Effective Faculty Searches

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Effective Faculty Searches
Vincent Price Associate Provost for Faculty
Affairs Lubna Mian Associate Director of Faculty
Affairs October, 2008
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Our Goals

• Excellence
• Diversity
• Strategic development
• Interdisciplinary scholarship

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Why Diversity?

• Increased talent pool
• Student support
• Better teamwork
• Equity

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Achieving our Goals

• Large and diverse applicant pools
• Careful and unbiased evaluations
• Thorough interviewing processes
• Intelligent collective decision making

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A Diverse Pool
U.S. Population 2005
68
12.7
13.8
5.2
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A Diverse Pool
U.S. Ph.D. Recipients 1995-2005
61.8
Population Ph.D. Pool
21.1
4.8
4.6
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A Diverse Pool
Penn Standing Faculty 2006
83.4
Population Ph.D. Pool Penn Faculty
10.8
3.2
2.5
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A Diverse Pool
U.S. Population 2005
50.7
49.3
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A Diverse Pool
U.S. Ph.D. Recipients 1995-2005
Population Ph.D. Pool
57
43
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A Diverse Pool
Penn Standing Faculty 2006
72.9
Population Ph.D. Pool Penn Faculty
27.1
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Comparison to peers
Asian Black Hispanic Women
Penns Rank Among Peers 12 / 18 4 / 18 16 / 18 3 / 10
Low to High Range Among Peers 5.1 - 13.2 (8.1 points) 1.6 - 4.1 (2.5 points) 0.8 - 3.2 (2.4 points) 21 - 34 (13 points)
Data reflect only tenured and tenure-track faculty
Comparison Peers Brown, Columbia, Cornell,
Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Johns
Hopkins, MIT, Northwestern, Princeton, Rice,
Stanford, Chicago, Rochester, Washington
University, Yale
Source Data Reported to the U.S. Department of
Education
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Faculty Turnover
2003-2006
61
Arts Sciences
13
5
3
-4
-3
-4
-64
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Grooming Large and Diverse Pools

• Active Searches
• Know the obstacles
• Network before opening search
• Use targeted outreach
• Use word of mouth
• Avoid undue narrowcasting

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Careful and Unbiased Evaluation

• Harder than you think!
• Diffusion of responsibility
• Short cuts
• Unconscious bias

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Unconscious Schemas

• Natural part of perception and evaluation
• Beliefs about people
• Beliefs about how people ought to be
• Contributing factors
• Ambiguity
• Stress from competing tasks
• Time pressure
• Lack of critical mass

Fiske (2002). Current Directions in Psychological
Science, 11, 123-128.
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Unconscious Schemas
High
Women
Warmth
Whites
Asians
Blacks
Men
Hispanics
Low
Low
High
Competence
Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, Xu (2002). Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 82(6), 878-902.
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From University of Michigan STRIDE program
(http//sitemaker.umich.edu/advance/stride)
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Evaluating C.V.s
Brian
Karen
University psychology professors preferred
Brian over Karen by 21
Steinpreis, Anders, Ritzke (1999) Sex Roles,
41, 509.
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Callbacks

• Black-sounding names (Jamal)
• 15 resumes callback
• White-sounding names (Greg)
• 10 resumes callback
• Equivalent to 8 extra years experience

Bertrand Mullainathan (2004) Poverty Action
Lab, 3, 1-27.
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Letters of Recommendation

• Letters for women
• Shorter
• Fewer references to c.v.
• Twice as many gender references
• More references to personal life
• Fewer standout references (excellent) and more
  grindstone references (hardworking)
• Twice as many hedges and irrelevancies (Its
  amazing how much shes accomplished)

Trix Psenka (2003) Discourse Society, 14(2),
191-220.
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Influences on Advancement

• Simulated organizational hierarchy
• Start with 50-50 gender mix
• Assume 1 percent bias in promotions
• After eight promotion cycles
• Highest management level 65 male

Martell, Lane, Emrich (1996) American
Psychologist, 51, 157-158.
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Reducing Bias

• Reducing ambiguity
• Avoiding solo presence in pool
• Taking time to review applications
• Focusing on positive exemplars

• Dovidio Gaertner (2000). Psychological Science,
  11, 315-319.
• Fiske (2002). Current Directions in Psychological
  Science, 11, 123-128.
• Martell (1991). Journal of Applied Soc Psychol,
  21, 1939-1960.
• Dasgupta Greenwald (2001). Journal of Pers
  Soc Psych, 81, 800-814.

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Careful and Unbiased Evaluation

• Thoughtfulness and accountability
• Supportive, diverse committee
• Familiarity with research on bias
• Structured, evidence-based review
• Apply consistent, objective criteria
• Evaluate entire application
• Treat recommendations with care
• Avoid over-reliance on prestige

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Effective Visits

• Show enthusiasm
• Offer dual-career and family-friendly policy
  information
• Identify colleagues who can discuss climate for
  women and minorities
• Introduce the city and region
• Stay in contact
• Be even-handed and transparent in negotiating

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Dual-Career Couples
Sequential One partner hired first, then
negotiates for the second hire. 5.5
Dual Hires Hired as a couple 8
Independent Hires Each replied to separate
advertisements for position, or met after they
were hired. 20
Joint Recruited by university as a couple. 2.5
Solo Hires Only one partner in the couple is
currently employed in academia. 9
Clayman Institute Survey of Penn Faculty N
949 (34 response rate)
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Some Resources

• Faculty Opportunity Fund
• Benefits and Retirements Brochures
• Online Application System
• HERC
• Accompanying Spouse-Partner Program
• Relocation Assistance
• Child Care

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Discussion
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• provost-fac_at_upenn.edu