Transcript Deliberation, Constraint and Complexity

Effective Faculty Searches
Vincent Price
Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs
Lubna Mian
Associate Director of Faculty Affairs
October, 2008
Our Goals
• Excellence
• Diversity
• Strategic development
• Interdisciplinary scholarship
Effective Faculty Searches | # 2
Why Diversity?
• Increased talent pool
• Student support
• Better teamwork
• Equity
Effective Faculty Searches | # 3
Achieving our Goals
• Large and diverse applicant pools
• Careful and unbiased evaluations
• Thorough interviewing processes
• Intelligent collective decision making
Effective Faculty Searches | # 4
A Diverse Pool
U.S. Population 2005
100
80
68%
60
Percent
40
12.7%
20
13.8%
5.2%
0
Asian
Black
Hispanic
White
Race/Ethnicity
Effective Faculty Searches | # 5
A Diverse Pool
U.S. Ph.D. Recipients 1995-2005
100
80
61.8%
Population
60
Ph.D. Pool
Percent
40
21.1%
20
4.8%
4.6%
0
Asian
Black
Hispanic
White
Race/Ethnicity
Effective Faculty Searches | # 6
A Diverse Pool
Penn Standing Faculty 2006
100
83.4%
80
Population
60
Ph.D. Pool
Percent
Penn Faculty
40
20
10.8%
3.2%
2.5%
0
Asian
Black
Hispanic
White
Race/Ethnicity
Effective Faculty Searches | # 7
A Diverse Pool
U.S. Population 2005
100
80
60
50.7%
49.3%
Percent
40
20
0
Female
Male
Gender
Effective Faculty Searches | # 8
A Diverse Pool
U.S. Ph.D. Recipients 1995-2005
100
Population
80
Ph.D. Pool
57%
60
Percent
43%
40
20
0
Female
Male
Gender
Effective Faculty Searches | # 9
A Diverse Pool
Penn Standing Faculty 2006
100
72.9%
Population
80
Ph.D. Pool
Penn Faculty
60
Percent
40
27.1%
20
0
Female
Male
Gender
Effective Faculty Searches | # 10
Comparison to peers
Penn’s Rank
Among Peers
Low to High
Range Among
Peers
Asian
Black
Hispanic
Women
12 / 18
4 / 18
16 / 18
3 / 10
5.1 - 13.2%
1.6 - 4.1%
0.8 - 3.2%
21 - 34%
(8.1 points)
(2.5 points)
(2.4 points)
(13 points)
Data reflect only tenured and tenure-track faculty
Comparison Peers: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, MIT,
Northwestern, Princeton, Rice, Stanford, Chicago, Rochester, Washington University, Yale
Source: Data Reported to the U.S. Department of Education
Effective Faculty Searches | # 11
Faculty Turnover
2003-2006
80
60
61
Arts & Sciences
40
13
20
0
5
-4
-3
3
-4
-20
Asian
Black
-40
Hispanic
-60
White
-64
-80
Departures
Hires
Effective Faculty Searches | # 12
Grooming Large and Diverse Pools
Active Searches
•Know the obstacles
•Network before opening search
•Use targeted outreach
•Use word of mouth
•Avoid undue narrowcasting
Effective Faculty Searches | # 13
Careful and Unbiased Evaluation
Harder than you think!
•Diffusion of responsibility
•Short cuts
•Unconscious bias
Effective Faculty Searches | # 14
Unconscious Schemas
Natural part of perception and evaluation
• Beliefs about people
• Beliefs about how people “ought” to be
Contributing factors
• Ambiguity
• Stress from competing tasks
• Time pressure
• Lack of critical mass
Fiske (2002). Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 123-128
.
Effective Faculty Searches | # 15
Unconscious Schemas
High
Women
Warmth
Whites
Asians
Blacks
Men
Hispanics
Low
Low
High
Competence
Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, & Xu (2002). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(6), 878-902.
Effective Faculty Searches | # 16
From University of Michigan STRIDE program (http://sitemaker.umich.edu/advance/stride)
Evaluating C.V.s
Brian
Karen
University psychology
professors preferred
“Brian” over “Karen” by 2:1
Steinpreis, Anders, & Ritzke (1999) Sex Roles, 41, 509.
Effective Faculty Searches | # 18
Callbacks
Black-sounding names (“Jamal”):
15 resumes = callback
White-sounding names (“Greg”):
10 resumes = callback
Equivalent to 8 extra years experience
Bertrand & Mullainathan (2004) Poverty Action Lab, 3, 1-27.
Effective Faculty Searches | # 19
Letters of Recommendation
Letters for women
• Shorter
• Fewer references to c.v.
• Twice as many gender references
• More references to personal life
• Fewer standout references (“excellent”) and more
“grindstone” references (“hardworking”)
• Twice as many hedges and irrelevancies (“It’s amazing how
much she’s accomplished”)
Trix & Psenka (2003) Discourse & Society, 14(2), 191-220.
Effective Faculty Searches | # 20
Influences on Advancement
Simulated organizational hierarchy
• Start with 50-50 gender mix
• Assume 1 percent bias in promotions
After eight promotion cycles:
• Highest management level 65% male
Martell, Lane, & Emrich (1996) American Psychologist, 51, 157-158.
Effective Faculty Searches | # 21
Reducing Bias
• Reducing ambiguity
• Avoiding “solo” presence in pool
• Taking time to review applications
• Focusing on positive exemplars
Dovidio & Gaertner (2000). Psychological Science, 11, 315-319.
Fiske (2002). Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 123-128.
Martell (1991). Journal of Applied Soc Psychol, 21, 1939-1960.
Dasgupta & Greenwald (2001). Journal of Pers & Soc Psych, 81, 800-814.
Effective Faculty Searches | # 22
Careful and Unbiased Evaluation
Thoughtfulness and accountability
• Supportive, diverse committee
• Familiarity with research on bias
• Structured, evidence-based review
• Apply consistent, objective criteria
• Evaluate entire application
• Treat recommendations with care
• Avoid over-reliance on prestige
Effective Faculty Searches | # 23
Effective Visits
• Show enthusiasm
• Offer dual-career and family-friendly policy
information
• Identify colleagues who can discuss climate
for women and minorities
• Introduce the city and region
• Stay in contact
• Be even-handed and transparent in
negotiating
Effective Faculty Searches | # 24
Dual-Career Couples
Dual Hires:
Hired as a couple
8%
Are Single
13%
Have Stay-atHome Partner
12%
Have Academic
Partner
39%
Independent Hires:
Each replied to separate
advertisements for position,
or met after they were hired.
20%
Sequential:
One partner hired first, then
negotiates for the “second hire.”
5.5%
Joint:
Recruited by university as a couple.
2.5%
Have Employed
(non-Academic)
Partner
37%
Solo Hires:
Only one partner in the
couple is currently
employed in academia.
9%
Clayman Institute Survey of Penn Faculty
N= 949 (34% response rate)
Effective Faculty Searches | # 25
Some Resources
• Faculty Opportunity Fund
• Benefits and Retirements Brochures
• Online Application System
• HERC
• Accompanying Spouse-Partner Program
• Relocation Assistance
• Child Care
Effective Faculty Searches | # 26
Discussion
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