Guidelines for Search Committees and Job Seekers on Entry-Level Faculty Recruitment and Hiring as well as Postdoctoral Applications

Prepared by the MLA Committee on Academic Freedom and Professional Rights and Responsibilities

I. General Principles

Timely, accurate, and open communication between candidates and departments can ensure an atmosphere of collegiality, even when the job market is tight or institutional circumstances are uncertain. Departments help create such an atmosphere when they recognize how vulnerable candidates may feel during a job search; candidates help when they recognize that departments may be affected by institutional policies largely beyond their control. All parties involved in a job search should conduct themselves professionally.
All job candidates should be treated equitably. Departments should adhere to nondiscrimination and affirmative action guidelines, taking particular care not to discriminate on the basis of race, ethnic or national origin, religion, disability, age, gender, or sexual orientation. All parties need to respect principles of confidentiality.
Candidates should be evaluated on their merits, not on the completion date of their degree.
At every stage of the interview process, advance agreement should be established between the search committee members and the candidate regarding reimbursement, type of interview (screening, preliminary, final), format, and venue.
Search committee members should be aware that it may prove difficult for a candidate to abide by these guidelines if the hiring institution does not follow them.

II. Advertising and Initial Screening

Advertisements for an opening should be as specific as possible about the availability of the opening (definite, likely, or possible), the type of appointment (tenure-track or non-tenure-track), minimum degree requirements, field(s) of expertise, minimum teaching experience, and any other requirements or criteria.
Applicants should be allowed ample time to respond to advertisements of openings, and deadlines for applications should be specified whenever possible.
Applications submitted in response to announcements should be acknowledged promptly and courteously. Following the initial screening, all applicants should be informed of their status and the department’s projected timetable for making decisions about interviews.

III. Preparing Applications

The candidate should prepare a letter of application and a dossier, which typically includes a curriculum vitae, teaching portfolio, and transcript(s) by mid-September, when institutions start advertising open academic positions. It is the candidate’s responsibility to make sure that all requested materials are supplied. Candidates may wish to designate a faculty adviser to review the letter of application and the dossier. Both candidates and institutions should also consult the MLA Guidelines on Letters of Recommendation.
For the purpose of initial screening, a letter of application and dossier should normally suffice. Candidates and employers should realize that the application process for positions and postdoctoral fellowships can be costly. To save all parties time and money, the committee recommends that departments request writing samples and other materials only after a preliminary list of candidates has been chosen. The committee also recommends that no fees be charged to applicants for postdoctoral fellowships since this constitutes a significant financial burden when multiple applications are made.

IV. Screening Interviews

Screening interviews should take place either through videoconferencing or telephone, and all candidates for a position should have the same conditions for the screening interview (see “Suggestions for Interviews Using Videoconferencing and the Telephone”).
Screening interviews should be conducted in a professional manner, permitting candidates adequate opportunity to explain and demonstrate their qualifications.
Interviewers should make every effort to accommodate candidates applying from outside North America and offer times for screening interviews that are reasonable for the candidates and the interviewers.
Interviewers should make every effort to accommodate candidates with disabilities.

V. Interviewing on Campus

Departments inviting candidates for on-campus interviews should pay candidates’ expenses, following standard institutional policies for travel reimbursement. Candidates should be told approximately how many others are being invited for on-campus interviews.
On-campus interviews represent a large investment of time and money for departments; therefore, candidates should not accept on-campus interviews if they are not interested in the position. Before traveling to a campus, candidates should thoroughly research the department’s faculty and programs. Candidates should determine whether a salary range and teaching load have been established for the position and should decide in advance what their own minimum requirements are. It is important that candidates also determine in advance whether their decisions may be influenced by special circumstances that should be communicated to the chair.
A department that invites a candidate to interview on its campus has an obligation to (a) arrange the logistics of the candidate’s stay (local transportation, lodging [including disability accommodations], meals); (b) set up interviews with faculty members and administrators; (c) accommodate candidates’ special needs; (d) provide a tour of the campus and its facilities; (e) provide adequate information about the department, the university, and the community; (f) plan social activities for the candidate; and (g) inform the candidate of the procedures and timetable for reimbursement.
Candidates and members of search committees should be aware that visits to a campus, meals, and other social activities are all inherent parts of the interview and should be conducted accordingly.
Members of departments and search committees should not discuss other candidates with a visiting candidate.

VI. Negotiating an Offer

To minimize misunderstanding and anxiety during negotiations about offers, departments should explain the process to candidates before any offers are made. Departments should communicate with candidates regularly and openly about the status of the search process. All parties should be aware that, especially in times of fiscal uncertainty, circumstances beyond the institution’s control may delay or disrupt the hiring process.
No candidate should be required before 31 January to give a final answer to an offer of a position without tenure for the following academic year, however early an offer is tendered.
Negotiations may be conducted and informal offers may be communicated by e-mail or other forms of written text. A formal good-faith offer is a written document on official letterhead or an electronic communication from an authorized representative of the institution that stipulates the terms of appointment. At a minimum, this includes the position title; tenure status; duration of the appointment (if not tenure-track); salary; research funding commitments; arrangements, if any, to provide a computer or other digital equipment; teaching load; arrangements, if any, regarding moving expenses; specific benefits to be included and not included, with a link to the relevant detailed information on the institution’s human resources Web page; and a statement that the author of the message is authorized to extend the offer on the specified terms. Candidates should be afforded a minimum of two weeks following receipt of all relevant terms to accept or reject this formal offer.
When a search has concluded, all candidates should be appropriately informed.

The committee welcomes comments and suggestions from members. Direct correspondence to Staff Liaison, Committee on Academic Freedom and Professional Rights and Responsibilities, MLA, 85 Broad Street, New York, NY 10004, or cafprr@mla.org. Rev. October 2021.