Faculty Search and Screen Procedures

General Hiring Principles

All faculty hiring is facilitated by the Office of Academic Affairs.

• Before you start the search process, please get approval from the EVCAA. Before starting, all searches must be approved by the campus leadership. The EVCAA will let you know when you can proceed.
• Any time someone is newly appointed to a position, even an interim or visiting position, you must have a vacancy notice created (Step 4, below).
• Those asked to serve as chair of a Search and Screen Committee must have training prior to serving.
• Search and Screen committees should be constructed to reflect the area of expertise of the position under recruitment, the department, and broader representation of Indiana University. Multiple studies have shown that search committees composed this way are more likely to generate a robust candidate pool. As such, it is expected that the committee be composed of individuals from a range of ranks, perspectives and backgrounds across the university. This is an essential first step in undertaking a search process.
• In the event there is not adequate variety among existing members of the department to form a broad committee, the committee chair should consider asking faculty members from related departments to serve on the committee. Staff or graduate students may likewise be invited to serve on either search committees or advisory committees as a means of acquiring additional perspectives.
• Committees must be approved by the Senior Advisor to the Chancellor and the Faculty Liaison.  
• Maintaining Confidentiality - The committee is expected to maintain confidentiality during and after the search. While it may be permissible to discuss candidates with other members of the faculty at certain points in the search process, these discussions should not involve students who are not members of the search committee. Candidates should not be discussed with other candidates or with colleagues outside the department or the institution. Good candidates may withdraw if they believe their candidacy is not treated confidentially. This is especially important when there are internal candidates for a position. Email, texts, or other forms of messaging should not be used to discuss candidates. Except for indicating if a candidate does not meet the minimum qualifications, comments about candidates should be reserved for meetings and should not be documented in the hiring system.

As a search committee member, you have access to sensitive applicant information that must be handled with the highest level of discretion. Remember, you are a steward of the confidential information shared with you on behalf of the university.

Protect all candidate information: This includes names, application materials, references, and interview details.

Secure Search Materials: Keep applicant files, committee notes, and any digital records (including emails, Teams and Slack messages) protected and accessible only by authorized individuals. Be especially careful when downloading or printing materials; and avoid printing sensitive materials unnecessarily.

Keep any notes you take throughout the search factual and job-related. These notes may be reviewed in a legal claim or complaint investigation. All review-related materials must be kept for 5-years.

Interviews should not be recorded. If there is a need for a presentation to be recorded and shared within the department, appropriate releases must be signed by the candidate(s) and recordings should be shared and maintained securely.

If you become aware of a potential breach, report it to the committee chair or appropriate authority immediately.

• All hiring documents must be kept for five years.

• Emails for all searches should copy the following people:
  • Hiring Supervisor (HS) and/or Dean
  • Senior Advisor to the Chancellor
  • Faculty Liaison (FL)
  • Executive Assistant for Academic Affairs (EAAA)
  • Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs (EVCAA)

• Emails regarding salary should include:
  • Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
  • Vice Chancellor for Finance
  • Senior Advisor to the Chancellor
  • Hiring Supervisor and/or Dean

• The sequence of approval in the hiring software is: 

1. 1. Dean
   2. Senior Advisor to the Chancellor
   3. Faculty Liaison
   4. EVCAA

Advertisements

Searches should seek to generate broad candidate pools in order to increase the likelihood of finding the best person for the position. At the start of the search process, the position description should be reviewed by the search committee to ensure that it accurately reflects current department needs and future directions. Committees should not recycle old descriptions that could have the effect of discouraging candidates, or that have inaccurate job requirements. Search committees should be careful not to frame the search as a "replacement" for a departing colleague, which could create an unduly narrow or niche definition of the specializations needed and, in turn, may discourage people from applying. Duties or responsibilities such as teaching assignments, research expectations, service expectations, or department responsibilities should be highlighted, especially if important or unusual.

Ads should be posted for 30 days minimum online.    Internal searches must be posted for at least 5 working days.

Human Resources will post on jobs.iu.edu.

Positions posted on People Admin are automatically posted to specific job boards including:  HigherEdJobs, Insights into Academia, Indiana Career Connect, Indeed, and Linkedin.

Academic Affairs will post on the Chronicle website.

The hiring unit will place ads in discipline-specific publications if requested/needed

Process and Procedures

There are four documents that are needed to proceed. They are listed in the next three steps. Please submit the four documents to the EAAA for processing.

