Hiring

A number of University policies and procedures impact the process of hiring a new tenured, tenure-track, or professional-track faculty member. The campus policy on the Appointment, Promotion and Tenure (APT) of faculty establishes baseline standards for all faculty appointments, including possible faculty titles, credential requirements, contract requirements, and the tenure and promotion process.

Search Process

The faculty search process is governed by a number of policies and guidelines that include:

• Policy on Faculty Search: II-1.00(C) University of Maryland, College Park Procedures Governing the Search Process for Permanent Faculty, Associate Staff, and Academic Administrators. The policy is designed to assist units in conducting and documenting the process leading to the employment of permanent faculty and associate staff at the University of Maryland College Park.
• Search and Selection Guidelines from the Equity Council. These guidelines provide processes, procedures, and practices to which the search process should adhere.
• Search Committee Resources: from the ADVANCE Program for Inclusive Excellence and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. These documents include research-based recommendations for faculty search committees.

Big Ten Academic Alliance Resources

Unconscious Bias Training: The Big Ten Academic Alliance, with an AGEP grant from the National Science Foundation, has created training content for search committees. These short videos and facilitator guides explore unconscious bias in various scenarios along the development of a faculty search. The videos themselves are provided as links at the top of every guide.

• Position Announcement and Criteria
• Interviewee Selection
• Final Selection

Professorial Advancement Initiative (PAI): Several of the Big Ten institutions participate in an initiative to promote greater proportions of historically underrepresented faculty in STEM fields. “Through cross-institutional mentoring and coaching, the program is preparing more than 100 Big Ten URM postdoctoral scholars to transition to tenure-track faculty positions, including an online professional development program designed for focused skill development. The postdoctoral scholars also enroll in an online searchable directory used by search committees for faculty recruitment.” Find more information here.

If you are interested in accessing the directory of postdoctoral fellows currently in the program for recruiting purposes, please contact the Office of Faculty Affairs at faculty@umd.edu.

Using eTerp

eTerp, the University’s online job posting and application system, is used to manage the documents and processes associated with searches. Information about using eTerp:

• eTerp User Support for Faculty Positions

When the department is undertaking a targeted search or recruiting a star faculty member, it is still necessary to document the process through eTerp. You will need to produce a complete hiring proposal in eTerp, thus it is useful to preserve all correspondence, emails, and notes of discussion regarding such cases.

The major unit head and the equity administrator review the search committee report and the chair’s rationale for his or her selection prior to producing the hiring proposal.

Making the offer

After the hiring proposal has been approved by the appropriate hiring authority, an offer letter can be sent to the candidate. Below are resources that may be useful to review and consider prior to making an offer to a potential faculty member:

• Sample offer letters. These provide sample offer language.
• Faculty salary ranges. Faculty ranks have set salary ranges. Exceptions are possible, but should be sought through the Office of Faculty Affairs prior to making any offer.
• University of Maryland, College Park Policy on Appointment, Promotion and Tenure of Faculty. This policy governs the appointment and tenure process for faculty.
• APT Guidelines. These guidelines establish the procedures for appointment, tenure, and promotion.

Appointments that are joint and/or include modified tenure criteria require appropriate memorandums of understanding. The APT policy and guidelines detail the procedures and requirements for these processes.

Safety and Misconduct

The University takes seriously the safety of its community and integrity of its faculty members. New faculty members must:

• Disclose all employment-related misconduct findings and pending disciplinary proceedings against them in their current or prior jobs (e.g., sexual misconduct, violence, or harassment; research misconduct).
• Submit to a criminal background check.

Tenured and permanent status librarian finalists must also sign a release of information request concerning any employment-related misconduct that has been substantiated or is currently under investigation so that the University may verify any ongoing or substantiated instances of misconduct at their prior/current institution. Unit administrators should upload signed release of information forms into our APA system for processing by the Office of Faculty Affairs. 

Potential faculty members with adverse findings from the criminal background check or findings of employment-related misconduct will be afforded the opportunity to provide information in response. 

The University reserves the right to terminate a faculty member’s employment should the University become aware of undisclosed employment-related misconduct by a faculty member after employment has begun. 
 

FAMILE: Faculty Advancement at Maryland for Inclusive Learning and Excellence

Click here for detailed information about the FAMILE Initiative.

In addition to the hiring programs, the University also offers

• Spousal Hire Support. In order to aid recruitment efforts for an excellent and diverse faculty, previously informal guidance for hiring dual-career couples has been codified into official guidelines and procedures. 
• Leadership and Development Initiatives—The Office of Faculty Affairs and the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs provide a range of leadership, development, and mentoring opportunities for faculty and postdoctoral scholars. These efforts include the Big Ten Academic Alliance Academic Leadership and Department Executive Officer Programs, Department Chair workshops, Faculty Forums, grant writing and productivity support groups, mentoring networks, and postdoctoral scholar workshops.
• ADVANCE. The ADVANCE program offers a range of networking, leadership, and support communities and opportunities, in particular for women and faculty of color.

Leadership and Development Initiatives

The Office of Faculty Affairs and the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs provide a range of leadership, development, and mentoring opportunities for faculty and/or postdoctoral scholars. These efforts include:

• Big Ten Academic Alliance Leadership Programs. Leveraging resources and cultivating the expertise of its member institutions, the Big Ten Academic Alliance offers professional development opportunities that are highly relevant and effective. Specific programs include:
  • Academic Leadership Program (ALP): One of the most successful Big Ten Academic Alliance Leadership initiatives is the Academic Leadership Program (ALP). Established in 1989, this intensive year-long professional development experience develops the leadership and managerial skills of faculty who have demonstrated exceptional ability and academic promise. Many of the program’s nearly 1,000 fellows have gone on to serve with distinction as college presidents, provosts, and deans.
  • Department Executive Officer Seminars (DEO): Each year, approximately 50 department heads and chairs from Big Ten Academic Alliance universities come together for a unique leadership development seminar. Topics at this three-day event range from conflict resolution and time management to faculty development, performance reviews, and group problem solving. 
• Chair Workshops. These workshops provide an opportunity for chairs to discuss issues related to academic leadership, campus affairs and university administration. The sessions are designed for department/unit leaders to meet, discuss, and share best practices with each other and campus-level academic administrators.
• Faculty Forums. Addressing issues faced by the faculty, our campus community, and higher education in general, the forums provide timely information, discussion, and relevant resources to navigate the current context in academia.
• Faculty Productivity Groups. Faculty writing and workshop productivity groups are designed to support faculty members as they write for publication, and by extension, for promotion, tenure, and continuing contribution to scholarship. The program works with faculty members to promote and share strong writing practices and build communities of faculty on campus.
• Faculty Workshops. Often presented in partnership with other campus groups, these sessions cover a range of topics for different faculty audiences, such as promotion workshops (for tenure/tenure-track and professional-track faculty) and teaching dossier development. Specific workshops are offered throughout the year as orientation follow-ups for new faculty members to learn about university resources, connect with campus colleagues across disciplines, and assist in career progression.
• University of Maryland Retired Faculty Association (UMDRFA). Established in 2017 for retired faculty members with emeritus and emerita status, UMDRFA organizes programming to connect and engage with the university, and to support its members involved in academic, educational and social initiatives.

More information about these initiatives is available from the Leadership and Development menu tab above.