Chapter 5A

Each spring, the divisional dean authorizes searches for the upcoming academic year based on departments’ academic plans and ongoing conversations with the departments. After receiving the divisional dean’s authorization letter, the department submits a search plan to the divisional/SEAS associate dean for approval.

The search plan should address:

• The names of the proposed search committee members, including the chair, who will have primary responsibility for ensuring that the search is broad, wide-ranging, and thorough. The committee ordinarily consists of tenured and tenure-track faculty and should include a tenured faculty member from another department/SEAS area or Harvard school. The department should ask a representative of the appropriate center, institute, or initiative to serve on or consult with the search committee when there is an overlap in research interests.
• A copy of the draft advertisement for the position.
• A description of the field or area(s) of the search, as stated in the advertisement. Care should be taken to define the field with sufficient breadth that candidates’ contributions can be understood within an appropriately broad context. The field should not be defined as a narrow subfield.
• Any potential internal candidates (i.e., graduate students or postdoctoral fellows currently in residence in the department conducting the search. In such cases, departments are urged to exercise special care to avoid favoritism or the appearance thereof).
• The space (office, studio, and/or laboratory) that will house the proposed appointment and any other important resource considerations.
• The process by which candidates will be identified to ensure the creation of the most highly qualified pool of applicants.

Note: There is an expectation that a tenure-track search will yield an assistant professor-level candidate.

After approval of the search plan by the divisional dean, the department advertises the position and makes inquiries at other institutions.

• All advertising copy must be reviewed and approved by the associate dean for the division/SEAS before it is submitted to the appropriate journals and other venues. Advertisements and inquiries should describe the position broadly and should list a date after which the department will stop accepting applications, or the department can encourage candidates to apply by a specific date, while indicating that applications will be reviewed until the position is filled. At least one form of the advertisement should be published in print. Advertisements should clearly state required documents and must indicate that Harvard is “an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, age, protected veteran status, disability, genetic information, military service, pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions, or other protected status.”
• The dossier for the finalist must include a teaching/advising statement, a service statement, and a research statement. The dossier should also include teaching and advising materials, including a teaching chart [for associate candidates] listing courses in reverse chronological order, any teaching awards, a list of past and present theses supervised, representative course syllabi, and teaching evaluations. Note: In the teaching chart, please indicate which, if any, courses were taught remotely, whether partially or in full, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [For associate candidates, the dossier for the finalist should also include a list of past and present graduate students for whom the candidate has or had primary responsibility, and current and former postdoctoral advisees, as relevant, and including those who moved to another research group.]
• The advertisement should ask all candidates to submit with their original application materials:
  • A teaching/advising statement describing the candidate’s philosophy and practices as well as their approach to creating a learning environment in which students are encouraged to ask questions and share their ideas. (The department may request the other teaching materials from the short-list candidates.)
  • A research statement
  • A service statement that describes efforts to strengthen academic communities (e.g., the candidate’s department, institution, and/or professional societies).
  • 1-2 letters of recommendation. Note: The dossier for the finalist must contain at least 3 letters of recommendation and 1-2 must be solicited from from all applicants for inclusion with their original application materials.
• The divisional/SEAS dean and their designees may, as needed, request additional information from or about candidates at relevant points in the search process.
• Candidates should not solicit student (or postdoc) letters, and any unsolicited student (or postdoc) letters will not be included in the final dossier.
• The dossier for the finalist must also include 3-5 letters of recommendation. At least one letter must come from someone who has not served as the candidate's undergraduate, graduate, or postdoctoral advisor. The advertisement should ask candidates to submit contact information for references with their original application materials. The department may also solicit additional information as necessary.
• The dossier for the finalist must also include a statement addressing overlap in publications and joint authorship.

The department interviews candidates at appropriate professional conferences, if applicable.

The department submits a short list of candidates for approval by the divisional dean.

The short list consists of candidates the department has determined are the most qualified for the job in terms of credentials, accomplishments, standing in the field, teaching experience, and field of expertise. 

Note: In developing a short list, if the research interests of the appointment overlap with a center, institute, or initiative, the department should take into account the views of that unit.

The department sends the following to the divisional dean and the associate  dean for the division/SEAS:

• The names of the short-list candidates.
• The candidates’ materials (e.g., letters of application, CVs, research statement, teaching/advising statement, service statement, and 3-5 letters of recommendation).
• A brief summary of the search process to date.

If approval is granted, the department invites short-list candidates to campus for interviews.

Candidates meet with members of the department. The visits may include formal seminars, lectures, or presentations of working papers, as well as informal meetings with faculty, graduate students, and others. The associate dean for the division/SEAS should be given the dates of the campus visits of short-list candidates.

The department votes on final proposed candidate.

→ Statement on overlap and joint authorship

In advance of the department’s discussion and vote on a final candidate, the department should ask the finalist for a statement on overlap and joint authorship in publications. This statement should make clear: 1) In book fields, in what specific instances the candidate’s publications are partial or significant reiterations of scholarship covered in others of the candidate’s publications (such as articles), and 2) In all fields, in jointly-authored publications, what the candidate’s unique scholarly contribution was. The purpose of this statement is to provide a clearer picture of the candidate’s body of work and, where applicable, the nature of their collaborations with others.

→ Discussion 

→ Department Vote

Following discussion, which should be in-depth and rigorous, the vote is taken in accordance with departmental procedures as well as FAS Ladder Appointment and Promotion Voting Policies.

