Faculty Hiring Recruitment Fundamentals

The following articulation of some of the college’s foundational principles for shaping its community, written by Amherst’s board of trustees two decades ago, provides a compelling guidepost as we work to bring scholar- teachers to Amherst who are more demographically representative of the diversity of our student body and the country. “The college’s commitments both to distinction and to inclusion have brought to Amherst a long line of extraordinarily talented students and scholars who have enriched our campus, our country and the world. Amherst is a community that draws its strength from the intelligence and experience of those who come here to learn, to teach, to work.  We reaffirm our goal of fashioning the Amherst College community from the broadest and deepest possible range of talents that people of many different backgrounds can bring to us.”

The success of our college depends on the faculty’s participation in this recruitment effort.  We seek representation of all forms of diversity, including, but not limited to, race, religion, ethnicity, ability, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, and country of origin.

Data suggest that the use of strategic and imaginative methods of recruiting individuals results in candidate pools that are much more likely to be demographically representative.  The approach that we take to building candidate pools must be disciplined, rigorous, ongoing, and systematized.

In furtherance of the goal of diversifying the faculty, the steps outlined here should be considered the standard practice for all searching departments.

Departments are asked to work on the following projects on a constant, ongoing basis:

1. Maintain a list of programs that produce Ph.D.s in your discipline, broadly defined, that are known to produce job candidates who are more demographically diverse.
2. Maintain a list of pathway programs that can help you find viable candidates for positions in your department.
3. Maintain a list of professional associations (both in the field and more broadly) that compile and house lists of Ph.D. candidates by diverse characteristics.  If possible, join the list servs of such groups to establish a regular system of updates and communication.
4. Maintain a library of conference programs to help identify scholars-of-interest as either potential candidates or as key references for identifying faculty who are more demographically diverse and other candidates.
5. Maintain a database of potential candidates who are more demographically diverse at all stages of their careers whom department members have met through their professional networks.  The database should be updated regularly.
6. Maintain a database of Amherst alumni who are more demographically diverse and contact them to make connections and obtain referrals.  Encourage alumni who are pursuing careers in academia to consider returning to Amherst as faculty.  Encourage current students and alumni who are more demographically diverse to pursue careers in academia.