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Hiring New Faculty (Adopted Spring 1997; Amended Fall 2003; Fall 2007)

The purpose of this Policy Guideline is to prescribe the policy and procedure under which new members of the faculty of the Department of Political Science are hired.

Definitions

Consensus here means a general agreement on a particular option: it does not mean unanimity. A consensus can result from a dissenting minority's deferring to the "sense of the meeting". There is no consensus as long as a dissenting minority remains vocal in its opposition. Department (as far as hiring is concerned) means faculty, graduate students in political science and undergraduate majors in political science. Faculty means tenured and tenure-track faculty in political science, including emeritus.

Affirmative Action

Affirmative Action criteria are important throughout the hiring procedure. One member of the Search Committee will be designated by the Department chair as Affirmative Action Advocate who will be responsible for evaluating all steps of the search process in terms of the goals and principles of Affirmative Action.

Procedure

The selection process is conducted through four distinct stages.

At Stage 1, the Search Committee prepares a short-list of six to eight files. It does this by reading all the files and discussing the individual candidates, and then narrowing these down to a short list.

In addition, members of the Department may draw attention to a candidate they deem worthy. Such additional files will be placed in a separate box, alongside the Search Committee's short-listed files. In order to give the Department sufficient time to review these files, they must be in the box at least four days prior to the meeting to select the interviewees. During that Department meeting, the sponsors of the additional files will be required to introduce the candidates to the Department, just as the Search Committee does its short-listed candidates.

At Stage 2, the Department selects three candidates to be interviewed. After discussion there will be a secret ballot in which each person votes for three candidates without ranking them. After determining the top six candidates, further discussion of these front-runners will strive for a consensus regarding the top three. There will then be a vote in which each person is to list three different candidates without ranking them. Any ballot without three different names will be invalid. In the event of ties, a runoff vote will be held.

In order to avoid problems arising due to changing electorates, the entire voting process for Stage 2 must be confined to one meeting. Only those physically present at the meeting will be allowed to vote.

Once the deadline for applications has passed, and until an offer is accepted, communication with the applicants regarding any matter related to hiring is to be made solely through the Department chair. While the interviewees are in Hawai`i , the candidates are to be treated in a manner which respects their Affirmative Action rights and which is uniform, fair, and equitable. Because the entire search is confidential, details of the procedure should not be discussed with any of the interviewees, the applicants, or anyone outside the process.

A sign-in log will be circulated at each candidate presentation. In addition, the Department will make reasonable attempts to electronically record all candidate presentations and make reasonable efforts to assure the availability of, and log access to, these electronic reproductions. All members of the Department may request access to these electronic reproductions until the commencement of Stage 3.

At Stage 3, after the interviews, the Department meets to decide its preferred candidate. Only those departmental members who have attended or watched all presentations are eligible to participate in Stage 3. Following discussion which strives for a consensus on the top candidate, the Department will decide by secret ballot. Each person votes only for his or her first choice. Only those physically present at the meeting will be allowed to vote.

If none of the three candidates wins a majority (more than 50% of the votes), a selection is made from the top two candidates in a runoff election.

In Stage 4 the faculty meet separately in order to ratify the Department's selection. The candidate selected in Stage 3 must secure a majority vote. The question to be addressed here is: "Do we welcome this person into our faculty?" as distinct from "Was this person my first choice?"

If the Department's choice cannot secure majority support in the faculty meeting, the Department returns to Stage 3. In this case the Department will discuss the candidates further. It may move as far back in the process as the Department feels is necessary.In the event of a prolonged deadlock, the majority faculty choice will prevail.

The entire process of four stages is represented below: