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Policies, Union Contracts, Handbooks > Faculty & Academic Staff Handbooks > Handbook for Faculty Searches with Special Reference to Affirmative Action
10. Support for Hiring Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities
An enhanced Faculty Recruitment Incentive Program provides funding support and increased opportunities for continuous recruitment of underrepresented group members through a partnership of the colleges and the Office of the Provost. Elements of support for hiring minorities, women and persons with disabilities include:
- Continuous recruiting mode to allow units to recruit in broader areas of activity and/or in advance of projected retirements;
- Continuous advertisement of positions in the tenure system at variable ranks, and as applicable, with broadly defined job descriptions to advance more flexible responses to recruitment opportunities. Units are encouraged to seek candidates from within academe and from non-traditional sources such as government and business;
- The Office of the Provost will work in partnership with the colleges to provide transitional funding for underrepresented group members until future retirements occur.
- The Office of the Provost will consider requests for special set-up funds for faculty from underrepresented groups.
- In some cases a search committee will identify an outstanding a woman, minority, or persons with disability as an outstanding candidate, but an offer is not extended to that individual because he or she is highly ranked but is placed behind another candidate because of specifics of program needs or other requirements. Or, a search committee may find two well-qualified women, minorities, or persons with disabilities for the same position. On a case by case basis, the Office of the Provost, through a partnership with the colleges, may provide some of the funding necessary to hire the second individual.
| MYTH: Affirmative action is the responsibility of the Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives, or of a college affirmative action representative.
REALITY: This is true as far as it goes; it does not, however, go far enough. Affirmative action is everyone's responsibility. Since hiring is generally a "bottom up" process, with the faculty of a unit defining the pool of candidates and assessing their qualifications, affirmative action goals will never be achieved without the whole-hearted and enthusiastic support and participation of the faculty. |
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