SUPPORT FOR SEARCH COMMITTEES

The Office of Healthcare Equity offers a Search Committee Training.

One goal for the UW Medicine Office of Healthcare Equity is to increase faculty diversity in the UW School Of Medicine. They have developed a presentation for search committees with the goal of increasing faculty diversity in the UWSOM, titled: Search Committee Best Practices: Diversity = Excellence. The presentation highlights the need to increase diversity, best/effective practices to promote diversity, how unconscious bias affects workforce diversity, and ways to mitigate the effects of unconscious bias in resident/faculty search and promotion. The presentation will help guide your committee to conduct an inclusive search.

The Office of Healthcare Equity also offers an Implicit Bias Course, available to the public.

Please complete this form to join the course.

There are multiple models for structuring effective search committees: what is possible and practical will depend on the size of your unit, how your subfields typically interact, how many searches you conduct in a given hiring season, and your overall unit culture and climate.

Here is a list of sample models for structuring faculty search committees.

The UW Office of Academic Personnel and Office for Faculty Advancement offer several resources and templates for the hire process, listed below.

• Interfolio job posting guide
• UW evaluator’s guide to Interfolio
• Guidance for handling conflicts of interest

Additional Resources

The Office for Faculty Advancement provides language to include in job advertisements, with examples specifically demonstrating a commitment to diversity and inclusion. View those job advertisement samples here.

The Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action (EOAA) supports the University’s compliance with the law and in the spirit of equal opportunity and affirmative action as it relates to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, citizenship, sexual orientation, age, marital status, gender identity or expression, genetic information, disability, or status as a protected veteran. The vision of UW and EOAA is to uphold the laws and respect equal opportunity in the selection and advancement of all qualified applicants and employees within the institution. Learn more about the EOAA here.

UW IT Inclusive Language Guide

The resources provided in this document are mostly focused on language surrounding technology tools, resources and services, or language that is more likely to be used on web properties or documentation platforms.

Advancing Health Equity: A Guide to Language, Narrative, and Concepts

Teams from the American Medical Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Center for Health Justice came together to produce this document, providing physicians, health care workers and others a valuable foundational toolkit for health equity.

Words Matter: AAP Guidance on Inclusive, Anti-biased Language

This document is intended to provide guidance for authors, editors, presenters, media spokespersons, and other content contributors.

Job postings should be placed in both field-specific journals and job forums and resources highlighting women and under-represented minorities, such as:

ELAM
National Medical Association
Association of American Medical Colleges
Women in Higher Education
HBCU Career Center
Chronicle of Higher Education
LinkedIn

Internal job posting sites within UW SoM should include listservs that may highlight women or under-represented minorities:

• Committee on Minority Faculty Advancement (CMFA). Email Nora Coronado at ncorona@uw.edu to contact this committee.
• Committee for Women in Medicine and Science (CWIMS). Email womeninmedicineandscience@uw.edu to contact this committee.

Campus Resources

As best practice, all finalists for faculty positions should be provided a list of useful university and community resources before arriving for the on-campus interview, and all finalists should be invited to identify any offices, centers, or programs they are especially interested in visiting while here. The Candidate Resources template is designed to provide job candidates information about the UW’s broad commitments to diversity and inclusion, as well as information relevant to the candidate’s specific interests and needs.

• How to use the Candidate Resources Template
• UW Candidate Resources Template
• UW Candidate Resources Template with links

Candidate Campus Visits

Campus visits should be used to interest the candidate in the University of Washington as well as assess the candidate, so proper planning is important.

Review this page from the Office of Academic Personnel to learn about best practices for before, during, and after the candidate’s visit.

Readings with additional information regarding search committee best practices and faculty recruitment can be found below.

• Jaschik, Scott. “Research Points to Crucial Role of Dual-Career Programs for Recruiting Female Academics.” August 22, 2016. Inside Higher Ed.
• Information about the Greater Washington State Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (GWS HERC)
• Stewart, Maria S. “Advice For Writing Thoughtful Rejection Letters.” August 30, 2016. Inside Higher Ed.

