Associate Professors and 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 candidates for senior positions as Professor or Associate Professor are required to meet with the ADAA. (If the ADAA is not available, the faculty candidate must meet with one of the other Associate Deans.) In addition, an appointment should be scheduled with the Dean for candidates considered for tenured hires (Associate Professor or Professor).

A minimum of two weeks notice is required to schedule faculty candidates to meet with the Dean, 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 with the ADAA and Martha Sweigert (77008) to schedule an appointment with the Dean.

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 Dean and 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 Dean and ADAA office about the candidate.

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

The College Representatives are 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 representatives are 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 Representatives' evaluations 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 names of the College Representatives selected at least one week before the visit.

The ADAA office will contact the College Representatives 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 or explain any negative comments in the internal and external letters.

Cover letter from search committee (optional)

Candidate's curriculum vitae

At least five external letters of recommendation from reviewers at "arm's length" are required (more than five are highly desirable). If the request includes tenure, half of the letters should come from the candidate's list of references (if there are confidentiality issues, please contact the ADAA). By "arm's length" we are looking for reviewers who are not from the candidate's home department, reviewers who have not collaborated with and/or do not have a personal relationship with the candidate. These should be from reviewers at or above the rank of the position for which the candidate is being considered. If the circumstances necessitate letters from out-of-rank reviewers, those should be explained. The letters should be truly evaluative. While letters from persons who have served as a candidate's thesis advisor, mentor, co-author, or major collaborator can be especially helpful (because they can be presumed to have a good sense of both the person and the work), it is also true that their own reputations are involved in the work being evaluated. If such letters are included, they must be in addition to the minimum requirement of five. Letters from persons who may be unknown to the candidate, but who may have a clear sense of the significance of the candidate's qualifications are of greater value.

External Reviewers: List in alpha order with a brief description of the credentials of reviewers and their relationship to the candidate. A short paragraph for each reviewer should indicate the reviewer's position, fields of expertise, important contributions and standing in the discipline, appropriateness of the reviewer to provide input, as well as any close professional associations with the candidate - dissertation committee, post-doc. supervisor, co-author, etc. (Identifiable measures of stature include: Chaired Professorships, Editorships, Professional Society Offices, Academy Memberships, etc.)  Please also note if the candidate is at arm's length or not arm's length.

Copy or example of letter sent to external reviewers. 

At least two internal letters are expected as evidence of the Department's evaluation of the candidate.  These evaluators should not be members of the search committee.

Course Evaluations: Evidence of teaching experience and performance, including an explanation of the teaching evaluation system and where the candidate ranks in the system. If candidate is from industry and tenure is requested, provide in-depth justification for prediction of teaching success in a university setting.

Appointment Activity Record form (AAR):  Required for provost approval of hire

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 Professor.  Such an early start should be articulated in the offer letter and approved by the ADAA as part of the startup package.

11. ADAA requests approval to hire from Provost's Office (may delay offer anywhere from 5 to 10 days.) Once the Provost approves, ADAA will inform department.

12.  Once offer letter and startup are 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.

13.Department sends approved letter to candidate and copies ADAA.

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

15. ADAA submits Regents Communication for final approval of new faculty hire.  ADAA office notified Department of Regent approval.