Recruitment and Selection of Teaching Faculty

E22M

The teaching faculty determines and recommends to the Board of Trustees standards for selection and retention of faculty members. The faculty searches are cooperative endeavors of the faculty and the administration based on a shared sense of responsibility. This cooperation begins before the search is authorized, with a thorough understanding of the nature of the position to be searched and the desired qualifications of the successful candidate. Faculty members are recruited and selected through the cooperative efforts of Department Chairs, Deans, and the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. The Department Chair will involve department members, where appropriate, in making selection recommendations.

The Department Chair, Dean, and the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs must establish the case for the recruitment of a new teaching faculty member, stating the nature of the need, area of competence, and recommended rank. The search may commence when the Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs approves the position.

The Chair, department colleagues, the Dean, and the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs cooperate in the search for candidates. Where possible a national search should be undertaken through professional networks, graduate schools and advertisements.

Candidates for teaching positions should be evaluated on the basis of the following criteria:

• Demonstrated academic and professional preparation and experience in the discipline concerned
• Fundamental sympathy with the established aims and objectives of Elon University as stated in the catalog
• Capacity for, skill in, and devotion to teaching
• An interest in intellectual life and scholarship
• Willingness and ability to teach in Elon’s interdisciplinary core curriculum program

Elon’s President makes the official offer of employment to the candidate. The Department Chair is responsible for seeing that expenses of candidates are paid. After the Department Chair receives an official acceptance from the candidate, the Department Chair, in coordination with the search committee chair, should write all other candidates, indicating that the position has been filled.

E23F

Responsibilities for recruitment of full time teaching faculty are outlined below for department members and elsewhere in this handbook for the Department Chair, Dean, and Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Department members share the responsibility for the following in identifying and selecting candidates for full time teaching faculty positions:

• Working with the department chair to define the position and organize a search committee
• Following the selection of the candidate pool by the department and/or search committee, reviewing candidates’ supporting documents, discussing candidates’ relative merits, and recommending candidates to the department chair for a campus visit
• Observing and interacting with candidates during campus visits
• Discussing candidates’ relative merits and recommending a final candidate to the chair

E32T

Responsibilities for recruitment of part-time faculty includes roles for the Department Chair, Dean, and Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs can be found elsewhere in this Handbook.