The case statement is finalized by the department chair.

The finalized case statement, prepared and signed by the department chair and the chair of the search committee, should include the following sections:

• Background and context: A description of the candidate’s area and how it fits into the department’s academic plan. Include information about how this appointment would relate to FAS/SEAS faculty working in similar or adjacent intellectual fields. Describe the teaching needs that the appointment would address.
• Summary of the search process:
  • List key dates, such as but not limited to:
    • The dates of search committee meetings and departmental meetings about the case
    • Visits or other interactions with short-list candidates
    • [If relevant, the date that the department send requests for external letters.]
  • Include copies of correspondence and advertisements and records of telephone conversations.
• [External letter writers (if relevant):
  • Describe the logic underlying the composition of the external letter writer group, especially in cases where the candidate is multidisciplinary.
  • Describe how many letters were solicited, how many requests were declined, how many letters were received, and any inferences from the pattern of responses.]
• The intellectual case for the candidate:
  • A summary of the candidate’s work and an assessment of whether it meets the criteria for a tenure-track position, which include: (for assistant professors) promise to produce scholarship of the highest quality and potential for tenure within seven years and (for associate professors) sufficient promise and achievement to potentially qualify for tenure at Harvard within three to five years.
  • [If the department solicited external evaluations, an assessment of how the candidate compares with leading scholars in his/her/their cohort, relative to both the comparands identified in external letters and others identified by departmental faculty. Short quotes from the letters may be included but should not substitute for robust analysis of the letter contents and their relation to the department’s deliberations. Please directly address any letters that provide negative evaluations of the candidate.]
• Teaching, advising, and service:
  • A description of the candidate’s teaching/advising experience (assistant professor candidates) or an evaluation of the candidate’s teaching and advising effectiveness in a variety of settings with both undergraduate and graduate students and, as relevant, postdocs (associate professor candidates)
  • Please describe any service activities
  • Please include an evaluation of the candidate’s efforts to strengthen academic communities.
• A comparison of the candidate with all other leading candidates, and reasons why the other leading candidates were not chosen.
• A summary of the department's discussions of the case.
• Strengths and weakness: A discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the candidate’s case as noted in the recommendation letters [and any external evaluations, as relevant] and the internal conversations of both the search committee and the department. This analysis of strengths and weaknesses should reflect in-depth and rigorous committee and departmental deliberations of the candidate’s entire dossier.
• Mentoring: The anticipated plan for providing suitable mentors for the candidate (especially if the candidate may hold a joint appointment) and for addressing aspects of the candidate’s professional development, particular to the intellectual role that the candidate is expected to play.
• Departmental vote: A record of the department vote, by name, with an “as of” date for the vote tally.
• Signatures: An indication of the primary author of the statement.

Note: The divisional/SEAS dean and/or their designee and the Dean for Faculty Affairs and Planning can ask for changes to the dossier at any time.

Note: The finalized case statement should be made available to the faculty in the department involved in the review.

The candidate’s dossier is prepared by the department and sent to the associate dean for the division/SEAS and the senior associate dean for faculty affairs.

Please securely send to the associate dean for the division/SEAS and the senior associate dean for faculty affairs  one electronic copy of the dossier. Please follow HUIT’s recommended practices for secure document transfer, which can vary by user platform. For a full checklist of what the dossier should include, please see below.

If an associate professor-level finalist is identified, this step is necessary. 

After approval of the associate professor-level candidate by the divisional dean, the dossier is reviewed by a subcommittee of CAP.

If requested by one of the reviewers, the full Committee on Appointments and Promotions may be asked to review the dossier.

This step is not required for assistant professor or convertible instructor-level finalists.

This step differs based on the finalist's position level. Please see instructions for the relevant finalist position below.

After final approval from the divisional dean, the department chair sends the offer letter to candidate.

• Any revisions to the initial offer must be made in writing, in consultation with the Office for Faculty Development. An electronic PDF signed copy of the revised offer letter must be securely sent to the associate dean for the division and the senior associate dean for faculty affairs. Please follow HUIT’s recommended practices for secure document transfer, which can vary by user platform.
• The candidate’s acceptance of an offer is made in writing to the chair.

If the offer is accepted, the final dossier is compiled and sent to the Appointments Office in the Office for Faculty Affairs, and the appointment is processed in the Aurora system by appointing department.

• The department sends 1 electronic PDF copy of the final dossier, including the signed offer letter, to the Appointments Office in the Office for Faculty Affairs via Aurora.
• Completion of an I-9 on or before the appointment start date and submission of any other necessary documents is required of all new employees, or after a break in service of one year or more. Questions about I-9 completion should be directed to FAS Central Payroll for faculty appointed through FAS or SEAS Office for Faculty Affairs for faculty appointed through SEAS.
• The department securely sends to the associate dean for the division and the senior associate dean for faculty affairs 1 electronic PDF copy of the final offer letter, signed by the department chair. Please follow HUIT’s recommended practices for secure document transfer, which can vary by user platform.
• The department securely sends to the senior associate dean for faculty affairs 1 electronic PDF copy of the candidate’s acceptance letter. Please follow HUIT’s recommended practices for secure document transfer, which can vary by user platform.
• The department administrator will remind the faculty member to sign electronically the Harvard University Participation Agreement by the start of their appointment.