Equity-Minded Hiring

The resources on this page are intended to help search committees recruit more diverse faculty and staff who are reflective of the diverse students and communities served by SDSU. For faculty, please note that the Faculty Hiring Handbook provided by Faculty Advancement has lots of great advice and resources as well (see last section of the Handbook in particular). For staff, see the recruitment resources from the Center for Human Resources.

Strategies and Practices

• Participate in implicit bias training: At a minimum, any member of a search committee should have a basic understanding of implicit bias, in order to then thoughtfully consider the ways bias can manifest in the hiring process. The CIE offers an online, self-paced workshop on Equity, Implicit Bias, and Microaggressions that introduces these concepts. You can enroll at any point during the semester and it should take approximately 1.5-2 hours (90-120 min) to complete; however, in order to ensure that facilitators can respond to submissions in a timely manner, you should complete all modules within two weeks of enrolling [Note: this is the online equivalent to the Implicit Bias and Microaggressions Seminar offered by the Professors of Equity throughout AY2019-20].
  • The Chronicle article, Why Your ‘Objective’ Screening Rubric Produced Biased Results, highlights some common biases that can influence our assessment of candidates.
• Request an Inclusion Representative: Inclusion Representatives (IRs) are non-voting members of search committees, usually from outside the searching department, who provide colleagues with information on equitable hiring practices and support in identifying and reducing the many ways that implicit biases can manifest in the hiring process. Most colleges have included in their diversity plans that departments will request an IR. See this handout for more details on this program.  
• Plan ahead to prepare for an equity-minded discussion and consistent evaluation: An important step of the search process is for the search committee to discuss not only what criteria they are looking for, but also what evidence should be used to objectively determine whether those criteria are met, and how different criteria should be weighted. This step is often over-looked but having this discussion before beginning review of candidate files is crucial for ensuring that all committee members are consistent and equitable in their review. UNC's Resources for Search Committees includes several examples of rubrics that may be helpful. The handbooks in the Equity Professors' handout Equity-Minded Hiring - Resources (see below) also have many examples.
• Learn more about other inclusive hiring strategies:
  • Equity-Minded Hiring Practices, handout developed by the Professors of Equity. Provides 40 suggestions, organized by the 10-step sequence of hiring.
  • Equity-Minded Hiring - Resources, handout developed by the Professors of Equity. Includes links to handbooks on faculty hiring; resources on implicit and other cognitive biases, and microaggressions; and resources around specific aspects of hiring such as diversity statements, recommendation letters, and candidate dinners.
  • Recruiting Diverse and Excellent New Faculty, Inside Higher Ed article providing recommendations for how deans, department chairs and their search committees can optimize their searches (Abigail J. Stewart and Virginia Valian, 2018).
  • The Center for Inclusive Excellence also offer workshops on Equity-Minded Hiring where participants can learn more about specific strategies. See the Professional Learning section below, and look for specific registration information in the CIE newsletter. 

Recruitment and Outreach

• Craft your ad to attract a diverse pool:
  • 4 elements of an inclusive job ad (EAB)
  • Writing the Job Advertisement to Attract Diverse Applicants (U Washington)
  • Faculty Job Advertisement Guidelines (examples of best and worst practices) (U Washington)
• Diverse Recruitment Resources: Links to sites and organizations that support diverse and underrepresented populations in higher education. Search committees can use these resources to expand their recruitment pool. 
• Disciplinary organizations / associations for underrepresented groups: Database of professional organizations (or sub-committees within larger organizations) specifically for/to support members from underrepresented populatations. These are excellent places to advertise and recruit. 
• FACULTY: Senate policy now requires that all faculty hires must satisfy at least two (in some colleges, three) or more of the eight Building on Inclusive Excellence criteria. This criteria must therefore be included in all job ads; see the Hiring Handbook for suggested language. Staff searches are also strongly encouraged to adapt the BIE criteria, to the extent possible within classification standards.

Pool Proportionality (Faculty searches)

• Assess your pool: Completing the Faculty Hiring Pool Proportionality Worksheet can help committees assess whether they have succeeded in building a pool at least as diverse as pool of doctorate holders in the field. For help with the worksheet, see these instructions. 

Professional Learning

The CIE offers recurring sessions of workshops to support equity-minded hiring. Specific dates will be announced in the CIE newsletter.