Procedures for Department Chair Search

Internal Searches

Consultation Process for Incumbency Reappointment

Normally, Department Chairs in the College of Arts and Sciences serve two successive three-year terms. This arrangement provides the best opportunity for sustaining effective academic leadership of a Department. As well, experience suggests this approximates the optimal period for a faculty member to invest in this key administrative service to the Department. Where the incumbent is completing a first term as Chair, the Dean will distribute an advisory ballot to the voting faculty of the Department regarding the incumbent's reappointment. This will take place not later than the beginning of the last semester of the incumbent's term. The ballot will ask whether the voting faculty support reappointment of the Chair for another three-year term or prefer to consider all eligible candidates for Chair. The ballot will also solicit the faculty's views on the Chair and comments as to what the faculty view as the important issues facing the Department over the next few years. The Dean will report to the Department the results of the advisory ballot. If there is consensus support for reappointment of the incumbent, the Dean will then meet with the Chair to discuss reappointment.

Consultation Process for a New Appointment

When a new Chair is to be appointed, or when reappointment of the incumbent beyond a second term is contemplated, at the beginning of the last semester of appointment of the current Chair the Dean will send a memo to the tenured Associate and Full Professors asking them whether or not they are willing to be candidates for Chair. Only those who explicitly notify the Dean of willingness to be a candidate for Chair will be included in a Departmental advisory ballot. The Dean may solicit candidates. It is generally preferable for faculty at the full professor rank to serve as Chair, but depending on the size or historical situation of the Department this is not always optimal or possible. Hence all tenured faculty are considered eligible.

The Dean will then send an advisory ballot to all voting faculty in the Department. The ballot will ask for their views on each Chair candidate. It will also solicit their comments on what they consider to be important issues facing the Department over the next few years. This advisory ballot is to give the Dean evaluations of the individuals the Department's faculty perceive to be the most qualified candidates.

The Dean will report to the Department the results of the advisory ballot. The report will include the votes on all candidates on the ballot unless:

the Department's bylaws specify that the report is to include only the results of the vote for the candidate to be recommended as Chair; or
two-thirds of the Department faculty vote, in a separate component of the advisory ballot, that the report is to include only the results of the vote for the candidate to be recommended as Chair; or
a candidate withdraws from consideration for appointment as Chair after the ballot has been issued, in which case the results for that candidate will be omitted; or
a candidate notifies the Dean that if he or she is not to be recommended for appointment as Chair, he or she withdraws from consideration and requests results of the vote for his or her candidacy be omitted.

Final Selection

Based on the advisory ballot(s), the Dean will develop a short list of candidates and meet with each to discuss serving as Chair. If the advisory balloting identifies consensus for reappointment of the incumbent or identifies one leading candidate for appointment as Chair, the Dean may meet with that candidate alone. In situations where no clear consensus has emerged, the Dean may seek further consultation with the Department; this may include an advisory ballot of the leading candidates identified in an initial advisory ballot. The Dean will report to the Department the results of any additional ballot, following the procedures for inclusion in a ballot and report of its results specified above. The Dean will then select a candidate to be recommended to the Provost for appointment as Chair.

Recommendation to the Provost; Approval and Appointment

In the Dean's recommendation to the Provost, the Dean will include the results of the ballot(s), a draft offer letter, the candidate's resume, and background information gathered in the search and consultation process.

After Provostal approval of the proposed appointment, the Dean will send an offer letter to the candidate for Chair with a copy to the Provost.

After the candidate accepts, the Dean will send a copy of the acceptance to the Provost for the record. The Dean will concurrently notify the Department faculty and staff and the Dean's Office staff of the appointment.

External Searches

Formation of a Search Committee and Department Consultation

In some cases it may be desirable to go outside the existing faculty to appoint a Chair. In any such case the Dean will first meet with the Provost to discuss options. If an external Chair search is authorized, a search committee will be formed with majority membership from the Department. A senior faculty member from outside the Department will chair the search committee, and at least one other faculty member from outside the Department will serve on it. Given the time required to conduct an external search, the incumbent Chair or another tenured faculty member shall normally be appointed to serve as interim Chair until the new Chair is in place.

The Search Committee will recommend a slate of finalist candidates to the Dean. The Dean will seek consultation from the voting faculty of the Department by means of the advisory ballot procedures specified above for internal searches. The Dean will report to the Department the votes of this advisory ballot. The Dean will then select the candidate to be recommended to the Provost for appointment as Chair.

Recommendation to the Provost; Approval and Appointment

After Provostal approval of the proposed appointment, the Dean will send an offer letter to the candidate for Chair with a copy to the Provost.

Approved by the College of Arts and Sciences Policy Committee 24 November 2003
[superseding the version approved by the Committee 20 September 2000]

Procedures for Department Chair Search

For Faculty