Whitman resumed its faculty recruitment this year after many tenure-track faculty searches were suspended in fall 2008 due to the economic crisis. Whitman has been conducting eight searches for tenure-track positions, along with several other one-year positions, this year.

The college is conducting searches for tenure-track positions in astronomy, chemistry, Chinese, Japanese, philosophy, studio art and two positions in economics this year according to Provost and Dean of Faculty Timothy Kaufman-Osborn. Of these searches, the searches for astronomy, Japanese, philosophy and studio art have been successfully completed thus far.

The process of recruiting faculty members at Whitman is a complex endeavor, involving a significant investment of time and resources on the part of the faculty, the administration and the Board of Trustees.

“Because of our high standards, and because Whitman is a desirable place to teach, members of search committees work very hard, putting in many hours beyond their time teaching, doing scholarship and participating in faculty governance,” said Thomas Callister, associate dean of faculty and professor of education.

The hiring process for tenure-track faculty begins when a faculty position is empty, usually due to a professor retiring or leaving.

The faculty search begins when openings are identified by the Committee of Division Chairs, the provost and the president and then approved by the Board of Trustees. At this point, the department submits a request to the dean of faculty and the Committee of Division Chairs to maintain the position within their department. The president, with the advice of the dean of faculty and the Committee of Division Chairs, has the ability to re-allocate the tenure-track position to another department, but this does not happen frequently.

While on campus, the candidates interview with the search committee members and with a committee of students from the department. The candidates also meet staff, the dean of faculty and the president. The candidates do two formal presentations while on campus, including a demonstration of their teaching and a presentation of their research.

“I think that our best-selling [assets] are the students. In the process, they get to meet our students one-on-one. They are so blown away by the quality of our students that that becomes one of the real selling factors of the college,” said Jonathan Walters, Division II chair and professor of religion.

Sophomore Alexe Helmke participated in the recruitment process for an astronomy professor.

“I was really happy with the fact that students’ input was a factor,” she said. “People might look really awesome on paper, but getting to meet them and listen to them talk helped us really find out who would benefit the students and the school in the long run,” she said.

If the Committee of Division Chairs or the dean of faculty decide that a different candidate would be better for Whitman as a whole, it can ask the selection committee to consider a different choice.

“[The Committee of Division Chairs] is looking out for the whole college rather than for a particular field,” said Walters.

Kaufman-Osborn noted that Whitman sometimes confronts various problems in the recruitment process. These include candidates who would prefer to teach at a large, research-oriented university, candidates whose spouse would be unable to find a suitable job in Walla Walla and those who do not want to be in an isolated location.

In addition, Whitman is vying with other institutions to recruit top faculty.

“The difficulty in hiring excellent faculty is that there is competition for the best faculty. We have very high standards and new faculty who meet those standards are sought out by other institutions as well,” said Callister.

The upcoming change from a 3-3 to a 3-2 teaching schedule may eventually affect faculty recruitment. Whitman conducted a yearlong survey on the implications of switching the course load.

According to Kaufman-Osborn, the vast majority of departments showed that they could in fact move to a five-course load, but a few departments said that that a five-course load would disrupt their major programs.

“We need to take that into account in figuring out what tenure track searches to recommend,” he said.

Walters believes the hiring process, although complex, is working well.

“We’ve got an outstanding faculty and every one of us has come in through this process,” said Walters.

FACULTY RECRUITMENT EXPLAINED:

The faculty recruitment process is fairly complex. This is the general recruitment process for a tenure-track professor:

1. The process starts when a faculty position is empty, usually due to a professor retiring or leaving.
2. If the dean of faculty, the president, and the Board of Trustees approve a tenure-line search for a department, the department begins the search by publishing the job description in professional publications within the field.
3. For each opening, a search committee is formed. The search committee for a tenure-track position is typically composed of the tenure faculty members of the department that has the opening, the chair of the division, at least one member of a different division, and students.
4. This search committee reads all of the applications and develops a ranked list of the top applicants.
5. Most academic fields have a yearly conference that many of the applicants attend, and the search committee does preliminary interviews at these conferences when possible. After the interviews, the committee makes a list of the top five or six applicants.
6. The committee then sends the list to the dean of faculty for approval. Of those five or six top applicants for a tenure-track position, the committee and the dean then select three or fewer candidates to come to campus. While the candidates are on campus, the committee both assesses the candidates and tries to sell Whitman.
7. Next the search committee meets again to rank the candidates that came to campus. The committee only ranks applicants that they deem acceptable, so if the committee does not approve of one candidate, that candidate will not be included in this list.
8. The dean of faculty and the Committee of Division Chairs must approve the search committee’s ranked list. The president then must approve the decision as well.
9. Finally, the search committee contacts the top applicant on the list to offer him or her the position.
10. If the applicant accepts, the search is complete. If the first applicant declines, the search committee contacts the next acceptable applicant on the list, assuming that there are more acceptable applicants who have been approved. If there are no more applicants that the committee has deemed acceptable, the search is finished and will be restarted at a later time.