Run the Search

• Use a variety of strategies to recruit a broad pool of applicants
• List the position announcement in multiple places in addition to professional publications.
• Widely share the faculty recruitment website, which links to all job postings and provides comprehensive information to engage a wide variety of faculty candidates and highlight material for which candidates are commonly searching.
• The job ad must be placed in at least one national professional journal (online or print), although multiple postings are encouraged. The posting of the job ad must last for at least 30 calendar days on the journal's website. An active link to this posted advertisement must be forwarded to the IEO (dgifford@ou.edu). The job ad must also be viewable to the public without payment of subscription and/or membership charges. Documentation of the placement of an advertisement will need to be provided to the IEO with evidence of the start and end dates and the text of the advertisement.
• Search committee chair, or delegate, must provide a list of locations where the ad was posted and other recruitment efforts to develop a diverse pool of applicants to IEO (dgifford@ou.edu).

Recruiting a Broad Pool of Applicants

Initial Screening of the Applicant Pool

• The purpose of the initial screening is to establish the qualified applicant pool, that is, those applicants who meet the required minimum criteria for the position.
• Once the committee has determined the qualified applicant pool, the chair or unit delegate must provide the list of qualified applicant pool candidates and the first required screening criteria to Institutional Equity Office (IEO). On-campus interviews will not be approved by the Provost's Office until this step has been completed.

Second Screening of the Qualified Applicant Pool

• In this phase, qualitative judgments are made on the required qualifications (e.g., quality of teaching demonstrated), and any preferred qualifications are also assessed. 
• Consider the importance of achieving aspects of the Lead On strategic plan, when determining initial and secondary screening criteria.
• Emphasize importance of conducting a thorough reading of the applicant materials before evaluating each applicant and remind the search committee of biases that may impact evaluations.
• The search committee chair will need to provide the names of candidates in the screened applicant pool, as well as the second preferred list of criteria to IEO. 
• You may contact the references for the applicants and/or conduct phone or online interviews. 
• For phone or online interviews, determine a standard set of questions to ask each candidate and prepare a scoring rubric before conducting the interviews. Be sensitive to the choice of interview methods for applicants with disabilities.

Request On-Campus Interview Approval

• Once the search committee has identified the final candidates, the committee chairs should request approval from the Dean's Office to invite the finalists for on-campus interviews.
• Once approved by the Dean's Office, the request will be forwarded to the Provost's Office for approval. To request a review, the Dean’s Office should send an email along with a copy of the qualified applicant pool report to Sarah Ellis at sjr@ou.edu.
• Both the Dean's Office and the Provost's Office must approve the request for final interviews before scheduling interviews.
• Submit names of candidates invited for on-campus interviews to IEO.
  

Conduct On-Campus Interviews of the Applicants on the Short List

• On-site interviews should be scheduled in consultation with the candidates. 
• Review best practices for on-campus interviews before setting up the itineraries for the visits.
• Establish the process and criteria that will be used by the search committee to evaluate the candidates following the on-campus interviews.
• Follow the agreed-upon process by the academic unit to determine the applicant who should receive the job offer. After the candidate is identified, discuss how to proceed if the candidate rejects the offer.

Recommend a Candidate

• The Dean will submit the college's recommendation for hire to the Provost in the form of request for offer letter paperwork. 
• If the offer includes VPRP start-up funds, then approval from the VPRP Office must be included on the request for offer letter paperwork prior to submitting it to the Provost's Office.
• The Provost’s Office will submit a request for certification to the IEO. If all the above steps have been completed satisfactorily, then IEO will certify the search process to the Provost's Office.

Policy On Faculty To Be Recommended For Tenure Upon Initial Appointment

Academic units should work with the deans to notify them as expeditiously as possible of faculty being recommended for tenure upon initial appointment. The normal routing procedure is:

1. Faculty or Search Committee
2.  Departmental Committee A (if applicable)
3. Chair/Director
4. College Committee A (if applicable)
5. Dean’s Advisory Committee (if applicable)
6. Dean
7. Senior Vice President and Provost
8. President
9. University of Oklahoma Board of Regents

The materials forwarded to the Senior Vice President and Provost for such appointments should include all letters of recommendation information secured during the search process. To the extent possible, there should be evidence of effective teaching and evaluations from external distinguished individuals qualified to evaluate the candidate's research, scholarship, and creative activities. Each academic unit and college may stipulate what additional information, if any, beyond the standard materials compiled by the search committee, to include in a recommendation to appoint with tenure. All such materials, in addition to the letters of recommendations, should be forwarded to the dean, who, in turn, will transmit them to the Senior Vice President and Provost.

The dean is responsible for ensuring that the search procedure produces the information required to make an informed decision to appoint with tenure. As with other tenure recommendations, the Senior Vice President and Provost can go back to a unit for additional information about faculty being recommended for tenure with initial appointment.

Hiring of International Faculty

We have centralized all University contacts with the United States Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) concerning the hiring of international faculty. Routine contacts are handled by Nima Zecavati, JD, Director & Immigration Counsel, Office of Immigration Services (405-325-2577).

Criteria for noncitizens in the candidate pool should be identical to those for citizen candidates. Any concerns about visas or other immigration issues that arise for a noncitizen candidate will be handled by the above offices and should not be raised with the candidate or otherwise considered during the search, except that clearance to work in the United States may be noted as a requirement of the position.

Whenever considering recommending a faculty appointment (either tenure-track or non-tenure-track) for a noncitizen, please contact the office of Immigration Services before making any commitments and as much in advance as possible to discuss the situation and to determine the best way to proceed. The complexity of immigration laws and the uniqueness of each situation require individual review before any commitments are made to the prospective faculty member about what the University can do to assist with immigration and naturalization matters.

We will do everything we can to help. Immigration law and USCIS agency procedures are complex and rapidly changing. Because of this and the special circumstances of each case, it is crucial for any new international appointee to contact the Office of Immigration Services and provide all requested information and documents promptly. The University will be responsible for its legal duties as an employer, but in all cases the basic responsibility for complying with immigration laws must rest with the individual to whom the offer is being made. The University will help in any way it can and will work carefully to see that we as an institution carry out our responsibilities in accordance with the law. This is essential if we are to continue to be able to secure truly outstanding faculty.