Office of Strategic

Communication

Faculty Search Committee

Practices to Advance
Presentation
Diversity, Equity, and
Title Inclusion
NAMES/TITLES OF PRESENTERS
Presentation Subtitle/Date
DATE

Office of the Provost

Today’s Session

 Discuss the importance of diversity, equity & inclusion in faculty search

processes.
 Identify implicit bias as barrier to achieving diverse, equitable & inclusive
environments.
 Explore strategies to reduce bias and increase diversity in search and
selection processes.
 Determine search committee next steps.

Office of the Provost

Faculty Diversity, Equity,
and Inclusion Initiatives

Office of the Provost:

https://provost.uiowa.edu/faculty-DEI

Office of the Provost

 Faculty Search
Process Model
https://provost.uiowa.edu/path-distinction

Office of the Provost

Research-informed Strategies

Office of the Provost

 “Traditional”
Faculty Search
Process

Bilimoria & Buch, 2010

see Reading List online
https://provost.uiowa.edu/other-
tools

Office of the Provost

Before the Search

 SetThe Tone
 Review DEI Data &
Resources

Office of the Provost

Before the Search: Set the Tone
Making the Case for Faculty Diversity

What are the most convincing

arguments you have heard and/or
made regarding the importance of
diversity, equity and inclusion in a
faculty search?

Office of the Provost

Case for Faculty Diversity

 Functional Value of Diversity – “…the work that

diversity does, and the value it generates, within a
particular context.”

 Signaling Value of Diversity – “…the benefit that

accrues from seeing people of all backgrounds in
positions of esteem and leadership.”
Source: UCLA Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, 2017

Office of the Provost

 Before the Search:

Review Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

(DEI) Data

- Student/Faculty Composition
- Climate Surveys (Faculty/Staff; Student)
- Student Success Metrics
(disaggregated by demographics)
- Other

Office of the Provost

 College of XXXXX
Faculty Composition Data
**Sample data – replace with your college’s data

Office of the Provost

 FY15-20 College of XXXXX
Women/URM Trends
**Sample data – replace with your college’s data

Office of the Provost

 Launch Search

 Form/Train Search
Committee
 Articulate Evaluation
Criteria

Office of the Provost

Awareness of Implicit Bias Research

 ImplicitBias: Attitudes, both favorable and

unfavorable, that are activated without
awareness or intentional control.
 May result in cognitive errors such that a
person uses preconceived ideas, rather
than an objective exploration of the
external data to make a decision.

Office of the Provost

Characteristics of Implicit Bias
1) Ordinary: Rely on schemas or mental shortcuts in human
cognition.
2) Developed at a young age: “cultural thumbprint”
3) Pervasive: men/women, all racial/ethnic groups, income
levels, etc.
4) Unendorsed and may even clash with strongly held beliefs
5) Affect our judgments and actions
6) More prominent under stress, multi-tasking
7) Malleable Adapted from Carnes, M. ACE Presentation

Office of the Provost

 Identification of “Talent”
(Milkman, Akinola, & Chugh, 2012)

 Audit study of over 6,500 professors at top U.S. universities; drawn

from 89 disciplines and 259 institutions
 Professors were contacted by fictional prospective students
seeking a meeting to discuss research opportunities prior to
applying to a doctoral program
 Meeting requests were either same-day or in one week
 Names of students were randomly assigned to signal gender and
race (Caucasian, Black, Latino, Indian, Chinese), but messages
were otherwise identical.

Office of the Provost

Assigning Names

Office of the Provost

 Findings

 67 percent of the faculty members responded and

59 percent agreed to meet on the proposed date.
 For meeting requests in one week, faculty were
significantly more responsive to White male
sounding names than to all others, particularly in
higher-paying disciplines and private institutions.
* Same-day requests did not show this disparity.
 Faculty of color and women faculty showed no
significantly different outcomes.

Source: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797611434539

Office of the Provost

Letters of Recommendation for Successful
Medical School Faculty Applicants (n=312)
Letters for Men: Letters for Women :
• Longer • Shorter
• More frequently referred to • More references to teaching abilities
as “researchers” and • Showed less professional respect (first name vs “Dr.” for men)
“colleagues” • Personal life references (6% vs 1%)
• More likely to describe male • “Letters of minimal assurance” (lacking in specificity,
applicants as “successful” irrelevancies)
and reference • More likely to contain gendered terms (“She is an intelligent
“accomplishments” and young lady.”)
“achievements.” • Discussed how well they get along with others (16% vs 4%)
• Fewer standout adjectives (“outstanding” “excellent”) and more
grindstone adjectives
Source: Trix & Psenka (2003) Discourse & Society, Vol 14(2): 191-220.
Adapted from University of Michigan STRIDE and UW-WISELI

Office of the Provost

 Affinity Bias

 Leads us to favor people who

we believe are similar to us.
 Look/sound like us
 Same educational
background
 Group memberships
 Common interests
 Personality characteristics

