Dean of the Faculty

Searches & Hiring

Searches & Hiring

The strength of Brown is its people. Learn how to launch a national faculty search, attract a diverse pool of applicants and more.

Brown requires departments and programs to conduct open searches to fill most faculty positions. In order to attract a diverse pool of the highest quality candidates, searches should be advertised nationally, and all searches must include a diversity representative who will take an active role in identifying women and minority candidates who qualify for the position. The Dean of the Faculty's office posts all open searches on the website of the New England Higher Education Recruitment Consortium.

More details on the hiring process are available in chapter five of the Handbook of Academic Administration and in this Faculty Searches and Hiring document (PDF). In addition, Brown's Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity offers a guide to equitable hiring practices and may be able to suggest other ways to expand applicant pools.

Please note that students serving on faculty search committees should never have access to confidential letters of recommendation.

Types of Hires

The process for identifying candidates and conducting a search, including search authorization, varies depending on the nature of the faculty position. The pages below provide guidance for the four categories of faculty searches. For additional information on setting up a search, consult the instructions on using Interfolio for faculty hiring.

Regular Faculty Search

A step-by-step guide to conducting a search for regular faculty — including assistant, associate and full professors and lecturers, senior lecturers and distinguished senior lecturers.

Term Faculty Search

Term faculty members — such as adjunct, visiting or research faculty — hold appointments other than those in the professorial ranks or lecturer categories.

Regular Faculty Preselect

Most regular faculty appointments require a full search process. In rare cases, a department will have the opportunity to hire a candidate of demonstrably unique qualifications that justify a preselect hire.

Term Faculty Preselect

Most faculty hires for positions lasting more than one year require a full search process, but short-term hires and occasionally hires that require demonstrably unique skills can be made with the preselect process.

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