College of Fine Arts Faculty Search Policy – College of Fine Arts Faculty

Career-Track Faculty Search Process

In the College of Fine Arts, “Career-track” faculty positions are defined as all tenured/tenure-track faculty positions and all Practice series or Instruction series faculty positions. See the College of Fine Arts Professional Track Policy for more information.

College of Fine Arts Requirements

All recruitment efforts to fill career-track faculty positions require that:

a search committee-led recruitment process occurs or a posting waiver.
with oversight of the dean, the department chair/school director determines membership of all faculty search committees.
the following approval steps are taken:
- All searches for career-track faculty positions must be approved by the dean before any advertisement is posted or recruitment begins. Department chairs/school directors or their designate should submit a request to search form via Smartsheet, with the attachments required by the Smartsheet form, to get that approval.
- Prior to the search committee making decisions about which applicants to advance, the dean must approve the applicant pool, which review will automatically occur just prior to the job posting’s published date for review of applications to begin.
- Prior to scheduling in-person interviews, the dean must approve the short list of finalists.
faculty positions must be advertised for a minimum of 30 days prior to reviewing applications, and advertising for 60 days or more before reviewing applications is preferred.
all faculty job postings must state when review of applications will begin.
the interview finalists only be asked to submit three letters of reference.
the dean or the dean’s designate meets with each final interview candidate.

All faculty search committee activity is advisory to the department chair/school director, and the department chair/school director determines who to recommend for hire as result of the search.

Step-by-step Procedure

These are the steps the department chair or school director should take to launch a faculty search for a career-track faculty position:

Discuss the hiring plan with the Dean and convince the Dean to approve the search to proceed.
Assemble a search committee. Meet with the committee, give them a charge, and set their first tasks as 1) writing a first draft of the job posting, 2) drafting a plan describing how the search committee will encourage a competitive applicant pool, including to whom the search committee will reach out and where it will advertise, and 3) discuss, decide, and write down what criteria or rubric the search committee members will use to evaluate applications.
With faculty affairs staff person, complete the request to search form and attachments via Smartsheet, which include the job posting, the advertising and outreach plan, search committee membership, the evaluation criteria the search committee will use, and brief letter of justification for the search. Submit that to the dean’s office via Smartsheet. The dean’s office reviews before returning approval to you to post the position and begin recruiting.
Inform the search committee to launch the search. Typically department staff places the job postings in Interfolio and other identified posting venues. Refer here for instructions for the search committee and refer here for resources for the search committee. The search committee should recruit applicants, share the advertisement widely, and allow the advertisement to run for at least 30 days, 60 or more days is preferred, before beginning review of applications.
Two or three business days prior to the advertised date to begin review of applications, the dean’s office will review the applicant pool and decide whether to authorize the search to proceed with making decisions about which applicants to advance. The search committee may not make decisions about any applicants until that approval of the applicant pool is granted.
When the search committee has identified a short list for final interview, the department chair or school director brings that list, with CVs, to the Dean directly for approval prior to any final interviews being scheduled. The Dean will review with his assistant and associate deans and respond with approval or not for the interviews to be scheduled.
When scheduling final interviews, staff or the search committee chair should also ask the interview finalists to submit three letters of reference.
The Dean or the Dean’s designate should be scheduled for one-on-one meetings with finalists.
After interviews, the department chair informs the Dean to whom the chair wants to offer the position. Once authorized by the dean, the department chair begins hiring negotiation.
When initial terms are reached, document preliminary agreement of terms either with an informal e-mail or with a provisional offer letter. Department/school faculty affairs staff should assist.
Department/school faculty affairs staff then prepare Prior Approval Request (PAR) for formal approval of new faculty appointment. Only after the PAR is approved can a formal, binding offer letter be sent and only after the candidate accepts the formal offer can public announcement of the hire go out.

Adjunct/Temporary/Contingent Faculty Hiring

In most cases, it is not necessary to conduct formal recruitment for temporary positions, which are typically hired with the job title of Lecturer. Instead, departments and schools should have an ongoing general ad posted on UT Faculty Careers website for their temporary faculty hiring needs.
While a search committee or posting waiver is not necessary, the decision-making process must comply with all college and university faculty hiring policies as well as state and federal law.
Approval to hire and fund temporary faculty starts with the soft money budget request, usually done in late spring in conjunction with budget process for upcoming fiscal year.
The department chair/school director requests approval to hire a temporary faculty member with the Prior Approval Request (PAR).

Related University-wide Requirements and Policies

All applications for faculty positions must be submitted via interfolio.
All faculty job advertisements must include the university’s Equal Employment Opportunity statement.
Hiring committees may not evaluate candidates on the basis of any class or identity protected by the university’s non-discrimination policy, which is based on federal and state laws.
All records of faculty searches must be maintained by the hiring department/school for at least three years after the start of the successful candidate in compliance with the university’s records retention policy.

Career-Track Faculty Search Process

Adjunct/Temporary/Contingent Faculty Hiring

Related University-wide Requirements and Policies

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