The Affirmative Action Monitoring Committee Guidelines

1. The Dean of Arts & Sciences appoints an Affirmative Action Monitoring Committee in each division: Humanities, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences. Each divisional Monitoring Committee consists of three members from the tenured faculty, including at least one member of an under-represented group (e.g. women and minorities). If tenured members of under-represented groups are not available, non-tenured individuals from an underrepresented group may be appointed. Each Monitoring Committee monitors all searches for new full-time academic appointments in its area.

2. Federal law (Executive Order 11246 and Department of Education regulations) requires that federal contractors develop and implement recruitment procedures which demonstrate that an “extraordinary” search effort has been made to attract qualified women and members of minority groups for each faculty position vacancy. To ensure that searches in the Faculty of Arts & Sciences meet the “extraordinary” search requirements test, the following procedures must be followed.

a. When seeking to fill an established, open position, a faculty position announcement and a plan for recruitment shall be developed by the search committee. The written plan of recruitment and the advertisement (which must be previously approved by the Dean of Arts & Sciences) shall be submitted to the Monitoring Committee prior to announcing the position. [In all cases, email may be preferred in place of written material so long as a paper copy of email correspondence is kept by the search committee with all of the record keeping.] The plan should be submitted to both the convenor and the Faculty of Arts & Sciences office. The written plan should include the following:

1. Nature of the Position
2. New Search or Continued Search
3. Placement of Announcements of Positions
4. Screening Procedures (including the typical number of candidate visits)
5. Current Faculty Demographics
6. Record Keeping

The Monitoring Committee will review the written plan and make written acceptance or amendments to the search committee within five days of receipt of this plan.

b. When the search has been completed, at least two days prior to the department’s decision meeting, the Monitoring Committee should be provided with the following written documentation:

1. Documentation that the approved search plan was followed.
2. Numerical analysis of the results of the search by race and gender of the applicants.
3. A summary of evidence that objective and nondiscriminatory criteria have been used in the evaluation of all candidates. (A detailed file of applicant evaluations, as well as other relevant records, must be available to the Monitoring Committee upon request.)
4. A list of any selective advertisements that were not listed in the original search plan.

c. Following the department’s decision meeting, the Monitoring Committee should be notified of the department’s request to make or not to make an offer. If the department would like to make an offer, the Monitoring Committee should be notified of the departmental choices in ranking order. (If candidate X rejects, then the department would like to offer position to Y.) After reviewing the search documentation, the Monitoring Committee will make a written response to the search documentation either (1) making a report of acceptance, (2) detailing a request for further information, or (3) making suggestions for further search. In all cases, the committee will attempt to respond within two days to give the department chair its decision.

Successful candidates should not be notified until the Monitoring Committee has reviewed and evaluated in writing the selection and recruitment process.

If the outcome of the Departmental meeting is to make no offer, the Monitoring Committee would like a summary of the failed search with the expectation of the department for future searches in the same area.

If no offer is made, and if the Dean of Arts & Sciences approves the search to continue the following year, the advertisement does not need to be reapproved the following year but a copy should be sent to the Monitoring Committee explaining that it had been approved the previous year. (A new search plan should be submitted.)

d. From time to time, the Department may become aware of an opportunity to recruit an individual of outstanding credentials whom the Department believes would be an exceptional addition to the faculty of Arts & Sciences. In such instances, the Department must seek the approval of the Dean of Arts & Sciences. The Department should submit to the Dean of Arts & Sciences an explanation of the criteria and grounds by which the distinction of the candidate is claimed.

The Department should submit to the Dean of Arts & Sciences and to the Monitoring Committee an account of the means by which the Department has assured itself that no evident unfairness is being inflicted on other potential candidates in the field and an account of the gender and ethnic profile of the Department and of its recent hirings.

The Monitoring Committee is not involved in the rest of the search.

3. Each Monitoring Committee makes an annual report, including hires for all previously existing and new positions, showing the progress that has been made it its area and evaluating the procedures and practices followed by the Departments in which personnel changes have occurred. The three divisional Monitoring Committees (or one representative from each) meet annually with the Dean to discuss overall progress, to consider problems remaining, and to recommend changes in goals when conditions warrant.

The annual report of each Monitoring Committee is sent to the Dean of Arts & Sciences, the Department Chairs within its division, the Vice Chancellor for Human Resources, and is available to others on request. At a faculty meeting held in the fall of each academic year, a representative of each Monitoring Committee reports to the faculty on progress within its area.

The Dean of Arts & Sciences sends an academic yearend report to the Monitoring Committee on all searches, including target opportunity hires.

4. To assure that suitable candidates for academic employment are not excluded on the basis of sex, creed, race, or other irrelevant considerations, Department Chairs keep a full record all letters of inquiry, email, advertisements, and telephone contacts involved in the search and recruitment of all applicants, as well as all subsequent correspondence, contacts, interviews, etc. This record should include copies of all correspondence with the Affirmative Action Monitoring Committee. This record is kept by the Chair for three years following the date at which a new appointment becomes effective, and during this period it is available on request to the appropriate Monitoring Committee, the Dean of Arts & Sciences, Human Resources, or to the Affirmative Action Committee of the University.