceptable 7

8. AARF, continued Once a month, or upon request, we send the search chair and the dean the data we have on the composition of your pool, by search This is self-ID, the only legal option Deans will be asked about the diversity of the applicants, interviews and offers in his or her annual review We are exploring ways to intervene in searches if the pool is not diverse, but the search committee is closest to the situation 8

9. 6567 Applicants 4019 Self-IDs 205 Interviews 65 Offers 49 Hires *1 hire self-identified as Hispanic and Black 2 hires self-identified as Hispanic and White

12. % of subgroup advancing to each stage of search # in pool 6567 Applicants 4019 Self-IDs 205 Interviews 65 Offers 49 Hires

15. Aim High We should strive to interview and hire from the top 20 schools in the discipline. You should be cautious and we will be skeptical about a candidate who is “underplaced.” If you recruit such a person, we will be looking for objective evidence that the recruit is better than other finalists in your search from peer-plus institutions. Aiming high is NOT in conflict with diversity goals. We will provide extra resources to recruit people who bring extra value to BU. Great candidates are valuable. 15

16. Previous Institution Ranking for New T/TT Faculty Percent of New Faculty USNWR Ranking of Previous Institution

17. Screening Develop a method and timeline in advance Agree on screening criteria in advance – what is required, what is desirable? See sample checklists on p. 64 and 67 of printed search book Screening with established criteria – helps minimize decisions based on hearsay – helps ensure that all applicants get due consideration – saves time 17

18. Issues In Evaluating Candidates Your explicit criteria should not be so narrow or rigid that they only identify clones of the current faculty Look for someone more than merely satisfactory and sufficient – consider future impact – we must strive to hire people who are better than we were at that stage. Issues of biases and judgment ---- – Unconscious assumptions based on social categories (e.g. race/ethnicity, sex, and age) shape consequential evaluations, even among people who value equality. 18

19. Why do we generalize our associations to create stereotypes and possibly act in a biased way? Unconscious assumptions about categories of people allow us to organize and retrieve information – to make judgments and understand – quickly and economically. But, these unconscious assumptions drive perceptions of people and our expectations of them in ways that do not reflect reality. https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/ When are these most likely to influence decision making?

20. Complex tasks Cognitive overload Time pressure Need for quick judgments Fatigue Lack of clarity about standards Lack of accountability Unwarranted faith in your own fairness and objectivity Factors Increasing Likelihood of Discriminatory (Biased) Behavior even if you care about fairness & equality

21. Experimental and real world examples of biases and assumptions Men were judged to be taller that women of the same height even when each was shown in a photograph against the same backdrop with height cues. Moving to “blind” orchestra auditions increased the probability that a woman would make it through a preliminary audition by 50%, and increased the probability that a woman would be hired by 7x. Letters of recommendation for faculty jobs have differences in the content depending on the gender of the candidate.

22. 312 letters of recommendation for medical faculty hired at a large U.S. medical school; letters for women were: –Significantly shorter –Provided minimal assurance (lacked detail): ♀ 15% ♂ 6% –Included more gender terms (e.g. “intelligent young lady”; “insightful woman”): ♀ 10% ♂ 5% –Included more Doubt Raisers: ♀ 24% ♂ 12% –Had more female-stereotypic adjectives: accomplishment/achievement ♀ 3% ♂ 13%; compassionate/relates well ♀ 16% ♂ 4% –Included more grindstone adjectives: ♀ 34% ♂ 23% and fewer standout adjectives (“outstanding”, “excellent”) Trix and Psenka, Discourse & Soc 14: 2003 Letters of Recommendation

23. See Wennerás and Wold, Nature 387, 1997 114 applications (64 men, 52 women) for postdocs from Swedish MRC, 16 men, 4 women got awards Applicants were scored on “competence,” methods, and relevance. Women were scored lower on all three. Study focused on “competence” by analyzing productivity (# publications; journal impact, first authorships, citations, etc.) of all applicants and showed that women of equal productivity as men were consistently scored as less competent. To even the competence score, women needed to be 2.5x as productive as men. Multiple regression analysis showed two factors with significant explanatory power: gender and affiliation with a reviewer. Together they were almost insurmountable. Aren’t CVs “objective information?” 23

