Visiting Faculty Hiring Toolkit

A Bates education is realized in community. We build our community with care and attention, seeking individuals—students, faculty, and staff—who will together create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. 

We believe that our faculty is strongest when it embodies a broad spectrum of human experience, and we consciously build our community with an eye toward diversity of experience and background. When searching for faculty, Bates seeks to invite to the faculty colleagues who contribute in meaningful ways to our community, ensuring that “we engage the transformative power of our differences, cultivating intellectual discovery and informed civic action.” The faculty search committee plays a critical function at Bates, bringing colleagues to our campus who are committed to our mission of educating “the whole person through creative and rigorous scholarship in a collaborative residential community.”

Requests for resources for short term faculty resources are submitted to the AAC via the 3 year plan. Those plans are due to the AAC on November 7 of each year. The AAC will review the requests and grant them to the extent that the budget allows.

Once an academic unit has received its allocation from the AAC, the chair of that unit should contact the appropriate Associate Dean of the Faculty to discuss the approach to the search. Normally, we expect academic units to conduct a national search for visiting positions because these positions serve as important early career experiences for new faculty and because broad-based, competitive searches improve the quality of our hires. In some circumstances other approaches may be preferred. The parameters that will be considered when determining the approach include the nature of the position and the number of courses awarded by the AAC. Rarely, an academic unit can apply for a waiver of search which may include rehiring an existing faculty member who has been in their position fewer than 3 years or conducting a non-national search. When considering this pathway, chairs may find it helpful to review teaching evaluations as well as Part 1A (particularly Article I Section 5(b) and  Article IV Section 5) of the faculty handbook. If your unit is considering this approach it must be discussed during this meeting with the Associate Dean.

Search committees for visiting positions are much more flexible in their composition than for tenure track searches. The chair for visiting searches is most often the academic unit chair. The number of faculty on the committee should be at least 3, but the committee does not need to include faculty from outside the academic unit of appointment.

A search committee’s first job is to create a job advertisement. The job advertisement toolkit provides valuable resources and a template. As the committee develops its job advertisement, the committee should draft an evaluation rubric for the screening of candidates. Criteria used to evaluate candidates must be included in the job advertisement. We have a rubric template that includes evaluation criteria for the standard Bates job advertisement language. Finally, the search committee should develop a recruitment strategy. This should include a list of publication venues that will result in the highest visibility for the advertisement as well as a summary of your outreach strategy (conferences, circulating the ad within personal networks or specific communities). There are budgetary constraints on the advertisement strategy, so committees should be strategic in their planning.

Once you have selected your search committee and search chair and drafted your rubric and job ad, please submit those materials to the DOF via this form.

The following resources should be reviewed by the committee prior to reviewing candidate applications. 

  • Restate and confirm the selection process and rubric.
  • Ensure collective understanding of applicable laws, and what can and cannot be discussed/considered. 
  • Discuss how the candidate evaluation rubric will be applied to internal candidates, noting which aspects of job performance at Bates can be considered
  • Implement guidance, available from the Associate Dean of Faculty, about recording keeping. 
  • Consider some common ways biases creep into searches (e.g., where degrees are earned)
  • Discuss best practices for mitigating bias during the selection process.
  • Review best practices for zoom interviews.

Once the resources have been reviewed and after the published review date has passed, the search committee chair will email the Dean of the Faculty’s Office via deanoffaculty@bates.edu to request the opening of Interfolio so applications can be viewed by the committee.

Search committee members review files and winnow the candidate pool to create a list of 6 to 8 candidates for remote interviews. In searches with internal candidates, the Associate Dean will confer with the Director of Human Resources and the Office of Title IX and Civil Rights Compliance; if there are concerns that would warrant not re-hiring a particular current or former employee, the Associate Dean will communicate this decision to the search chair.

The search chair submits the list of candidates for zoom interviews to the Associate Dean for approval via deanoffaculty@bates.edu. The Associate Dean will send confirmation that the search can proceed once the list of candidates is approved. The search committee chair will work with the AAAs to schedule zoom interviews for selected candidates.

The search chair invites the candidates for remote interviews with members of the search committee, usually held via zoom. Once candidates confirm that they wish to be considered for the position, the AAA assigned to the hiring academic unit can help schedule the remote interviews. When conducting remote interviews, it is important to follow best practices including evaluating the candidates by looking for evidence that speaks to the criteria articulated in the rubric. In searches with internal candidates, the format and questions asked in a Zoom interview should be the same for internal and external candidates.

Once all remote interviews are finished, the search committee should meet to discuss the candidates for the next phase of the interview process. Discussion of candidates should focus on the evidence gathered in support of the criteria articulated in the rubric and follow the selection process submitted in step 4.

In searches for visiting positions, the selection interview can be done on-campus or via zoom. Regardless of the mode of interview, our practice is to invite only the top candidate for an in-depth interview. Committees should identify a priority candidate with whom they wish to have an selection interview. The search chair submits the name of the priority candidate to the Associate Dean of the Faculty for the next interview phase via deanoffaculty@bates.edu for review. The Associate Dean may request a meeting with the search committee to discuss the candidate. Regardless of the mode of the interview, it must include a teaching demonstration and a 30 minute interview with the Associate Dean of the Faculty. If the committee has chosen to invite a candidate to campus, the advice for on-campus interviews from the Tenure Track Hiring Toolkit should be followed with the added caveat that the visiting faculty interview must include a teaching demonstration.

The Search chair must submit to the Associate Dean of the Faculty a 1 paragraph summary of the strengths and areas of improvement identified for the candidate interviewed in the final phase of the process. This summary must discuss the candidate’s teaching abilities. Please submit this information to the DOF via email to deanoffaculty@bates.edu. If the search committee and Associate Dean jointly assess that the interviewed candidate is not viable for hiring, the committee may invite their next candidate for an interview.

At the conclusion of the search and after an employee agreement has been signed, the search chair, through Interfolio, communicates with those candidates not hired that someone else was chosen for the job. Search chairs are free to use the Bates template for this email. If the search chair needs help communicating with the candidates via Interfolio, they should consult Lori Ouellette in the Dean of the Faculty’s Office. In the event that a search is unsuccessful, the search chair should meet with the Associate Dean of the Faculty to discuss the path forward.