Astronomy
- Gender Parity In Nsf Astronomy Research Programs
During my first year as a Program Officer in NSF?s Astronomy Division, I was able to compile data on the success rates of different opportunities in the Individual Investigator Programs. As chair of CSWA, one of my top priorities was to look for...
- Faculty Search Committee
What can we do about unconscious bias? First, we have to be aware that it exists. Then we need to establish policies and put them into practice. Finally, there needs to be accountability. We can illustrate this process with an example: A Faculty Search...
- Anonymous Guest-post: One Small Step
Anonymous guest-post by a mid-career scientist at a large public university. As a mid-career scientist at a large public university, I find myself increasingly frustrated with policies and procedures with which I disagree but feel powerless...
- Recommendation Letters
Summer is officially over, classes are back in session, and temperatures are (finally!) starting to cool off. Which means it's job hunting season! This year, I'm going to be on the other side of the job hunting process. And from this perspective,...
- Improving Faculty Searches
A faculty search is one of the most important processes overseen by a department chair. I've been involved with faculty searches, either as search committee member or chair, or as division head or department head, for 20 years. Over these years in...
Astronomy
Faculty Search Committee II
Last month?s post on Unconscious Bias focused on the formation and initial job of the faculty search committee. Once the applications are in, however, the committee?s job continues. What typically happens next? (1) search committee picks the ?best? candidates; (2) applications sit in a file drawer in chair?s office; (3) faculty are invited to browse through the files; (4) ?best? candidates are then invited to campus. This is the easiest, least painful way to go through this process. Efforts may be made to avoid conscious bias and prejudice, but opportunities abound for unconscious bias to dominate the selection.
The University of Michigan ADVANCE program has come up with a ?Candidate Evaluation Tool,? which is available on their web site. Some of the components are pictured above. Their advice is to focus on multiple specific criteria during the evaluation process. This includes decreasing the ambiguity of the criteria for the job. Specify in as much detail as possible how the committee will evaluate scholarly productivity, research funding, teaching ability, fit with the department?s priorities, etc. beforeany applications are examined. When discussing candidates, the committee should weigh judgments that reflect examination of all materials. The committee must also weigh evidence consistently and avoid global judgments (see Bauer & Baltes 2002).
The committee must also be aware that the letters of recommendation will suffer from unconscious bias. Trix & Psenka (2003) examined letters of recommendation for successful medical school faculty applicants. They found that the letters for men were longer and contained more references to the CV, publications, patients, and colleagues. The letters for women were shorter and contained more references to personal life. There were also more ?doubt raisers? (hedges, faint praise, and irrelevancies). Some examples:
?It?s amazing how much she?s accomplished.?
?It appears her health is stable.?
?She is close to my wife.?
How should the committee evaluate candidates? (1) Set criteria before looking at applications; (2) evaluate all applications based on the same criteria; (3) all candidates that meet the criteria become part of the ?long short list;? (4) all long short list candidates get phone interviews.
Overcoming unconscious bias in the job search takes work and dedication, but the results are well worth the effort. Every department wants the most talented, accomplished, and successful faculty possible. We do not want to erect barriers that discourage or eliminate gifted and capable candidates. After all, excellence has no gender or race or sexual orientation
References
Bauer & Baltes (2002) Sex Roles 9/10, 465.
Trix & Psenka (2003) Discourse & Society, 14(2): 191-220.
For information on this and other topics, please see CSWA's advice page.
- Gender Parity In Nsf Astronomy Research Programs
During my first year as a Program Officer in NSF?s Astronomy Division, I was able to compile data on the success rates of different opportunities in the Individual Investigator Programs. As chair of CSWA, one of my top priorities was to look for...
- Faculty Search Committee
What can we do about unconscious bias? First, we have to be aware that it exists. Then we need to establish policies and put them into practice. Finally, there needs to be accountability. We can illustrate this process with an example: A Faculty Search...
- Anonymous Guest-post: One Small Step
Anonymous guest-post by a mid-career scientist at a large public university. As a mid-career scientist at a large public university, I find myself increasingly frustrated with policies and procedures with which I disagree but feel powerless...
- Recommendation Letters
Summer is officially over, classes are back in session, and temperatures are (finally!) starting to cool off. Which means it's job hunting season! This year, I'm going to be on the other side of the job hunting process. And from this perspective,...
- Improving Faculty Searches
A faculty search is one of the most important processes overseen by a department chair. I've been involved with faculty searches, either as search committee member or chair, or as division head or department head, for 20 years. Over these years in...