Search & Screen Process Policy

First Adopted 10/14/04
Revised and Re-Adopted 3/6/08

1 Introduction

Any search and screen process must assume that all participants are being fair, honest and seeking to produce an outcome that reflects the desires of the faculty as a whole, and is in the best interest of the students and the educational goals of the department and college.

The following defines basic terms and describes the process as a sequence of events and responsibilities that appear in the approximate order of their occurrence.

2 Terms

2.1 Search & Screen Committee hereinafter referred to as The Committee: An elected body consisting of all tenured faculty.

2.2 Search & Screen Subcommittee hereinafter referred to as The Subcommittee: An elected group of tenured faculty.

2.3 First List: Candidates recommended for oral interviews and additional vitae and reference checks. This is the pool from which Short List candidates are chosen.

2.4 Short List: Candidates recommended for on-campus interviews or Lecturer positions.

2.5 Final List: A ranked list of recommended candidates chosen from those that completed on-campus interviews or the Lecturers recommended by The Subcommittee.

2.6 Participants: CAED Dean, Architecture Department Head, The Committee, The Subcommittee, Individual Faculty Members, Staff and Students.

2.7 Conflicts of Interest: All participants must disclose any and all conflicts of interest involving a candidate, be they personal or professional (refer to the Cal Poly Faculty Handbook), and recuse themselves as appropriate or as specified herein.

2.8 Notification/Calling Meetings: The responsible party (e.g., Department Head, Chair of the Tenured Faculty, Chair of The Subcommittee, The Dean) shall notify all appropriate participants by e-mail of all meetings no less than three working days in advance and preferably five working days in advance.

3 Defining The Search

Recognizing that the CAED Dean has the responsibility to accept or reject hiring proposals made by the
Department Head and architecture faculty, the following describes the process for defining a search.
The goals of the search definition process are to identify the desired number and type (Tenure Track, Lecturer, Part-Time) of positions to be sought, develop the short and long term educational and fiscal justification for the positions, define the qualifications for each position and draft the advertisements.

3.1 Once the Department Head is aware of faculty vacancies that will affect our ability to meet instructional demand he/she shall call a meeting of the entire faculty to discuss departmental needs in relationship to current and future educational priorities and budgets.

3.2 The Department Head shall ask all instructional areas to meet and respond to the discussion, proposals and search definition goals.

3.3 The Department Head shall call another meeting of the entire faculty to continue the discussion and consider the input from instructional areas.

3.4 The Department Head shall meet with the CAED Dean to discuss the positions to be sought and their educational and fiscal justification.

3.5 The Department Head in consultation with the Employment Equity Facilitator and affected instructional area coordinators shall draft an advertisement that defines the positions available and the required, desired and preferred qualifications for candidates consistent with the current departmental Appointment, Retention, Promotion, Tenure (ARPT) document and specific instructional area’s current and future needs and priorities.

3.6 The Department Head shall submit the advertisements to tenured and tenure track faculty for a vote of acceptance.

3.7 The Department Head shall submit the advertisements to the departmental Employment Equity Facilitator, CAED Dean and appropriate Cal Poly administration for approval. If substantive changes are required, the tenured and tenure track faculty must vote on the revised advertisement before publication.

3.8 The Department Head shall publish and distribute the advertisement through appropriate media.

3.9 All faculty should encourage qualified candidates to apply for the advertised positions.

4 Constituting The Search & Screen Committees

4.1 All tenured faculty are automatically nominated to serve on The Committee.

4.1.1 All faculty members with a conflict of interest must recuse themselves from discussions and voting related to the corresponding positions. Such members may participate in all other deliberations.

4.2 The tenured faculty through a voice vote of confirmation shall elect faculty nominated to The Committee. Members of
the elected Committee have access to all candidate materials and Subcommittee evaluations.

4.3 The Chair of the Tenured Faculty will publish a call for nominations to The Subcommittee. All tenured faculty are eligible. Faculty may nominate themselves and others.

4.3.1 The Subcommittee must have a minimum of three members, with no maximum. There must be a minimum of one faculty member from each instructional area seeking new faculty on The Subcommittee.

4.3.2 The departmental Employment Equity Facilitator shall automatically be a voting member of The Subcommittee.

4.3.2.1 In the event the departmental Employment Equity Facilitator has a conflict of interest, an other Employment Equity Facilitator will be chosen. If the replacement EEF is not from within the department, the EEF will be a non-voting member of the Subcommittee.

4.3.3 The Department Head shall be a nonvoting Ex-officio member of The Committee and The Subcommittee.

4.3.4 All faculty members with a conflict of interest must recuse themselves from service on The Subcommittee.

4.3.4.1 In the event that all tenured faculty within an instructional area have conflicts of interest related to positions in other areas, they may be members of The Subcommittee but must recuse themselves from discussions and voting related to the corresponding positions. Such members shall participate in all other deliberations.