24. Summary of Unintended Bias in Evaluations It is usually unintended. In multiple contexts, women and men exhibit the same biases about gender and competence. Biases are pervasive and often unconscious, so what to do? – Some committees assign a member or add a member to monitor for bias – establish criteria against which ALL candidates are assessed – read (and write) letters in a more self-conscious way 24

25. From Applicant Pool to Short List of Candidates to Campus Visits Develop a “long short list” for phone interviews or Skype Choose who will visit campus – 3 or more Invitations to campus… Clear expectations, schedule, etc. Put yourself in the candidate’s shoes and answer the questions they may not ask – like how to pay for the trip. Visits are as much recruitment as evaluation. Don’t hesitate to discuss our goal of increasing diversity and ask applicants if they have relevant experience or contributions to make. This is revealing for all candidates. If you identify a top candidate who would add diversity, even if the disciplinary “fit” is not perfect, talk with your dean. 25

26. Need-to-Know vs. Illegal Questions You might want to be helpful by finding out if a potential faculty member needs information about family-friendly policies, or has a partner who needs a job, but… you may not ask about these things. – whether someone has or plans to have children, or has a spouse or partner is not a qualification (or disqualification) for a faculty job. The Search Manual has a list of legal and illegal questions. See “Resources”on website. 26

27. Strategies to Provide Information If you provide the same information to all candidates it is a good recruiting tool, and perfectly legal. If the candidate initiates a topic, you may discuss it with them. You can ask if there’s anything that would make it difficult for them to come here if they were offered the job. 27

28. Questions During the Visit If you do hear about a particular need, try to gather more information quickly. – Speak with your Dean about partner situations ASAP so we can start seeing what might be possible. – BU belongs to HERC, which facilitates jobs for both faculty and non-faculty partners at other member institutions in New England, but partner hires are especially tough when both need/want TT jobs. – We have a website with resources for Dual Career couples: http://www.bu.edu/apfd/work-life- resources/dual-career-resources/http://www.bu.edu/apfd/work-life- resources/dual-career-resources/ 28

29. More Tips for the Campus Visit – Sensible schedule; sent in advance; keep it humane – Transportation from the airport; guides around campus; provide a contact phone number – We need well-attended job talks – Consider arranging meetings with other people in the Boston area and invite those people to the talk – Final interview with the search chair or department chair to wrap up, answer last questions, etc. 29

30. Making The Decision Collect preliminary reactions right after the visit The Department should deliberate face-to-face. Many departments prohibit proxy votes. It is best if these rules are decided before any candidates are considered Consider asking department faculty to privately rate each candidate on several dimensions before discussion begins; this can help counteract one person who dominates the discussion. Know what your Dean wants (priority list, or X acceptable options) and communicate quickly after the decision Don’t settle for someone merely sufficient – Many searches roll over to next year if the first search didn’t yield an excellent person. – The bar for successful senior appointments is very high 30

31. Senior Searches – ASCP and PROF ASCP and PROF need a full evaluation process similar to promotion/tenure review, regardless of current tenure status All aspects of the offer are contingent upon successful completion of the review process. Please let me see your offer letters before they go out. Do NOT suggest that this review is pro forma – we do have unsuccessful cases. We can do the central part quickly but plan for the total time needed. Candidates cannot go on payroll until the appointment process is complete. 31

32. Final Words BU will commit exceptional resources to exceptional faculty candidates. – We can provide extra resources to candidates who bring extra value, and we value adding diversity – If you need extra resources to help recruit an outstanding candidate who will add to the diversity of the faculty, let the Provost’s Office know. We rely on you who are searching to identify, select, and help us recruit exceptional faculty Please let us know how we can help. Thank you! 32

33. Julie Sandell and Steve Marois are available at any time during the search process for assistance. jsandell@bu.edu smarois@bu.edu 33