The annual cycle of faculty recruiting starts as the previous year’s recruiting season winds down and the new budget cycle begins – during late winter semester.
A discussion of tenure track faculty searches and potential needs for the future are part of the budget process occurring during late Winter Semester.
In early June, the ADAA office will send out a request to department chairs for new faculty hires for the upcoming year. It is customary to allow open searches from the prior year to continue until filled if this is the desire of the department. As such, this should be indicated in the request for new faculty positions along with the following information:
- number of needed position(s), including level of position(s) and area(s) of expertise;
- justification in the context of the Department’s strategic plan or a College or University initiative;
- attributes of candidates that are appropriate to fill the position(s) and anticipated impact of the new faculty member(s) on the future of the Department and College;
- faculty members both within and outside your department who might be expected to collaborate with your new faculty member(s);
- departmental resources available, particularly space, but also staff and start-up, to accommodate the position(s); and
- departmental plans to provide adequate mentorship.
These requests are considered by the College Executive Committee in late June and approvals are provided immediately.
Once approved, search committees should be formed. In order to serve on a Search Committee, the faculty member must have attended a STRIDE workshop in the past three years or be open to attending one during the coming fall semester.
The College supplies to the department a budget for each open search to be conducted during the academic year. This budget is designed to defray the cost of advertising the position and bringing the candidates to campus for their interviews.
Open faculty positions should be advertised in a variety of venues designed to capture the strongest and most diverse applicant pool possible. In most cases this will require a proactive approach on the part of the search committee and faculty members to solicit applications from highly qualified individuals. You will find the ADVANCE Handbook for Faculty Searches and Hiring particularly helpful.
One very important aspect of the prospective faculty candidate is potential presence of a Dual Career partner. Upon notification of the ADAA office of a candidate visit, the ADAA office will trigger a contact of the candidate by the Dual Career Director of the College, thus removing any need for dual career discussion from the departmental search process. If the Dual Career Director discovers the need for dual career services, she will contact the department chair directly and appraise you of the situation. If, however, you become aware of a dual career situation that the Director is unaware of, please feel free to bring this to the attention of the ADAA immediately.
Once a candidate is identified for hiring, a casebook is prepared for College Executive Committee consideration. The casebook should contain the elements listed on the ADAA website at: https://adaa.engin.umich.edu/admin/tenuretrack-faculty/
Once approval is granted by the College Executive Committee, the department chair is notified of the approval. If the hire is for an associate or full professor, the ADAA office will begin the process of securing Provost approval for the hire. In either case, once College Executive Committee approval is granted, the department chair is encouraged to begin preparation of a draft offer package and accompanying draft offer letter (if not already supplied) for ADAA approval. The department chair should not discuss with the candidate the specific package until the ADAA has approved the start-up worksheet.
With ADAA approval of the offer package and letter, the department chair is free to deliver the offer to the candidate (pending Provost approval if applicable). If the candidate accepts, please forward the original signed offer letter to the ADAA office for processing. In the event of a decline, please notify the ADAA office so that the file may be closed and the Provost’s Office notified if that office had been involved in the case.
A series of related links is provided on the Resources for Administrators web page.