The UW Faculty Code requires search committees to ask faculty job applicants for explicit statements about their prior involvement in or planned contributions to various kinds of diversity and equity work. Here are tips for assessing DEI statements.

Sample assessment rubrics

Diversity Assessment Rubric 1
Diversity Assessment Rubric 2
Diversity Assessment Rubric 3
Evans School: job ad, assessment rubric, interview questions

When evaluating potential candidates, pre-employment inquiries which discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, age, protected veteran or disabled status, or genetic information are prohibited by the University of Washington’s policy and state and federal laws. Further, pre-employment inquiries which objectively convey to a reasonable person that the information will be used in connection with a discriminatory purpose are prohibited. Hiring officials must ensure that all pre-employment inquiries made of job applicants, whether written or oral, are lawful and fair.

Review the EOAA’s guidelines for pre-employment inquiries prior to this step of this hiring process.

Sample interview questions that highlight issues of diversity and inclusion can be found here.

To request information from a reference for a candidate, please use the letter requesting additional information template.

Resources and case studies about reducing implicit bias in the interview process

• Kirwan Institute Implicit Bias Review
• Interrupting Bias in the Faculty Search Process: A Film and Facilitation Guide
• Implicit Bias: Scientific Foundations
• Project Implicit
• WISELI – Women in Science & Engineering Leadership Institute, “Reviewing Applicants: Research on Bias and Assumptions.”
• Paradigm, “Managing Unconscious Bias: Strategies to Address Bias and Build More Diverse, Inclusive Organizations.”
• Video: Unconscious Bias at Work | Google Ventures. Dr. Brian Welle, Director of People Analytics.
• “Advice for Hiring Faculty Members with Disabilities.” October 31, 2016. Inside Higher Ed.
• Maimon, Elaine. “How Effectively Interviewing For A Job Is Often Like Speed Dating.” October 6, 2016. Insider Higher Ed.

When the search committee identifies the final candidate for an open job, an offer of employment may be extended. Offers of employment must be extended and accepted in writing. The general steps for offering an academic personnel appointment at UW can be found here.

The Office for Faculty Advancement has allocated funds in a Faculty Recruitment Initiative (FRI) to build and retain a diverse and inclusive faculty across the University of Washington. Please contact their office for more information.

For offer letter templates or guidance, please work with the Academic HR team and your department leadership. Departments may contact Academic Appointments and Compensation for additional guidance.

Mentoring resources and readings

• Information about the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD)
• Kerry Ann Rockquemore, “For A Diverse Faculty, Start With Retention.” January 6, 2016. Inside Higher Ed.
• Joya Misra and Jennifer Lundquist, “Tips to Help Midcareer Faculty Members Find Time for Research Projects (essay).” January 15, 2016. Inside Higher Ed.
• Kerry Ann Rockquemore, “Why Mentor Matches Fail (essay).” February 3, 2016. Inside Higher Ed.

Starting places for faculty retention

• Scott, Amy. “To Create A More Diverse Faculty, Start With Tenure.” September 12, 2016. Marketplace.
• UW WorkLife – resources on child care, parenting, elder care, and self care
• Example of a unit-level climate survey – conducted by the School of Information Studies at the University of Maryland (survey questions in the appendix)

The following is a list of faculty search committee guides and best practices from several institutions in the US

1. Harvard University Best Practices for Conducting Faculty Searchers
2. Emory University School of Medicine: Best Practices Guide for Faculty Search Committee Processes
3. University of Michigan Stride Committee: STRIDE Faculty recruitment workshop WHAT CAN WE DO? TOP 10 BEST PRACTICES.
4. University of Michigan: Handbook for Faculty Searches and Hiring
5. University of Michigan STRIDE: recommended readings
6. Columbia University: Guide to best practices in faculty search and hiring
7. Princeton University: Best Practices for Faculty Search Officers and Search Committees
8. UCSF Faculty Recruitment Resources and Best Practices
9. Berkeley Searching for a Diverse Faculty paper