Step 1: Prepare a Position Authorization Form and a Position Justification Statement

• Please use the Position Authorization Form. Note, this PDF should be saved to your hard drive, completed in Acrobat, then emailed as an attachment. If you simply open the PDF in your web browser, it may not work. There is no need to print it off. 

• • Note: Salary ranges will be based on the formula provided by the VC for Finance. Any exception to this must be approved by campus leadership.  
• Justification Statement for the position should accompany the position authorization.
  • Justification should explain:
    • What this faculty member will do
    • Why they are needed
    • What their qualifications will be
    • What other costs this new faculty member will likely incur (such as lab costs). It should be noted whether these are one time or continuing.
• You will receive an email copy when all signatures are on the form

Step 2: Form the Search Committee

• Send member names of the Search and Screen Committee via email to the Senior Advisor to the Chancellor and Faculty Liaison, cc the EAAA, for approval. 
• The Senior Advisor to the Chancellor does not need to attend the initial meeting since the committee chair has been trained in correct search procedures and can train the committee

Step 3: Create the Advertisement and Recruitment Plan

• Meet with the committee members and prepare an advertisement and recruitment plan. The following must be included in all ads:

One of eight campuses of Indiana University, Indiana University Kokomo, is a comprehensive non-residential campus located 50 miles north of Indianapolis in Kokomo, Indiana, a city with a population of about 60,000. Committed to student success, the campus serves approximately 3000 students from a 14-county area in north-central Indiana. IU Kokomo has around 270 full-time faculty and staff. Associate, baccalaureate, and master’s degrees are offered. Additional information about Indiana University Kokomo is at https://kokomo.iu.edu/index.html.  Accommodations are available in the hiring process for individuals with disabilities. Those needing accommodations should contact the Office of Civil Rights Compliance at 765-455-9316.

If the position is not approved for VISA sponsorship, then this statement must be added to the advertisement. Please note: H-1B sponsorship is not available for this position.

Please remember that candidates may not be asked about their citizenship or immigration status during the interview process.

Interested candidates should review the application requirements and submit their application at https://indiana.peopleadmin.com. Questions regarding the position or application process can be directed to [insert department contact and full mailing address.]

The following should show up automatically in People Admin listings, but MUST be included on any external posting advertising the positions:  “Indiana University is an equal opportunity employer and a provider of ADA services and prohibits discrimination in hiring.  See Indiana University Notice of Non-Discrimination here which includes contact information.”

• Take care when describing the requirements for the position - the language of the advertisement determines whether candidates are qualified for the job and can be interviewed.

All qualifications must be strictly job-related. All descriptions of the position in advertisements or announcements must include the minimum or required qualifications. If preferred qualifications are included, there should be wording indicating which qualifications are required and which are preferred. Educational requirements should be clearly defined including whether ABD candidates will be considered, if applicable.

Indiana law prohibits the university from requiring an applicant to pledge allegiance to or make a statement of personal support for any policy or action that would treat similarly situated people or groups of people differently based on race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, or religion; or political or ideological movement. In addition, if a candidate submits any such statement to the university, including any statement regarding diversity, equity and inclusion or related topics, that university may not award employment, benefits, or hiring/reappointment to an applicant or employee on the basis of the viewpoints expressed in the pledge or statement. To comply with legal requirements, diversity statements shall not be requested of applicants.

Be careful to avoid language that might indicate that there is a demographic preference among applicants. Phrases such as and not limited to “representational diversity” “lived experience” or “cultural competence” are not permissible in job postings.

Indiana University values all aspects of cultural and intellectual diversity. Our commitment to this value can be reflected in preferred qualifications as they relate specifically to the position, For example:

• “Demonstrated success working with faculty and student populations from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences.”
• “Experience with a variety of teaching methods and curricular perspectives.”
• “Need to interact with a student and faculty community from a broad range backgrounds and perspectives.”
• “Experience with specific scholarly areas [e.g. Latinx studies, Asian history, health care in communities of color, etc.]” 

