Searching for Excellence & Diversity®:
Workshops for Search Committees
NOTE: Now scheduling workshops for Jan–Aug, 2013.
This four-hour workshop is designed for faculty and staff members who are or will be serving on search committees on your campus. During this workshop, we will present the content of the search workshops we have developed and implemented on the UW-Madison campus.
Description of the workshops
Based on concepts of active learning, this workshop will encourage small groups of search committee chairs and members to learn from each other’s experiences as they discuss relevant topics. Topics to be discussed include:
- Gaining the support and active involvement of search committee members
- Recruiting a highly qualified pool of candidates
- Discussing diversity with your search committee members
- Raising awareness of unconscious assumptions and their potential influence on evaluation of candidates
- Ensuring a fair and thorough review of candidates
- Developing and implementing an effective interview process
WISELI can offer this workshop for:
- A Campus-wide audience composed of deans, department chairs, and search committee chairs and members from schools and colleges across campus and designed in collaboration with campus administrative leaders.
- A Workshops designed for a particular school/college/or other campus unit and attended by department chairs and search committee chairs and members of that school/college/unit and designed in collaboration with that school's/college's Dean's office, diversity committee, human resources department, faculty representative, or other unit.
Hosting a workshop on your campus
What WISELI will offer
- WISELI will send a team of 2/3 members to lead the workshop.
- WISELI will work with the host/organizers to incorporate local or regional administrative leaders and/or faculty into workshop presentations and discussions.
- WISELI’s team will meet with the workshop organizers the evening before the workshop to review logistical plans for the workshop, provide an orientation to the workshop materials, and discuss plans for presentations and facilitation of small group discussions.
- WISELI will provide each workshop participant with a copy of our guidebook for search committee chairs, Searching for Excellence and Diversity: A Guide for Search Committee Chairs and several copies of our brochure, Reviewing Applicants: Research on Bias and Assumptions. Participants may also receive several articles and other publications relevant to the search process.
- WISELI will conduct a web-based evaluation of the workshop and provide results to the workshop organizers.
- WISELI is available to offer these workshops between January 15 and August 15.
What the host/organizers should provide
- A sizeable group of participants drawn from various departments, colleges, and/or universities. This group should include faculty and administrative leaders who plan to present and facilitate search workshops on their campus.
- Sufficient faculty or academic staff personnel to serve as facilitators of small group discussions. Each group of 8-10 participants should have 1 or 2 facilitators. Facilitators should be dedicated to the goal of diversifying the campus, have some experience serving on a search committee, be willing to prepare for the workshop by reading recommended articles, reviewing the facilitator’s guide, and meeting with WISELI’s team during the evening prior to the workshop.
- Key administrators and/or staff to make brief presentations that will serve to tailor the workshop content to the participating institution and to present relevant resources. These frequently include:
- A top administrative leader (the president/chancellor; vice-president/provost; dean) to make introductory remarks
- A representative from your campus legal staff who can discuss and address questions about state laws and/or institutional policies relevant to the search process
- A representative from your HR or Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action office to present on local sources for recruiting diverse faculty and staff and on resources in your community
- Someone from your campus who is responsible for receiving/handling complaints about the search process
- A room capable of accommodating workshop participants seated in small groups of 8-12 people. (Round tables are preferable.)
- A podium/lectern for presentations and at least three clip-on wireless microphones. A powerpoint projector and screen.
- Supplementary printed materials as desired.
- A list of registered participants that includes each participant's name, institutional affiliation, position and email address (for preparing table tents, name tags, and for distributing the workshop evaluation)
- Refreshments and/or beverages for participants.
What past participants have said about this training
- "I was much better informed on how to do a search. In the past, we were told to search, but there was never a guideline to follow. This is the first time in my [more than two decades] here where I actually received some education in the process of chairing a search."
- I gained "better awareness of what is meant by searching for diversity and better ways to explain that we do not trade quality for diversity." The workshop provided "very helpful advice regarding recruting strategies" and "effective strategies to diversify [the] applicant pool."
- "This workshop made me more aware of the biases which exist in the [search] process. I kept this concept in mind when reviewing the applications and interviewing the candidates."
Please contact WISELI for more information and for questions about program fees.