A Search Guide for Faculty Positions

The following document is part of the provost’s office project to support better searches at Arizona State University. It is a tool that can assist in every faculty search. It is meant to complement and interface with the ASU Faculty and Academic Professional Search Handbook and contains references throughout to the Handbook’s important benchmarks. The references connect to both the hard copy and web versions of the Handbook.

The Faculty Search Checklist is in the format of a workbook, to be used to guide a search from beginning to end. The Checklist can lead the Hiring Authority (e.g., dean, chair, director) and the Search Committee Chair through the many steps necessary to a successful search conclusion. 

Because every component of the search process has been broken out separately, the Checklist may appear complex at first glance; however, many of the components are undertaken simultaneously and in close sequence, and the process can flow quickly and smoothly. The level of detail contained in the Checklist is there to ensure that a search does not overlook any important step and that the search process follows the necessary steps in the appropriate sequence.

The information highlighted in the gold boxes represents “certification points” in the search. These are opportunities for the Hiring Authority to assess the search thus far and to make any corrections necessary before moving ahead. Use of these checkpoints is essential to achieving success in a search; ignoring them may create problems that can taint the search further in the process.

Faculty Search Checklist (PDF)