Assistant Professors

1. Department Chair obtains approval for faculty slot through Executive Committee

2. Department completes posting and advertising approval process

3. Department solicits data for AAR via standard mail (letter from ADAA and return post-card - available in ADAA office) or electronically (email from department and web site).  These data will be compiled by the ADAA office and supplied to the search committee at the end of the search for completion of the AAR form (submitted as part of the candidate dossier to executive committee).

4.  Department submits Candidate Pool Spreadsheet to ADAA for evaluation.

5. Department organizes campus visit

Prior to inviting the first candidate for a visit, the department submits to ADAA office a list of the current pool of viable applicants.

All faculty candidates for Assistant Professor positions are invited and encouraged to meet with the ADAA for the purposes of recruiting as well as candidate evaluation. The decision to meet or not meet with the ADAA is left to the discretion of the Department Chair. (If the ADAA is not available, the faculty candidate may meet with one of the other Associate Deans.)

A minimum of two weeks notice is required to schedule faculty candidates to meet with the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs (ADAA) or the other Associate Deans in the absence of the ADAA. Please call Sherry Folsom (77018) to schedule an appointment.

It is the responsibility of the department to make sure that the faculty candidate is on time for his/her appointment and that the candidate is escorted after his/her appointment in LEC to his/her next appointment.

Departments are expected to send the candidate's vita, seminar abstract, a minimum of three external letters of reference and any other information on the faculty candidate to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs (ADAA) for our files.

Departments are required to fill out the Department Candidate Form for each candidate. This form should accompany the materials you send the ADAA office about the candidate.

One College Representative should be scheduled, by the department, to interview the candidate and to attend the seminar (see example letter to College Representative). The College Representative may be at any tenured or tenure-track professorial rank, whose home department resides outside the interviewing department.

The College Representative is to evaluate the candidate's presentation and, when meeting with the candidate, provide him or her with a broad perspective on the College of Engineering as a whole.

It is not assumed that the representative is an expert within the candidate's field of study, although CoE representatives usually have some familiarity with the general field.

The evaluations are extremely important as the CoE Executive Committee considers the College Representative's evaluation very seriously in its decision to grant the department permission to make a position offer to the candidate.

Department contacts are expected to give Sherry Folsom (sfolsom@umich.edu) in the ADAA office the name of the College Representative selected at least one week before the visit.

The ADAA office will contact the College Representative to send a written or e-mail evaluation of the candidate to the ADAA office. Once Sherry has received the evaluation from the College Representative, she will forward the evaluation to the appropriate CoE Chair's Assistant.

It will be the responsibility of the Chair's Assistant to forward the evaluation to the Chair of the Search Committee.

All female faculty candidates should be scheduled to meet with the ADAA and one tenured female faculty member. The meeting with the female faculty member is not evaluative and no feedback is provided to the departments. Departments should contact Sherry Folsom (sfolsom@umich.edu) to arrange for the ADAA meeting and to obtain the name of a tenured female faculty member to serve in this capacity.

6. Dual Career Services

When it is clear that there is interest in a second visit of a prospective faculty candidate, please notify Sherry Folsom in the ADAA office.  Please include contact information for the candidate with your notification.  Sherry will then notify the ADAA and the CoE Director of Dual Career Services so that an informal contact may go out regarding these services.  It is our hope that this will improve our ability to respond to the needs of dual career candidates with an earlier indication of the possible solutions to the needs of their partners.

 There will no longer be the need for the department chair to make a formal request of the ADAA for dual career services.  When a candidate makes contact for dual career services, the Director will work closely with the ADAA, Department Chair and departmental staff to arrange services and coordinate a separate itinerary for the partner if needed.

Please see the following links for further information:

• Dual Career Visits
• Dual Career Positions

7. Department approves final candidate for position; addresses any immigration issues if applicable

8. Department submits candidate casebook to Executive Committee for hire (please attach casebook checklist)

Cover letter from chair: The letter should include a) description of the appointment in the context of the field and the specific needs of the department; b) substantive description of candidate's work and significant contributions to the field; and c) a balanced summary of the strengths and weaknesses of the case. This letter should address any negative comments in internal letters.

Cover letter from search committee (optional)

Candidate's curriculum vitae

Three external letters of recommendation from reviewers are required. These should be from reviewers at or above the rank of the position for which the candidate is being considered. The letters should be truly evaluative. Letters from the candidate's thesis advisor or major collaborators are acceptable. However, we discourage letters from reviewers having a personal relationship with the candidate.

One internal letter is expected as evidence of the Department's evaluation of the candidate.  Evaluator should not be a member of the search committee.

Course Evaluations if available

Appointment Activity Record form (AAR) : Please be aware that central HR will not process the new hire without this document

9. Executive Committee considers candidate for position, ADAA notifies department of outcome

10. If approved, Department Chair negotiates salary and start-up with ADAA and submits draft offer letter and Faculty Start-up Worksheet for approval.

If the faculty candidate wishes to start his/her appointment early (prior to Sept. 1 or Jan. 1) the department must request permission from the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs to name him/her a Visiting Assistant Professor.  Such an early start should be articulated in the offer letter and approved by the ADAA as part of the startup package.

11.  Once approved, the department submits a final Faculty Start-up Worksheet to the ADAA for signature.  A signed copy will be supplied to the department following execution.  If grants will be transferred, please also include the Transfer Grant Form.

12.Department sends letter to candidate and copies ADAA.

13. If candidate accepts, department sends original signed letter to ADAA and begins employment paperwork for RPM-HR