4.4 The tenured faculty through a voice vote of confirmation shall elect faculty nominated to The Subcommittee. Members of the elected Subcommittee are required to review all candidate materials and recommendations, and are responsible for candidate evaluations.

4.5 The Department Head shall call the first meeting of The Subcommittee at which time the Department Head gives the charge to The Subcommittee.

4.6 The Subcommittee shall elect a Chair.

4.7 The Chair of The Subcommittee shall be responsible for calling and conducting meetings of The Committee and The Subcommittee during First List and Short List deliberations.

4.8 The Chair of the tenured faculty shall be responsible for calling and conducting meetings of The Committee for Final List deliberations.

4.9 Members of The Committee are encouraged to and all Subcommittee members must meet with the Director of Campus Relations to educate themselves on issues concerning the legal and ethical issues associated with a search and screen process.

4.10 It is the responsibility of all members of The Subcommittee to attend a majority of the committee’s meetings and review all materials and sign the files of all candidates who have met minimum application requirements.

4.11 It is the responsibility of the Department Head to review and sign all files and review candidate evaluations submitted by The Committee.

4.12 It is the responsibility of members of The Committee who commit to do so to review and sign both the Applicant Working File and the Personnel Action File of all on-campus candidates. Failure to commit to do so and to sign both files will disqualify a committee member from voting during First List and Short List deliberations of The Committee.

4.13 The Committee shall conduct all votes using paper ballots. A simple majority of those present is required for passage of committee resolutions. Proxies will not be counted.

4.14 The Subcommittee will attempt to reach consensus on all decisions. If consensus cannot be reached, a simple majority of the subcommittee membership is required for passage of subcommittee resolutions.

5 Candidate Evaluation Process

Once the search and screen process has begun it is important that all Committee and Subcommittee members maintain strict confidentiality concerning the information provided by the candidates and references and evaluations.

5.1 The Architecture Department will correspond with candidates, distribute information and collect documentation from applicants. The Department will compile an Applicant Working File for each applicant.

5.2 The Department Head and The Subcommittee shall work together to identify any candidates who do not complete their application packages or do not meet the minimum qualifications. Such applicants shall be disqualified.

5.3 The Department Head shall send a letter to the disqualified candidates notifying them of their removal from consideration.

5.4 The Subcommittee shall develop candidate evaluation criteria and interview questions consistent with the advertisement and current departmental ARPT document. Oral interview questions should be developed for each advertised position as appropriate. These will be presented to The Committee for a vote of approval.

5.5 The Subcommittee shall evaluate all candidates who appear to meet the minimum qualifications. In the process, an evaluation will be completed for every candidate for each of the advertised positions based on the adopted evaluation criteria.

5.6 All on-campus candidates meeting the minimum qualifications must be interviewed. These interviews may be by phone or in person and must use the approved oral interview questions.

5.7 The Subcommittee shall provide The Committee with all candidate evaluations and a recommended First List of candidates for each advertised position.

5.8 The Committee shall review and approve the recommended First List(s). Refer to section 5 for a description of the interaction process between The Committee and The Subcommittee.

5.9 Upon approval of the First List(s) by The Committee, The Subcommittee shall undertake oral interviews and do vitae and reference checks and the Department Head shall request letters of recommendation from the candidates on the First List and send a letter to all candidates not included on the First List notifying them of their removal from consideration.

5.10 After oral interviews and vitae and reference checks are completed, each candidate’s evaluation shall be updated to reflect The Subcommittee’s findings.

5.11 The Subcommittee shall provide The Committee with all updated candidate evaluations and a
recommended Short List of candidates for each advertised position.

5.12 The Committee shall review, approve and forward the recommended Short List(s) and all updated candidate evaluations to the Department Head. Refer to section 5 for a description of the interaction process between The Committee and The Subcommittee.

5.13 The Department Head shall review, approve and forward the Short List(s) to the CAED Dean for review and approval.

5.14 Upon approval of the Short List(s) by the CAED Dean the on-campus visits will be scheduled.

5.15 The Department Head shall send a letter to all candidates not included on the Short List notifying them of their removal from consideration.

6 Committee/Subcommittee & Committee/Department Head Interaction

The following describes the process to be used if parties do not agree with recommendations.

6.1 Any member of The Committee, upon review of the Subcommittee’s recommendations, may move that one or more candidates be reconsidered for inclusion or exclusion on a recommended First or Short List.

6.2 A simple majority vote by The Committee shall be a charge to The Subcommittee to reconsider the candidate(s) within the context of their whole evaluation.

6.3 The Subcommittee shall re-evaluate the suggested candidate(s) in the context of their whole evaluation process and provide their recommendation to The Committee.

6.4 This process shall be repeated until agreement has been reached between The Committee and The Subcommittee.

6.5 The Department Head, upon review of The Committee’s recommendations, may ask The Committee to reconsider one or more candidates for inclusion or exclusion on their recommended Short List.

