This checklist is intended to help the Office Coordinator aid the Chair of the Search Committee in the mechanics and process of the search. Relevant portions of the document Faculty Search Procedures and Guidelines are indicated in parenthesis. This checklist was developed by Brenda Westra in 2017.

Once your department chair selected and confirmed a Search Committee: (II: Search Committee)

• Ask chair about committee meetings. Send out emails to search committee to find a common meeting time. Reserve any rooms to hold meetings. Send out meeting Outlook calendar invites for the committee to hold times in their calendars. (III. Position Description and Announcements)
• Email Assistant to the Provost (Provost’s schedule), Melanie Williams (if a meeting with the President is needed), and Renee Boelcke (Human Resources) to have their availability sent to you. You and/or the Chair will need this information to help choose some possible dates for the selected candidate to be on campus. (VIII. Campus Visits of Candidates) Note: the President’s travel schedule can be tight.
• Talk to the search committee chair and to the Provost’s office to see if your assistance is needed in helping with advertising. (ex: contacting professional journals for rates, guidelines; emailing letters and the ad to Department Chairs at major universities, etc.…) (II. Search Committee)
• The Provost’s Office contacts Carolyn Zinn or current web services director to ask that a shared team site be organized for all the committee to review all the candidate files. Within the Team Site, for each applicant create a folder for depositing the application materials for that applicant. The folder should be labeled by the applicant’s Last Name, First Name and deposited files should be given helpful file names (like NAME CV, NAME Teaching Statement, etc.) if they do not already have such helpful designations. (IV. Developing the Applicant Pool)
• The Provost’s Office contacts IS to set up an email alias for the Search Committee; that email address will be used in the job ad.

Once a Team Site has been created: (III. Position Description and Announcements)

• Please verify whether the website will automatically sort the submissions into files when the candidate applies. If so, then please make sure to check the email alias of the search for the Letters of Recommendation. You will need to upload those directly yourself into the shared drive. If not, then please follow the step below to help manage and organize the shared drive.
• Create a spreadsheet to help keep track of the candidates and their information. Please see the included spreadsheet for examples of column headings.
• Ask the chair if they would like a printed hard copy of the files for the search committee meetings. If they do please make sure to mark each as confidential. It is also helpful to make sure they organized in the same order and placed in their own individual file folder.

Sample Spreadsheet of Application Materials

Note: This spreadsheet is best viewed on a desktop

Last Name	First Name	Current Employer	PhD Granting Institution	Undergraduate Institution	Cover Letter	CV	Teaching Philosophy	Research Statement	Diversity/ Inclusion statement	LOR	Notes
Furge	Laura	Kalamazoo College	Vanderbilt, 1998, Biochemistry – and postdoc with Stanley Cohen (Vanderbilt)	Oberlin, 1993, Biochemistry	X	X	x	x	x	1- Guengerich 2-Harris 3-Marnett

Normally for tenure track searches a web page is developed which allows automatic submission of applications. If it is not working properly then please see below for additional help with sorting the candidates in a timely and neatly manner.

• Set up files for potential candidates. It is helpful to have empty folders containing the following sub folders. Once you receive the information it is easy to rename the main folder to the candidates name and place their information in the correct sub folder.
  • a. a cover letter;
  • b. a curriculum vitae, with a description of scholarly interests;
  • c. undergraduate and graduate transcripts (unofficial copies acceptable);
  • d. three letters of reference;
  • e. a detailed statement of teaching philosophy and goals;
  • f. diversity and inclusion statement.

Set up communication based on the Committee needs:

• Ask chair about the communication needs for the committee. This may include media assistance for Skype.
• Check with chair to see if they would like for you to create a Letterhead or E-Letterhead for the committee. This would entail you to change the telephone and fax numbers of the hiring department to the communication numbers the each committee has agreed upon.

