APPENDIX 4
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
STATEMENT OF HIRING POLICIES

[Rev. April 2003]
 

1.       Tenure-track Professorial Positions.

1.1.    Early in the academic year preceding a retirement or resignation at the professorial level, the Executive Committee, after soliciting opinions from the professorial faculty, will determine the nature of the position to be advertised and will develop a vacancy announcement that sets forth required and desired qualifications, as well as rating forms.

1.2.    The chair will complete the Affirmative Action "Report of Recruitment" form; obtain approval of committee rating forms; and obtain the dean's and the academic vice president's permission to advertise the position.

1.3.    The position will be advertised in the October Job Information List and in the Bulletin Board section of the Chronicle of Higher Education.  The chair may also write to individuals to invite application or to request help in publicizing the position.  Screening of applications will normally take place in October, November, and December.  Every applicant is sent a copy of the vacancy announcement and an Affirmative Action candidate information form.

1.4.    From the members of the Executive Committee, the chair will appoint a group (usually him/herself and two others) to meet with candidates at the Modern Language Association ("MLA") convention.

1.5.  Before leaving the MLA convention city, the sub-committee will individually rank candidates and will then collate their rankings to arrive at a list of 2-4 finalists.  After discussing the situation with the dean, the chair will extend invitations to these finalists to visit campus.

1.6.   The full Executive Committee will meet as soon as possible after MLA to affirm or change any of the subcommittee's rankings that have not been solidified by an invitation to campus.  Any change in the ranking of candidates must be reviewed by a meeting of the entire Executive Committee, or such members as are in Moscow.  Following this meeting, the chair files the Affirmative Action "Report of Preliminary and Intermediate Selection Procedures" form.

1.7.    The top candidates will visit campus and will present their work to a gathering of faculty and students.  Following each visit, the Executive Committee will invite written and oral responses to the candidate's presentation.

1.8.    After the last candidate's visit, the Executive Committee will meet to formulate a recommendation, which will then go immediately as a seconded motion to a meeting of the voting departmental faculty.  The faculty should be given the information used by the committee in ranking candidates, a narrative rationale for the ranking, and information about Affirmative Action principles.  The Executive Committee's recommendation may address the issues of rank and salary.

After approval by the faculty of a ranked list of candidates, the chair will complete the "Report of Interview Procedures" Affirmative Action form, seek approval from the Affirmative Action officer and the dean for permission to offer the position, and (in consultation with the dean) begin negotiations with the top candidate.  Letters of offer will be extended by the dean.  The process will be considered completed when a candidate signs a contract.

1.9.    Unsuccessful candidates will be notified by letter from the chair that the position has been filled.

2.       Visiting Professorial Positions.

2.1.    If the dean, the chair, and the Executive Committee concur that a regular faculty member's proposed absence will adversely affect any of the department's curricula, the department will advertise a visiting professorial position.

2.2.    If the department is aware of a proposed absence in sufficient time, the timetable governing hiring of tenure-track faculty will apply (with the exception that candidates for visiting positions will not be invited to campus or necessarily interviewed in person).  If notice of a proposed absence is given in the spring semester, the department will follow procedures outlined in Section 1 of this appendix, advertising in the Job Information List and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

2.3.    Visiting positions may be renewed without a new search.  The chair will complete Affirmative Action's "Limited Recruitment Form" before offering the extension.

3.       Distinguished Visiting Writer Positions.

3.1.    In October of each year, the Director of Creative Writing, working with other faculty members who teach creative writing courses, will compile a ranked list of recommended writers to offer advanced workshops during the following academic year. 

3.2.    It is expected that the list will reflect a balanced representation of literary genres, a regional balance, and a gender and ethnic balance.  The proposed writers will have been screened for their teaching abilities as well as for their status in the national writing community.

3.3.  The Executive Committee will review the list.  Members may propose changes; these proposals should be discussed by the entire group that assembled the list.  When the revised list is resubmitted, the Executive Committee will put the list's approval to a vote.

3.4.  The Director of Creative Writing, in consultation with the chair, will develop a tentative schedule of workshops and will contact writers to make arrangements involving this timetable.  The chair will extend offers in early December.

4.       Lecturer Positions.

4.1.    The English department will hire lecturers, both permanent and temporary, to assist in instruction of general education courses (although occasionally lecturers with particularly strong qualifications in a given area may be assigned to a non-core course).

4.2.    Permanent lecturers are appointed for a five-year term.  In the fifth year, the Executive Committee will conduct a comprehensive review, after which the lecturer will be reappointed if his or her work is judged to be good.  This process is intended to be perennial.  The rank of lecturer is not tenurable; therefore, permanent lecturers who are perennially re-appointed are not considered to have tenure in the English department.

4.3.    When a permanent lecturer position opens, the Executive Committee, after soliciting opinions from the voting faculty, will determine the nature of the position to be advertised.  The chair will complete appropriate Affirmative Action forms, obtain approval of vacancy announcement and rating forms, and obtain approval from the dean and the academic vice president to advertise the position.  The search should begin as early as possible in the academic year and may be advertised through MLA or Conference on College Composition and Communication ("CCCC") publications.  Every applicant is sent a copy of the vacancy announcement and an Affirmative Action candidate information form.  Screening of applications will usually take place in March.

4.4.    A subcommittee of the Executive Committee or its designees will conduct interviews, either in person or by telephone.  Rankings developed by the subcommittee will go to the Executive Committee for approval or alteration, then to the voting faculty in the form of a seconded motion.  After faculty approval, the chair will complete negotiations as specified above for professorial-level faculty.

4.5.    Temporary lecturers will be appointed for terms of one semester or one year to meet enrollment demands in core courses.  Requirements will be the same as for permanent lecturer positions.  Although temporary lecturers will be reviewed annually, those occupying the position will be evaluated against external applicants every two years.  The evaluation process will credit involvement with the department's writing programs.

4.6.   In April of every second year, the English department will invite applications for temporary lecturer positions.  The chair will complete appropriate Affirmative Action forms, obtain approval of vacancy announcement and rating forms, and obtain approval from the dean and the academic vice president to advertise the position.  The position will ordinarily be advertised only regionally.

4.7.   Normally, interviews will not be conducted.  The Executive Committee or its designees will screen applicants' written materials, each member completing individual rating forms; these will form the basis for a communally-determined ranked list.  The chair will obtain Affirmative Action sign-off on the list of acceptable candidates and will offer positions as enrollment figures justify and as funding is made available.  The department's goal will be to fill all needed positions by early June.

4.8.    As early as possible after candidates have been ranked, the chair will notify applicants of their status.

4.9.    If in the second year, the department needs to hire additional temporary lecturers, the chair will normally offer positions according to the ranking created in the first year.  If the pool includes no candidates qualified to fill the particular needs of the department, the chair will solicit applications from qualified people and will circulate these among the Executive Committee or its designees for consideration.  With the approval of the Executive Committee and the Affirmative Action officer, these candidates may be folded into the pool.

5.       Teaching Assistantships.

5.1.    In the spring semester the Director of Writing will determine how many teaching assistantships will be open for the following year.

5.2.    The Department Chair, in coordination with the Directors of graduate programs, will assemble application materials.  The Executive Committee will review applications beginning in late March.

5.3.    Assistantships will be awarded beginning in April.  If positions remained unfilled by the end of June, the chair may request that the stipend(s) be appropriated to the hiring of temporary lecturers.

5.4.   The Executive Committee may determine to award more than the department's allotted number of assistantships in a given year if they can be funded through internal re-allocation of departmental resources.

              Normally, assistantships will be renewable for one year.