6.6 The Committee shall re-consider the suggested candidate(s) in the context of their whole deliberation process and provide their recommendation to the Department Head.

6.7 This process shall be repeated until agreement has been reached between The Committee and Department Head.

6.8 In the event that agreement cannot be reached, The Committee may vote to recommend that the search be terminated.

7 Campus Visits

7.1 The Architecture Department shall arrange the logistics of candidate visits.

7.2 The Architecture Department shall provide the schedule for the candidate visits.

7.3 The Architecture Department shall make available to all faculty and staff the complete vitae and portfolio of each candidate who makes an on-campus presentation. References and letters of recommendation will not be available for review.

7.4 The Committee in consultation with the Department Head shall identify hosts. The visiting candidates shall preferably be hosted by a member of The Committee who is not on The Subcommittee.

7.5 The Host shall make the candidate as available as possible to all faculty.

7.6 The Department Head and all faculty have the responsibility to attend all presentations and to interact with the candidates.

7.7 The staff and students are encouraged to attend all presentations and to interact with the candidates.

8 Final Candidate Evaluation

8.1 After each or all on-campus interviews are completed, all faculty, staff and students may write The Committee, Department Head and/or CAED Dean to communicate their reflections on the candidates. All letters must be signed and state if the author does not wish the letter to be shared with the other parties.

8.2 At completion of the on-campus interviews or The Subcommittee’s evaluation of Lecturer candidates, the chair of the Tenured Faculty shall call a meeting of The Committee.

8.3 The purpose of the meeting shall be to share observations on and develop a Final List(s) of recommended candidates that is ranked in terms of hiring preference. The following process shall be followed for each advertised position.

8.3.1 Each faculty member present at the meeting writes their vote for only their top candidate on a sheet of paper. Those are collected and the tally is announced. If a candidate receives a simple majority of the votes, the candidate is automatically confirmed as the top candidate and their name is removed from further votes. If no candidate receives a majority of the votes, the candidate with the top number of votes is provisional candidate number one.

8.3.2 All faculty present then vote either “yes” or “no” to confirm the provisional candidate as the top candidate. The candidate must get a simple majority to be confirmed as the number one candidate. That candidate's name is then removed from further votes.

8.3.3 If the candidate does not receive confirmation, the candidate is removed from further consideration until completion of the current round (e.g., the candidate is removed until the top candidate is confirmed). Any removed candidates are returned to the pool before the next round.

8.3.4 The vote continues in this manner to establish the second, third, etc. ranked candidates until all candidates have been both ranked and then confirmed by all present.

8.3.5 Any candidate who does not receive confirmation by a simple majority vote of those present will not be recommended.

8.4 The Committee shall provide in writing a Final List of recommended ranked candidates to the Department Head for each advertised position.

9 Communication & Employment Offers

9.1 The Department Chair shall communicate with the candidates, and recommend to the CAED Dean candidates to be hired.

9.1.1 The Department Head shall meet with the CAED Dean to present and review the Final List and confirm salary ranges and position numbers.

9.1.2 The Department Head shall contact Final List candidates in order of their ranking for each position to be filled given overall budgetary and position number constraints.

9.1.3 The Department Head shall forward candidate recommendations to the CAED Dean and meet with the Dean to determine which offers will be made.

9.1.4 The Department Head shall initiate offer letters to the candidates.

9.2 The Department Head shall send a letter to all candidates not ranked and recommended notifying them of their removal from consideration.

9.3 The Department Head shall send a letter to the candidates on the Short List not initially offered positions after those offered positions have accepted.

10 Lecturer Process

The process for evaluating Lecturer applications shall follow the process for Tenure Track applicants with the following adjustments.

10.1 If a new Subcommittee is required or desired, the Chair of the Tenured Faculty will publish a call for nominations to The Subcommittee. All tenured faculty are eligible. Faculty may nominate themselves and others.

10.2 The Subcommittee must have a minimum of three members, with no maximum. There must be a minimum of one faculty member from each instructional area identified in the advertisement.

10.3 The Subcommittee shall develop candidate evaluation criteria and forms consistent with the advertisement and current departmental ARPT document. Separate forms should be developed for each advertised position as appropriate. These will be presented to The Committee for a vote of approval.

10.4 The Subcommittee shall evaluate all candidates who appear to meet the minimum qualifications. In the process, an evaluation will be completed for every candidate for each of the advertised positions based on the adopted evaluation criteria and forms.

10.5 The Subcommittee shall provide The Committee copies of all updated candidate evaluations and a recommended Short List of candidates for each advertised position.

10.6 The Committee shall provide in writing a Final List of recommended candidates ranked in order of hiring preference to the Department Head for each advertised position. Ranking will be determined based on the voting process described previously.