Faculty Appointments and Reviews

These procedures are designed to support search committees in recruiting and hiring the best quality faculty for Ithaca College. Furthermore, the procedures will help achieve our goal of conducting successful and efficient searches while at the same time ensuring equitable treatment of all candidates in order fully to realize our principles of diversity and inclusion. They were formulated in consultation with IC faculty, in thoughtful consideration of input provided at a meeting of Faculty Council on Sept. 1, 2015 and from subsequent follow-up after that meeting. They were edited in 2022 to update changed position titles, and to make explicit that the recruitment budget for a search can be verified with the respective Dean’s office.

1. Search committees must be apprised of IC’s expectations for inclusion and diversity in the search process as well as with federal equal opportunity guidelines. All search chairs are required to attend training on inclusive search procedures in order to ensure that each committee chair understands the procedures and expectations. If a search chair attends this training in a given academic year, and chairs a search in the next academic year, they will not be required to attend again, but would be required to attend if chairing a search in subsequent years. In addition, search committees conducting interviews at the semi-finalist level are encouraged to include a question for faculty searches related to diversity/inclusiveness in the teaching of the given discipline at the college level. The Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs will keep records of participation in the training sessions for Academic Affairs personnel chairing search committees.
2. Search committees are to be diverse, with representation of different subfields, faculty from different ranks, and with regard to gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and identity inasmuch as that is possible. Every search committee must include one faculty member from outside the unit conducting the search; this faculty member should have some interaction with the unit searching for a new colleague. External members need not come from outside the searching school (e.g., a search in PT could have an external member from OT, or a search in one unit in MASS might have an external committee member from another unit in MASS). External members are full voting members, with the same rights and responsibilities as other committee members. Research shows that inclusion of an external member in the search committee correlates with greater success in hiring minority candidates: insights from different perspectives can enrich the committee discussion, leading to a more robust conversation that helps all search committee members. Moreover, the inclusion of an external member of the search committee shows candidates that Ithaca College is a collaborative college that works beyond departmental or programmatic silos.
3. Departments conducting searches must get approval of the list of semi-finalists. Approvals will come from the Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs; the Associate Provost will work with HR in order to ensure that we are being as inclusive as possible. Search committees will use the standard search workflow to identify semi-finalists.
4. The Provost’s Office does not fund travel to conferences to conduct semi-finalist interviews; funding for such desired travel must be budgeted in other ways by the searching school or department. Semi-finalist interviews must be conducted by at least two search committee members (by phone or by Skype) and whenever possible it should be the same committee members conducting all the semi-finalist interviews. In general, we will avoid situations in which some semi-finalists are interviewed in person (for instance, an internal candidate), while others are interviewed by Skype.
5. There must be 2 - 3 finalists invited to campus for each position. The Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs will consider requests to bring more than three finalists to campus as an exception, but such requests must have compelling reasons (having one internal candidate who is “not expensive to bring to campus” is not a compelling reason). Departments are authorized to bring in a fourth finalist after three finalists have visited but no offer is extended or no offer is accepted (i.e., offers are declined, the first three candidates turn out not to be viable after they have been on campus, or some combination of these outcomes). If a search committee cannot identify at least two finalists to invite to campus, the search must be closed and reopened with different parameters in order to bring in 2 –3 finalists. As with semi-finalists, search committees must obtain approval from the Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs, who will consult with HR, for the proposed list of finalists to ensure that searches are as inclusive as possible.
6. Departments and programs conducting searches are required to be careful stewards of the resources used to conduct faculty searches. Candidates traveling to campus for finalist interviews will not be provided with first-or business-class air tickets.
7. Please schedule finalist visits to ensure that Deans will be able to interview each finalist on campus; when that is impossible, an associate dean may be designated to interview the candidate during the visit or the dean may make arrangements to interview the candidate by Skype or phone during that day or shortly after (but not before the campus visit, to be consistent with all candidates).
8. Please schedule finalist visits so as to complete all aspects of the visit (meetings, lectures class demonstrations, interviews, etc.) within one working day; exceptions to this scheduling are to be approved by the Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs before a single candidate is invited to campus. Candidates should arrive the day before and ideally have dinner with the search chair or designee and up to two other members of the search committee the night before the finalist visit if possible. A closing dinner, if appropriate, may be attended by the candidate and up to three members of the search committee. Finalists may choose to arrive and depart the same day if they wish, but we should not require that.
9. Finalist visit days must include lunch as an opportunity for informal candidate interaction for people not on the search committee. That could be an open lunch opportunity, such as pizza at noon in a large room, or a smaller lunch with three to five faculty or students in order to provide individuals not on the search committee with an opportunity to interact with the finalist in an informal setting.
10. For all reimbursable meals, please submit in the reimbursement process documentation not only receipts, but also a list of IC employees or students in attendance at the meal and mark the document with the name of the candidate and department of the search. The budget for dinners with candidates is up to $240 per meal for up to 4 people including the candidate and up to $180 per meal for up to 3 people including the candidate. It is understood that people will have no more than one drink per person at the college’s expense; if a candidate orders more than one drink, so be it. If the costs go over the amount listed here, the senior faculty member at the meal should add a note to the expense report explaining why the budget was exceeded.
11. By limiting the costs of the meals, we manage our budgets prudently. By limiting the number of people at the dinner table, we encourage a depth of conversation that is more likely to be achieved when there is a smaller table of people. Candidates should not be informed of the budgetary parameters, as there is no need to do so.
12. Finalists should be encouraged to stay the night after their meetings and interviews and depart the next day with limited interaction with search committee members on the day of departure. On the day of departure, if possible, someone from the department should take the candidate from the hotel to the airport, but if this is impossible, a cab or shuttle is fine. Beyond taking the candidate to the airport, there should be no additional interactions the day of departure to provide equitable experiences for all candidates. Candidates flying from more than three time zones away from Ithaca should be afforded the opportunity to arrive earlier, if feasible in the context of their schedules, to minimize the impact of jet lag on their performance during the day of the interview.

When departments have internal candidates as finalists, they must conform to these guidelines as closely as possible in order to ensure equitable treatment of all the finalists.