The following items must be included in all forms of recruitment announcements or advertising related to the position:

• Indiana University Kokomo
• Academic Unit
• title of position and appointment type
• expected appointment start date
• accurate description of duties and responsibilities
• minimum qualifications (although others may be listed as well)
• educational requirements
• contact information (i.e. phone, email)
• timelines (i.e., for best consideration date and expected start date)
• link to the position in university application site (PeopleAdmin)
• Non-Discrimination statement
• In accordance with ACA-77, Advertising Policy for Academic Instructional Positions, if the position could potentially include visa sponsorship, the advertising plan must include a national professional journal (such as The Chronicle of Higher Education), which contains articles, not just job postings. The ad must be posted for at least 30 calendar days on the journal's website, and documentation of the ad and the relevant posting dates should be retained. Only minimum requirements for the position can be listed. Preferred qualifications cannot be listed, nor can any of the criteria be subjective (e.g., demonstrated success in working with students in a laboratory setting). The criteria must be objective and measurable (e.g., one year of experience in working with students in a laboratory setting).
• Have ad approved by the Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.

• The recruitment plan should list all venues for advertising. Please see the above section on Advertisements for standard advertising procedures. Please list the approximate cost for ads in discipline-specific venues.

Step 4: The EAAA will create a new faculty posting in PeopleAdmin Faculty Applicant Tracking System

After this point, the advertisements will be run and candidates will apply by uploading their materials into the system. You can ask the EAAA for updates as to how many candidates have applied.

Step 6: Sort Candidates into Pools

The advertisement will have a date that indicates when you will begin to review candidates. On or after that date, the committee must divide the candidates into pools and communicate this to the EAAA. The committee needs to create a table that lists all of the candidates. Within the table, candidates need to be labeled with one of the following categories:

• Basic Qualifications Not Met – These candidates do not meet the minimum qualifications for the position as listed in the advertisement. In the table, make a brief explanation as to why the candidate is not qualified. Not, any candidates with incomplete packets are listed as not qualified. If their packet is later completed, you may choose to move them to another category.
• Not Interviewed Not Selected – These are candidates who meet minimum qualifications but are not selected for an interview.
• Long List—These are candidates who meet all of the position qualifications as listed in the advertisement and are selected for the first round of interviews, typically a virtual interview.
• Short List – These are the candidates that were on the Long List, interviewed in the first round and now will be invited for the second round of interviews, typically an on-campus interview.
• Applications Received – Applications that arrived after the consideration date and were not reviewed. Note: If any applications are reviewed after the consideration date, then all applications submitted after the consideration date must be reviewed.

Provide this table to the EAAA, who will enter it into the computer system. Note, you can begin sorting candidates into pools before the closing date, but it is not completed until then.

Step 7: Request Permission to Conduct Preliminary Interviews

Ask the EAAA to request permission to conduct preliminary interviews, such as by phone and/or Zoom. She will let you know when they are approved. You will interview everyone on your long list. No interview can be recorded without the Legal Counsel's approval.

Step 8: Campus Interviews

• Determine which candidates you want to bring to campus. Provide their names and strengths and weaknesses to all applicants interviewed in the preliminary interviews to the EAAA. She will tell you when they are approved.
• Once approved, call each candidate and invite to campus for an interview and share the salary for the position.
• Your Administrative Assistant arranges the campus visit for the candidate.
• Candidates should be given the visit itinerary in advance. The itinerary for each candidate shall include meetings with all of the same groups and provide opportunities for interactions with the same offices during their visit.
• When requesting a skills/teaching demonstration, it is important that this requirement is administered consistently with all candidates and that all candidates are given enough notification to prepare properly or make any requests for equipment or accommodations.
• The committee should compose a group of core questions based on the job-related criteria to use in evaluating candidates.  The same set of questions should be asked of all candidates to obtain crucial job-related information and promote an equitable process, however, follow-up questions based on their responses will most likely vary with each candidate.
• Conduct the interviews. Finalists will be told that they must provide the name and contact information of a direct supervisor, and those supervisors will be contacted.
• Conduct reference checks. Note, this can be done as you are conducting the interviews. One reference should have been a direct supervisor. Reference checks should be kept in departmental files for at least five years.

• Once the interviews are completed, the committee will evaluate the candidates and email their report to the EVCAA, Dean, Senior Advisor to the Chancellor and the Faculty Liaison. The report should include:

• Strengths and weaknesses, and
• Do not formally rank candidates, though you can make your preferences clear, such as through the language you use and the order you list them

Step 9: Request Permission to Make an Offer

Once approved, ask the EAAA to enter a request to make an offer into the system. She will need to attach the report of strengths and weaknesses. Once this has been approved in the People Admin system, the appropriate dean will be notified, and they will make the verbal offer to the finalist. Once the verbal offer has been accepted, a formal written offer will be sent by Academic Affairs under the signature of the EVCAA.

Revised 2/5/26