Administrative Manual — Recruitment Procedures for Tenure-track Faculty

Conducting Affirmative Searches

The College conducts strongly affirmative searches. In authorizing searches, the College uses the University’s Affirmative Action Plan and the most recent Underutilization Reports from the University’s Office of Institutional Equity to determine which departments need to take special measures to make it more likely that they will attract women and/or underrepresented minorities to the candidate pool.

Early each fall the College conducts a workshop for all DEOs and chairs of search committees, to review the steps to be taken to ensure that the pool of candidates contains members of minority groups and women in at least the proportion in which they are represented among recent recipients of terminal degrees in the field.

The DEO should share with the search committee information from this website as well as from the University’s Affirmative Action Recruitment Manual for Faculty and Professional and Scientific Searches, so that each committee member will become familiar with the principles and procedures for announcing the position, for evaluating and selecting candidates, and for record keeping. The DEO may set up a meeting with the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) to discuss strategies for recruitment. All other communication about Affirmative Action matters is addressed to the Associate Dean for the Natural, Mathematical, and Social Sciences or the Associate Dean for the Arts and Humanities, who coordinates with OIE. For information about the recruitment process or the status of searches, contact Melia Pieper.

DEO Manual for Conducting Searches

The Recruitment Plan (Requisition)

The DEO submits the recruitment requisition via workflow, which is sent to the Associate Dean for review and forwarding to the Office of the Provost and the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE).

The external advertisement to be published in professional journals or newsletters must be attached to the requisition in workflow and must be approved before it can be used to advertise the position. OIE requires that advertisements include the OIE tagline, located on their website (contact Melia Pieper for information). The requisition must specify in which professional publications the position will be advertised and other ways in which the search will be publicized.

Collegiate Advertising of New Faculty Positions

Each fall, the College places an advertisement in the Chronicle of Higher Education that lists all authorized tenure-track, clinical-track, and instructional-track searches in the College. Unless the Chronicle is a primary source of information on faculty positions in a particular discipline, the department need not place a separate advertisement in the Chronicle unless they so choose.

Search Committees for Faculty Positions

If an individual who applies for a tenure-track or clinical-track faculty position wrote their dissertation or MFA thesis under the supervision of a faculty member serving on the search committee, that faculty member must recuse themselves from the search committee's discussion of and vote on that application.

If the applicant becomes a finalist in the search, the faculty member must withdraw from membership on the search committee.

In such a case, the faculty member retains the right to participate in departmental discussions of the candidates for the position and the right to participate in departmental votes concerning the candidates.

Pre-Interview Report (PIR)

Before inviting candidates to interview, the DEO submits the PIR to the Associate Dean (via workflow). The PIR will include:

  • a justification addressed to the Associate Dean that makes the case for the candidates the department wishes to interview, comparing their qualifications with those of other candidates who meet the required and desirable qualifications for the position, especially those who are women or who are known to be underrepresented minority candidates.  If applicants who are not proposed for interviews have ratings of "1" or "2", the letter must briefly explain why those candidates are not as qualified for the position advertised.  The Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity will not approve the interviews without this explanation.
  • the pre-interview worksheet (excel file), this can be downloaded within jobs@uiowa.

The department must allow 3–4 working days for administrative offices to process these materials.

The Pre-Interview Report ensures the affirmative nature of the search early in the recruitment process.

Candidate Interviews

In the schedule of each candidate to be interviewed, the DEO includes a meeting with one of the Associate Deans, or (in the case of candidates for whom a tenured appointment would be proposed) with the Dean. Prior to deans' interviews, the department must send a copy of the candidate's CV and the candidate's interview schedule to the Office of the Dean.  A list of approved searches and which Dean is assigned to interview for which search will be sent out to departments early in the Fall semester.  If you have any questions, please contact Melia Pieper. 

Dual Career Couples

If a candidate to be interviewed has a spouse or partner who would also seek employment, the DEO or search committee chair should contact the Dual Career Network in the Office of the Provost.  The Associate Dean should be contacted regarding a spouse or partner who may be seeking a faculty position.  The department should notify the Network as early as possible of the partner’s qualifications and of any contacts they have already made in the area.

Reimbursement for Advertising and Other Costs of Recruiting

The College gives an allocation to help defray the costs related to candidates' travel (roundtrip airfare at the most economical rates), lodging, meals and advertising. It does not pay for the meals of faculty members or students during a candidates visit. The MFK for the portion of the advertising costs to be reimbursed by the College should use the organizational account number 220. The DEO, when anticipating exceptional costs for advertising, discusses the department’s recruitment plan with the Associate Dean to see whether these costs can be shared with the College. The College does not reimburse departments for postage, duplication, or clerical costs.

Search and Selection Summary (SSS)

The DEO will submit via workflow:

  • A justification addressed to the Associate Dean explaining the applicant the department wishes to make an offer to, as well as, a brief paragraph on all other interviews that took place.
  • A draft offer letter (contact your HR Representative).
  • The start up spreadsheet (if applicable).
  • Three letters of recommendation

The SSS must be approved by the College, the Office of the Provost, and OIE before an official offer can be released to the candidate.  Please allow 2-4 business days for this process to complete.