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Recruitment of new faculty is a matter of interest to the whole Department and should be carried out with as wide consultation as is practicable.

The Department Chair, after consulting with FAC, initiates the search by securing administrative approval from the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the Provost.

The Chair, in consultation with FAC, shall appoint a Search Committee and its Chair, the Committee to be comprised of full-time TT faculty.  Under rare circumstances, it may be considered appropriate by a majority of the FAC to appoint one full-time NTT or part-time faculty member.  Search committees can decide whether or not to invite a graduate student to be involved with the process, but a graduate student may not have a vote.

The Chair shall advertise the position in jobs.kent.edu and appropriate professional publications.  Other avenues of advertisement, such as posting on the Internet or letters to other universities, may also be used but only after the position has been approved by the appropriate University Officers, and no earlier than when the job advertisement is scheduled to be published in jobs.kent.edu and other professional publications.

The Chair of the Search Committee will convene Committee members to review the search timetable and to establish criteria, including due regard for the University’s commitment to affirmative action, and procedures for screening the applicants.

After the deadline has passed, the Search Committee will review the applicants’ files, rank the top candidates, and subsequently prepare a list of candidates for initial interviews, usually at the MLA or CCCC conventions.

After initial interviews, the Search Committee normally will develop a list of three finalists for campus interviews and present the list to the Chair for review.

The Search Committee shall schedule campus interviews with the candidates, including opportunities, if possible, for the candidate to demonstrate teaching proficiency and to make a scholarly presentation.  It shall inform the Department of the itineraries; provide opportunities for the faculty to meet the candidates informally; and arrange interviews with the Chair, the College Dean, and, in some cases, the Provost.

Following the interview process, the Search Committee shall solicit opinions from the Department, including members of FAC.  They will then convene to discuss the written comments and to discuss each of the finalists.  Before submitting a ranked list to the Chair, the Chair of the Search Committee will summarize the Committee’s final meeting in writing for the Chair and will submit the summary with a ranked list of finalists to the Chair.  The summary will be made available to all English faculty.

The Chair is responsible for making the final decision and for generating and securing approval of the letter of offer.  When an offer has been accepted, the Chair shall announce the results of the search to the Department and publish them in the weekly newsletter.