Provost guidance on annual hiring cycle

Office of the Provost Guidance on the Annual Faculty/Librarian Hiring Plan Cycle

The purpose of this document is to provide information about the norms and expectations for the annual cycle for the request and approval of faculty and librarian hiring at the University of Washington.

As a preface to the hiring cycle information below, the following table outlines the relationship between the hiring and budget cycle timelines, which are subject to change based on the needs of the Office of the Provost and institutional planners across the three campuses:

Budget development and hearing: (November-April)

• Materials regarding budget development will be available to leadership mid-November, with a due date in early February.
• The budget development templates will prompt deans and chancellors to reflect progress on their current and proposed hiring plans by entering specific data into Adaptive Planning on a position, or roster level, by Resource.
• The budget hearings will allow for a discussion of current and future hiring plans in light of the unit’s strategic goals. This will not only afford the Provost an advance look at future hiring in the important context of a unit’s budget, but will also provide an opportunity for feedback.

 

Hiring plan reporting and submission: (December-February)

• The conclusion of the preceding year’s hiring cycle is the submission of a report on hiring outcomes. This report should identify the completed hires, hires that have not been completed and are requested to be carried forward, and hires being withdrawn.
• The hiring report can be submitted beginning December and must be completed before the next year’s hiring plan can be submitted.
• The prior year’s plan is frozen for modifications beginning December, and expires when a new hiring plan is approved in April.
• The next year’s hiring plan proposal can be submitted beginning December and is due, along with the prior year’s hiring report, by February.
• Hiring plan decisions and approvals are communicated in April. Once approved, hiring plans are active and hiring activity for newly-approved positions may commence. Recruitments can be initiated through Interfolio.
• Hires should be completed and processed so that they can be included on a Board of Regents agenda prior to the start date. Exceptions should be rare.
• As a member of the AAU, the University of Washington honors the May 1 deadline for the recruitment of faculty members from other institutions as adopted in APS 41.2. Your efforts to honor the intent of this policy statement are requested.

 

Hiring plan submission expectations

• The hiring plan should be prefaced with a succinct overview statement describing the proposed hires in the context of the unit’s strategic goals, academic motivations, and faculty diversity and affirmative action goals, including your outreach strategy to ensure robust and diverse applicant pools. The expectation is that the hiring plan will be limited to those searches that are feasible to initiate and complete in the coming year.
• In their hiring plan proposal, each school, college, or campus is required to include all professorial appointments in the tenure track/tenure, without tenure by reason of funding (WOT), clinical practice, research, teaching, and clinical dental pathway tracks; all librarian appointments in non-continuing/continuing, and provisional/permanent status; awards of tenure (i.e., proposed track change of Associate Professor or Professor WOT by reason of funding to Tenure Track); artist in residence and senior artist in residence; and professor of practice appointments. The inclusion of lecturer, clinical, visiting, and acting appointments varies by unit and is separately communicated.
• Each proposed hire must be accompanied by an instructional need justification that outlines how the position serves to address the instructional needs of the unit. If it does not address instructional need, please provide justification for hiring outside of instructional need.
• There is a general expectation that each proposed hire is accounted for in your Adaptive plan. If it is not, then an explanation for the misalignment is required.
• There is a general expectation that recruitments and hires will be at the junior level regardless of funding source. Requests for approval of hires at the Associate Professor or Professor level (Associate Librarian or Librarian) must include a rationale for an exception to the general expectation. It is expected that units will make at least 80% junior hires as a rolling average over time (approximately three to four years). The exceptional circumstances motivating senior hires should be justified in detail – merely replacing separating senior level faculty is not sufficient justification. You are encouraged to conduct a recruitment assessment that considers the needs for each position including leadership, diversity, disciplinary expertise, and specific instructional and/or research gains to be achieved that can lead to an effective recruitment strategy. This assessment should help you in developing your hiring plan request and, where appropriate, in justifying a senior level hire.
• If a search for a carry-forward position was not initiated in the prior year, the reasons should be explained, along with an assurance that the search will be initiated in the coming year.
• There should be no advertising or hiring above the approved rank or beyond the approved number of positions.
• Deans and chancellors should submit a comprehensive hiring plan that is realistically achievable. Additions and modifications may be requested to their hiring plans until December of the hiring year, but such requests should be limited.
• Deans and chancellors are strongly encouraged to share their proposed hiring plans with their elected faculty/librarian councils in advance of submission to the Provost.

 

Original Document Creation Date – October 8, 2018
Last Updated – November 22, 2024