Career-Track Faculty Search Process
All faculty searches for a career-track position require a search committee led recruitment process or a posting waiver. Career-track means any tenured/tenure-track position and any Practice series or Instruction series hire.
These are the steps the department chair or school director should take to launch a faculty search for a career-track position:
- Discuss 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 diverse applicant pool, including to whom the search committee will reach out and where it will advertise; and 3) attending the university-wide faculty search committee workshop.
- With faculty affairs staff person, complete the Request to Search Form and attachments, which include the job posting, the recruiting plan, search committee membership, and brief letter of justification for the search. Submit to the dean’s office. Dean’s office reviews with Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Chief Business Officer, and Dean 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.
- 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 Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
- The Dean should be scheduled for one-on-one meetings with any tenured/tenure-track faculty candidate final interviews.
- 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 faculty affairs staff should assist.
- Department 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.
College-specific requirements for Faculty Searches are found here.
An excellent comprehensive guide to running inclusive faculty searches is found here.
Adjunct/Temporary Faculty Hiring
- In most cases, it is not necessary to conduct formal recruitment for temporary positions. Rather, departments should have an ongoing general ad posted on UT FacultyJobs for their non-tenured positions.
- Chair/directors should familiarize themselves with requirements of non-tenure track appointments to ensure alignment with college and university rules and regulations.
- Chairs/directors should apply parallel consideration regarding faculty diversity and inclusion efforts.
- Each department must document its internal procedures by keeping a log of all applicants and retaining applicant materials according to the UT Retention Schedule.
- 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.
Informational
Download Request to Search form (422kb pdf)
- This fillable PDF works best in Adobe Reader, Adobe Acrobat DC or as a download on Chrome
Hiring Faculty with Tenure Process
HOP 2-2010: Academic Titles and Tenure
Provost’s Office: Recruitment & Retention
November 20, 2020 memo from the dean on Diversity in Faculty Searches and Hiring (109 kb pdf)
Page last updated: 9/6/2023