Office of the Provost

Implicit and Explicit Bias

Source: Charlesworth and Banaji (2019) Patterns of Implicit and Explicit Attitudes

Office of the Provost

 Research on Bias and
Assumptions and their
influence on the search
process (University of
Wisconsin WISELI)

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

https://provost.uiowa.edu/other-tools

Office of the Provost

Cognitive errors and biased decision-making
occur more often when:

 individuals are tired, rushed or otherwise cognitively

burdened
 members of stereotyped group (e.g., women, people
of color) are rare (or solo) in a unit or committee
 traits stereotypic of one’s identity group conflict with
traits stereotypic of job one holds or is applying for
 valid performance information is not available
 evaluation criteria are vague or ambiguous

Office of the Provost

 Committee Strategies to Reduce Bias in
Evaluation Adapted from UCLA Faculty Diversity
1)Assemble a diverse committee; provide training and agree upon accountability strategies.
2)Develop objective criteria prior to evaluating candidates and apply them consistently to all
applicants.
3)Spend sufficient time (15-20 minutes) evaluating each applicant.
4)Evaluate each candidate's entire application; don’t depend too heavily on one element.
5)Develop a structure to request and review letters to avoid bias. Use a Gender Bias
Calculator to assess the language of submitted reference letters.
6)Rule “in” candidates who meet qualifications and could do the job, rather than rule “out”
7)Apply a numerical “grade” to each applicant first; avoid rank-ordering candidates
prematurely.
8)Periodically evaluate your decisions and consider whether women and people of color are
advancing. If not, consider whether biases may have influenced decisions.

Office of the Provost

 Articulate
Evaluation
Criteria

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

  “Everyone knows an excellent
candidate when we see one.”
 “She will only come with a dual hire and
I don’t think we can do that right now.”
Common  “That candidate is too good – they’ll
never come to Iowa.”
Statements  “He is a disaster!”
 “She would be a risky hire.”
 “I think he is a URM candidate, so we
need to interview him.”
 Others?

Office of the Provost

 Articulate Evaluation Criteria

Use of objective criteria consistently

Exampleapplied to all candidates
of “Teaching Competence serves to
in pediatrics for medical
studentsdecrease role of implicit bias and
and residents”
cognitive
• Evidence errors. experience
of teaching
• Evidence of medical/graduate
Criteria student teaching and/or
should align with the
mentorship experience/competence
qualifications posted in the position
• Potential to teach courses
announcement in core
but may alsocurriculum
clarify
the committee members’
expectations of the position.

Office of the Provost

 Publicize Position & Build Pool

 Writeand Post Ad
 Actively Recruit
Candidates

Office of the Provost

 Write Ad: Key Strategies

Emphasize the UI/Collegiate Commitment to DEI

Describe Work/Life Resources
Broadly Define the Position
Include Diversity Indicators and/or Qualifications
Use Race/Gender-neutral Terms in the Ad
UI’s DEI Style Guide

https://provost.uiowa.edu/advertising-
samples

Office of the Provost

 UI Work/Life Resources
Website:
https://worklife.uiowa.edu

Office of the Provost

Build Pool

What methods have

you used in the past
to publicize the
position and build
the applicant pool?

Office of the Provost

Actively Recruit Candidates

Create an Active
Recruitment Plan

Facilitate
Outreach using
Active Recruitment Scripts

Office of the Provost

Active Recruitment Plan

 Inform professional networks

 Identify potential candidates who would advance
the college’s diversity, equity, and inclusion mission
 Recruit passive candidates
 Reflect on efforts
 Build future applicant pools (pipeline)

Office of the Provost

Active
Recruitment
Scripts

https://provost.uiowa.edu/active-
recruitment-materials

Office of the Provost

Evaluate Candidates

 Develop Shortlist
 Conduct
Distance &
On-Campus Interviews
 Select Finalists

Office of the Provost

Develop Shortlist

 Applicant
Evaluation Tool

 Distance Interviews

Office of the Provost

On-Campus Interviews

 Interview Evaluation Tool

 Standardized Interviews

 Community Time

Office of the Provost

Select Finalists

 Finalist
Discussion
Outline

Office of the Provost

Secure Finalist

 Make/Negotiate Offer
 Engage Candidate

Office of the Provost

After the Search

 Evaluate Process
 Integrate Learning

Office of the Provost

Additional Resources

https://provost.uiowa.edu/path-distinction

Office of the Provost

Next Steps

 Continue your individual

development (e.g., Reading List)
 Review the recommended
strategies relevant to the stage of
your search
 What strategies are you interested
in discussing as a committee?

Office of the Provost

Contact Information

Joy Goins-Fernandez, PhD

Clinical Assistant Professor
Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Joyce-goins@uiowa.edu

Stefanie Pirkl, MPA, SPHR

Human Resources Director
Stefanie-pirkl@uiowa.edu

Office of the Provost