Search Committees

Mission-Focused Faculty for Social Change

Faculty are the most valuable resource of any educational institution, and the development of an outstanding faculty is therefore one of the most important and attention-demanding efforts we engage in. It is our collective responsibility to put in the classroom and departments the very best faculty we can find, faculty who believe in our teaching mission and who sign on to the notion of education as a mechanism of social change.

The Role of Search Committees

Comprised of a diversity of members of the collegiate community, search committees do most of the hard work of building our full-time faculty resources at Rhode Island College. The role of a search committee is to attract and identify a strong, diverse pool of highly qualified candidates who have the potential to bring to RIC a set of skills, life experiences, and perspectives that will add to the quality and richness of our academic community.

Search Committee Goals

Specifically, search committees should strive to:

• hire a highly qualified person who fits the requirements for the position
• increase diversity among the faculty
• follow all legal guidelines
• ensure a fair, objective and collegial process

Following Appropriate Guidelines

An important consideration in any search process is to maximize objectivity and minimize implicit bias or other subjective considerations that might hamper opportunities for highly qualified and well-matched candidates to be selected for the short list or be selected as a top candidate following on-site interviewing. It is imperative that the search committee follows appropriate guidelines for what can and cannot be considered in the review and interview process, and also that they recognize both their own potential biases and those of the committee and department.