Any unanticipated faculty vacancies that must be filled for the next academic year and determined after 1 November must comply with the following calendar:

        1 March - 30 June: Position will be advertised in area media and/or professional journals as a one-year, non-tenure position. It will be re-advertised the following year as outlined in the first paragraph above.

        1 July - start of fall semester: Adjuncts will be sought in area media to fill the position. It will be re-advertised the following years as outlined in the first paragraph above. (13 August, 1996)

Policy

St. Bonaventure University is committed to hiring faculty members who possess solid academic credentials (or equivalent professional experience), strong teaching skills, and a willingness to serve the University community, including a concern for building and sustaining a diverse campus community. The University is also committed to maintaining a faculty hiring process that is open, fair, and inclusive.

Procedures

The following hiring procedures are designed to help the University achieve the policy goals.

1. All faculty hiring requests shall include a statement describing how the proposed hire might help the university to fulfill the goals of its faculty hiring policy.

2. Whenever a faculty search is initiated, all full-time members of the department shall have the opportunity to participate meaningfully in evaluating the hiring needs of the department, preparing job descriptions and advertisements for the position, forming the search committee, and establishing the rules by which the search committee shall operate.

3. All faculty hiring requests must originate with a written request from the department chair and must be approved by the appropriate dean and the Vice President for Academic Affairs before the hiring process can begin. All searches shall be announced to the entire university community once they have been approved.

4. A representative of the Office of Human Resources shall meet with search committees prior to the beginning of the search process to review the laws and best practices pertaining to job searches and to suggest strategies for recruiting a more diverse applicant pool.

5. All search committees shall include at least one non-voting faculty member from outside the school in which the position is located. Departments shall make a reasonable effort to ensure the diversity of their search committees. The composition of all search committees must be reported to the appropriate dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs as soon as the committee is chosen.

6. All full-time tenure track faculty positions shall be advertised nationally in publications directed toward faculty members in the discipline. The university will also place advertisements in publications that target a more diverse faculty audience. Exceptions to these procedures may be granted by the Vice President for Academic Affairs in cases where circumstances warrant. All ads must include a statement of the university’s commitment to creating and maintaining a diverse campus environment.

7. Search committees shall investigate and employ additional methods appropriate to their discipline to locate qualified candidates who would enhance the diversity of the department and encourage them to apply. Committees shall keep their dean apprised of the methods that they use and the results that these methods produce, and the dean shall forward this information to the Vice President for Academic Affairs. The Vice President of Academic Affairs may grant exceptions to these procedures in cases where circumstances warrant.

8. All applicant files shall be open to all full-time members of the department (including those not on the search committee) for review and comment. Materials contained in these files shall not be used for any purpose outside the search process. In cases where confidentiality is requested by the applicant, permission will be sought from the applicant before contact is made with anyone who is not listed as a reference on the application.

9. All members of the search committee shall have an equal opportunity to voice their opinions about the applicants and to vote in the decision about which applicant(s) to recommend for campus interviews. No candidate shall be recommended for a campus interview until his or her references have been contacted. The recommendations of the search committee shall be submitted to the full-time members of the department for a vote before invitations are extended. If any of the proposed finalists is not legally eligible to work in the United States, the chair of the committee shall notify the Office of Human Resources prior to the interview.

10. The department chair shall inform all finalists of the university’s Mission Statement, Values Statement, and commitment to building and sustaining a diverse campus community.

11. All full-time members of the department (excluding any who might be candidates for the position) shall have an equal opportunity to participate in deliberations concerning the finalists. The approval of a majority of the department’s faculty (as defined in the Faculty Status and Welfare Handbook) shall be required before a candidate may be recommended for the position. The department chair shall make a reasonable effort to verify the recommended candidate’s professional qualifications as indicated on the CV.

12. The department chair shall report on the department’s deliberations and submit a written recommendation to the dean, who shall forward this information to the Vice President of Academic Affairs. The dean shall either accept the department’s recommendations or meet with the department to discuss his/her concerns and work toward a mutually acceptable solution. In cases where agreement proves impossible, the Vice President of Academic Affairs may authorize a new search for the position.

13. The Office of Human Resources shall verify the professional credentials (transcripts, licenses, certificates, etc.) of the successful candidate. If the successful candidate is not legally eligible to work in the United States, the university will work with the candidate to obtain any employment documents that might be required to work at St. Bonaventure.

14. At the end of the search process, the chair of the search committee shall submit to the dean a report assessing the effectiveness of the procedures used in the search process. The dean shall forward this report to the Vice President for Academic Affairs.

15. Upon the request of the department or the dean, the Vice President for Academic Affairs may grant exemptions to any step of these procedures that might preclude a successful search. No such exemption shall have the effect of eliminating departmental input or ignoring diversity concerns.

16. In the case of schools without departments, procedures that refer to departments and department chairs shall be interpreted as applying to schools and deans.