Faculty Employment Procedures
The faculty employment procedures are designed to ensure the selection and appointment of the most qualified faculty without regard for race, color, creed, national or ethnic origin, or sex.
All appointees to the faculty must be in basic agreement with the Mission Statement, Theological Assumptions, Philosophy of Education, the Student Learning Outcomes (see Part One, Sections IIVII of this Handbook), and the Lifestyle Statement of Greenville University (see Part One, Section III); they also must be supportive of the University’s organization, administration, and the various academic and co-curricular programs of the University. Faculty appointees are expected to be professionally competent in the areas of teaching, academic advisement, career education within a liberal arts and sciences context, and the co-curricular program. Research and writing skills, along with service to the Church and community, are expected of all faculty appointees. It is expected that the faculty member’s presence on-campus will be a wholesome influence on the social, physical, spiritual, cultural, and intellectual development of the students.
Whenever a faculty vacancy occurs in a department, a review of departmental needs is carried out to reestablish the need for the position. The following steps are then taken in the course of making an appointment. (Emergency or part-time faculty appointments follow as many of these procedures as possible.)
• A search committee that has significant departmental representation, usually composed of three or four persons and always involving the department chair and/or school dean, will be appointed by the chief academic officer, in consultation with the department chair. The department in consultation with the search committee develops a position description for approval by the chief academic officer and recommends venues for advertising the position to the chief academic officer. The goal is both broad national publicity of each opening and targeted discipline-specific promotion.
• Responses to all inquiries and applications are coordinated by the Office of Academic Affairs. Copies of application materials are provided to the search committee chair for distribution to committee members. Preliminary screening of the applicants is based on criteria established by the search committee and chief academic officer at the time of finalizing the position description. Such screening will identify a smaller pool of candidates who merit telephone interview(s) and/or reference checks. Ideally, reference checks on candidates will extend beyond the names or references submitted by the applicant. Written notes on telephone interviews and reference checks should be included in the portfolio developed by the search committee on each candidate.
• Based on input from the search committee’s work, the search committee chair provides to the chief academic officer completed portfolios on all potential finalists for the position, recommending which candidates should be brought to campus for interviews. Normally, on campus interviews will be arranged for at least three candidates for each opening.
• The candidate usually spends at least one full day in individual interviews with the president, chief academic officer, Dean’s Council, the department faculty, other faculty persons, and students. Ideally, candidates should teach at least one class session and may be asked to offer a colloquium for the campus community. During these interviews, both the candidate and the University representatives develop a database upon which to make judgments relative to a possible recommendation for appointment.
• Immediately following the on-campus interviews, all individuals involved with the interview process must submit a feedback sheet to the Office of Academic Affairs. The search committee, after reviewing copies of these feedback sheets, is asked to provide the chief academic officer with a written summary of the perceived strengths and weaknesses of each candidate. This input from the search committee on each of the finalists is discussed by the chief academic officer with the president before a final decision to pursue any given candidate is reached.
• Upon approval of the president to pursue a given finalist, the chief academic officer initiates contact with that individual to discuss details of potential employment at Greenville University.
When a new faculty member has been appointed, the faculty member is placed on an orientation program that includes detailed information about faculty roles and responsibilities.