After finalist candidates are selected and invitations are made: (VIII. Campus Visits of Candidates)

• Email the Assistant to the Provost, Melanie (President’s assistant) and Renee (HR Director) to inform them of the date of the visit. Double-check their availability for the dates. (VIII. Campus Visits of Candidates)
• Arrange with the College travel agent for any air travel. Keep Assistant to the Provost aware of the arrangements, since the Provost’s office pays for this.
• Make arrangements to have the candidate picked up at the airport, if needed. It’s also important to make arrangements to get the candidate back to the airport for their departure.
• Reserve a room at the Stuart Avenue Inn – 269.342.0230, or another comparable location close to campus.
• Find out if the candidate has any special diet accommodations or mobility concerns (some rooms are not as handicap accessible as others). Please share this information with the Stuart Avenue Inn and Dining Services.
• Work with your chair to establish an itinerary for the candidate’s visit (more information on this below).
• Ask the chair if they would like to have hard copies of the complete files for each selected candidate that has received an invite to the college.

Make an Itinerary for the candidate’s visit: (Candidate Visit Checklist)

1. Visits should include:
   1. interviews with department faculty, individually and collectively;
      1. Obtain the availability of all the department faculty
      2. Work with faculty to help establish the order in which the interviews should take place
   2. time with department majors and other interested students;
      1. This is usually a lunch or dinner in the dining hall. Make sure to obtain meal tickets for the candidate and students prior to the visit. Assistant to the Provost can provide the tickets or the account number to put on the tickets.
      2. Often times a student is asked to give the candidate a tour of the campus as well
   3. interview with the Provost;
      1. Contact Assistant to the Provost to help schedule the finalized time
   4. interview with the President (if available);
      1. Contact Melanie to help schedule the finalized time
   5. interview with the Human Resources Director;
      1. Contact Renee to help schedule the finalized time
   6. interviews with the Search Committee;
      1. Obtain the availability of all the committee members. Search chair should meet with the candidate at the beginning and the end of the visit.
   7. a public presentation to a general College audience;
      1. Reserve a classroom or Olmsted Room
      2. Contact Media Services regarding any media set-up that is required for the presentation (request that a media student worker stays on site to help with any addition media help during the presentation)
      3. Advertise the presentation. (Posters, Flyers, Hive, direct email to Majors and Minors). The candidate’s name should not appear on any online advertising.
      4. Order any catering if requested by the committee (cookies and lemonade are the most requested food items for this).
   8. a classroom presentation.
      1. Reserve any media set-up for the classroom presentation.
      2. Invite other Department Faculty to sit in on the class for observations.
      3. Prepare a half-page student evaluation form for the presentation.
2. Once an itinerary gets the final approval from your chair. Send an electronic copy to the following individuals
   1. Committee Members
   2. Department Faculty
   3. Candidate
   4. Assistant to the Provost
   5. Melanie (President’s office)
   6. Renee (HR Director)

The day or two before of the visit:

• Remind the chair to send an email outlining any important travel information and a copy of the itinerary to the candidate.
• Resend the itinerary to everyone else listed above
• Contact the students that are meeting with the candidate for lunch or for a tour, confirm the times that they are expected to help.
• Confirm the faculty, car service or staff member that will picking up the candidate at the airport, if needed.
• Confirm with dining services regarding any special diet information

The day of the visit:

• Make sure all presentations, meetings and meals start at the time listed on the itinerary. Candidates are on tight schedules and oftentimes meetings run over placing everything behind. This is especially important for class and presentation times.
• Make yourself available to help with impromptu activities to occupy the candidate if anyone has to cancel their individual meetings or if extra time is created in the schedule (including getting access to campus wifi).
• Arrive prior to the presentations to insure all is going according to plan (media, catering, etc…)

Reminders:

• All Candidate information is to be kept confidential.
• A list of all applicants, the records and all files kept within the department office should be kept for two years at which point they can be destroyed.
• IMPORTANT: Make sure you have removed all flyers/posters that contain the candidate’s name before the next candidate arrives

After the search is completed:

• Assist the chair in sending out letters to the candidates that were not selected (this usually happens after an offer to a candidate has been made and accepted, e.g. after the search is completed)