Creighton University

Model for Improving the Recruitment of
Minority Faculty Members and Minority/Female Administrators

While considering various models for improving recruitment of minority faculty member and minority/female administrators, it became apparent that the frequency of searches, the needs of various colleges/schools and the procedures each follows differ considerably. The following improvements in usual procedures are offered as recommendations that each school/college or division may adept to meet their specific needs and current policies. It is recognized that some of these procedures are currently in use but more uniform implementation across the University would be helpful.

  1. Provide search committee chairs with explicit information related to the commitment of the University to recruitment of minority faculty or administrators and the prominence of this issue in the strategic plan. Ask each chair to visit with the Affirmative Action Officer to obtain information and forms related to the University's affirmative action faculty recruitment plan.
  2. Provide search committee chairs with directions for conducting searches, which include specific strategies for recruitment of minority/female candidates.
  3. An appropriate administrator (depending on the type of position being filled) should be sure that the search committee receives a charge to actively seek minority/female candidates at their first meeting. When possible, this charge should be delivered verbally with a personal appearance by that administrator but may also take the form of a letter to the committee or explicit directions in a written procedure.
  4. The advertisement for the position should be written in a way that allows for a broad appeal to several minority communities. The Affirmative Action Office should be consulted in achieving this end.
  5. In addition to advertising the position, the search committee should be asked to canvas faculty, friends, national colleagues and professional organizations to find names of potential minority/female candidates who are known to be highly qualified.
  6. The chair should ask the Affirmative Action Officer to contact appropriate networks for names of qualified minority/female person to pursue.
  7. The minority/female candidates identified through the activities described in recommendation 5 and 6 should be actively and aggressively pursued. An example of one way to implement this sort of more aggressive style of recruitment would be:
      1. Both the hiring department/division and the Affirmative Action Officer would
        Send a letter to each candidate thus identified indicating our mission, the position available, and our interest in their application.
      2. The department/division would follow up with a phone call to encourage their application, answer any questions and invite them to visit with the search committee or a search committee member, perhaps by phone or at an upcoming professional meeting that both may be attending.
              
  8. Some effort should be made to either include a minority faculty member on the committee or as part of the candidate's visit.
  9. If no minority/female candidates are on the list of finalist, the Dean should question the chair as to the reasons for this and suggest reasons for inclusion. If reasons for non-inclusion are not adequate, the search activities should be renewed for a limited period of time (i.e., 4 weeks). During this time, the search process should be concentrated solely on the recruitment of minority/female candidates.