Chapter 8C

The department chair writes to the divisional dean requesting authorization for a search.

The search plan should address:

• How the anticipated appointment is expected to serve the recurring, essential curricular needs of the department.
• Any administrative duties the candidate will be expected to perform and whether the lectureship will be held in conjunction with another position in the FAS.
• 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 consists of professors of any ranks and/or Senior Lecturers who will evaluate the case. (In the case of a targeted search, former undergraduate, graduate, or postdoctoral advisors of the candidate should not chair the committee.)
• The space that will house the proposed appointment.

The divisional dean reviews individual requests in light of divisional priorities and resources (including space). If the search is authorized, the divisional dean will provide a written response to the department, setting out the conditions of the search.

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 that describes 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; 
  • as applicable, either 1) a research statement, or else 2) a statement expanding on the candidate’s demonstrated significant record of innovation in pedagogy, or 3) a statement describing the candidate's artistic achievement; 
  • a service statement describing efforts to strengthen academic communities (e.g., the candidate’s department, institution, and/or professional societies); 
  • teaching and advising materials (including a teaching chart listing courses in reverse chronological order, representative course syllabi, a list of undergraduate students for whom the candidate has primary advising responsibility, and evidence of teaching effectiveness, such as teaching awards 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.) 
  • In art-making fields, a portfolio of creative work.

The advertisement should ask all candidates to submit all of these materials with their application, with the exception of the portfolio of creative work that is requested only of the finalist, in art-making fields.

• Candidates should not solicit student letters, and any unsolicited student letters will not be included in the final dossier.
• The dossier for the finalist must also include at least five evaluative letters (including recommendation letters). The advertisement may ask candidates to submit with their original application materials at most two recommendation letters; in addition, the department should solicit at least three more letters from outside scholars either at the short-list stage or once a finalist is selected. 

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. 

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/pedagogical innovation/artistic statement, teaching/advising statement, and service statement.
• 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 master classes, as well as informal meetings with faculty, graduate students, and others. A teaching demonstration is required of all short-list candidates. The associate  dean for the division/SEAS should be given a list of dates of any seminars, lectures, or master classes.

The department selects a final candidate and requests authorization from the divisional dean to solicit evaluation letters. With the request, the department should submit a draft of the letter soliciting evaluations and a recipient list (see Sample Table).

The candidate’s dossier must include at least five evaluative letters (including recommendation letters).

The letter soliciting evaluations should include:

• The criteria for appointment to an Associate Senior Lecturer position at Harvard.
• An indication that the University will make every effort possible to keep the response confidential and will make it available only to voting members of the department/SEAS area and others directly involved in the formal review process.
• The deadline for receipt of responses and contact information.

The recipient list (see Sample Table) should be in alphabetical order and include title/current rank, home institution, year of doctorate (if available), a link to the letter-writer’s website (as available), email address, whether the scholar has been the candidate's Ph.D. advisor, postdoctoral advisor, or co-author, and the rationale for including each scholar on the list.

The department sends the approved letter to the people on the recipient list, reviews the evaluative letters received, and drafts a case statement for the finalist.

• The department writes to a number of people sufficient to elicit at least five evaluative letters (including the candidate’s recommendation letters) for inclusion in the final dossier. As at most two of the five letters are recommendation letters, the department should solicit at least three letters from faculty outside Harvard at the rank of tenured associate or full professor. 
• The names of individuals declining to write an evaluation should be noted in the case statement. Any explanatory emails/letters from these people should be included with the other evaluations.
• The draft case statement for the candidate summarizes the department’s conclusions, including the strengths and weaknesses of the case with regard to teaching and advising; as applicable, either 1) research, or else 2) demonstrated significant record of innovation in pedagogy, or else 3) artistic achievement; an evaluation of the candidate’s efforts to strengthen academic communities; and potential for further growth (see Step 8 for all of the necessary elements of the final case statement).

• The department/SEAS area reviews the draft case statement, all evaluative letters, and all of the candidate’s materials and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the case. This discussion should be in-depth and rigorous. The department/SEAS area should also assess whether the candidate has met the criteria for Associate Senior Lecturer.
• All voting members of the department/SEAS area vote on the proposed appointment according to their standard procedures.

After a favorable vote, 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:

• Background and context: An explanation of how the appointment serves the recurring, essential curricular needs of the department and how it fits in with the department’s future development and why it is appropriate to make the appointment at the Associate Senior Lecturer rank. Describe the teaching needs that the appointment would address.
• The search process: A description of the search, including how the finalist was identified.
• The case for the candidate:
  • A discussion of the finalist’s teaching and advising abilities; as applicable, either 1) research, or else 2) demonstrated significant record of innovation in pedagogy, or else 3) artistic achievement; an evaluation of the candidate’s efforts to strengthen academic communities; and potential for further growth.
  • A comparison of the candidate with all other leading candidates, and reasons why the other leading candidates were not chosen.
• A discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the candidate’s case as noted in the evaluative letters and the internal conversations of both the committee and the department/SEAS area. This analysis of strengths and weaknesses should reflect in-depth and rigorous committee and departmental deliberations of the candidate's entire dossier. 
• A summary of the department's discussions of the case.
• Departmental/SEAS area vote: A record of the department/SEAS area vote, by name, with an “as of” date for the vote tally.
• Signatures: An indication of the primary author of the statement.

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

Note: The department should secure from applicants at the short-list stage (or from the finalist, if the department’s process does not include a short-list stage) a draft course title, course description, and syllabus for the course(s) that the candidate(s) intend to teach during their first semester, for approval. This information will be included in the finalist’s dossier. (Obtaining this information is not necessary for candidates who would be teaching established courses such as certain language or mathematics courses, etc.)

Please securely send one electronic copy of the dossier to the associate dean. 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 the Dossier Checklist.

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.

The divisional dean, with a CAP subcommittee, reviews the dossier, and the divisional dean decides whether to approve the appointment.

In some cases, the full Committee on Appointments and Promotions may be asked to review individual dossiers.

If the decision is favorable, the offer letter is issued by the divisional dean.

Once approval for the appointment has been granted, the department should ask the individual during the hiring process to confirm the department’s understanding of what the course title, description, and syllabus are. 

The offer letter (drafted in consultation with the divisional dean by the Office for Faculty Development) contains information on title, appointment, salary, responsibilities, etc. The Office for Faculty Development makes any revisions to the offer letter. The candidate's acceptance of the offer must be made in writing to the divisional dean.

If the offer is accepted, the appointment is processed in the Aurora system by the Office for Faculty Affairs.

The Office for Faculty Development submits all documentation for processing, with the exception of the I-9 form and any necessary payroll documents. 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.

Note: In the extremely rare instance that the divisional/SEAS dean authorizes a targeted external search for an Associate Senior Lecturer, the department should follow Step 1 in the appointment process above; gather materials from the candidate as described in Step 2 (the department does not need to advertise the position); proceed to Step 5 and follow the rest of the appointment process from Step 5 onward. In Step 8, the case statement will not compare the finalist to other candidates.