Version 2008 May 15
1) Administrative Approval of Faculty Line
a) Department submits request for line to dean.
b) Dean submits request to Provost.
c) Provost submits request to President.
d) President approves.
2) Authorization to Search (AS). See example.
a) Prepared by Provost’s office.
b) Signed by: requestor (department chair or dean) and Provost.
c) President’s office sends AS to Business Office for approval.
d) President’s office sends AS to Affirmative Action Office which adds guidance comments, including utilization analysis which may indicate under-representation in department and division.
d) AS signed by President.
e) AS distributed to business office and to Provost, who sends it to dean, who sends it to department.
Steps a – e may take two weeks or more, depending on the mail and people’s availability.
Note that authorization to search does NOT imply authorization to hire.
3) Search Plan
a) Department P&B appoints search committee.
The search committee may be the department P&B itself, but it may also include faculty or staff not on P&B, and even faculty from other departments. If the search committee is not the P&B, its recommendations are advisory to the P&B.
b)
For non-teaching instructional staff (HEO,
c) Affirmative action officer meets with search committee chair, on request, to discuss preparation of the search plan.
d) Department prepares search plan, which includes:
i) A description of the proposed search process, specifying the position title, ad placement, description of other outreach, and search committee members. See example.
ii)
CUNY Personnel Vacancy Notice (
iii) Text of advertisement, as appropriate. See example.
Salaries and other conditions mentioned must be
consistent with the
The ad and PVN must specify how to apply: what materials (CV, contact information for references, etc) candidates must provide; to whom to send applications, etc.
iv)
For non-teaching instructional staff (HEO,
e) Affirmative Action Office reviews and subsequently approves search plan, notifies department and Dean, and sends it to the Provost and Human Resources.
It may take a month or more to get from Authorization to Search to search plan approval.
4) Personnel Vacancy Notice
a) After receiving the search plan from Affirmative Action Office, Human Resources submits PVN to CUNY.
b) CUNY reviews PVN and, on approval, posts it on the CUNY website and informs the college.
This may take two weeks.
c) Queens College Human Resources posts the PVN on its website and informs the Affirmative Action Office, which informs the department.
The approved PVN will specify a “closing date.” All applications received
by this date must be considered. A few weeks before the closing date, the
Affirmative Action Office will notify the department that the search is
closing. The department can request one or more extensions if needed. For
teaching faculty the closing date is typically 60 days after posting; for
non-teaching instructional staff this period usually 30 days. If you wish to
accept applications after the closing date, include a statement in the PVN and
ad to the effect that “applications will be accepted until the position is
filled.”
d) Only after Affirmative Action approval and CUNY posting may advertising in outside media begin.
5) Affirmative Action Briefing
Search committee meets with Affirmative Action Officer for a briefing on the upcoming phases of the search process.
6) Applicant Pool Evaluation and Selection Process
a) Department sends acknowledgement letter (see example) with pre-coded affirmative action cards (from Affirmative Action office) to each applicant, as their application is received.
These cards thank the applicants for applying and ask them to indicate their gender, ethnicity, etc., and return the card to the Affirmative Action Office.
b) The committee develops evaluation criteria, such as Ph.D, research potential, etc, based on the qualifications specified in the job ad, and evaluates the applicants.
Be sure the criteria pertain to the job and do not inadvertently favor certain groups. Criteria may be “required” or “preferred.” A required criterion might be, for example, a Ph.D. degree. Applicants who do not meet a required criterion should not be considered further, as they are not qualified.
Applicants should be rated on preferred criteria. A preferred criterion might be, for example, research experience. It is better if these ratings are not numbers, but rather a qualitative scale such as Excellent, Very good, Good, Fair, and Poor. Only qualified applicants (those who meet all required criteria) need to be rated on the preferred criteria.
c) The committee prepares a “grid” (table) giving the rating of each applicant on each criterion and subsequently puts qualified applicants into two tiers:
i) Interview tier – list in alphabetical order
ii) Reserve tier – list in rank order
More guidance on this will be
given by the Affirmative Action Office. The department will interview
applicants in Tier i. As they drop out or are dropped, applicants held in
reserve in Tier ii can be moved to Tier i in rank order. Unless you have
included an “until filled” clause in the
d) The entire candidate pool and Tiers 1 and 2 are reviewed and certified by the Affirmative Action Office.
This takes a few days and must be done before interviewing may begin.
After the pool is certified, “no, thank-you” letters should be sent to candidates not in Tier i or ii, as these will not be considered further. See example.
e) Department and dean interview candidates in Tier i.
See instructions for interviewing. Affirmative Action Officer will provide additional guidance. Preliminary phone interviews may be used.
f) Keep receipts for ad placement, travel expenses, and other costs, and provide these to the dean within 30 days.
At present, the College provides $1100 per search for advertising and travel. While the candidates are still on campus, have them fill out and sign a travel voucher, including their Social Security Number. Obtain all receipts if possible; otherwise have candidates send them to the department as soon as they return to their homes.
g) Dean submits receipts to the Provost’s office, which arranges payment.
h) The department, in consultation with the Dean and the Provost, may decide to declare the search unsuccessful. In this case, applicants should be sent a letter like this.
7) Hiring Candidate
a) Department P&B votes on candidate; chair and P&B negotiate conditions, such as salary, startup, moving costs, and start date, with dean (who in turn may negotiate with Provost) if necessary, and sends name, salary, and other conditions to dean
b) Dean submits selection to Provost, who consults with President
c) For some candidates additional steps may be needed:
i) It may be necessary to request a waiver, eg of a Ph.D., or obtain a determination of equivalency, eg, that of an MFA and a PhD. The Provost must request these from the CUNY Office of Academic Affairs. This takes at least a week.
ii) For non-instructional teaching staff, a green CUNY Non-teaching Instructional Staff Action Form is needed. See Section 1.3 of the Procedures Manual for more information on this form, and note:
Page 6: Section A-Department completes except AA Officer's signature.
Section B-Part I (1.) Dept. completes.
Section B-Part I (2.) Bring to the AA Office, which completes this.
Page 7: Section B-Part II (1,2,3,4,5): Dept. completes this after Part 1 is completed by AA Office.
Section C: Chair signs where indicated (Chairperson/Director/Dean)
Then bring the green form to the AA Office, which completes its sections. On approval, the AA Officer signs the second signature line and returns the form to the department, which forwards it to the chairperson of the HEO or CLT Screening Committee. On approval by the appropriate committee, its chairperson signs the cover page and brings it to HR, which obtains the President’s or Designee’s signature and transmits it to CUNY for approval. Only after CUNY approval may a written offer be made to the candidate.
d) Provost notifies dean of permission to make offer, and dean notifies department
e) Department prepares offer letter in standard form. See example.
If the offer has conditions not in the regular contract, such as startup funds, relocation expenses, etc, these are specified in a separate letter. See example.
f) If candidate accepts offer in writing, the Authorization to Appoint (the lower half of the Authorization to Search) is filled in, usually by the dean, and sent by the dean to the Provost and then the President for approvals.
g) President’s office sends Authorization to Human Resources, which begins process of placing the candidate on the payroll.
h) If candidate declines offer, go back to Step 6a.
i) After appointment, send “no, thank you” letters to unsuccessful applicants in Tiers 1 and 2. See example.
j) Notify AA Office of completed selection, identifying all applicants interviewed, those to whom offers were made, the one selected, the PVN, and the department.
k) Department sends all search materials to AA Office for record-keeping.
l) If the search fails or is abandoned, department must notify AA Office in writing.